ANAHEIM : School Officials Meet Mexican Educators

Thirty educational leaders from Mexico met with Anaheim school officials Thursday to learn more about American schools and develop contacts in an era of improving trade relations between the United States and Mexico.

The chief executives of Mexico’s Instituto Tecnologicos, which is equivalent to the state university systems in the United States, are touring Southern California’s high schools and colleges.

They visited San Diego earlier this week and after leaving the Anaheim Union High School District offices Thursday morning went to visit colleges in Claremont.

“With new efforts toward free trade between our countries, it is important that we have close ties and that we are friends,” said tour leader Raul Felix, the academic director of Instituto Tecnologico de Tijuana, one of 68 such schools in Mexico.

The 120,000-student Instituto Tecnologicos system awards primarily bachelor’s degrees in engineering and sciences.

“Mexico is going through a growth period in emphasizing the educational attainment of its population,” said tour guide Carlos Mejia, a counselor at Fullerton College. “Their system is run by Mexico’s federal government, which wants to improve the country’s knowledge of math and sciences.”

While at the high school district offices, the Mexican educators met with Supt. Cynthia F. Grennan and Meliton Lopez, superintendent of Anaheim City School District. The administrators outlined for their guests how the U.S. elementary and high school systems work.

Because many of her district’s students are from Mexico and return there occasionally, Grennan said, it is important that she have contacts in that country.

“There needs to be a bridge between the U.S. and Mexico,” Grennan said. “Our nation continues to become more involved in international trade. California and Mexico are both part of the Pacific Rim. The United States, Canada and Mexico are talking about opening the borders in trade. We need to understand each other.”