Era ends in school district

COSTA MESA ? The fish tank, which had graced the superintendent’s office for years, sat out by the reception desk on Friday morning, its inhabitants still swimming blissfully in circles. A large blue plastic bin, containing plaques and other personal mementos, waited in the corner to be taken out.

The secretaries had already removed the name plate from the office door. Teachers, clerical workers, and other administrators stopped in to shake hands and say goodbye. In between visits, the district leader sat at his barren desk, applying his signature to grant applications, budgets and other paperwork for the coming school year.

Friday was Supt. Robert Barbot’s last day at the helm of the Newport-Mesa Unified School District. In fact, it was his last half-day; the district offices close at noon on Fridays over the summer to conserve energy. Still, Barbot, who took the district’s reins eight years ago, treated it like business as usual ? except, perhaps, that he wore a short-sleeved shirt and left his jacket and tie at home.

“It’s casual Friday all summer in the district, anyway,” Barbot said as the clock ticked quietly toward departure time.

Over the previous few days, he had been busy clearing out his office, filling bins with books, papers and other personal belongings and loading them one by one into his car. Jeffrey Hubbard, the incoming superintendent, officially takes his post on Saturday. A few district-owned items awaited Hubbard’s arrival: a computer and printer, blank pads of paper, a clean white board on the wall.

In emptying out his workplace of the last eight years, Barbot found a forgotten treasure or two. One was a letter that a student wrote to him a few years ago, a student who had messed around and gotten in trouble in high school. Barbot cajoled him to work harder, even wrote out a behavioral contract for him to follow. After graduating, the student mailed him a note of thanks.

“He wrote back and thanked me for putting his feet to the fire,” Barbot said.

On Thursday, after getting the letter, Barbot called the student to ask how he had fared since leaving Newport-Mesa. The former troublemaker, he learned, had just graduated from Long Beach State.

The next day, just before noon, Barbot’s colleagues gathered with him outside his office to snap pictures together. One of them helped him fill the last blue bin, then wheeled it out to the parking lot. Barbot turned in his office keys to his secretary, Laura Boss, then waved to the others on his way out.

“Love you, guys,” he said. “Bye. Take care.”

Shortly afterward, the staff locked the doors, the air-conditioning went off for the weekend, and an era in the Newport-Mesa Unified School District came to a close.