ON THE TOWN:Students deserve change

A few weeks ago, former Newport-Mesa school board trustee Tom Egan answered one of my columns with a rambling diatribe on the history of education, the Constitution and some other unrelated topics.

It was a curious response when you consider that my subject was the evolution of your school board from innovators to gatekeepers.

I did not reply to Egan’s column at the time because he was a lame duck. Plus, there wasn’t much of a reply directly addressing the topic to get a handle on. So I just let it go.

But last week, Egan mentioned my gatekeeper column again in a reply to a letter to the editor from another reader. And since then, the Newport-Mesa Unified School District has succeeded in proving my point, unfortunately to the detriment of some students.

In case you missed it, three Costa Mesa schools have failed to meet federal standards for the No Child Left Behind Act. After seven months of study, an advisory group came up with some solutions for the ailing schools, Pomona and Wilson elementary and TeWinkle Middle School.

Among those recommendations are a new English-learner curriculum, a longer day for kindergarteners and an outside expert to oversee the TeWinkle staff.

What we got for our time and money was more of the same bureaucratic foot-dragging and self-protection we have come to expect.

A new English-learner program? Uh, didn’t we get that when we began the English-immersion program? So what is it now, another experiment while another class of kids gets left behind?

Then there is this longer day for kindergartners. I have a better idea. How about if we stop enabling parents who have to work so much that they can’t spend the time they need to raise their kids and instill in them the learning culture at home that is the real missing element here?

And a new outside expert to oversee the staff. Gee, I thought that’s what we got when former Principal Jeff Gall was replaced with Dan Diehl? Call me crazy, but isn’t staff oversight supposed to be Diehl’s job? And if he’s not doing it — well, call me crazy again — shouldn’t we find another principal?

These are harsh rebuttals, I know, but how much longer do we wait before we get meaningful reform on the Westside of Costa Mesa? These schools have languished for as long as I have been writing this column, and no significant improvement has been made.

In fact, with the release of the new draft report, it is safe to say that these three schools may be going backward.

This is not news to Westside parents who do not have the clout of their Newport Beach counterparts. And that, to be really honest, is the dirty little secret of this school board for as long as I have been a resident of Costa Mesa: The board pays more attention to the Newport Beach schools than it does to the schools in Costa Mesa.

Does any reader really believe that any school in Newport Beach would have fallen even half as far before the board came in and made wholesale changes?

Don’t expect any bureaucrat to admit this, but it’s true. My opinion comes not only as the result of having lived here for 21 years and having had two kids attend TeWinkle, but having heard from teachers, parents and even from people very close to the board.

Unfortunately, these people do not want to go on the record because they fear retaliation — that, by the way, should tell you something about the atmosphere of open communication this board has fostered.

There is no open communication. Think, readers, about the last time the school board published dropout rates or zero-tolerance violations (without naming names, of course) in this newspaper.

Perhaps we don’t have any dropouts or kids doing drugs or getting drunk. And perhaps tomorrow pigs will fly.

The reason you don’t see the school board being forthcoming with their challenges is because it will ruin their constant message that everything is roses and rainbows.

But now they can’t hide. And if this board is truly interested in not leaving any child behind, I recommend something other than shuffling people around and tweaking old programs.

Dramatic reform is needed, not lip service. I’ve made many recommendations in the past. If any board member is interested in really thinking outside the box and making progress, I’d be delighted to discuss it with them. Just leave a message at the Daily Pilot.

Until then, keep your studies and staff changes to yourself.