Twenty positions in the Garden Grove Unified School District have been eliminated as of Tuesday night’s school board meeting: 10 instructional aides, specifically in preschool programs and 10 school office clerks at elementary and intermediate schools have been cut due to a lack of funds.

“We can’t guarantee placement in the district for all of them,” said Laura Schwalm, GGUSD Superintendent, “but our schools don’t have the attrition to cover them.”

Earlier in the evening, board member Linda Reed had expressed concern over the growth in size of elementary schools during the modernization process.

“What happens when you have a school of 900, with the office filled with the phone ringing, the bloody noses and skinned knees and no one to do anything about that,” said Reed.

The Garden Grove Unified School District has a laundry list for expedited improvements over this summer, moving schools and kicking up dirt.

Tuesday’s school board meeting saw a presentation by Stuart Moe, facilities director, bring the board and staff up to speed on where the process of modernization stands.

Funding for these upgrades comes from Measure A, a $250 million bond issue approved by GGUSD voters in 2010.

Right now, the district is gearing up for a utilities and infrastructure overhaul. Som schools that receive work, will use temporary or relocatable [mobile] classrooms. Some schools will be hosted at other campuses in the 2012-2013 school year.

New utilities trenches will connect the modernized buildings.

“This would be a backbone infrastructure trench that is meant to stay there for 50 years,” said Moe.

This includes extended public entry from buildings, parking spaces, public areas and all school based buildings.

Fire life safety upgrades will have revisions to exiting, gates and safe dispersal areas and monitoring that will allow fire departments better knowledge of how to address any situations.

“This can tell the firefighters where to go,” said Moe, “ instead of wondering were, they can see that maybe there was a fire in the gym.”

There will be new signage, door and crosswalk accessibility, ramps, curbs, drinking fountains, sinks, doors, thermostats, assisted listening devices for assembly, wheelchair lifts and panic hardware, to name some improvements.

Work performed in the summer will take place from June 23 to August 24, approximately 60 days.

Chapman Hettinga School will relocate to Lincoln Educational Center until fall 2013. Brookhurst Elementary School will stay on site, but have a rotation of classrooms during summer 2012 through fall 2013.

Monroe Elementary School will relocate to Northcutt Elementary for the 2012-2013 school year.

Wakeham will remain on site with classrooms on rotation through 2013 and the summer utilities project is expedited to this summer.

Enders Elementary will remain on-site with a 2012-2013 split campus rotation of classrooms and summer 2013 utilities projects.

Garden Park Elementary School will relocate to Patton Elementary for 2012-2013 school year. Patton will be outfitted with portable classrooms

Bell Intermediate will relocate to Chapman Hettinga for the 2012-2013 school year.

Simmons Elementary School will stay on site while rotating classrooms.

Northcutt Elementary School will have portable classrooms on site to house Monroe students.

Ten local baseball and softball teams qualified for post-season action this week, some of them set to start the playoffs today (Thursday) and Friday and some of them trying to play in on Tuesday.

Baseball teams from Pacifica, Rancho Alamitos, Garden Grove, Los Amigos and Westminster made the list. La Quinta originally qualified as the third place team from the Garden Grove League, but the Aztecs forfeited several games and were replaced by Los Amigos.

Softball teams from Pacifica, Rancho Alamitos, Garden Grove, La Quinta and Magnolia were the local entries.

Pacifica won the softball and baseball Empire League titles. Westminster took the Golden West League in baseball and Garden Grove and Rancho Alamitos shared the top spot in GGL softball. Rancho was the GGL baseball champs.

Wild card “play-in” games started Tuesday.

Today (Thursday) softball play starts in Division 1 with Pacifica hosting Rosary.  In Division 4, Garden Grove hosts San Marino/Covina, La Quinta is at Santa Monica and Rancho Alamitos hosts Apple Valley.

Division 2 baseball today sees Pacifica hosting the winner of Ramona vs. Redondo Union.

On Friday, Division 4 baseball sees Garden Grove at Montebello. Rancho Alamitos hosts Corona del Mar.

On Thursday in Div. 5 softball softball, Magnolia will  take on Barstow after beating La Puente 9-8 on Tuesday.

