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.