Whittier Elementary School Principal Sharon Blakely was honored last
week with an award of excellence by the Irvine Co. for improving
academics and parental involvement at her school. The school received
$5,000 for the award.
And 37% of the district's English-language learners test results on
the first California English Language Development Test showed they are
probably fluent. District officials were quick to temper the results with
a caveat that this is just one measurement. Officials will be able to
glean more information when the results from the second year of testing
are in.
Two new cheer coaches have been hired at Newport Harbor High School,
filling the void created when former coach Lisa Callahan left. Callahan
was informed in January that she could no longer interact with students
on campus because of illegal hiring procedures.
* Deirdre Newman covers education. She may be reached at (949)
574-4221 or by e-mail at o7 deirdre.newman@latimes.comf7 .
If it's Tuesday, this must be the swap meet
City planners dodged a few bullets regarding the ongoing swap meet
saga last week as past department records surfaced documenting a rather
lax approach to the site's permit enforcement.
Two separate documents from 1998 and 2000 showed the city not only
approved the Orange Coast College swap meet -- which at the time was
operating at twice the size of its original permit -- but recorded that
planners inspected the weekend venue on Tuesdays.
City officials said the campus swap meet permits were not scrutinized
during previous permit-renewal process because the shopping venue had not
received community complaints.
Since then, however, residents have lodged complaints about the swap
meet specifically and traffic on Fairview Road, prompting an extensive
city study of the venue. The study found the swap meet to be operating
with more than 200 permitted vendors and with an additional day.
College officials agreed to scale back the swap meet to comply with
the original permit.* Lolita Harper covers Costa Mesa. She may be reached
at (949) 574-4275 or by e-mail at o7 lolita.harper@latimes.comf7 .
First lady swings through Newport Beach
California first lady Sharon Davis was in Newport Beach last week to
encourage abortion-rights supporters to back candidates who share their
views on this issue. Her talk at a private home raised $25,000 for
Planned Parenthood's political arm.
Some Santa Ana Heights residents have set a special meeting to decide,
