ON CAMPUS AT NEWPORT-MESA UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT:

Sitting down with Jeffrey Hubbard, the new superintendent of the Newport-Mesa Unified School District, was reminiscent of chatting with my favorite college professor who was filled with passion, excitement and hope for the future. In Hubbard’s words, “What collectively we believe in” will craft the district’s vision during his tenure with the district.

Former Superintendent Robert Barbot led the district with compassion and understanding in an effort to “drive out the fear” from the past. He laid the mortar and bricks that built a strong and durable foundation. With Hubbard now at the helm, Newport-Mesa Unified School District will mature and thrive as the building blocks for the future are put in place. Hubbard’s two cornerstones for Newport-Mesa’s future are students focused on learning and teachers focused on helping students learn.

Hubbard plans to spend his first six months in qualitative and quantitative analyses of where the district is and how staff and community would like to see it grow. The major areas that Hubbard will be reviewing will likely create cultural and systemic changes throughout the district.

With the district’s “Safe School, Healthy Student” initiative beginning its second year of implementation, Hubbard and staff will scrutinize the numbers of truant, suspended, transferred and expelled students across the district. The School Attendance Review Board will be aligned with Project ASK (Advocates Supporting Kids) and work closely with the local police departments, Orange County probation and the District Attorney to ensure all students attend classes as mandated by state law. Hubbard, the Costa Mesa police department and Project ASK staff are also collaboratively engaged in working on gang awareness and prevention programs throughout the community.

Hubbard says that he believes in healthy disagreement, because, “without disagreement, issues are not discussed and progress can not be attained.” This principle runs parallel with the development of the district’s 2005-2010 Strategic Plan, which was created using Open-Space Technology enabling the community to address complex, important issues and achieve meaningful results quickly. With the strategic plan as his blueprint, Hubbard will align the budget, oversee Measure F, supervise the redesign of our secondary programs and ensure all of our students are afforded the best education possible.

A portrait of Sir Winston Churchill adorns a wall in Hubbard’s office. The picture reminded me of a favorite quote by Churchill delivered at the Harrow School in 1941: “Never give in — never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense.” After spending time with Hubbard, I believe he, too, lives by that quote, and that he will guide us all in carrying out the district mission of serving every child … every day.