Countdown to 2000: Schools

Alex Coolman

The tide was turning for Newport-Mesa education in the 1970s. The

district was riding high on a wave of consolidation and school

construction as the decade opened, with 1970-71 seeing record

enrollments.

But things didn’t stay that way. Changes were coming.

“This district was a large district size-wise in the ‘70s,” said

Newport-Mesa Unified School District Supt. Robert Barbot. “It was a

rather wealthy school district at the time in terms of lots of money

flowing.”

As the years went on, however, both student populations and funding began

to ebb.

The late ‘70s was a time “when school population declined,combined with a

significant decline in revenue,” Barbot said.

The district lost a number of schools over the decade, including

Presidio, Canyon, Belearic, Harper, Bay View, Mesa Verde, Monte Vista and

Victoria elementary schools.

June 7, 1978, didn’t help matters. Voters passed Proposition 13 on that

day, capping property taxes and shifting much of the responsibility for

tax administration to the state level.

The move had the consequence of cutting the tax base for the district,

Barbot said, a reality whose full effects on education funding became

more obvious in the 1980s and are still apparent today.

In response to this, the Newport-Mesa School Foundation formed in

1979-80, and goods and services that schools could no longer afford began

to be provided by this outside source.

Developments at Orange Coast College flew in the face of the larger

trends. The campus expanded dramatically, adding new buildings for

language, literature, chemistry, applied science and administration.

Enrollment grew from a little more than 17,000 in 1969 to almost 34,000

in 1976.

Sources: The Newport-Mesa Unified School District; Robert Barbot;

Newport-Mesa Schools Foundation.