EDUCATION Peace Corps director visits Corona...

EDUCATION

Peace Corps director visits Corona del Mar High

About 1,700 Corona del Mar High students listened to Peace Corps

Director Gaddi Vasquez, a former Orange County supervisor, discuss

his job, as well as the contrasts between life in Newport Beach and

the rest of the world.

The speech came as part of the school’s third annual Community

Service Day. Last year, the school’s graduating class performed more

than 20,000 hours of community service.

School board candidates sounded off on a variety of issues at the

first candidate’s forum this week in Newport Beach. The challengers

pressured the incumbents to defend their decisions and philosophy

toward district policies while proposing new ideas for the district

like term limits for trustees and paying teachers a higher salary to

teach in low-performing schools. The next Candidate’s Forum is Oct.

29 in Costa Mesa.

Overall enrollment at UC Irvine reached record levels as the

number of students on campus this fall exceeded last year’s

enrollment by 8.7%. Officials attribute the leap to a top-down

effect, starting with an increase in graduate students.

* DEIRDRE NEWMAN covers education. She may be reached at (949)

574-4221 or by e-mail at deirdre.newman@latimes.com.