Students get laptops; sound wall will go up

The Newport-Mesa Unified school board approved a pilot program between the Intel Corporation and Newport Heights Elementary School that will bring 70 student laptop computers to one fifth- and one sixth-grade class at the end of October.

Intel is developing the Classmate, a low-cost laptop for students, to see if it can improve student learning.

Along with the laptops that students will be using in the pilot program, the school is receiving two higher-end models for teachers, a server for the systems, carts, training and technological support.

The program lasts from Oct. 31 to Feb. 15 of next year.

After that, the computers and all its related equipment will become property of the district and will stay at Newport Heights.

The board also instructed staff members to modify the Estancia High School stadium block wall project.

Residents adjacent to the south of the school, along Joann Street, have requested that a wall set to go between their homes and the school be at a minimum length.

A wall is necessary to mitigate noise and lights from the parking lot next to the homes that will only get worse during football games when the school’s stadium is completed.

The wall should stretch only 50 feet west beyond the parking lot asphalt, leaving only a chain-link fence between the school and some homes.

Early in the meeting, Victoria and Mariners elementary schools received more accolades for their No Child Left Behind Blue Ribbons. The national honor is awarded to only 287 schools in the country.

The schools met one of two criteria: showing significant Annual Yearly Progress or performing in the top-tier of schools across the country.

Newport Heights Principal Kurt Suhr was also recognized for his recent Gold Medal from the Governor’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports.