Grant to finance special school

The Newport-Mesa Unified School District and Coastline Community

College have received a $400,000 grant through the Bill and Melinda

Gates Foundation to create an early college high school in Costa

Mesa.

In June, the college and the district applied for the funding from

the Foundation for California Community Colleges, a partner in the

nationwide Early College High School Initiative, sponsored by the

Gates Foundation. The new school, set to open in fall 2006, will

offer both high school and college classes and permit students to

graduate with a diploma and two years of college credit.

The school, one of more than 100 such institutions that the Gates

Foundation hopes to establish nationwide by 2008, will combine high

school and college curriculum and allow students to earn dual credit

for some classes. The program is intended for students who are just

entering high school and who have struggled academically.

The Gates grant allows for a project that, otherwise, might have

had to wait for funding.

“We’re absolutely delighted, of course,” said Edward Decker, dean

of instruction for Coastline Community College. “There would be no

way, under the current funding levels, both in Newport-Mesa and

Coastline, that we would be starting a venture like this without

funds.

“It’s not what one would typically call a huge grant, but by the

same token, it will provide us with essential moneys to hire some

critical staff and do some of the things necessary to launch a

special school like this.”

Decker and Mike Murphy, student services director for the

Newport-Mesa district, said the district expected to house the

program at the site that also includes Monte Vista and Back Bay high

schools. The district would likely set up portable classrooms around

the campus to accommodate the new courses, Murphy said.

Two years ago, the college and district applied to the Foundation

for California Community Colleges for a grant for the early college

high school. Though the foundation turned down the request, it did

give Coastline a $10,000 grant for planning. After working with the

foundation for two years to refine the plan, the college and district

applied again successfully.

The award to Coastline makes it one of eight California community

colleges to receive a grant.

“We look for a demonstrated commitment from all of the educational

partners,” said Jeff Tschudi, assistant director of the foundation’s

Early College High School Initiative. “In this case, that would be

the leadership at Newport-Mesa and Coastline. We had to see a

demonstrated capacity in both those organizations to fulfill that

work, and a sound education plan.”

The foundation, Tschudi said, would remain an ally of the college

and district during the formative years of the school.

“We intend to provide some professional development support for

our schools, or at least assist them in building the capacity to

develop a network to sustain themselves,” he explained.

The Gates grant will extend over five years. According to

estimates made by the college and district, the Gates grant would

cover $93,000 of the project expenditures for the upcoming year,

which is set aside for planning the school. Newport-Mesa would foot

$163,598 of the cost, with Coastline contributing $41,691.

The planning year, Murphy believes, will save administrators grief

later on.

“Everybody we’ve talked to in the early college high school ranks

said, ‘Don’t do what ... [we] did,’” Murphy said. “They got the grant

in May or June and tried to open by September. It just doesn’t work.”

Over the next year, the district’s task force plans to appoint a

principal and advertise for teaching positions. The early college

high school will grow in increments after classes first open. For

2006-07, the school will begin with 100 ninth-graders, then take

another 100 freshmen each of the next three years. The maximum

enrollment at an early college high school, as mandated by the Gates

Foundation, is 400 students.

For the first year, with an all-freshmen student body, the school

will offer little in the way of college courses. Murphy said the

faculty would expand in following years as students moved up to

higher grades. For the first year, the school may make do with three

teachers and a counselor.

To enlist students in the early college high school, Decker said,

the district would likely rely on eighth-grade counselors and staff

to make recommendations. He didn’t imagine that Newport-Mesa would

lack candidates.

“I think the line is going to be long immediately,” Decker said.