Tag: Newport-Mesa Unified School District

Newport-Mesa Unified Candidate Wants to Mend Students’ COVID Learning Loss

Michelle Murphy, a mother of two boys in the Newport-Mesa Unified School District and an active community leader, is seeking to spot on the school board in the Nov. 8 election. “I have two kids in the district and their education is very important to me. In my area, there are a couple of low-performing…


Newport-Mesa Unified Candidate Lisa Pearson: ‘We Need to Set Every Student up for Success’

Newport-Mesa Unified School Board candidate Lisa Pearson says she is passionate about excellence in education. A retired teacher and mother of three grown children who attended the district’s schools, Pearson told The Epoch Times she wants to ensure district schools remain strong. “One of my top priorities is keeping academic standards up to what the…


Newport-Mesa Unified Candidate Kristen Valle Wants to Invest in Children

Kristen Valle, a candidate in the Nov. 8 election for the Newport-Mesa Unified’s Board of Education, is calling on the entire community to invest in its children. Valle, 34, a sales and marketing professional who currently works for a healthcare organization, told The Epoch Times she noticed an increase in anxiety and depression among children…


Newport-Mesa Unified Candidate Kristen Seaburn Is an Advocate for Parents, Kids

Prior to running for a seat in the upcoming Nov. 8 election for the Newport-Mesa Unified Education Board, Kristen Seaburn was an advocate for children. With two children of her own in school—including one in the district’s special education program—Seaburn said she quickly learned that she needed to fight to have her voice heard as…


Newport-Mesa Unified Candidate Reina Shebesta Is Ready to Serve Kids

Reina Shebesta is a unicorn. Or so she’s been called by others for being both pro-public education and conservative. However, the candidate in the upcoming Nov. 8 election for Newport-Mesa Unified School District’s Trustee Area 5—which stretches along the majority of Newport Beach’s coast—maintains that it was 22 years of serving as a counselor at…


Newport-Mesa Unified Candidate Michelle Barto Wants to Restart Where COVID Left Off

Since being elected in 2018 as a trustee for the Newport-Mesa Unified School District, improving school safety and academic performance have been key concerns of Michelle Barto. But any advances in those areas, she said, were interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Now that things are returning to normal, Barto, who has four children in the…


Group Threatens Legal Action vs. Newport-Mesa Unified on ADL Training

Some concerned parents and community leaders of Newport-Mesa Unified School District are seeking possible legal action to obtain teacher and student leader “anti-bias” training materials developed by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), after a public records request for the materials was denied. The issue of the materials came to light for some during so-called “task force”…


School Talks of Hybrid Success Amid California’s Tug-of-War on the Issue

As California Gov. Gavin Newsom has pushed a proposal to incentivize school reopenings this month using grants, he has faced opposition from teachers’ unions, as well as some legislators and district leaders. But Orange County school districts have been more receptive to hybrid- and in-person-learning than those in some neighboring counties. On the state’s map showing the status of school closures, districts open for in-person or hybrid learning are colored blue. Districts with distance-learning only are a sandy yellow. Orange County looks like something of…