Marina High School Principal Morgan Smith has been named Secondary Principal of the Year by the Association of California School Administrators.
As the Daily Pilot reported, Smith returned to Marina this year after serving as assistant principal of Fountain Valley High from 2015 through 2021. Before that, he was principal at Dwyer Middle School for five years and assistant principal at Costa Mesa High School for three years.
“I still have a bit of nostalgia,” Smith told the Pilot. “When you’re a first-year teacher, you remember the names and faces of all of your students. That was your first batch; those are your kids. The first thing I did (upon returning) was pull up a yearbook from 2002. It feels so nice to be at Marina. It feels like I’m coming home.”
ACSA was established in 1971 and serves more than 17,000 California educators. The association annually spotlights top administrators and partners at the regional and state levels.
Smith is set to be formally honored in November at an ACSA state conference in San Diego. Regional ASCA winners from Orange County, including OCDE Alternative Education Principal Machele Kilgore, will be celebrated May 9 at the Irvine Marriott.
And here are some other school-related stories from the week ending April 15:
- What’s the buzz at Westminster High School? Well, as the Orange County Register reported, students there have established California’s first beekeeping program at the high school level thanks to a collaboration with the Community Action Partnership of Orange County and startup funds from the USDA. The idea is to create a sanctuary for six queen bees and 60,000 worker bees to live, work and eventually produce honey and other bee-related products.
- This week marked the 75th anniversary of the final ruling in the landmark case of Mendez v. Westminster, which ended the legal justification for forced school segregation in California and paved the way for the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark Brown v. Board decision. The Los Angeles Times also posted a story and podcast episode on the historic anniversary.
- The Daily Pilot ran a story that reflected on the segregation of Mexican students in Santa Ana during and after the 1918 pandemic.
- Any state requirement for students to be vaccinated against COVID-19 won’t take effect before July 1, 2023, the California Department of Public Health announced this week.
- School attendance review boards from four Orange County school districts have been designated as model programs by the state for practices that have helped reduce chronic absenteeism rates and improve student attendance.
- After two virtual years of virtual events, the 46th annual VSA Festival will return to MainPlace Mall in Santa Ana on Saturday, April 30 to celebrate the artistic achievements of individuals with disabilities.
- A middle school student was arrested after allegedly posting social media threats suggesting violence at his campus, police reported.
- Overdose deaths among teenagers in the U.S. nearly doubled in 2020 when compared with the decade leading up to the pandemic. Drug use remained generally stable during that stretch, revealing how increasingly common drugs like fentanyl are exponentially more dangerous.
- And finally, a new gymnasium and soccer field are the last pieces of a $72 million fundraising campaign for Samueli Academic, an innovative public charter school with a focus on helping foster youth. “Done,” said Anthony Saba, Samueli’s executive director. “The campus is now complete.”
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