District to honor schools with most improvements

Newport-Mesa Unified school board members are scheduled tonight to recognize the five local schools that showed the biggest growth in the state’s Academic Performance Index.

The schools are Back Bay High School (127 points), Sonora Elementary School (110 points, and highest gain for an elementary school in Orange County), Orange Coast Middle College High School (59 points), TeWinkle Middle School (43 points) and Killybrooke Elementary School (41 points).

The Academic Performance Index numbers have considerable weight in the federal government’s scores in the No Child Left Behind act.

The school board will also be asked to approve an Early Reading First grant. The grant, from the U.S. Department of Education, will provide nearly $3.5 million over the next three years to Pomona and Whittier preschool programs.

The money will fund intensive professional development for preschool staff, one full-time Early Literacy coach at each school and a full-time project coordinator, among other things.

Tonight’s school board meeting begins at 7 at district headquarters, 2985 Bear St., Costa Mesa.

— Joseph Serna