Schools

Education news

TUSTIN

Thorman Elementary Has Interim Principal

Esther Lee will serve as temporary principal of Jeane Thorman Elementary School this year while Principal Cindy Agopian is out on maternity leave.

Lee also served briefly as principal last year. In 1992, she was appointed temporary principal at W.R. Nelson Elementary School. She has also worked in the Conejo Valley and Ontario-Montclair school districts.

Lee holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in elementary school education from the University of Arkansas. She earned her administrative credentials from the University of Akron in Ohio and Cal State Fullerton, where she now teaches in the educational administration and elementary education department.

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IRVINE

Students Raise Funds for Crash Victim

Students at El Toro Marine Elementary School recently collected $380 for Trent McGee, 8, who returned home in October after three months in the hospital. Trent was paralyzed in a traffic accident caused when the driver of a stolen car ran a red light. His mother and sister were not seriously injured in the accident.

When he travels from home, he breathes through a portable respirator attached to his wheelchair.

Trent attended Stone Creek Elementary School, where students raised $3,000 to help pay for the cost of his medical care.

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HUNTINGTON BEACH

Curriculum Expanded for DARE Program

The city’s four full-time DARE officers are in school instructing both elementary and junior high school students on drug abuse resistance education.

But this year, a new curriculum has been added to the program that places emphasis on identifying and dealing with violence. The curriculum also incorporates an anti-gang program.

The DARE program offers 17 weeks of instruction to elementary school children and a 10-day program for junior high students. Depending on the availability of time at the various junior high schools, the DARE officer will either attempt to teach the program in a two-week block or in a 10-week block, one day a week.

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ORANGE

Portola Appoints New Principal

Portola Middle School has a new principal.

Susan J. Belenardo, who has been a teacher and reading specialist in schools in Los Angeles and Orange counties, was recently appointed to the post.

Belenardo has earned master’s degrees in elementary education from Southern Connecticut State University and educational counseling from National University.

Unified School District.

--COMPILED BY BERT ELJERA WITH RUSS LOAR, DEBRA CANO AND LESLEY WRIGHT