A Laguna Beach High School teacher has received an award from the U.S. Navy for having a positive impact on the lives of students.
An educator for over 20 years, Jonathan Todd was recently honored with the Navy’s Impact Influencer Award for greatly influencing and impacting the life of his former student, Jack Strickland.
According to an Laguna Beach USD press release, Strickland nominated Todd for the award after being accepted into the Navy’s Nuclear Engineering program. Strickland credited Todd as the “individual who really stood out and impacted his life.”
“Mr. Todd is a well-respected educator on the LBHS Team,” said Laguna Beach High School Principal Dr. Jason Allemann. “It is awesome to see a guy that gives recognition to so many of our young adults on the daily get recognized himself for impacting students.”
Laguna Beach High School teacher Jonathan Todd (center) pictured with U.S. Navy Petty Officer Garcia (right) and Laguna Beach High School Principal Dr. Jason Allemann upon receiving the U.S. Navy Impact Influencer Award.
Here are some of the other stories we’ve been following this week.
- A deputy health officer for Orange County is reporting robust interest among parents seeking to get their young children vaccinated against COVID-19.
- In related news, Santa Ana Unified School District officials are hoping to make getting vaccinations easier for some of Orange County’s hardest hit residents by launching COVID-19 vaccine clinics for children 5 and up.
- Some educators across the state are embracing a growing trend to move away from traditional point-driven grading systems to a system that bases grades on what students are learning, thus aiming to close large academic gaps among racial, ethnic and economic groups.
- Reconnecting, resetting and restoring was the focus of a virtual conference attended by more than 600 Orange County school counselors and educational leaders this week.
- Anaheim High School students voted to keep the name and imagery of their mascot — the Colonists — amid pushback from some community members. But the decision will ultimately be up to the Anaheim Union High School District’s Board of Trustees, which will be presented with the results of the vote in December.
- A principal at Davis Magnet School in the Newport-Mesa Unified School District is one of eight school leaders to receive a prestigious educational leadership award from the U.S. Department of Education.
- A fifth-grade class from George While Elementary School took to a street corner in Laguna Niguel to perform several numbers from the Broadway musical “Hamilton.”
- And finally, the Los Alamitos USD football community is rallying around one of its players as he recovers from a rare form of cancer.
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.