Newport-Mesa Boundary Moves Ruled Biased

The U.S. Department of Education has concluded that the Newport-Mesa Unified School District discriminated against Latino students last year when it changed the boundaries determining which children attend Adams Elementary in Costa Mesa.

Under changes adopted in May, children from a primarily Latino area of Costa Mesa who would have attended Adams were sent to another school, Wilson Elementary. The result was Adams became a majority white school.

The Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights ordered the district to reverse its decision to send children from the Joann Street Rectangle area to Wilson, said Martha Fluor, vice president of the district Board of Education. The department’s order would send the children back to Adams, where they had been assigned for years.

Latino activists said the practice of creating segregated schools by changing boundaries is common in districts across the state. But none could recall the federal government accusing an Orange County district of discrimination.

“It is unprecedented in my memory,” said Amin David, chairman of Los Amigos of Orange County, a civil rights group.

The investigation was prompted by a complaint to the Office for Civil Rights that the transfers were racially motivated, not educationally justified and would create severe overcrowding at Wilson.

Supt. Mac Bernd declined to comment on the specific instructions from the Office for Civil Rights because the matter involved potential litigation. He did confirm, however, that federal officials had concluded their investigation and the board would discuss the outcome in closed session at its meeting on Tuesday.

If the board refuses to comply with the order, the district could be sued by federal authorities.

The board passed a motion redrawing the boundaries around Adams at a public hearing last May despite vocal opposition from parents who favored having a multiethnic campus. The decision also contradicted a study by district staff that showed there was room for 100 additional students at Adams.

Bernd warned the board at the time that if they chose to change the current boundaries they might open the district up to litigation. He said before the vote that the changes might be perceived as discriminatory since the 90 Latino children who were being moved from Adams were moving to a school that was 88% Latino. Prior to the boundary changes, Adams was 51% Latino and 41% white.

Several board members declined to comment on the investigation Friday because it will be discussed in closed session.

Fluor said the Education Department decision would be a factor as the board opens public hearings Wednesday on proposed boundary changes in Corona del Mar and other parts of Newport Beach.

“Obviously, we are going to have to be ultra-sensitive about making changes in places where it could change ethnicity,” she said.

Dozens of parents last year made impassioned pleas to the board not to alter the character of Adams by changing the boundaries.

“I am glad my children are exposed to another culture and another socioeconomic class,” said parent Cathy Hartwell. “I think my kids will grow up to be more well-rounded individuals.”

Others, like Alexis Booher, said she felt the board was discriminating at the prodding of a handful of parents who are unhappy with the racial composition of the school.

“I think that some people just don’t like these kids coming into their white neighborhood,” she said. “They carry a belief that it will lower the level of education.”

But board members said it was their belief that Adams should be open only to residents of the Mesa Verde neighborhood because they were concerned there was not enough room at the school for future classes.

“In that particular area of the district, there is a significant increase in the number of young families,” board member Edward H. Decker said at the time. “It became important to make some adjustments to accommodate those families.”