TONY DODERO -- Editor’s Notebook

If there’s a cliche we love to toss around in the newsroom it’s the old

one about not killing the messenger. Being the messengers that we often

are, it seems an appropriate bit of self-protection.

And the saying was especially apropos last week as many were ready to

line us up on the firing squad in light of the controversies we’ve

tackled.

Take for instance our reporting on the recent statewide school Academic

Performance Index scores. We, I believe rightly, pointed out the

differences in rankings between schools within the Newport-Mesa Unified

School District.

At one end of the spectrum was Andersen Elementary in Corona del Mar with

a No. 1 in Orange County ranking of 933. On the other side was Costa

Mesa’s Wilson Elementary with a ranking of 443. Are there differences

between the two schools demographically? You bet.

Costa Mesa’s schools have large populations of children who either don’t

speak the English language, or are in the process of learning it. That

alone is a difficult hurdle, and we said as much in our first story after

the rankings were released.

In fact, we devoted an entire series, “A tale of two schools” that

highlighted the very topic a couple years back.

Still, our first-day story on the ranking results pushed one Newport-Mesa

trustee over the edge, prompting the school board member to call our

education reporter and growl, heatedly, to her about the story.

The trustees’ point? If you rank Wilson up with other demographically

similar, and lower ranking, schools, you’ll see that it’s a better

matchup.

Well, maybe so. And to ensure we we’re being fair, we reported that fact

in our coverage of the rankings Friday.

But personally, I find that attitude puzzling. We’re not talking about

comparing schools in two different districts, we’re talking about two

schools within the very SAME district in which a gulf of nearly 500

points exists between their respective rankings.

The trustee, and others who have complained about our coverage, seem to

imply that it’s fine to be at the low end of the rankings, as long as the

school measures up in that company. But that isn’t good enough for me,

and I bet it isn’t good enough for the parents at Wilson or other Costa

Mesa schools.

Those schools deserve to be pushed into the same class as Andersen and

Lincoln and other Newport Beach elementary schools. The issue of English

limited pupils is not a new one. So it’s time to put those old excuses to

rest and come up with some innovative programs to help those schools. As

school leaders love to say, “It’s what’s best for the children.” ...

Now on to our Greenlight critics. First on the list is the leaders of the

Bayside Village mobile home park association. Those leaders became

incensed when we reported the association, which represents the park

homeowners, had seemingly reversed its previous opposition to the Dunes

hotel project, adjacent to the park.

The basis for our story was a letter to the Newport Beach Planning

Commission, signed by the Bayside association leaders. The letter thanked

Dunes officials for promising to employ measures, one of which is

installing a guard shack at the common entrance for the Dunes and

Bayside, that would ease the burdens the development would have on the

residents.

That letter, written in very complimentary and conciliatory tones, had an

ending paragraph that summed up the association’s gratitude and stated

the leaders had given “a vote of confidence to the project developers of

the Dunes.”

Several planning commissioners, our reporter, a headline writer and I all

took that to mean the Bayside community had come to an amicable agreement

with the Dunes, which wants to build a hotel.

But several members of the community were taken aback by the news and

rang up association president Jo Smallwood to protest. We followed the

next day with that story. Now, Smallwood insists the association never

“endorsed” the hotel project, as our headline proclaimed.

In an e-mail she wrote to me she says:

“We like the fact that the Dunes has made an effort to address our

concerns regarding the two modifications to the project; however, because

of the diversity of opinions which exist in the village, the homeowners

association cannot give blanket endorsement of the project one way or

another. Our position was always such and has not changed since first

approached by the press for a statement.”

Frankly, if they don’t want to “endorse” the hotel project, it matters

little to our newsroom. But I’m still not sure I know the difference

between “vote of confidence” and “endorsement.” ...

Speaking of semantics, many have complained of our use of the terms “slow

growth” and “anti-growth” when referring to the Greenlight initiative,

the measure that would, I don’t know, “limit” growth or “discourage”

growth if passed.

Sorry for being trite, but I’m not sure the leaders of Greenlight

initiative had any other objective than to keep Newport Beach pristine,

free of additional traffic and congestion and maintain existing open

space and that’s not necessarily a bad thing, but development growth

seems an anathema to that goal.

You see, I doubt any Greenlighters are shedding any tears over the demise

of Newport Center’s expansion, and if the Dunes, Balboa Peninsula and

Crystal Cove development plans were suddenly shelved, I imagine there

would be a party to end all parties at Greenlight leader Phil Arst’s

home.

Still, we promise to be a little more judicious in how we describe the

initiative, but make no mistake, the movement is populated by a respected

old guard of “slow-growthers” who have fought for years to keep Newport

Beach free from urbanization.

One of them is Allan Beek, who once in a public meeting for the Castaways

development warned of the “Irvine Co’s environmentally sensitive

bulldozers.”

So again, remember I’m just relaying a message here.

Please don’t make me walk the plank.

* TONY DODERO is the editor of the Daily Pilot. He can be reached at

949-574-4258 or via e-mail at tony.dodero@latimes.com.