READERS RESPOND

AT ISSUE: Readers don’t agree with Steve Smith’s column about the school

board’s leadership elections (“School board was wrong, again, to pass

Leece over.” Dec. 18).

As one of many parents mobilized by the financial misdeeds of the

Newport-Mesa Unified School District a couple of years ago, I’ve followed

news of the board and district fairly closely since. Your claim that

Wendy Leece was passed over for the board clerk position because “she

represents the West Side” rings hollow. Leece was passed over not because

she represents the West Side (all board members are supposed to represent

the entire district), but because she’s perceived as a religious fanatic.

Most people want the district to educate their children, not indoctrinate

them in a specific set of religious beliefs.

The West Side, a.k.a. Costa Mesa, complains often about the children of

the rich people in Newport Beach getting a better education. They grouse

that organizations like the Corona del Mar Foundation should raise money

for all the schools, not just Corona del Mar. The fact of the matter is

that the West Side already gets a disproportionate share of district

resources relative to their contributions. At the time the two districts

merged into the Newport-Mesa Unified School District, it was thought that

combined we could do a better job of educating our collective children.

Economies of scale would enable the new district to have its own buses,

buy supplies better, maintain the schools better, etc. In reality, it’s

been less than a success, for many reasons.

Unfortunately, for Newport Beach residents, splitting the district back

into two is an impossibility. If we could, the resources generated by our

property taxes would be used to directly benefit our own children and

maintain our own schools, rather than spread across the district. Your

column once again portrays Costa Mesa as a victim of Newport Beach. If

this is so, why not start a grass-roots movement in your West Side

neighborhood to split the district? I’d be willing to bet that given the

chance, residents of Newport Beach would provide a golden parachute for

the recreated Costa Mesa School District. Heck, we might even be willing

to dig deeper into our pockets to help pay for the divorce. However, once

free of Newport Beach’s abuse, the West Side would have nobody to

complain about so I doubt it would happen.

Your suggestion that the present school board should apologize for having

the guts to propose a long overdue bond issue to repair the schools is

way off base. Their predecessors may have, but this school board did not

let maintenance slide for years. They are faced with a cap on revenues

thanks to Proposition 13, a burgeoning school population, an aging plant,

and increasing costs (many of them specific to the West Side).

That they have stepped up and told the community the bad news is praise

worthy, in my opinion. To do so in such an antitax community takes

remarkable conviction. Rather than writing another “poor Costa Mesa”

column, why not simply tell the readers that the rest of the board is not

supportive of Leece’s religious views, and leave it at that. If the

community agrees with you, they’ll vote out the “bad secularists” and

install people with beliefs like Leece.

TOM VOGELE

Newport Beach

Steve Smith says the school board is arrogant for passing over Wendy

Leece again. “How We See It” (Dec. 18) says the board did it to squelch

minority opinions. Leece writes to the board that she belongs to the

“group which also cares very much about the education of our children.”

Sorry, folks, but you’ve got this backward. How could anything be more

arrogant than to say that you care about the education of “our children”

when Wendy Leece doesn’t even send her own kids to Newport-Mesa schools?

The Leece kids go to private schools! How can anyone take Leece seriously

when she doesn’t even take our schools seriously enough to believe that

they are good enough for her kids?

Thank goodness the board has enough sense to keep the hypocritically

righteous Leece in check. Maybe Steve Smith and his indignant fellow

West-Siders ought to channel some of that energy into finding themselves

a candidate with some credibility next time around, instead of just

letting Leece waltz in unopposed. Or perhaps into asking Leece to resign,

so that they can be represented by someone who actually does believe in

our schools.

MARK GLEASON

Costa Mesa