District calls for rejection of charter schools plan

Board will make the final judgment on technology and home-schoolingthemed campuses.The Newport-Mesa Unified School District recommended Monday that its school board reject the proposals for two charter schools within its boundaries, claiming the plans are incomplete and fail to meet district academic standards.

In the last two months, Newport-Mesa has received proposals for a pair of charter campuses -- which, if accepted, would be the first in the district’s history. One, the Orange County Academy, would combine home-schooling with classroom instruction; the other, the Orange Science Academy, would feature the standard curriculum taught on state-of-the-art computers.

A day before the school board planned to rule on both charter campuses, a group of Newport-Mesa administrators posted resolutions on the district website urging the board to vote against them. The board is expected to decide on the proposals this afternoon.

The officials -- Supt. Robert Barbot, Deputy Supt. Paul Reed, Susan Astarita, assistant superintendent of elementary education, and Lorri McCune, assistant superintendent of human resources -- said the proposals left unanswered questions about the schools’ procedures.

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.

“We support the concept of a charter school and the option of providing choices for parents,” she said. “It’s just that we’ve identified in our report areas of concern in these proposals.”

In both cases, the review team found fault with the validity of the charter schools’ petitions. The Orange County Academy’s petition did not list the addresses of signers, and Astarita said that only seven of the 150 parents’ names matched ones in the district’s database. 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.

In addition, the administrators said the Orange County Academy’s proposal was vague on how it planned to integrate home and classroom instruction, and the Orange Science Academy did not specify its courses for English, foreign language and other non-science subjects.

The applicants for both charter schools expressed disappointment Monday over the district’s recommendation, even though the school board had yet to vote. Adnan Doyuran, the co-founder of the Orange Science Academy, said he would meet with his colleagues Monday night to decide whether to attend the board meeting today or withdraw the petition.

“There might be some points that need improvement, so we are willing to work with them [the district], but we are definitely determined to pursue opening a school here,” Doyuran said.

Doyuran’s group, the Dialog Foundation, is a nonprofit organization that started in 1997 and has opened charter schools in Reseda and San Diego.

Both of the foundation’s schools, like its prospective campus in Newport-Mesa, enlist volunteer tutors from local universities.

The team behind the Orange County Academy consists of seven local citizens and educators -- one of whom, Jan Luxembourger, formerly taught in the Newport-Mesa district. Board President Todd Winkler and Vice President Dan Adelseck both said they were dismayed by the district’s reaction to their proposal.

Adelseck noted that his proposal had left out some details, but only because of space constraints.

He chided the district for waiting so long to issue its recommendation.

“We’d be more than happy to dialogue with Newport-Mesa about any of the questions they have,” he said. “There hasn’t been any dialogue. They didn’t release resolutions until the very last minute, so we wouldn’t have the opportunity to address them.”

The Orange County Academy has already won support from the state and local community, with the California Department of Education awarding it a three-year, $180,000 start-up grant. Costa Mesa Mayor Allan Mansoor and state Sens. Dick Ackerman and Bill Morrow are among those who have vowed to support it.

“We have 190 interested parents of students in Orange County that are going to get shortchanged because of politics or some other agenda,” Winkler said.

“They [the district] are not looking out for the children or education here.”

Astarita, however, said that the district had to judge by objective guidelines rather than popular support.

“The state doesn’t approve the charter,” she said. “The school district does. What we have to use is the criteria in the education code.”

Both charter school groups, if turned down by Newport-Mesa, may appeal their cases to the county or state.

* MICHAEL MILLER covers education and may be reached at (714) 966-4617 or by e-mail at [email protected].