Q & A -- Schools in the spotlight

Whether it’s fluctuating test scores or youth violence, elementary and

high school campuses seem to be topic of debate as well as the target of

the media spotlight these days.

At Newport-Mesa Unified School District, thankfully, the campus

violence has been nearly non existent. Still, education leaders are

considering ways to make the punishment for bullying and threats of

violence even stronger.

How local schools stack up with combating these issues is one of

several questions we posed to Newport-Mesa Supt. Robert Barbot.

Barbot, who has spent 15 years as a superintendent, the last three

here in Newport-Mesa, and several years as a high school counselor, sat

down for a chat with Daily Pilot Editor Tony Dodero last week to discuss

some of the key issues facing students, parents, teachers and

administrators here:

How has being a superintendent or even an educator changed over the

years?

First of all, I think there are some real positives that have

occurred. Communities and parents are now very much aware, unfortunately

because of some negative things, but they are much more in tune from the

federal and state level on down. There’s much more desire to understand

what the dynamics are for the public and get to the root of what public

education should be about.

There is a recognition of what was wrong and what was right. People

are paying attention. A lot of the improvements that are happening here

and throughout the nation are because people are paying attention.

We have volunteer groups, foundations, after-school programs and

parents involved.

It certainly is a much more intense time, but I don’t necessarily see

it as a negative. I’ve seen the last five to seven years, we’re turning

in the right direction.

With incidents like Columbine and now Santee, it almost seems like

schools are in a constant state of crisis. What would you say is the

reason for that?

Two things are happening. Overall, believe it or not, violence in

schools on a national and state level is on a major decline. That being

said, we’re concerned about any violence. We want to make sure we focus

on fixing the real problem with violence. I personally believe we have

some exaggerated examples that are speaking to some of root problems not

only in school but in our society.

We have students out there that the common variable is they have been

pushed to disrespect human life and taking out their anger on other kids.

I’m not pointing fingers at the media, but because of the attention,

these students have developed a means of expressing that anger. Students

are feeling disenfranchised. But if people think another metal detector

will fix things it won’t. It’s like saying we are going to take care of

every criminal in society by hiring more cops. The way to take care of it

is prevention, working with our kids, conflict management resolution,

working with families, churches and society more than we have in the

past.

Are Newport-Mesa schools well equipped to handle or prevent these

incidents?

We are doing as much as we can. I also know we have kids who have

problems. We have really focused and tried really hard. We have an

elementary counseling program and a preschool program to work with

parents. We have conflict resolution programs that we have brought

aboard. I think we are taking a lot of steps. Our community is working

with us, we’ve put in new safety plans.

We’ve done the things we know will work. But the reality is none of us

really know what it takes. But we don’t stop by just dealing with the

symptoms. I don’t want to walk away from our responsibility, but we’re

never going to solve it by ourselves

What are going to be the big challenges facing school

administrators, teachers and students in the coming years?

We are working very, very hard to make sure our methodology and our

teaching coincides with what we expect our kids to learn. Our biggest

challenge is to make sure we are teaching and our students are learning

what they need to learn to be successful, not only at the next grade

level, but when they get out in the world.

We also need to do a lot of work with our parents to identify their

role. Empowering, not enabling, students with the strength and abilities

is going to be crucial. The fact is we have become more diverse, and we

need a strong community to make sure with have the skills and knowledge

to make it work.

Not to be forgotten is the need to attract top-notch teachers and

administrators. I know of the people my age, 78% will be retiring over

the next few years, and we need to fill those ranks.

How is Newport-Mesa handling the large turnover in principals?

We set some high standards for our principals, and we expect them to

meet them. In a time of supply and demand, there has been less supply and

more demand, we’ve also raised our high standards. But we also think by

having high standards it attracts quality people into the system, and

we’ve seen that also in our teacher ranks.

When our standards went up, our pool of applicants went up. Everybody

wants to play on a winning team. We’ve started an academy for

administrators. We have about 60 people, teachers and so on, so we can

train our own. We’ve also developed our intern programs. We’re training

them here.

Are you happy with the new Newport Coast school? Was it done right?

I’m glad that we finished it and completed it. It was not an easy

project. I also think it reiterates the standards we want for our

schools. We’ve really tried very hard to make sure that whether it is

Newport or Costa Mesa, all our kids experience the same thing. That’s

because opportunity, to me, shouldn’t rely on economics. It should be

what does the child want and how can we help them?

Now, if we are looking at a school that is 30 or 40 years old and it

is in bad shape and we say “what should it look like?” we have Newport

Coast to compare it to.

It matches the standards verbatim that we have for the (school bond)

master plan.