School district ‘visionary’ dies at 57

Betty Wollenstein, the former community facilitator of Costa Mesa High School who designed the campus’ parent resource center, died of cancer last week. She was 57.

An employee of the Newport-Mesa Unified School District since 1999, Wollenstein spent most of her tenure at Costa Mesa High School. Part of her legacy is starting and monitoring the parent resource center, a room on campus that offers literature, college pamphlets and information meetings for non-English-speaking parents.

Costa Mesa administrators received the news of Wollenstein’s death early last week. She had left her post in April after being diagnosed with cancer.

“Betty’s passing is a big blow to the Mesa family,” said Principal John Garcia. “She was just a big part of our school, just a great, great influence and personality on campus. She’ll be missed by all of us.”

Wollenstein’s position was left unfilled when she left it in the spring. This fall, Claudia Flores, a former member of Save Our Youth and the organizer of UC Irvine’s Latino Youth Conference, took over the post.

Flores, who worked with Wollenstein last year on the center, called her predecessor “a visionary.”

“She had a lot in mind for helping the community,” Flores said.