A clutch player is defined as someone who is dependable in crucial situations. For the Pacifica Mariners baseball team no situation was more crucial than when Max Bethell stepped in to the batting box and hit a two run home run to take a 2-1 lead in the seventh inning over Cypress on Thursday, May 10. It was a lead that the Mariners were able to hold on to and carry to the first Empire League title for Pacifica since 2009.

Clutch situations are nothing new for the Mariners as they have been able to come up with victories in several close situations, most of the time spearheaded by Bethell. “I don’t come up clutch by thinking about coming up clutch, it’s just at the end of the the game I just react to how the rest of the game plays out,” said Bethell.

The Cal Poly Pomona-bound senior has certainly helped out Pacifica in the past with a walk-off home run against Great Oak as well as a no hitter against Valencia as a pitcher, but no moment was bigger than his home run against Cypress.

Despite having pitched six, scoreless innings, Cypress elected to relieve pitcher Kevin Lillicrop with Isaiah Terrazas with one out in the seventh inning. It was a mistake that proved costly as Bethell, the first batter that Terrazas faced, drove a ball over the fence in left-center field.

“As soon as I hit it I didn’t think it was going out,” Bethell said. “I was just hoping for [Matt] Gilbody to score all the way from first.” But it did go out and the game was over after three more outs from Kyle Davis, who finished the game having allowed just two hits.

“There’s nothing better than dogpiling on your rivals; field,” Bethell said.

For Bethell, the season has been particularly challenging as he has had to persevere through the loss of his father who died of cancer on April 28. “I just remember all the things he used to tell me. He would want me to just keep playing hard. He wouldn’t want [his death] to bring me down, he would want me to play well.”

“How [Bethell]’s been able to play at this level with some of the stuff going on in his life is absolutely remarkable,” said Pacifica Head Coach Mike Caira. “We always talk about once you go between those fences you forget about everything else and you just play baseball, and he’s been able to do that.”

With the victory, the Mariners locked itself into one of the top seeds in the CIF Division II playoffs and an exemption from the wild card round that took place on Tuesday, May 15.

Instead Pacifica’s postseason play will begin today (Thursday, May 17) at Pacifica High School when they play the winner of Tuesday’s wild card game between Ramona and Redondo Union.

“It’s not winning the first five games, it’s about winning the last five and hopefully we’ll be able to do that,” Caira said.

Tim Burton and Johnny Depp are snuggled warmly in their comfort zone in the chilly horror-comedy “Dark Shadows,’’ their eighth collaboration as director and star, respectively, and their weakest by far.

You don’t need to know a thing about the late-’60s “Dark Shadows’’ TV series that provides the inspiration. Tonally, thematically, visually, you’ve seen this movie before, with its oddball characters, skies in varying shades of gray and a foreboding sense of gothic mystery. No one gets challenged here; no one gets pushed.

It’s actually a wonder that Depp hasn’t played a vampire before; still, his long-undead Barnabas Collins, who’s been buried alive for nearly two centuries and suddenly finds himself back in his insular Maine hometown in 1972, fits squarely within his well-honed on-screen persona. He thinks he’s quite the charmer, but he’s actually a bit awkward, and that contradiction provides the main source of humor.

Or at least, it’s supposed to.

The script from Seth Grahame-Smith (“Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter’’) allows its family full of weirdos to shine intermittently but they rarely interact with each other; each functions in his or her own self-consciously quirky bubble. Too often, “Dark Shadows’’ is crammed with hacky, obvious, fish-out-of-water gags, as Barnabas tries to make sense of this strange new world. He struggles to understand modern romance as he courts the family’s delicate, wide-eyed nanny and hopes to fit in by smoking pot with the local hippies. And how is this tiny Karen Carpenter person singing to him from inside the television set? Ho ho!

At the same time, “Dark Shadows’’ feels too languid, bogged down as it is with an obsessive eye for period costumes (the work of Colleen Atwood) and interior details rather than offering anything resembling an engaging story. And by the time Burton finally puts his patented flair for visual effects to its best use, in a climactic showdown between Barnabas and the witch who cursed him (the va-va-voomy Eva Green), it’s too late.

