One size does not fit all, district says

Newport-Mesa Unified school district officials’ second day of public meetings Wednesday with school principals left board members more confident than ever that the district is heading in the right direction.

“You know, we had five hours [of meetings] yesterday and five hours today, and that’s a long time. But when you come out excited because the vision you’ve had as a district is being realized, that’s something,” board member Michael Collier said.

District officials met with Estancia and Corona del Mar high school zone principals Tuesday and principals from the Costa Mesa and Newport Harbor zones Wednesday.

They reviewed state and federal test scores from the 2006-07 academic year and laid out their goals and plans for the next school year.

The topic was serious Wednesday but a light-hearted tone was set early.

Middle College Principal Robert Nanney and the rest of the Costa Mesa zone principals arrived in the same shirts.

Only Nanney, a very tall, former college basketball player, came in a shirt comically too small. His point: one size does not fit all.

That idea flowed through Wednesday’s presentations, board members said.

“By doing the zone presentations, we see this synergy, this articulation that’s going from our pre-kindergarten programs to our college programs,” board member David Brooks said. “We get to see the whole gamut and the whole context of what’s going on in that zone.”

“It’s so incredibly wonderful how positive everybody is, how much they’re learning from each other. It’s such an ‘a-ha,’” board member Dana Black said. “We haven’t arrived by any means but for the first time they feel that they have concrete information that we can work with. They were all focusing on the whole child. Because there’s more to a child than taking a test.”

JOSEPH SERNA may be reached at (714) 966-4619 or at [email protected].