New school year brings new principals at Newport-Mesa’s Harbor View and Wilson Elementary

New principals Carol Furman and Jennifer Heckert are joining others in a recent wave of administrative appointments as the Newport-Mesa Unified School District prepares for the start of its new school year next week.

Furman and Heckert will be the principals of Harbor View and Wilson Elementary schools, respectively. They are expected to be introduced with other newly named principals at the district board meeting Tuesday night.

Newly appointed assistant principals will be introduced at the board’s next meeting in September.

The first day of school for all Newport-Mesa campuses is Sept. 3, except for Early College High School, which began classes Aug. 7.

Carol Furman, Harbor View Elementary School principal

For nine years as a site administrator in the Ocean View School District, Furman was responsible for Title I programs, designed to help children from low-income families, and Gifted and Talented Education, or GATE, programs.

A statement from Newport-Mesa described her as dedicated, hard-working and conscientious.

“Ms. Furman focuses on the educational and emotional well-being of students. She is excited to bring her enthusiasm and abilities to contribute to the successes at Harbor View Elementary School,” according to the statement.

Furman, who has 20 years of educational experience in all, received a bachelor’s degree in liberal studies and a master’s in curriculum and instruction from Chapman University in Orange.

At Harbor View in Corona del Mar, she succeeds Todd Schmidt, who is now principal at Weaver Elementary School in the Los Alamitos Unified School District.

Jennifer Heckert, Wilson Elementary School principal

Heckert brings more than 20 years of experience in education, serving previously as an assistant principal in the Capistrano Unified School District, where she facilitated positive behavior intervention systems and developed a STEM — science, technology, engineering and math — lab.

She also worked to assist staff development to improve instructional strategies and helped refine school safety.

At Wilson in Costa Mesa, she will be replacing Mia Doidge, who was appointed principal of Newport-Mesa’s Sonora Elementary School.

Heckert received a bachelor’s degree in liberal studies-elementary education from San Diego State University and a master’s in linguistics from Cal State Long Beach. She earned a doctorate in special education from the University of Texas at Austin.

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