A little background here: As a child, Barnabas and his wealthy family sailed from England in 1750 and founded the fishing village of Collinsport in coastal Maine. They spent 15 years building the grand Collinwood Manor, where a maid named Angelique (Green) loved Barnabas passionately, but he never returned her affections. Because she felt scorned – and happened to be a witch _ she turned him into a vampire, chained him up and stuck him in a coffin in the ground. Nearly 200 years later, a construction crew unearths him and sets him free.

When he stumbles back to his once-stately home, he finds it falling apart, along with the fishing empire that has been conquered by a competitor named Angel (Green, again). The few family members who remain are random and reclusive: matriarch Elizabeth Collins Stoddard (Michelle Pfeiffer), the only one who knows his true identity; her weasel of a brother, Roger (Jonny Lee Miller); her rebellious teen daughter, Carolyn (Chloe Grace Moretz); and Roger’s 10-year-old son David (Gully McGrath), who sees dead people. There’s also David’s perpetually drunk psychiatrist, Dr. Julia Hoffman (Burton regular Helena Bonham Carter); the home’s beleaguered caretaker, Willie (Jackie Earle Haley); and the new governess, Victoria (Bella Heathcote), who bears a striking resemblance to Barnabas’ long-ago love and has a few secrets of her own.

That’s a lot of exposition, huh? And the film itself takes awhile to get going as it establishes all those characters and back stories. Once there, it seems to have nowhere to go _ out of the shadows or into the light, it doesn’t really matter either way.

Family members, students, city officials and police officers will be gathering together today (Thursday) from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. to honor the memory of the five Garden Grove police officers who died in the line of duty.

Unfortunately, the Garden Grove Police Department has lost more officers than any other municipal police agency in Orange County. However, they are committed to remembering their fallen as more than just statistics. This will be the 25th year the Garden Grove Memorial Service will be held together with National Peace Officers Week.

“This is kind of a milestone for us,” said Detective Luis A. Payan. “We do it to remember our five officers that fell.”

Detective Payan recalled that when he started working at the Police Department twelve years ago, he was first taught about the fallen five.

“We can learn from what they went through so we don’t repeat what happened,” said Detective Payan.

The department continually remembers these officers not only as an educational tool, but also honor  them with a wall of their photos in the police department lobby and with a life size statue of a police officer erected outside of the police department.

“We’re not just robots, we’re human beings as well,” said Payan. “So we learn that this officer had a family.”

The families of the fallen five officers, Sergeant Myron L. Trapp, Officer Andy Reese, Officer Donald F. Reed, Officer Michael Rainford and Master Officer Howard Dallies, Jr. will also be honored at the memorial service and will be presented with flowers as they continue to suffer the loss of their loved ones.

Three students from Anderson Elementary School will serve was guest spekers, reading their essays on the importance of remembering the fallen officers.

“We never forget who they are, why they sacrificed, what they did for us,” said Detective Payan.

A police memorial service was held Wednesday in Westminster, honoring three fallen members of the Westminster Police Department, Steven Phillips, Marcus Frank and Ronald Weber, Sr.

• Introduction of awards won by GGUSD schools.

• Initial proposal presentations from four employee groups.

• A facilities modernization update.

The meeting is in the Education Center, 10331 Stanford Ave. in Garden Grove on the fifth floor.

POLICE MEMORIAL: The 11^th annual Garden Grove Police Memorial will be held from 5 to 6 p.m. Thursday in front of the police headquarters on Acacia Parkway.  Honored will be the five Garden Grove police officers who were killed in the line of duty over the years.

CAR SHOW: The annual Stanton Car Show will be held at Stanton Park (Katella Avenue at Cedar Street) Saturday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. It’s not just classic cars, it’s also food trucks, a beer garden and music hosted by a disc jockey.

HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS: It took until the last game of the season, but the championships of local high school baseball leagues were finally settled Thursday.

The most dramatic showdown came when Pacifica won a come-from-behind 2-1 victory against Cypress to grab the Empire League title. Max Bethell’s two-run home run in the top of the seventh gave the Mariners the win.

Kyle Davis sparkled on the mound for the M’s, giving up just two hits and striking out six.

