EDUCATION Students take action More than 100...

EDUCATION

Students take action

More than 100 Newport Beach residents packed a portable conference

room at Newport Harbor High School on Tuesday, as the school’s

Student Political Action Committee organized a town meeting to debate

St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church’s proposal to pay the school $3.5

million for a shared 30-year parking lease.

Two sides made presentations to open the meeting: one a group of

members from the church’s building committee, the other a coalition

of neighbors who are opposed to the expansion. After both sides gave

PowerPoint presentations, they took questions from the audience.

The committee plans to vote formally on the parking issue at its

April 11 meeting, then take its response to the school board the

following day.

* Also on Tuesday, state education officials visited four

Newport-Mesa elementary schools -- Wilson, Whittier, Sonora and Davis

-- to witness their English Language Development programs in action.

Newport-Mesa has acquired a solid reputation over the last year for

its English-learner programs, which service Latinos and other

non-English-speaking students. This year, Newport-Mesa schools

graduated 369 students from the program, 60% more than they did in

2004.

* On Wednesday, UC Irvine’s Graduate School of Management

announced the school was the beneficiary of the largest single gift

in the university’s history.

Newport Coast’s Paul Merage, co-founder of Chef America Inc., the

company that introduced Hot Pocket pastry snacks to the marketplace,

donated $30 million to the school, which will be renamed the Paul

Merage School of Business.