LAGUNA BEACH : All Seniors Meet Service Requirement

It came down to the wire, but with graduation set for today, all 180 seniors at the first Orange County public school to require its students to perform public service have logged the necessary 10 hours, Laguna Beach school officials said Wednesday.

“Every single one of our students has met the community service requirement,” said Paul Possemato, superintendent of the Laguna Beach Unified School District. “We’re very pleased.”

Despite reports of some grumbling and foot-dragging, the deadline was met, officials said.

The Board of Education in September approved the community service requirement, making Laguna Beach High School one of only a handful in the state to make such service mandatory.

The requirement will expand by 10 hours annually for each of the next three years until students are spreading 40 hours of community service over their four years of high school.

The policy has generated considerable attention in the media, prompting discussions on radio talk shows at least twice in the last week.

“It seems to be so controversial, and it really is surprising to me,” Board of Education President Susan Mas said. “There are some students who obviously don’t understand the concept. There are lots of adults who don’t understand the concept.”

Possemato said he is annoyed by some who compare the community service requirement to “the Communist Youth League.”

“This community believes strongly that our youngsters should have certain characteristics . . . like civic awareness, lifelong learning, ethics and pride,” he said. “If it is necessary for us to request that certain studies take place, we will take on anyone who wants to argue that point.”

Not everyone viewed the effort in such lofty terms. Senior Craig Pardee, 18, said he helped out at Sally’s Fund, which aids senior citizens, simply because he had to.

Program director Jane Mortimer said the seniors were happy to have someone young in their midst. She described Pardee as “cheerful and willing.” But Pardee said the community service was “kind of an inconvenience” because he had to adjust his work schedule.

“I did the job,” he said. “I wanted to get it over with.”

Pardee said many students were unhappy with the graduation requirement.

“Quite a few of them didn’t like the program,” he said. “I think it was just that they didn’t like the idea of having to put in time after school when some of them may have other activities to do, such as jobs.”

Senior Beth Hunt, 18, who said she logged about 100 hours of community service because she enjoys it, agreed that many students did not appreciate being forced to do such work.

“I don’t think seniors acted too kindly to it,” she said. “Everyone got it done, but it was kind of a sticky situation among the seniors.”

Such requirements are nothing new to Orange County parochial schools, some of which require 80 hours of community service before graduation.

Laguna Beach school officials admit that the program may have gotten off to a bumpy start, but they say it will run more smoothly from here on.

“The board didn’t pass this thing until September, and it took us a while to get geared up, so the seniors really didn’t have much notice,” high school counselor Walt Lawson said. “This was our first year, and we learned some things. It’s going to get better.”