Egan ready to go to school
Deirdre Newman
A slide ruler, a copy of the Rosetta Stone and a tongue-in-cheek
version of a membership certificate from The Flat Earth Society speak
volumes about Tom Egan’s past, present and attitude toward the
future.
The slide ruler represents Egan’s past as an engineer. His field
was aeronautics, and he worked with rockets, satellites and
computers.
The Rosetta Stone, which has both Egyptian and Greek writing on
it, led to the deciphering of hieroglyphics. It symbolizes the human
desire to communicate, said Egan, who last month edged out incumbent
Wendy Leece for a seat on the Newport-Mesa Unified School District
Board of Trustees.
As an engineer, Egan often had to smooth communication among
various groups about their constraints and requirements -- valuable
experience for his new role, he said.
“I see this sort of activity as one of the important jobs for a
trustee: Help all the stakeholders -- the students, parents, other
taxpayers, businesses, teachers and administration -- to understand
and appreciate the constraints and requirements of the other
stakeholders,” Egan said.
“The same goes for the outside world -- other local governments,
the county, the state,” he said. “We need to occasionally deal with
them in order to get the business of the district done.”
The sardonic nod to the Flat Earth Society is a reminder to trust
his instincts and question authority. Although that might seem
paradoxical since Egan has just been elected to a position of
authority, he values independent thought.
“I believe deeply that the more self-reliant we are ... the
stronger our society will be in the long run,” Egan said.
Egan, a prolific reader, read five books about how to win a first
campaign, which obviously came in handy.
During the campaign, he perused the school district budget and was
impressed with how user-friendly and accessible it is. He will have
to get familiar with it quickly, as the state is considering cutting
kindergarten through 12th-grade funding by $1.5 billion for the year
and withholding another $143 million previously set aside.
Once elected, he turned his focus to “Profiles in Courage” by John
F. Kennedy and speeches by Winston Churchill.
“These are leaders I’ve respected and now I are one,” Egan joked.
“That’s how I educate myself -- by reading.”
Since he has been elected, Egan has attended a California School
Board Assn. conference in San Francisco along with the other
Newport-Mesa trustees. One of the sessions he found intriguing was
the latest advances in neuro-research.
“It was an eye-opener,” Egan said. “I can see the curriculum is
really important and how kids learn and how important it is to get to
kids really early when they’re young.”
Egan said he came away with the conference with some kernels of
ideas floating in his mind.
Crystallizing his ideas and convincing the other trustees that
they are important will be the challenge, Egan said.
“I’m just one of seven,” Egan said. “I might have the brightest
idea in the world, but if I can’t persuade other board members of it,
I might as well not have had it.”
* DEIRDRE NEWMAN covers education. She may be reached at (949)
574-4221 or by e-mail at deirdre.newman@latimes.com.
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