NEWPORT BEACH : Restaurateur to Share Income With Schools

Not more than a one-minute walk from Ralph Furra’s house is Newport Elementary School, where the teachers are outnumbered by the students by about 34 to 1.

That is the main reason why Furra’s 7-year-old son, Alex, attends a private school 15 minutes away in Huntington Beach, where each class has about 17 students and instructors have the resources to teach Spanish, computers, and music, in addition to the basic subjects, Furra said.

But instead of writing off the public school system as a loss, Furra, 44, is working to help fix the problem.

Furra, the owner of Woody’s Wharf on Newport Boulevard, will donate a quarter of the restaurant’s January and February profits to the cash-strapped Newport-Mesa Unified School District, which includes Newport Elementary at Balboa Boulevard and 14th Street.

“It is a dilemma, it really is,” Furra said. “Every time another cutback happens, the children get less. But if people like me do something about it, we can put a dent in it and make a difference.”

Furra, the owner of the restaurant for six years, said he is making the philanthropic gesture with the hope that other local businesses will follow suit.

“I think it is warranted, to be honest,” he said. “The problem is going to be one that is going to take a long time to overcome.”

Furra does not know how much his donation will be and he declined to speculate. He said that though his son loves the private school, Alex would prefer attending the nearby elementary school with most of the neighborhood children.

But the Newport-Mesa Unified School District has been crippled by ongoing crises, including a multimillion-dollar embezzlement scandal and financial ills that have forced employee layoffs, depletion of resources and crowded classrooms.

Not the best environment to gain an education, Furra contends.

“This is the age when he (Alex) is developing reading skills and interacting with other children,” Furra said. “That is why we put him in private school.”