Newport-Mesa Trustees Brace for Tough Choices

Faced with the prospect of cutting up to $8.2 million from their budget, trustees of the Newport-Mesa Unified School District on Tuesday waded through a task force’s recommendations of programs to spare and those to sacrifice.

The 19-member task force of community members and employees was unanimous on at least two potential savings: allowing the number of support staff such as nurses and librarians to decline through attrition ($200,000), and eliminating physical exams for administrators ($25,000.)

They also were unanimous that the staffing ratio should not increase to 31 students per teacher, which would net an $800,000 savings, and on preserving athletic programs with a $330,000 annual price tag.

Items with varying degrees of support included the elimination of: bus service, for savings of $800,000 a year; audio-visual, photo and film services to save $206,887, and the Environmental Nature Center’s funding, for $80,000 in savings.

About 90 parents and district employees attended the session, and many pleaded with officials to spare the popular nature center.

“This is a living classroom,” said former science teacher Bob Fry. “There are very few classrooms like it in the state of California.”

Some teachers and parents also objected to a proposal to save $186,000 by cutting staff-development programs.

“A good teacher with 50 (students) is a lot more effective than a teacher who is lacking in skills with 24 or 25,” said teacher Steve Messenger. Staff development is “certainly a lot closer to the classroom” than items such as staff cars, which were given a higher priority on the list of potential cuts.

Parent Donna Bennett said the 1 1/2 weeks that the task force was given to review possible cuts was too short.

“Many of the items could not possibly have been researched well enough for them to be final recommendations,” Bennett said. “Perhaps we need to step back for a year and then start again when this financial crisis has been resolved. . . . I can live with a year of administrative inefficiencies. I can’t live with a year of my kid missing out on educational opportunities.”

District Superintendent Mac Bernd asked the board to have the staff bring back recommendations on Feb. 28, based on the task force’s work.

In a surprising twist, developer Tom Williams offered $10 million for the Costa Mesa High School farm property. The defunct farm is the subject of negotiations by the district, the city and the Orange County Fair Board, which hopes to develop it as a sports complex. The board made no immediate response to the offer.

District officials have said they and other creditors in the Orange County bankruptcy hope to win a better than 90% settlement and to restructure their debts. If that is the case, Newport-Mesa might not have to cut more than $3 million from its $86.8-million budget, and $3 million each year for a few more years.

A bitter Chriss Street, who urged the district not to invest the money a year ago, pounded the podium as he chided officials for the bond losses and budget cuts.

“This is a disaster. This is a total capitulation of quality education,” Street said. He urged the board to default on $47 million it borrowed to invest.

“Do we gain anything by not defaulting on those bonds and having our kids visit a paved-over environmental nature center?” he asked.