Pacifica finished with an 11-1 record in league, 23-5 overall. Cypress is 10-2 and 24-6.

Rancho Alamitos locked up the Garden Grove League title with an 8-0 win over Los Amigos.

The Vaqueros (13-2, 18-7) finished a game ahead of Garden Grove (12-4, 18-7), which finished league play with a 6-5 win over third place La Quinta.

In the Golden West League, Westminster claimed the pennant after a 19-1 win over Santa Ana, finishing 11-4 in league (15-9 overall), ahead of Ocean View (10-5, 13-13). The Seahawks fell into second after a 1-0 loss to third place Segerstrom.

In softball action, Pacifica was upset 1-0 by Cypress in the Empire League finale, although the Mariners finished the season as Empire League champs. The game was scoreless until the bottom of the seventh when the Centurions put together a double, two intentional walks and a single by Ariel Braxton to beat the CIF Division 1 top-ranked team.

 ANGELS: The Angels split their last four games, beating the Twins 6-2 on Wednesday, then dropping two of three to the Texas Rangers, who lead the American League West. The Rangers hammered the Halos 10-3 on Friday, but the Angels struck back Saturday with a 4-2 win. Texas won the rubber match Sunday with a 10-3 shellacking. Today (Monday) the Angels are back in Anaheim to start a two-game set hosting the Oakland A’s. On Wednesday the Chicago White Sox are in to start a two-game set.

Milton Bradley’s strategic board game “Battleship” gets a sci-fi facelift with this Universal Pictures production from director Peter Berg. The action will pit a small fleet of naval ships against an alien force intent on enriching Earth’s valuable assets to ensure their survival. Taylor Kitsch (Wolverine) and True Blood’s Alexander Skarsgard star alongside Liam Neeson, Rihanna, and Brooklyn Decker. Rated PG-13. Also opening this weekend, there’s “Dictator,” a comedy starring Sasha Baron Cohen about a fictional modern tyrant, and “What To Expect When You’re Expecting.”

Stuart Moe, director of facilities, will make the presentation on the status of the GGUSD’s use of funds from a $250 million bond issue approved by voters in 2010.

Also on the agenda will be initial proposal presentations by four employee groups, representing teachers, counselors, classified (non-teaching) and other workers.

A second reading on the GGUSD’s new policies on bullying, including “cyberbullying,” is also scheduled.

The board meets at 7 p.m. in the Education Center, 10331 Stanford Ave., Garden Grove. The GGUSD includes most of Garden Grove as well as parts of Cypress, Fountain Valley, Santa Ana, Stanton and Westminster.

Alexa Antonella Polar, 35, pleaded guilty to one felony count of forgery, and Robin Johzen Pabello, 34, pleaded guilty to two felony counts of forgery and a sentencing enhancement for white collar crime over $100,000. In West Court in Westminster, the defendants each were sentenced to three years of formal probation and 305 days in Orange County Jail with credit for time served. Restitution was paid back in full.

At the time of the crime, Polar and Pabello were friends who lived together in Garden Grove. Polar worked as a paralegal for a Newport Beach law firm.

Between Sept. 21, 2011, and Nov. 16, 2011, Polar and Pabello stole a check worth over $19,500 made payable to the law firm where Polar was employed. The defendants removed the payee’s name and replaced it with Pabello’s name. They changed the check amount to over $285,000.

On Nov. 16, 2011, the defendants used an ATM to deposit the fraudulent check into a bank account jointly held by Pabello and Polar. They used the fraudulently obtained money to charter a private jet to fly themselves and several friends to New York City, rent five rooms at a hotel in Times Square, and purchase items from Tiffany & Co. and Montblanc.

Polar and Pabello also obtained cashier’s checks in the amounts of $33,000 and $100,000 from the fraudulently obtained funds to lease and/or purchase a $3.7 million, 11,000 square foot house in Murietta, CA.

The theft was discovered after the issuing bank rejected the check that the receiving bank had processed. Prior to pleading guilty, the defendants paid full restitution of over $42,000 to the receiving bank. The Cypress Police Department investigated this case.

Deputy District Attorney Megan Wagner of the Major Fraud Unit prosecuted this case.