Week out

EDUCATION

Sunshine Cooperative Preschool, which has leased its space for 36 years at Presbyterian Church of the Covenant in Costa Mesa, announced last week that it has until summer 2008 to find a new home. The church is terminating the preschool’s lease in a year and a half to make room for its own children’s program, which operates on the site Sunday and Wednesday.

Parents at Sunshine are busy contacting other churches and residences around the Newport-Mesa area to find a possible site. The preschool, with tuition no higher than $120 a month, is among the cheapest in an area where parents often pay more than $500 per child.

“It’s a shame, because if we don’t find another place, we’re out of business,” Sunshine director Lynda LeBlanc said.

Orange Coast College is finally set to receive a faculty member on loan from the MemorialCare hospital group, as the college district worked out an agreement at a special meeting on Tuesday. The respiratory specialist, who will remain an employee of MemorialCare, is expected to expand OCC’s respiratory program from 28 to 40 students.

The board voted 4-1 in favor of the agreement after a split vote earlier in the month. The Coast Community College District’s teachers’ union had disputed the notion of bringing a faculty member on campus without union representation. In the contract approved on Tuesday, the union would represent the work done by the faculty member on loan, but the instructor would not be obligated to join the union itself.

Byron Schweigert, the chief education and government affairs officer for MemorialCare, expressed relief at the agreement, citing the shortage of respiratory specialists in California.