The ABCs of Going Above and Beyond

When 100 teachers and administrators leave the Newport-Mesa Unified School District as part of an early retirement program at the end of the year, students will lose some of the best known and well-respected members of the community.

Some leave behind computer labs and gymnasiums they helped build. Others established award-winning sports, crafts or science programs that will remain. The teaching techniques some established will inspire teachers for generations.

What follows are the stories of five of these teachers.

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Loretta Robinson has spent the last 33 years reminding parents, administrators and fellow teachers that music, art, dance and drama are vital to a child’s success in school.

“When you teach a child music, you teach them another language,” said Robinson, 62. “When you teach a child to dance, you teach them to experiment and take risks.”

In more than three decades as a music teacher at several Newport-Mesa elementary and high schools, Robinson has been a major advocate for preserving and expanding arts education.

“She has always been there reminding people of the importance of music in the classroom,” said interim Supt. Robert Francy.

It hasn’t always been easy. In an era of lean budgets, arts programs often suffer cuts. In some districts, they have been eliminated.

Twice since she began working for Newport-Mesa, art and music programs were severely cut due to budget constraints.

During those periods, Robinson taught regular elementary school classes and fought to restore the programs.

On more than one occasion, she brought children before the school board to sing and play musical instruments. The goal was to remind trustees of the importance of music.

“I never gave up,” she said.

Robinson also helped win grants and raise money from community arts organizations that went to purchase musical instruments.

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Students at Estancia High School call Assistant Principal Mimi Birch “Robocop” because they know they can’t get away with much while she is around.

But when she leaves the school, her tough image will be only part of her legacy. What people will most remember are the programs and forums she established to help students reach their highest potential.

Recognizing that high school students are young adults, Birch wanted to introduce them to the working world. So she designed the district’s first girls’ conference at Newport Harbor High School in the early 1970s.

As part of the all-day event, successful women from around the area shared their experiences with students.

“I wanted them to realize that there is so much they can do with their lives,” Birch, 58, said. “I wanted them to see these women who are dedicated and who love what they do.”

The conference became a model for schools across the district, as did the career center Birch established to encourage students to begin searching for vocations while still in school.

“They were very motivational, very inspirational for the students,” said Assistant Supt. Tom Jacobson, who was principal at Newport Harbor High when Birch taught there.

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Dennis O’Hearn has always tried to show his students that history is all around them.

He has retraced Father Junipero Serra’s footsteps in Orange County with hundreds of students over the 36 years since he began teaching U.S. history at Newport Harbor High School.

He has guided students on trips to Washington and has taken them to sites in the South where anthropologists excavated slave quarters.

“What he does is really above and beyond what we expect from our teachers,” said Newport Harbor High Principal Bob Boies.

O’Hearn said students are more interested in history if they are shown living relics of the past.

“They seem to understand better and definitely get more excited about it if they get to see it,” he said. “I think it also gives them a greater world perspective to get out of the classroom.”

He also tried to bring history to the students. By combing through phone books and talking to friends in the community, O’Hearn brought an impressive list of guest speakers to his classroom.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s son, who lived in Newport Beach for many years, regularly visited O’Hearn’s classroom, as did Curtis F. LeMay, George Wallace’s running mate in the 1968 presidential election.

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One of the hardest, most labor-intensive tasks for a teacher is putting on a school play.

The scripts must be rewritten with a child’s vocabulary in mind. Someone has to design costumes and sets.

There are programs and tickets and publicity and refreshments. Worst of all, there are dozens of rehearsals.

Penne Ferrell is one teacher who, in 38 years at Mariners Elementary School, has not shied from the one job most teachers think is too tough to tackle.

“It’s really a special thing for the kids,” said Ferrell, 59, who recently received the Orange County Department of Education’s Contribution to Education award.

“It’s their first chance to be a star, and some of them go on to be actors in high school and college.”

Other teachers say they are so busy with basic classroom instruction that they simply can’t take on drama and other extracurricular activities.

“If somebody said to me that when Penne leaves I would have to do the plays, I would have a nervous breakdown,” said fellow Mariners teacher Linda Hughes. “It’s so much work. . . . I don’t know if it will continue after Penne leaves.”

Ferrell said she persists because drama is one of the few activities that brings together teachers, parents and students from all grades.

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Educators across the county complain about the challenges of getting parents involved in their children’s schooling.

The problem is even more challenging in lower-income areas, where parents struggle to make ends meet.

The secret, says Wilson Elementary School Principal Sandra Bundy, is to listen to the community and to design a school in its image.

She has established an innovative system of enrichment programs that students can attend during school breaks. The programs focus on such subjects as cooking, computers, math and sports.

The idea came from parents who said they needed a safe place to send their children during winter and spring breaks. Many students from Costa Mesa’s west side come from working-class families.

Often, the parents cannot afford to take time off from work and supervise their children during school vacations.

“From the very first day of school we start reaching out to our parents and asking them what they want to hear from the school,” Bundy, 59, said.

What they have wanted, in addition to the holiday programs, is year-round schooling and courses for immigrant parents on how to help their children learn.

“She has been very open to the community and has been able to do really innovative things,” said Francy, the interim superintendent.

Ten years ago, meetings at the school were poorly attended by parents. These days, hundreds of parents pack the school gymnasium to voice their concerns and offer their ideas.

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Hope Hamashige can be reached at (714) 564-1050. Her e-mail address is hope.hamashige@latimes.com.