Week in Review: Seismic Safety, Student Protests and Updates from West Valley LAPD

Here's a summary of the stories that made headlines this week in Encino:

Eco-Conscious Coverage
In honor of Earth Day on April 22, we’ve been posting several articles, tips and events that focus on going green. This week, we brought you here I Encino. If you’re itching for more eco-friendly information, the traveling is here in Encino at Laemmle’s Town Center 5. The film festival is a collection of six provocative films that focus on food, environmental issues and everyday people with a vision of making a world of difference.

Our real estate columnist, Carol Wolfe, also brought us a few simple upgrades you can do . The nice thing about these upgrades is they don’t cost much money and they’re likely to appeal to all homebuyers.

Reduce your risk of becoming a burglary victim
The West Valley LAPD launched a new initiative last week to tell local residents "Things Your Burglar Won't Tell You." serve as a reminder that by taking a few simple precautions, you can dramatically reduce your risk of becoming a burglary victim.

Could you go screen-free for a week?
, a week for children and families to turn off their TVs, video games and computers, begins April 18-24. Our mom columnist, Susan Spillman, contemplates undertaking the drastic move of making her family go screen-free for a week.

Seismic safety in schools
this week to examine seismic safety in local public schools, including Lanai Road School, Hesby Oaks, Encino Elementary, Lull Special Education Center and Emelita Elementary. revealed that all Encino schools meet the seismic safety standards; however, they are all in a hazardous liquefaction zone. Encino Patch spoke with local principals to find out how they are prepared.

Horse mounted patrol unit returns
After a year's hiatus, a green-shirted mounted patrol made up of Valley volunteers is gearing up to once again hit the streets, the parks and where ever they are needed, a technique proven successful in fighting crime. , trained and supervised by the LAPD, assists by canvassing parks and community events. They perform search and rescue efforts and are used to disperse any gathering of unsavory characters that might intimate the general public.

Gardeners need to dig deeper to keep their plots
For five months, Encino Patch has been keeping a close eye on the local community gardeners face a nearly 400-percent rate hike in plot fees beginning July 1. The L.A. Recreation and Parks Commission with a proposed fee increase and set of operating procedures and policies for nine of the city's 14 public gardens.

Community Care Facilities Ordinance inches along
Patch has also been following the controversial Community Care Facilities Ordinance, which would help Los Angeles regulate sober-living homes and any other group home defined as a boarding house. was advanced Tuesday by the City Council's Planning and Land Use Management committee, which asked the city attorney to present a formal draft of the ordinance to the full City Council.

Students protest teacher layoff-warning notices
Fourth-graders at Lanai Road School , "Save Our Teachers" as parents dropped off students for school Tuesday morning. Parents and students were particularly upset that seven of the 30 teachers at Lanai Road Elementary School received Reduction in Force (RIF) notices from Los Angeles Unified School District officials in March, which means they could lose their jobs at the end of the school year. One bystander objected to the protest and accused the parents of using the children as pawns in a political game. Watch the video here.

Westmark teacher named C-SPAN fellow
Mary Sue Maurer, who teaches government at Westmark School in Encino, has been C-SPAN’s 2011 Teacher Fellowship program. She will spend six weeks this summer in Washington D.C. with two other teachers developing new ways of incorporating the public affairs network into classrooms across the country.