Classroom

COSTA MESA — The Waldorf School of Orange County plans to dedicate environmentally friendly classrooms crafted from recycled shipping containers Friday evening. Waldorf, a nonprofit private school that includes environmental consciousness in its curriculum, used the containers to expand its 2350 Canyon Drive campus near Fairview Park. The additional space, according to a news release, will allow the school to serve pupils from pre-K to 12th grade. "We may have to remind people that these classrooms were once shipping containers," Denise Ogawa, development director for the school, said in a news release.

COSTA MESA — Standing before the Costa Mesa Planning Commission, Ellen Kawata thanked the city and the Waldorf School of Orange County for helping her business. As owner of S3 Advisors LLC, a sustainable housing technology company, Kawata was looking for customers to recycle shipping containers into space for people to work. Along came the Waldorf School, which received the commission's approval last year to expand its campus with more than 30 of the containers. "If not for the Waldorf School and their system of developing entire beings and instilling social and environmental responsibility in those beings, we wouldn't have this chance," Kawata told the commissioners at Tuesday's meeting.

NEWPORT BEACH — Friday will be Bob Kelly's final day of school after 41 years of teaching at Newport Heights Elementary School. "That term 'surreal' is overused, but it feels a little bit like that, you know," he said during a visit to his classroom. "It's like, jeez, this is really the end? It doesn't really feel like it. " Kelly, who has educated second-, fourth-, fifth- and sixth-grade students, started and ran Newport Heights' first computer lab in the 1980s and served as the district's science coordinator, is retiring at 66. The long-time Costa Mesa resident and Chicago-area native started at Newport Heights fresh out of college in 1970.

When Spencer Haly arrived at Corona del Mar High four years ago, he planned to play three sports. His parents got involved with athletics during their high school years and he followed their footsteps. Haly's father, Gregg, was a three-sport athlete at Foothill. His mom, Mary Ann, played volleyball at CdM. It made sense for Haly to participate in two of dad's sports, football and basketball, and mom's favorite. The one sport Gregg competed in high school that Haly did not have an interest in at CdM was baseball.

COSTA MESA — The school board on Tuesday night recognized the Newport-Mesa Unified School District Teachers of the Year. Costa Mesa High School's Dana Kahawai, 30, and Newport Elementary School's Terri Clarke, 31, were given flowers and congratulations for being honored and representing the district at the county level. "We have so many great teachers in this district," said Trustee Dana Black. "This is the best of the best. " The two were chosen for the distinction by their peers for being effective teachers, being involved outside the classroom and being teacher leaders, said John Caldecott, the district's executive director of human resources.

COSTA MESA — In just two second-period English classes at TeWinkle Intermediate School, students reading performance ranged from "at grade level" to first grade and English-language learners. "That's a big gap for our teachers to cover," said Principal Rich Rodriguez. Educators at the 7-8 campus at 3224 California St. have been looking past the traditional one-teacher, one-class model to a "targeted-intervention model" that identifies students' missing or deficient skills in math and reading.

Editor's note: This corrects the grade level of the students who received netbooks at Davis, Sonora, Paularino and Killybrook elementary schools. COSTA MESA — Gathered in the multipurpose room at the end of a recent school day, students in Liz Sawyer's fourth- and fifth-grade combo class awaited the red-carpet premiere of book trailers they had spent the last three months putting together. When the time was right, the students exited the room and came back in on a red paper "carpet" as their books were announced to cheers from a handful of parents and other students.

An autopsy Tuesday determined that an Irvine teacher who collapsed and died in his classroom suffered from cardiovascular disease, authorities said. Students at Woodbridge High School found the teacher, Kent Bentley, during lunchtime Monday and alerted staff members, said Ian Hanigan, spokesman for the Irvine Unified School District. "A staff member administered CPR," he said. "But despite their best efforts, he couldn't be revived. " Bentley, 46, taught English and coached wrestling at Woodbridge for 12 years.

CORONA DEL MAR — Six-year-old Kate Thomas has watched her sister, Ellie, 9, with some envy over the past three years. Each September that rolls around means fresh pencils and crayons, a smattering of new keychains for a fancy backpack and all the new friends that come with another school year. This year, finally, it was Kate's turn. "It's bittersweet," said Kate's mother, Robin Thomas, on Tuesday, the first day of public school. The pair held hands as they dropped Ellie off at her fourth-grade classroom at Harbor View Elementary.

COSTA MESA — She was born in Santa Cruz, she's been to Harvard University and back, and now she's a Costa Mesa resident who's just put the finishing touches on her latest piece of art. It's a 45-pound fiberglass heart that will hopefully fetch thousands of dollars to help fund art instruction in the public elementary schools in Fullerton, where professional artists mentor teachers in the classroom at a time when such programs are under-funded...