District honors boards past, present

Jim de Boom has been off the Newport-Mesa Unified School District board for 10 years, but he’s proud of his legacy. Shortly before he stepped down, he and his fellow board members agreed to create a central headquarters for the district, and within a few years, Newport-Mesa found its home on the corner of Baker and Bear streets.

Now, de Boom will have a second memento of his 13 years on the board. To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the district’s unification, administrators have created a plaque listing the names of every trustee who ever served in Newport-Mesa. Some time after the new year, the plaque is expected to hang at the back of the boardroom — honoring both those who presided in the headquarters and those who helped to get it built.

“I feel honored to be included with some of the previous trustees who, before I got on the board, I looked up to,” said de Boom, a Daily Pilot columnist. “It’s nice to know I haven’t been forgotten.”

De Boom’s name appears on the plaque with 39 others, listed chronologically from 1966 to the present. Among the former trustees are several well-known names in the Newport-Mesa community, including former state Sen. Marian Bergeson, Costa Mesa City Councilwoman Wendy Leece and Roderick MacMillian, who served as a trustee for 29 years and became the boardroom’s namesake.

The list ends with the trustees who joined the board this month — Walt Davenport, Michael Collier and Karen Yelsey. Not only did the three new arrivals represent the district’s biggest turnover in 12 years, they also provided a neat coincidence: 40 years, 40 names.

“This plaque honoring all the school board members is really one of the nicest things they could have done,” said former trustee Serene Stokes, who lost to Yelsey in the November election. “Each person leaves a legacy, and it just shows that they value our service.”

“The reason you sign up for the school board isn’t to collect accolades,” said Jim Ferryman, a board member from 1994 to 2002. “At least that’s not why I signed up. But you certainly put in a lot of time, and it’s nice to hear a thank you every once in a while.”

Bergeson said she was pleased to have her time on the board recognized, since working in the education community prepared her for her later political career. She was doubly proud of the plaque, she added, because unifying Newport-Mesa hadn’t been an easy task.

“It was a tough go, trying to get two districts who didn’t particularly like each other into a shotgun wedding, but it really worked out,” Bergeson said.