Parents submit plan for charter school

Danette Goulet

NEWPORT-MESA -- Parents and community leaders submitted a formal

proposal to the Newport-Mesa Unified School District on Thursday, asking

the school board to consider their plans for a start-up charter school.

School board members have 60 days to approve or reject the petition

calling for the creation of the Mesa Leadership Academy.

Proponents hope to open the academy in September 2001 with about 320 students in kindergarten through the third grade, with plans to add

fourth and fifth grades over the course of the next two years.

A charter school is a public school that is usually organized by a

local group of parents, teachers or community leaders. The specific goals

and operating procedures are detailed in an agreement, or “charter,” with

the local school board.

As a public school, the Mesa Leadership Academy would still be

responsible for students’ scores on the Stanford 9 achievement test.

But as a charter school, how that goal is met would not be dictated by

the state.

The submission Thursday was the culmination of several years’ work for

a group of nearly 20 parents.

“We’re almost kind of numb,” said Byron de Arakal, spokesman for the

Mesa Leadership Academy executive board. “It’s been so long going through

this process. I don’t think any of us on the executive committee ever

suspected just how complicated an undertaking it was going to be.”

If the school board approves the new charter, Mesa Leadership Academy

will be the first charter school in Newport-Mesa and only the fifth in

Orange County.

“They’re a long way from getting the blessing, that’s for sure,” said

trustee Jim Ferryman. “I’m willing to listen. ... They have gone to great

lengths to prepare a quality proposal.”

At the planned school, visionaries have planned an integrated,

thematic curriculum based on literary works. In the charter’s core

principles is an explanation of how those themes will be implemented in

each subject taught to students.

The school also intends to instill in students the qualities necessary

to become responsible community leaders, hence the academy’s name.