Teachers, school employees to be honored

The Newport-Mesa Unified School District will recognize its teachers and classified employees of the year at Tuesday’s school board meeting.

Yassaman Motamed, an algebra and pre-algebra teacher at TeWinkle Middle School, and Kristen Johnson, a fourth-grade teacher at Newport Coast Elementary School, are the districtwide picks for teacher of the year.

A delegation from the school board surprised them with the honor in their classrooms last month.

Classified employees of the year are chosen from six categories. The district’s picks are:

• Denise Bauermeister, school office assistant, in the office and technical services category

• Donna Bunney, nutrition services assistant, in the child nutrition category

• Scott Matthews, head custodian, in the maintenance and operations category

• Kimberly Large, transportation dispatcher/scheduler, in the transportation category

• Kristine Kirsch, instructional assistant, in the instructional assistance category

• Wendy Allee, district assessment specialist, in the support services category

The winners will move on to represent Newport-Mesa in the Orange County Department of Education’s competition and could be eligible for statewide honors.

— Jeremiah Dobruck

Twitter: @jeremiahdobruck