School district must divorce status quo

The church caretaker just wanted to tidy up. But when he entered the chapel, he saw a wedding in progress.

The caretaker stepped discreetly into the back row of pews and sat down to wait for the service to finish. When the bridal march played, he stood up out of respect.

Down the aisle came both the bride and groom. Kind of unusual, he thought, but then again, he’d seen just about every possible wedding arrangement there was.

This couple, however, was different. Very different.

The bride was struggling down the aisle in a walker. She was old -- he guessed her to be in her 80’s.

The groom was old too, and he held one arm of the walker as he shuffled toward the altar.

Curious, the caretaker tapped the shoulder of the guest in front of him.

“What’s going on here?” he asked.

“It’s a wedding,” the guest replied.

“I know that,” said the caretaker. “I mean the bride and the groom -- they’re so old.”

“Oh that,” replied the guest. “That’s the couple who waited until everything was perfect before they got married.”

I was reminded of this story, which I first heard told by Zig Ziglar many years ago, when I read about the likelihood of the charter schools program being rejected by the Newport-Mesa Unified School District board.

If my math is correct, this will be at least the third time in about five years that the board has failed to implement a charter school program.

The two charter school programs were rejected by some district officials, including Supt. Robert Barbot; Deputy Supt. Paul Reed; Susan Astarita, assistant superintendent of elementary education; and Lorri McCune, assistant superintendent of human resources.

The proposals were received by the district over the past two months and would create the first charter schools in the district.

One proposal would combine home-schooling with classroom instruction. The other would feature the usual curriculum but would be taught on state-of-the-art computers.

As of this writing, trustees haven’t voted. But I have to believe they will follow the recommendation of the administrators.

The reason for the “no” recommendation was that there were some questions about procedures.

And according to the report in the Daily Pilot, “Neither petition proved that there was a burning need for a new charter school in Newport-Mesa, they said. The team used the state education code in assessing the plans, Astarita said.”

No burning need? Is this a joke?

We’ve got abysmal test scores on the Westside year after year and there is no burning need for a test of another way of teaching to see if it will make a difference.

But wait, there’s more! Also according to the Pilot report, “The signatures for the Orange Science Academy were printed on a different sheet than the proposal itself, leading the reviewers to question whether the parents had a copy of the charter when they signed.”

Someone please wake me up from this nightmare.

“Leading the reviewers to believe.”

Did it ever occur to the reviewers to call the Orange Science Academy to ask them about the signatures? If so, they did not tell Pilot reporter Michael Miller.

Did it ever occur to any of the administrators to go to both sources and ask them to answer their questions or to meet again because they have some issues to resolve?

Apparently, it did not. This is typical of the bureaucratic refusal to change that is stifling education not just in the district but across the country.

“New” is a dirty word. “New” means change and even if something “new” is tested, it takes ages of vetting before it becomes real.

“But we can’t take chances on the education of our children!” you say.

Here’s what I say: Education on the Westside is a near failure. Save for one or two glimmers of hope, such as Victoria Elementary School, it is failing.

And in a case like that, something must change, and almost anything is better than what those kids have.

If our children are again denied the opportunity to receive the type of education that does not fit the norm but which may be better suited to them, we should not hear any more about how all of this is “for the kids.”

All of this is really about protecting the status quo. In that regard, this board is an unqualified success.

* STEVE SMITH is a Costa Mesa resident and a freelance writer. Readers may leave a message for him on the Daily Pilot hotline at (714) 966-4664 or send story ideas to [email protected].