A lifetime in the classroom

Marisa O’Neil

Retiring Principal Barbara Rothman has been in school, one way or

another, since she was in kindergarten.

If she wasn’t the student, she was the teacher. Or teaching other

teachers, or leading Lincoln Elementary School as its principal. And

after a generation as an educator, it’s time to get a little rest,

Rothman said.

“I’ve got mixed emotions,” she said of her impending retirement.

“This has been my whole life for 39 years -- 37 in Newport-Mesa.

Since I was 6 years old, I’ve either gone to or taught school without

a break. That’s a long time.”

Rothman started in the Newport Mesa Unified School District as a

kindergarten teacher, working at the district’s Eastbluff

Kindergarten Education Center and Andersen Elementary School before

moving to Lincoln when it opened 13 years ago. She has written eight

books on teaching, conducted teaching seminars and is a National

Board Certified teacher.

She took over as principal of Lincoln in 1999.

PTA President Roslyn Rustigian said she’s sad to see Rothman leave

the school. Her oldest daughter, now in seventh grade, had Rothman

for her kindergarten teacher.

“She just goes above and beyond the call of duty, making every

child feel so special and their parents feel special,” she said of

Rothman.

Rothman received a plaque at the Newport-Mesa Unified School

District board of trustees meeting on Tuesday night. That’s the same

night 18 Lincoln sixth-graders received recognition for winning 42

awards at the Orange County Academic Pentathlon in May -- a great way

to go out, she said.

Wednesday afternoon, the kudos kept coming with a PTA reception

for Rothman in the school’s library. Students and parents stopped by

to give their warmest wishes to Rothman in person and in a keepsake

scrapbook and to give her lots of hugs.

“She did lots of nice things,” 10-year-old Donald Haynes said at

the reception. “She rewarded the good things we did, and the bad

things, we got what we deserved.”

Once the school year finishes, Rothman said, she plans to golf,

garden and travel.

“All the things I never had time to do,” she said.

And she plans to catch as many professional tennis matches as she

can, especially those with her favorite player, Andre Agassi.