District may convert schools

The Newport-Mesa school board on Monday discussed plans to convert all of the district’s elementary schools to kindergarten through sixth-grade schools and turn Davis School into a magnet school.

“I’ve always been very supportive of standardizing the district,” school board member Karen Yelsey said. “I just think it would be better for kids and better for programs if we could just standardize it.”

Deputy Supt. Paul Reed told board members that converting all elementary schools to K-6 and giving the fourth-through-sixth-grade middle schools uniformity was feasible and desirable. A dozen schools in the district would be changed. It would cost about $2.3 million to add portable classrooms to some schools.

Students at Davis School in Costa Mesa, which has fourth- and sixth-graders, could have the option of remaining there through graduation or shifting to other K-6 elementary schools. Davis would be an ideal place for the district’s first magnet school and it would solve other problems, Reed said.

The fourth- through sixth-graders who go to Davis now could be transferred to other schools, which wouldn’t necessarily be a burden because those students typically don’t live in that neighborhood anyway, Reed said.

Reed and Supt. Jeffrey Hubbard emphasized that the plans were in the early stages.

“This view is from 30,000 feet above,” Reed said. “A detailed study would take so long that by the time it was done it would be out of date.”

“This can be fraught with complexity and controversy,” Hubbard cautioned the board. School board members directed staff to give them a more precise cost estimate, recommended changes for enrollment boundaries and a timeline to get it done.

Reed expects to present a detailed proposal in January.

In other action, the school board approved recognizing the Credit Recovery Center as an official district school. Students significantly behind in high school credits simultaneously earn back failed credits and keep up on the curriculum they would have at their regular high school. This helps the district fund and staff the center.

JOSEPH SERNA may be reached at (714) 966-4619 or at [email protected].