A legacy of progress

The days started with darkness and the rattling of pots.

In a bleak two-room residence where the kitchen doubled as sleeping quarters, the Puerto Rican couple rose at 3:30 a.m. and began preparing for the workday ahead. Their four children, who slept in the adjoining room, woke to the sounds of breakfast being fixed. The younger son had a harder time getting up than the others, but he pushed himself to do it anyway ? at 4:30, he had to be out with his brother delivering newspapers.

At half-past six, they finished their route and went to school. The younger boy, who was 8 when his family left Puerto Rico, sat in a class full of English-speaking students, barely understanding a word. He clung to the few phrases that his father had taught him and did his best to pick up more. When school ended, the boy moved on to his second job ? another paper route, this time delivering the afternoon editions.

On June 1, 2006, at Fairview Park, the Newport-Mesa Unified School District held a celebration for its departing superintendent. Hundreds of students, educators and family members milled around; elementary schools hung posters with drawings and farewell messages. On the stage, a group of Latino preschoolers sang a pair of songs, one of them partly in French ? a fitting tribute to a leader who had started life as that English-learner.

Since Robert Barbot took the reins in 1998, Newport-Mesa has grown from an embattled, scandal-plagued district to one of the most progressive school systems in Orange County. Under his leadership, the district has passed two elaborate school bonds, opened its first six preschools and watched its state test scores rise year after year.

Still, many Newport-Mesa employees said the most important change wasn’t on the spreadsheet. After the tough times a decade ago, the district had finally won back the community’s support ? and its trust.

“He’s promoted excellence, and that’s a palpable feeling,” said school board member Martha Fluor, a Newport-Mesa trustee since 1991. “There’s a pride in our district that has not been there for a very long time.”

SEEKING BETTER EDUCATION

Pride was what got Barbot as far as he did. As a child, he and his brother had dodged gangs in East Los Angeles. As a teenager, he often watched his Spanish-speaking peers drop out of school. His parents had moved to America to give their children a better education, and Barbot took their work ethic to heart.

“We didn’t even know we were poor then,” Barbot said. “I don’t think I realized we were poor until I went to high school and realized there were other kids who weren’t working.”

Originally set for a career as a probation officer, Barbot took an elective course at Cal State Fullerton in educating troubled teens and found himself hooked. Over the next summer, he scraped out a partial teaching credential and started in the Norwalk-La Mirada Unified School District, working with handicapped children.

“When I walked into the classroom and saw that I could make a difference for those kids, it was over,” he said.

COMING IN AT A ROUGH TIME

When Barbot applied for the post of Newport-Mesa superintendent in 1998, the district was fixed at a point somewhere between hope and despair. Six years earlier, Newport-Mesa had been rocked by an embezzlement scandal, as budget officer Stephen Wagner went to jail after making off with $4 million. The district then was hit by the Orange County bankruptcy and a harsh curriculum audit, which faulted Newport-Mesa for lack of leadership and uneven classroom standards.

Barbot, then the superintendent of the Chico Unified School District, beat out 51 other candidates for the Newport-Mesa job. Almost immediately after taking office, he began working to get the community’s support. He held meetings with parents and teachers to ask for their personal takes on the district’s problems; he sent out a survey to get ideas for improvements.

The results were palpable. Within a year of Barbot taking office, the district had its first-ever strategic plan ? a four-page agenda for improving technology, facilities, teacher training and more ? and had started laying the groundwork for Measure A, the $110-million bond that would repair the district’s decaying campuses.

Newport-Mesa clearly needed a physical overhaul, but after the embezzlement and bankruptcy, Barbot approached the money matter with caution. He created an oversight committee to ensure local residents of accountability and relied on the survey for a number of the proposed projects. In June 2000, voters passed Measure A by an overwhelming 72%.

The next year, Newport Coast Elementary School ? the first new school site in 21 years ? opened. The same year, stung by an Office for Civil Rights ruling that the district mishandled English-learner students, Barbot led a successful revision of district policies, adding after-school programs and assembling committees for Spanish-speaking parents.

MEETING AND BEATING RECORDS

Although renowned for involving the community in decisions, Barbot also gained a reputation for making snap judgments. After Newport-Mesa passed its first strategic plan in 1999, the superintendent ordered the district to reprogram its software to fit the new guidelines. For school board president David Brooks, it was proof of Barbot’s charisma as a leader.

“There were times when people would work all night long on the budget,” he said. “There were nights and weekends to get this done. People admired him for it.”

As Barbot leaves, Newport-Mesa prepares to start construction with Measure F, a school bond more than twice as expensive as the last one. The district’s test scores, although impressive, continue to inch toward the state Academic Performance Index target. Parts of the first strategic plan wait to be realized.

For the superintendent, however, Friday will mark the end of a personal journey ? one that started in Puerto Rico and gained focus on those dark Los Angeles mornings, flinging newspapers onto lawns and struggling to read the headlines.

“We never looked at the world as being a bed of roses,” Barbot said of his childhood. “But it wasn’t miserable labor.”