PTA COFFEE BREAK:’Change is mandatory; growth is optional’

Theresa Daem’s message was that “change is mandatory; growth is optional.”

Laguna’s current superintendent who will be leaving the School District at the end of the academic year, provided a strong start to the 2006-2007 Coffee Break series Sept. 20.

The program is aimed at meeting the school leaders and learning more about their quest for excellence in our schools.

The seminars are organized by the PTA and held on the third Wednesday of each month at the Surf & Sand hotel for parents of the Laguna Beach School District with students in grades K-12.

Daem also emphasized that parents need to keep in mind the kind of board that will be at the helm of the district in reaching its goals.

Nancy Hubbell, Laguna’s new assistant superintendent, asked the audience what they value about our schools and invited parents to be part of the process in defining the goals to keep in place.

Chris Duddy and Ron LaMotte, principals of El Morro and Top of the World elementary schools, emphasized that they work as a team with both elementary schools.

Both schools have added a strings component to their music curriculum, and developed an anti-bullying program, to be utilized especially on the school buses.

Joining the teaching staff at El Morro are Heather Evans and Kimberly Yarberry; and new at Top of the World are Brett Bond, Megan Bartlett, Dustin Gowan, Launa Nacion-Kirkey, Carrie Rabay, Julie Toro, and Michelle Douglas. Kimberly Doran and Corinne Karidis are welcomed at each campus as speech and language specialists.

Joanne Culverhouse, principal of Thurston Middle School, hopes that the middle school student will become empowered to use the computer to send e-mails to their teachers, and visit each teacher’s blog site for class review or clarification.

Additionally, Culverhouse will be doing weekly podcasts to keep all on track with school announcements.

Thurston Middle School is happy to have on its teaching team Randi Beckley in foreign language; Amy Cochren in English; Debra Ann Nichol in special education; Joanna Nilsen-Badami in math; and Carl Nelson in social studies.

Don Austin, the new Laguna Beach High School principal, addressed the issue of school culture and emphasized that the high school is aimed at having all of the advantages of a private school but with credentialed teachers.

Austin spoke of academics, the performing arts, and athletics as the “spinning plates” — and his focus will be on what plates in the high school are spinning and which plates are wobbling.

His aim as the high school’s new leader is to encourage positive risk-taking; enhance school spirit and pride; facilitate a feeling of connection and belonging; and bring in more of the high school’s 72-year history.

Laguna Beach High School welcomes English teachers Amy Baxter and Emily Markussen; Counselor/IB Coordinator Nance Morrissey; resource specialist and support teacher Scott Wittkop; and athletic accounts clerk Jill Edwards.