Building an honor

It is a fitting tribute to a man who, years before he rose to the helm of the Newport-Mesa Unified School District, arrived in this country barely speaking a word of English.

Two months after Supt. Robert Barbot stepped down, his former district has found something — possibly not for the last time — to name after him. Sometime during the fall or winter, the district plans to officially open the Dr. Robert J. Barbot Educational Support Services and Teaching Center, a site devoted to, among other things, helping foreigners master the English language.

“This was definitely part of his vision, for sure,” said Becky Bishai, the principal of Newport-Mesa’s adult education center, which will be housed in the new facility.

In June, the school board voted to name the center next to Rea Elementary School in Westside Costa Mesa after the departing superintendent. The center will house Newport-Mesa’s adult education program as well as the district’s nurses, language-assessment services and a health clinic.

Barbot, a Puerto Rican native and Newport-Mesa’s superintendent for eight years, was on vacation this week and not available for comment. His former colleagues, however, said they had been eager to give him a namesake in the district, and felt that the center by Rea would reflect the most aspects of his personality.

“Usually, you don’t name something for a person as quickly as we named this for Dr. Barbot,” school board member Serene Stokes said. “The discussion was we wanted to do something absolutely marvelous for him, and everyone on the board agreed this would be the thing he’d cherish the most.”

The last time the Newport-Mesa district named something after a former employee was earlier this year, when it rechristened the gym at Estancia High School after retired Supt. Robert C. Francy. Administrative assistant Laura Boss said the district had considered other locations for Barbot’s namesake, including the recently-opened Early College High School.

The Barbot center is in the early stages of construction, with a few graffiti-marked buildings on the other side of a chain-link fence on the Rea playground. The Newport-Mesa district plans to install new structures and pave a road next to the property. Deputy Supt. Paul Reed said the total cost of the project, around $1 million, would come out of the district’s capital fund.

Barbot, he added, was hardly the type to lobby for name recognition.

“He was certainly surprised” by the board’s decision, Reed said. “He wouldn’t refuse the honor, but I think he was a little embarrassed as well.”