Michele Barraza Lawrence has been appointed deputy...
Michele Barraza Lawrence has been appointed deputy superintendent of the ABC Unified School District headquartered in Cerritos. She currently is director of instructional services for the Laguna Beach Unified School District. Her new duties beginning Dec. 1 will include labor negotiations, personnel, and community and public information services.
Lawrence, 42, is married, has two children and lives in Huntington Beach. She is a graduate of Excelsior High School in Norwalk. She holds a bachelor’s degree in art and art history and a master’s in education from Cal State Fullerton.
Lawrence taught at Gahr High School in the ABC district, and later was principal of Whittier High School.
Joyce O’Donnell, chemistry teacher at Poly High School in Long Beach, has received the American Chemical Society’s teacher of the year award for the western United States. The award makes her a finalist for the title of national chemistry teacher of the year for 1990-91.
The awards are based on high student achievement in the society’s competitions held at USC for prep chemists throughout Southern California. For the last three years, a Poly High chemistry team has won first place on the exam, a fact that helped her win the Southern California chemistry teacher of the year award last year.
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