School district nets $8.23-million grant

The Newport-Mesa Unified School District was awarded an $8.23-million

federal grant to provide services for at-risk students, making it one

of 40 districts nationwide to receive the grant this year.

The Safe Schools and Healthy Students grant, which extends over

three years, provides funding for new programs and faculty members to

help students who are struggling emotionally or academically.

Newport-Mesa applied for the grant in April and plans to launch its

program in October.

“Our focus is on kids having difficulty in school who may not be

special education, may not be other things, but they’ll fall through

the cracks because there’s no one there to help them,” said Supt.

Robert Barbot.

Under the program, the district will organize a special team for

each of the district’s four zones that consists of nurses, school

resource officers, counselors and advocates for students, parents and

staff. Jane Garland, the district’s spokeswoman, will oversee the

program.

The goal of the Advocates Supporting Kids program, administrators

said, is to intervene with troubled students while their problems are

still manageable. The planned offerings include:

* Classroom discussions on emotional literacy and self-control,

held three to five times a week at elementary schools.

* Individual counseling for early adolescents about drug abuse,

attendance and other issues.

* Support groups for parents looking to improve family

communication.

* Early intervention programs for preschoolers and younger parents

to help prepare children for elementary school.

The money for the programs will come through the federal grant,

which will pay, in part, for additional faculty members. Newport-Mesa

has long offered counseling and mentoring services, but the grant

will allow for a number of faculty members to concentrate entirely on

at-risk students.

“We’ll keep everything we have, but what we have is limited

resources,” Garland said. “We have counselors, psychologists,

teachers who are passionate about this, but they all have another

job.”

Through the Advocates Supporting Kids program, parents, teachers

or other staff could recommend that students be examined for at-risk

behavior.

Garland said the district would begin in October by running data

searches on all students in the district to check for truancies,

suspensions or other signs of trouble.

Once a child has been identified as at-risk, the district may pair

him or her with a nurse or counselor or initiate contact with

parents.

For situations that administrators cannot handle themselves, the

grant also covers partnerships with the Costa Mesa and Newport Beach

police departments, the county probation department and the Mental

Health Assn. of Orange County.

This year marks the first time Newport-Mesa has received a Safe

Schools and Healthy Students grant.

In 1999, the U.S. departments of education, justice, and health

and human services initiated the grants to prevent factors that lead

to youth violence, drug abuse and other problems.

In all, the government awarded $76 million to school districts and

other local educational agencies for this fall. Newport-Mesa’s yearly

allotment of $2.7 million was among the larger awards, although

slightly smaller than the annual $3 million that the district

requested.

“In tight budget times, we don’t have the funds, and that’s why

this was such a wonderful thing to receive,” Garland said.