COSTA MESA NEWPORT BEACH : Schools Receive 73 Foundation Grants

The fifth- and sixth-grade students at Whittier Elementary School in Costa Mesa are starting their own mini-publishing house.

With the help of a $993 grant from the Newport-Mesa Schools Foundation, they can buy three high-quality printers to lend a professional look to the work produced on their school computers.

“The kids are really excited about winning” the grant money, said Whittier Principal Beth Flynn. “The goal is that they want to publish books to go into the school library for checkout.”

They already know how to make a book by sewing together a binding to hold the pages and laminating the cover. The printers are supposed to arrive within a month and then the publishing can begin, Flynn said.

The grant for Whittier Elementary was one of 73 awarded by the Newport-Mesa Schools Foundation at its annual Grants to Teachers breakfast Thursday.

The foundation, which was established in 1981 to serve as a booster for the school district, has given away a total of $63,000 this year to fund 73 grant proposals written by teachers and administrators. The money came from hundreds of donations from parents, school district employees and businesses in Costa Mesa and Newport Beach.

Kindergarten students at Kaiser Primary Center in Costa Mesa received a $1,000 grant to buy new books for teaching Spanish as a second language, and Newport Heights Elementary School can buy $968 in materials to expand its laser-disc library.

These grants come at a time when the school district cannot afford a lot of extras, school officials said.

“My guess is that these kinds of things wouldn’t get funded if it weren’t for the foundation,” said Ed Decker, a district school board member who attended the awards breakfast.