Costa Mesa / Newport : Teachers Awarded $30,000 for Programs

Thanks to a new private grants program, nine schools in the Newport-Mesa Unified School District have received a total of $30,000, which will cover costs ranging from computer equipment to instructional materials to tutors’ salaries. The grants were announced last month by the Newport-Mesa Schools Foundation.

“Some teachers have been trying to provide some things in the past out of their own pockets,” said Elizabeth Palmer, executive director of the foundation. “There was a lot of excitement and appreciation that the foundation could make these things possible.”

A total of 34 grants went to the five high schools, three intermediate schools and one special-education school in the district. The money will be used for expenses that tax money can’t be stretched to pay.

Palmer noted that parents in Costa Mesa and Newport Beach formed the foundation after they became alarmed at the drop in state financing for schools following the passage of Proposition 13.

The foundation opened and began raising funds three years ago. It raised $77,589 in 1982, $111,460 in 1983 and about $125,000 last year.

In 1982, the money was used to hire part-time remedial reading teachers for district elementary schools. There is a continuing commitment to provide funding for that program, Palmer said. Last year, the foundation paid for computer-training programs for teachers.

This school year, the foundation launched a grants program in which it invited intermediate and high school teachers to apply for up to $1,000 per project for equipment or special needs such as tutors that the school budget could not provide for.

The foundation received 68 applications; a seven-member committee awarded the 34 grants.

Projects that received funds include:

- Aptitude tests and career-selection information for students at Newport Harbor High. Cost: $935.

- Math tutors for the seventh and eighth grades at Corona del Mar High School. The goal of the tutoring project is to enable all students to pass district-required math proficiency tests by their sophomore year in high school. Cost: $1,000.

- An outdoor laboratory for science students at TeWinkle Intermediate School. Cost: $1,000.

- A mobile computer for use in science and math classrooms at Davis Intermediate School. Cost: about $900.

- A social science library at Costa Mesa High School for advanced students. Cost: $1,000.