Board should take risk

The whole point of a charter school is to offer something unique, special and different. Sometimes the charter school appeals to kids who are in the mainstream and sometimes they appeal to kids who don’t fit in the mainstream or whose home situation is such that they need another style of education.

A charter school is not a square peg that is supposed to be trimmed to fit in the round hole that is that standard school district bureaucracy.

A charter school is not perfect, but many of them are more perfect than public schools.

No school will ever be perfect.

The exact fit for a charter school in this district does not exist. In denying the latest charter school proposal over bureaucratic nitpicking, the Newport-Mesa Unified School District board -- your school board -- now faces a serious risk, one characterized in this quote by Robert Lehman, one of the founders of Lehman Bros., the investment banking company, “Sometimes, the biggest risk is taking no risk at all.”

Charter schools are works in progress. Mainstream public school should be works in progress but they are not. They are tired, old institutions that process children like widgets with classrooms that are too large, rules that are too stifling and with a state-mandated curriculum that sucks the vitality of many teachers in a very short time.

In a charter school, things should be different. Sometimes, parents of children in charter schools have to let go of their preconceptions and adjust.

At one charter school in Orange County, for example, a school official addressed some parents on orientation day and said to the effect: You are going to see some things here that you won’t see in other schools.

This person went on to describe how they do not worry about certain elements of the dress code, piercings, tattoos and some other silly things that kids get themselves into.

Why? Because focusing too much on such administrative elements is a distraction for the kids and the teachers.

The school does have limits. I know of one girl at the school who has been busted for a dress-code violation.

But for the most part, it’s not an issue because the emphasis is on learning. They walk the walk.

This charter school, by the way, consistently scores very high on state tests.

In a regular school, you can tell a kid it’s all about education and learning, but there is a big disconnect.

Kids ask themselves, if it’s all about learning, why am I in a class so big that my teacher doesn’t have enough time to help me?

Kids ask, if it’s all about learning, why should I have to worry whether Midol is OK to bring on campus if I have menstrual cramps?

And if it’s all about learning, kids ask, why do they make the teachers cram so much material into a semester that it becomes one blur instead of an education?

Just like the parents at that orientation, it’s probably pretty hard for a group of seven status quo school board members to let go of the preconceived notions of what makes a school successful.

Administrators require strict adherence to all the rules and regulations and a constant monitoring of teacher and student time, and they hover over curriculum and make sure that proper discipline is meted out for kids who cross the line.

I will suggest what I suggested last week: Save for one or two bright spots, the schools on the Westside of Costa Mesa are failing our kids and something else must be tried.

A Westside charter school is a must, and it is a crying shame that we’ve let down so many kids for so many years because seven people just don’t get it.

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Day labor update: On Saturday, Jan. 28, there were 24 people at Victoria and Placentia avenues and 21 at the site of the old Job Center at 17th Street and Placentia. Yeah, that’s the Job Center that used to keep day laborers from hanging out at Victoria and Placentia.

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Someone has written a book about my life. It could easily have been called, “Get Over It,” but it’s called, “Bad Childhood, Good Life.” It’s written by my former boss, Laura Schlessinger.

Yes, that’s a plug.