The Math Engineering Science Achievement — better known as MESA — team from Costa Mesa Middle and High School recently placed second overall at the National Engineering Design Challenge, which was held June 21-22 at the University of Arizona.
High school juniors Sophia Catania, Lucero Islas and Lena Nguyen and eighth-graders Aubrey Spallone, Audrey Nguyenhuu and Kayla Stanley make up the CMMS/HS team and represented the state of California at both the middle and high school level.
MESA-USA is an award-winning K-16 STEM organization whose leaders and alumni are advocates for equity and access to high quality STEM education and training for under-represented students. The program serves over 49,000 K-14 students in nearly 350 school districts and has provided STEM pathways for over 50 years.
And here are some of the other education stories we are tracking this week.
- The Newport-Mesa Unified School District will welcome Dr. Henry Bangser as interim superintendent, effective Aug. 3. The district is currently engaging in a nationwide search for a permanent superintendent.
- In related news, the Fullerton Joint Union High School District has named Dr. Steve McLaughlin as their new superintendent. McLaughlin succeeds Dr. Scott Scambray, who will retire at the end of the month after six years in the superintendency.
- The Capistrano Unified School District Board of Trustees approved a resolution Wednesday urging a change in mask guidance for people on school campuses —effectively requesting masks be optional, particularly for students.
- A Costa Mesa charter school has until July 7 to demonstrate how it will correct several operational indiscretions being investigated by county education officials as potential violations, even as the Orange County Board of Education hesitates to take punitive action, the Daily Pilot reported.
- Three middle schoolers from Irvine earned top honors at the 2021 National History Day finals, which was held virtually, June 13-19.
- Frontiers Academy, a private school in Anaheim that teaches trilingual language immersion, is moving to a new home in Costa Mesa.
- California schools this year received billions of state and federal dollars to spend on programs to help students catch up on the learning they lost while school campuses were closed. But EdSource reports that many districts are struggling with teacher shortages in the areas of special education, math, science and bilingual education.
- And, the Los Angeles Board of Education approved a record $20-billion budget for the upcoming academic year — a massive influx of funding made possible by pandemic relief money and record state tax revenues.
This is the part where we encourage you to keep up with local education news stories by bookmarking the OCDE Newsroom, subscribing for emailed updates and following us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.