Making it a federal issue

Last week, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights ruled that Newport-Mesa Unified School District officials did not act improperly when they interviewed parents of TeWinkle Middle School students earlier this year. This is obviously an opposite result from a ruling five years ago. What do you make of the district’s faring better this time?

If there is one thing I have learned in my experience as a parent involved with our local public schools, it is that positive changes, especially about curriculum issues, do not happen overnight or because a group of parents believes its cause is worthy. Relationships must first be built between parents and district officials to find common ground. I will be the first to admit that I have not always worked on building those relationships. When parents have concerns about classroom issues, opposing viewpoints need to be shared openly to set mutual goals. This process requires the patience of Job, perseverance and mutual respect for there to be meaningful, lasting changes.

This method is always better than any intervention from the federal government. Federal officials, from their perspective in Washington, D.C., are forced to make a ruling that probably is not the best. How can they know what is best for our children?

I believe neither complaint would have been necessary had the Latino leaders who wanted changes continued to work with officials and not been impatient. When the first complaint was made, the district was revamping its programs for English learners because of the Proposition 227 mandate. A local plan was in the works.

Pleasing the folks at the Office of Civil Rights is not easy. The fact that the district passed the office’s scrutiny this time proves the complaint that some parents were being intimidated by district officials was not true.

Frequently, minorities file complaints to force entities to focus more attention on their needs and wants. It is time to let go of the idea that the district is not doing enough to educate the Latino students. It is time for this minority community to appreciate the efforts and money spent on its behalf and to start being part of the solution. Rather than focus on hurt feelings, Latino leaders should figure out how more parents can be actively involved. If more Spanish-speaking parents learned English, their children would succeed. With a good education that includes mastering the English language, these children could have a good life and raise their standard of living. Intervention from the federal government is not the answer.

* WENDY LEECE is a Costa Mesa parent, former school board member and member of the city’s parks and recreation commission.

This really shouldn’t be interpreted as an “opposite” ruling to the prior complaint. The issues in the two complaints were mostly related based on Mirna Burciaga’s involvement. The changes that the district has made due to the resolution of the first complaint are unaffected by this latest ruling.

This time around the complaint was narrower, more focused on parents than kids, and mostly a result of a single event rather than an ongoing, institutionalized policy. I was a bit skeptical of its chances when it was filed and made public, but I wholeheartedly support Burciaga and the other parents’ rights to make the complaint, as well as their decision to make this particular complaint.

This complaint has been characterized by some as a waste of the school district’s valuable time and will probably be even more so after its dismissal. That’s not true, and I’ll explain why.

The sad but true fact is that there are really only two ways to get the school district to veer from their lumbering agendas and pay attention to many types of problems that require short-term action.

The first and by far the best way is to show up en masse and repeatedly at board or council meetings. When 50 or more people show up at every meeting and take a whole bunch of valuable school district time to complain, something will usually happen that at least acknowledges that there may be a problem. The more people and the more often, the easier it is to advance the agenda. That’s fundamental democracy in action, but the hard part is getting all those people to commit their time, especially on a repeated basis. It’s even harder when the issue seems to require only a common-sense solution. The most valuable time being used isn’t the bureaucrats’, but rather the parents’.

The other way to get action is to file a formal complaint or to sue. It’s less effective and also takes up a lot of parent time, but a single student or parent can do it. The Department of Education complaint process, along with some publicity, will usually spur some action, but it’s not nearly the tool that it’s made out to be. The school district’s initial response when one suggests that they will file a Department of Education complaint is, “Do what you have to do -- we get these all the time,” so they’re not too worried. Turns out that’s just part of doing business with school district. So nobody should be too concerned about wasting valuable time, other than their own.

* MARK GLEASON is a Costa Mesa resident and parent.

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