Lupe Melgoza, Courtney Gillett named Huntington Beach Union High School District Teachers of the Year

For more than two decades, Guadalupe “Lupe” Melgoza has been the Practitioners of English Language Learning (PELL) coordinator at Marina High.

Several years ago, she also became the English Language Learners facilitator for the entire Huntington Beach Union High School District.

Taking that second position required some coaxing from her husband, she said.

“I think the most rewarding thing about teaching is the fact that you have the opportunity, as an educator, to sort of push your students to leave their comfort zone,” Melgoza said. “I know that for me, personally, that’s how I’ve grown. When this position opened up as a facilitator, I had no intention of coming in.”

But she pushed forward. Melgoza, who has taught English at Marina High for the last 24 years, makes a positive impact on the Viking campus and in the district.

She and Ocean View High teacher Courtney Gillett have been named the 2024 Huntington Beach Union High School District Teachers of the Year.

Melgoza, who is also a leader for the Marina Youth Theatre program, said she empathizes with her students. Though she was born and raised in Huntington Beach, both of her parents are immigrants from Mexico.

She taught an Intro to Theater summer school course last year and convinced many of her English language learners to take the class. She said that many ended up riding their bikes from Marina to the Huntington Beach High theater, as Marina Youth Theatre readied for its initial production of “Shrek the Musical.”

“I, myself, was an English language learner in kindergarten, all the way to maybe third grade,” she said. “These kids mean a lot to me because I feel like there’s a connection. I know exactly what they’re going through. Missing home is something that I grew up with, too. Not that I missed home, because I was born and raised here, but I experienced watching my mom also miss home.”

Courtney Gillett, center, was named one of the Huntington Beach Union High School District’s 2024 Teachers of the Year.

(Courtesy of Huntington Beach Union High School District)

Gillett said she is rarely speechless, but she was just that when she found out about earning Teacher of the Year honors.

She is the teacher behind the Ocean View IDEAS program, an inclusive program designed to support students with special needs.

Gillett also serves as the district liaison for Unified Sports, which hosts events across the district that unite special education students with their classmates in a game setting. Last fall, Ocean View High was honored as a Special Olympics National Banner Unified Champion School for 2022.

“It’s really exciting, every step that it grows,” said Gillett, who has been at Ocean View since the 2019-20 school year and was at Fountain Valley High before that. “I’m always looking like, what better can we do? People are starting to see the value of it. Even the [general education] kids at Ocean View are like, ‘When’s the next tournament?’ It’s exciting to see the excitement.”

One thing that’s unique about the IDEAS program is that Gillett has her students for all four years. She said that’s led to a bit more urgency in her teaching, coming back from the coronavirus pandemic.

“As a teacher, I struggled through COVID,” she said. “I had my own kids at home too, so they were struggling. I hated every second of being home, and I think now it’s just really given me a new perspective.

“I mean, there are still mornings where I’m like, ‘Oh, my gosh, it’s cold, I’d rather stay in bed.’ But seeing how happy our students were to come back, they craved social interaction with each other. I think I’ve just learned not to take anything for granted.”

Melgoza and Gillett will be honored this spring by the Orange County Department of Education. If selected to represent the county, they may move on to compete at the state level.

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