Math

When Newport Heights Elementary School Principal Kurt Suhr called out Julia Barney’s name for a math award Friday morning, it was met with the collective sigh of hundreds of unsurprised students. Julia Barney winning a math award? Duh. Just a year earlier, the 12-year-old was reciting the Pi sequence out to 100 places for the school talent show. When asked if they’d seen Julia receive a student award before, nearly everyone raised his or her hand. Hate to tell her fellow students, but they’ll probably just have to get used to it. “We have a designated math time in class, and a lot of times my friends will come up to me and ask me ‘How do I do this?

Prospective Davis Magnet School students and their parents gathered Monday for one of their first looks at the new campus. Principal Kevin Rafferty, just three weeks into his new post, gave the parents an overview of the new school. It is set to open this fall as the Newport-Mesa Unified School District?s first science, math and technology magnet, on the campus of Davis Elementary School. The new magnet school is geared to serve all primary grade levels; construction is underway on a new kindergarten play area, which Rafferty called the largest he?

The new math- and science-focused Davis magnet school has a new principal. Kevin Rafferty will start his new job April 13. Rafferty, who worked at the Capistrano Unified School District, was the principal of Chaparral Elementary School in Ladera Ranch since 2001. “It is my goal to help make Davis the finest science, math and technology magnet school in the United States,” Rafferty said as he was appointed at the Newport-Mesa school board meeting Tuesday. Next month, Rafferty will begin hiring teachers and establishing the school before it opens in September.

The new math- and science-focused magnet school that will take the place of the fourth-through-sixth-grade Davis Elementary in Costa Mesa is a hot ticket among Newport Beach and Costa Mesa parents, with moms and dads from every elementary school in the district trying to get their kids in the door. Although enrollment just opened for this fall’s inaugural class, about 700 parents have called or e-mailed the school requesting that their children be admitted. In its present form, the school serves 365 students.

Those interested in enrolling their children in a planned math and science magnet school at Davis Elementary next year now have a date for enrollment and a phone number to call. Enrollment for the future kindergarten through sixth-grade magnet school begins March 1, but interested parents can call Barbara Haack at (714) 424-8959 immediately to be added to a list to receive notice about appointments to register. Parents should not go to the Davis campus to enroll their children, according to a news release from the Newport-Mesa Unified School District.

Books with powerful protagonists are one of the best ways to provide children with the ability to identify with the strength of a character and learn how they too have the potential to rise beyond their own negative traits or situations. Here is a small sample of children’s books, available at the Newport Beach Library, portraying characters with strong attributes. “Ladybug Girl” by Jacky Davis and David Soman: Lulu enjoys zipping around in her ladybug outfit.

A late addition to the field of candidates for Costa Mesa’s three open City Council seats put his name on the ballot with no time to spare Wednesday. High school math teacher Christopher McEvoy, 29, grew up in Costa Mesa and decided to be the ninth contender in the field when he found himself at City Hall to pay a parking fine Tuesday. “I’ve wanted to run for a while, but I had to work on my teaching credential,” McEvoy said. McEvoy, who is known by his friends as Flowbee because of the home haircutting device by that name that he owns, opted not to pay the almost $2,000 fee to put a candidate statement on the ballot, saying he will attempt a grassroots campaign.

When Wilson Lubeck looks at a math problem, it just clicks. The answers, like lightning, flash before him and he jumps to the next problem, sometimes faster than he would like. His teachers, his family and even Wilson describe himself as focused and that diligence has led him to an accomplishment that has administrators and teachers, and some of Wilson’s classmates at Newport Heights Elementary School, cheering. Some classes at the school use Accelerated Math, a program that has students do math on a computer that tracks their progress.

Have you completely forgotten what an Isosceles triangle is? Forget that, do you have trouble figuring the tip at the restaurant? Or maybe the boss has thrown some project at you that exposes your embarrassing deficiency with long division. Never fear, Orange Coast College is offering a four-part workshop, starting next week, designed to boost your math confidence. And don?t worry about a stern instructor with one of those long pointers. This is geared toward the math-phobic.

Faces whitened with flour, aprons stained in smeared chocolate and hands sticky with sugar and egg, Amber Baur’s sixth-graders could have been mistaken for the school’s kitchen staff. Eastbluff Elementary’s School’s multipurpose room was converted into a small bakery for a couple of hours Wednesday when Baur’s class learned fractions in a different, but tasteful way. Baur’s students were using math to reduce recipes meant for several dozen down to enough for a class of 20. If the kids miscalculated, they wouldn’t see any red ink on paper.