Recognizing the County’s Top Teachers

* On Oct. 28, almost 500 teachers, their families and the business and education communities celebrated Orange County’s 1996 Teachers of the Year, and not one word of that unique event reached your readers. Drive-by shootings and sit-ins grabbed the headlines from 44 very deserving teachers who were applauded and rewarded as “the best of Orange County.”

Unique is the correct word. The Dr. James Hines Foundation, financed by philanthropists William and Sue Gross, presented $100,000 in checks. The top five, as judged by the business and educational communities, received $15,000 each. The remaining nominees from districts throughout Orange County were awarded $600 from the foundation, and all 44 received an additional $500 from the Orange County Teachers Federal Credit Union. Disneyland, another of the corporate sponsors, presented Mickey Mouse statuettes to the top five, together with Day at Disneyland passes for the winners and their families.

Heralded as the best five teachers in Orange County for 1996 were Irvine High’s Eamon Kane, Cheryl Mahlstedt of Ball Junior High, Fullerton High’s Sheila McCabe, Nelson Elementary School’s Rhonda Parks and Fred Poters from Fullerton College.

JOHN F. DEAN

County Superintendent of Schools