Irvine School Planning: It’s by All Hands

Already considered a trendsetter in Orange County, the Irvine Unified School District has been sponsoring brainstorming sessions among more than 50 students, teachers and administrators to map out a vision for the district’s future.

Called the Future Force Committee, the group is trying to dissect and plan for crucial issues cropping up in the district, including fiscal stability, attendance boundaries, technology training, school security, teacher training and parent involvement.

“We’ve launched this committee to help us shape our own future rather than just wait and become victims of it,” said Supt. Patricia Clark White, who administers the Future Force program.

One of the most important topics in a brainstorming session last week was fiscal stability. Irvine Unified has suffered from million-dollar budget shortages in the last two years, with threats of teacher layoffs and cutbacks in music, arts and science programs.

The district’s refusal to abandon its ambitious enrichment programs is part of the reason for the budget shortfalls, administrators said.

Another reason is that, in the 1970s, when much of Irvine was agricultural, the state set a formula that today results in the district receiving about $100 less per student than the state average. A bill to address such perceived funding inequities is wending its way through the Capitol and would provide Irvine an extra $1 million to $2 million a year in its estimated $140-million annual budget.

“One of the assumptions made by people outside the community is because Irvine is a relatively affluent area, that we have more money than everyone else,” said Fran Antenore, assistant principal of Irvine High School and a participant in the Future Force meetings.

In fact, the district has needed outside help in recent years to preserve its much-praised arts and science programs. Last month, the Irvine Public Schools Foundation, a private, nonprofit organization formed to raise funds for local school programs, contributed $750,000, the first installment of a pledge to give $2.25 million to the district by the end of the academic year.

“Using resources well is particularly important to Irvine, because we exist in a community that has tremendously high expectations, and our funding is more limited than most school districts of this size,” said longtime school board member Margie Wakeham.

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Committee subgroups addressed the specific topics. Besides the budget, those topics include facilities, updating technology, community and parent involvement, and the curriculum.

One idea discussed in the “safe and positive environment” group is to teach conflict resolution skills to elementary schoolchildren of increasingly diverse backgrounds.

In addition to a balanced budget, making sure Irvine has safe schools is a priority for Clark White.

“If you look at what happened at Columbine,” she said, “you realize that you might have the most wonderful facilities and the best, most balanced budget and the most outstanding teachers, but if the environment isn’t safe for children, the rest is meaningless.”

The Future Force Committee will hammer out a specific strategy over the next few months.

The district’s first strategic planning meetings were held in 1989, with another round of meetings in 1994, according to board member Wakeham.

When Clark White took over as superintendent three years ago, the Future Force Committee was formed to review and update the priorities laid out six years ago.

“I think what we’re doing is exceptional,” said Antenore, the Irvine High assistant principal, who is in her third round of brainstorming sessions. “Even though what’s driving education right now is the standards movement, our district has realized that education is more than just content standards, and we have to educate our students in a much broader arena.”