COMMUNITY COMMENTARY:It may not be obvious, but school district is innovative

In his letter to the Pilot on Nov. 19 (“Refreshing, but not trust-building”), Lefteris Lavrakas throws a couple of education-related challenges at me. He writes, “I’m also unsure as to why he [then NewportMesa school district trustee Tom Egan] avoided direct comment on Steve Smith’s contention that schools need innovators, not gatekeepers.” This refers to my Nov. 9 commentary on Smith’s column of Oct. 21 (“Schools need innovators, not gatekeepers,” On the Town).

My answer, in a word: space. I used up all the ink the editor would allow me in just rebutting Smith’s egregious attacks on public education; the rest of his attacks — including the one about “innovators, not gatekeepers” — were evidently aimed at candidates Judy Franco and Serene Stokes. I felt that any further response should be up to them.

For my part, I like both innovation and precedent, since realistic solutions are generally a blend of both. I strive for the balance of new and old suggested in Piet Hein’s grook:

You’ll conquer the present

amazingly fast

if you smell of the future

and stink of the past.

Lavrakas’ second challenge takes me and other education officials in Orange County to task for an alleged lack of innovation. Lavrakas writes that he has “found very little being pursued that is innovative … in tackling those most immediate problems affecting all students being served.”

I know that my friend Lavrakas, a former educator, knows what to look for, and as a former Navy officer, has savvy and persistence. However, what he and other concerned citizens are up against are two facts of life: the sheer magnitude of the number of programs that Newport-Mesa Unified School District offers, and the school board’s reluctance to spend tax money on public relations activities.

To illustrate the first fact, let me just state that in my four years as trustee, I found it difficult to keep up with all the new and innovative programs that were being launched, and I was involved with education matters on a daily basis. Why the difficulty? We are definitely a full-service school district, starting with the 0-to-5-years age group, then kindergarten through 12th grade, and on up through adult education. Our socioeconomic spectrum ranges from the poor, non-English-speaking immigrant to the wealthy native-born, and everything in between, including temporarily homeless families. (Yes, there are homeless families in this generally well-to-do part of the world!) In addition, administrators and teachers all up and down the line look for opportunities to win grant funding — this alone brings in many large and small programs. I am, therefore, not surprised that even a motivated resident might not be aware of many of the district’s innovations.

As for the other fact — that we don’t expend much effort to tell the public about our achievements — it’s the natural result of our commitment to devote all tax revenue to job No. 1: teaching every child.

Perhaps we have scrimped too much, though. If an energetic and perceptive person like Lefty Lavrakas has the impression that we are not innovative, then maybe the board ought to rethink its public relations priorities. I think everyone — the public and educators alike — might like to get back to the awareness that people had in the days of the little red schoolhouse.

For now, I suggest concerned citizens seek out the people nearest the children, the ones with the best view and the most commitment: the parents, teachers and administrators. These people have been quite demanding of innovation, trust me. And the elected school trustees, of course. If they don’t know off the top of their head, they can find out. Contact information is in this newspaper and on the district’s website, www.nmusd.us.

is a former member of the Newport-Mesa Unified School District board of trustees.