Complaint against school district filed

Michael Miller

A parent at TeWinkle Middle School has filed a federal complaint

against the Newport-Mesa Unified School District, regarding the

school’s treatment of Latino students.

Jim Bradshaw, a spokesman for the U.S. Dept. of Education,

confirmed that the federal Office for Civil Rights received the

complaint from Mirna Burciaga on Monday. Bradshaw said the office

would evaluate the statement to decide if it warranted an

investigation, and if so, would expect to conclude the case within

six months.

At press time, neither Burciaga nor the Office for Civil Rights

would provide a copy of the complaint.

Last week, at the school board’s meeting, Burciaga and four other

women -- the mothers and an aunt of TeWinkle students -- stood up to

complain to board members about the administrators at the school.

Among their charges were that TeWinkle administrators made ethnic

slurs against Latinos and often disciplined them excessively.

Although district officials have not yet seen Burciaga’s federal

complaint, they have been conducting their own investigation into the

matter. On Monday, TeWinkle principal Dan Diehl and assistant

principal Tim Tolzda began holding private meetings with each of the

parents who spoke to the board the week before. English-learner

programs director Karen Kendall and community facilitator Amparo Ames

served as translators for the Spanish-speaking parents.

While members of the review team were not available for comment,

Jaime Castellanos, the district’s assistant superintendent of

secondary education, said he had already taken steps toward improving

relations between TeWinkle parents and administrators.

“I’ve already had a chance to sit down with Mr. Diehl and Mr.

Tolzda and hear their side of it,” Castellanos said. “I am working on

some things right now with them about ways to engage the parent

communities -- ways they can do outreach with parents to try to

improve the lines of communication.”

Castellanos, who worked in the Ventura Unified School District

before moving to Newport-Mesa, said he had dealt with racial issues

before.

“At other places I’ve worked, it’s happened,” he said. “It doesn’t

happen every day, but every district I’ve worked at, it’s been

brought up as an issue.

“Anybody can say it’s racism, but you have to dig into the facts.

Often, in my experience, I’ve found it’s not a racial issue.”

Burciaga, a former Costa Mesa City Council candidate and former

parks and recreation commissioner, has taken action against TeWinkle

in the past. In 2000, she filed complaints with the state and federal

government regarding the school’s services for English-learner

students. After a federal investigation, Newport-Mesa signed an

agreement in 2001 to improve its English-learner programs.

* MICHAEL MILLER covers education and may be reached at (714)

966-4617 or by e-mail at [email protected].