Teaching with a heart

Danette Goulet

Susan Phillips adores children.

Her license plate reads “kidzr[heart].”

And it was only her love for her two young grandchildren that could

tear her away from more than 30 years of nurturing the young of

Newport-Mesa.

It is with a somewhat heavy heart that the Balboa Island resident

retires from teaching kindergarten this week and turns The Susan Phillips

Day School over to Kim Cubeiro.

“Children have been my life,” Phillips said. “Having only had one

child myself, I wanted more -- and I certainly had them.”

With an adoring, wistful smile Phillips chuckled as she watched

children from her final kindergarten class head off with their parents,

chattering excitedly about their second-to-last day of class.

“I believe that if a child has high self-esteem, they can do anything

they want to do in this world,” she said. “So our approach [at the Susan

Phillips Day School] is we fit the academics in, but the biggest emphasis

is treating each other kindly, using proper words, learning to be

responsible kindergartners and feelings of self-worth.”

It is Phillips’ loving nature and teaching philosophies that made her

a coveted teacher by both parents and students.

“She’s fabulous, the kids are so well-prepared and have such a great

time,” said parent Alissa Janes, whose daughter, Daphne, attends the

school.

Phillips has taught kindergarten in Newport-Mesa for 35 years. She

spent the first 20 years at Killybrooke Elementary School in Costa Mesa

before going to work at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church School for seven

years. It was then that she took her loving, nurturing curriculum and her

assistant Andy McCunniff on the road and opened her own school.

Phillips planned to shut the doors to that school when she finally

retired -- until Kim Cubeiro came along.

Cubeiro is an experienced teacher and the mother of a recent student.

She had taken time off to have her children.

Despite her experience, Phillips said, Cubeiro has spent the last year

dogging Phillips heels so that she may continue the school exactly as it

has run for the past eight years.

So while parents say that she will be sorely missed by the community,

students may still be reared by her philosophies.

As for students who she has taught, they just feel they are fortunate

to have known her.

“She’s really nice,” said Nicolas Sargeant, 6. “She has the best hugs.

She’s the best teacher I ever had.”