Teachers’ union head announces retirement

Christine Carrillo

The longtime leader of the school district’s teachers’ union is

resigning March 1 to take a job with the California Federation of

Teachers.

Linda Mook announced she will resign as Newport-Mesa Federation of

Teachers president to work with the state union as its educational

issues coordinator.

Mook, who has served as president of the union for the past

six-and-a-half years and has worked in the Newport-Mesa Unified

School District for the past 35 years, will also resign from her

27-year stint as an English and journalism teacher at Corona del Mar

High School.

As of March 1, she will take a position that involves educational

issues similar to those in her current positions, but on a much

larger scale.

“I like challenges and I foresee [this new position] as a

wonderful opportunity to focus on those issues and patents that I

have had all my life as a classroom teacher,” Mook said. “I sort of

look at myself as a person who worked in the classroom serving the

educational needs of students and ... giving back to my profession

and helping fellow teachers ease their load. I just see this as a

different arena of a lot of the same things.”

A special election will be held in May to fill Mook’s spot, which

she is leaving mid-term.

The special election will be held concurrently with the regular

election filling the presidential seat for a one-year term. In the

interim, Executive Vice President Bob Kelly, a Newport Heights

sixth-grade teacher, will fill in as of March 1.

To make the transition even smoother for teachers, the executive

board has authorized Jim Rogers to take on a full-time staff position

and begin handling some of the presidential duties for the second

semester as of Friday.

“There’s a lot of things that are in place ... that’s why [the

transition] should have some consistency,” said Rogers, who has been

working with the teachers federation on a part-time basis for the

past two years.

While the federation’s staff anticipates an easy transition,

saying goodbye to one of their fellow co-workers won’t be.

“I’m happy for her. This is what she wants to do,” Rogers said.

“We’re going to miss her tremendously and all of the things she’s

been able to do for the teachers and the district.”

Mook, who considers herself an educator at heart, admits that she

will miss working directly for Newport-Mesa, but is anxious to begin

her next endeavor.

“In my new job, I’m going to bring the new perspective of a

classroom teacher to those who may not have had the pleasure of being

in a public school classroom and seeing what the impact is of

legislation,” she said. “It also will give me an opportunity to work

with teachers all over the United States to find good tools to help

teachers in the classroom.”

Mook said she has faith that the district will do fine without

her.

“I take a great deal of pride in the direction that our district

has gone in the last five to six years and the strides that we’ve

made in Newport-Mesa,” Mook said. “I think we have great leadership

in our district and our teachers organization.”

* CHRISTINE CARRILLO covers education and may be reached at (949)

574-4268 or by e-mail at christine.carrillo@latimes.com.