ON THE TOWN:Truancy program may be help we need

As I’ve said before, I support the district’s endorsement of the proposal to have Costa Mesa police issue citations to truants instead of just taking the wayward kids back to school or home.

But this week it was nice to hear a city leader join the chorus.

In a Community Commentary that appeared in this newspaper on April 12, (“Gang report offers multi-faceted approach”) former Costa Mesa planning commissioner and Costa Mesa City Council candidate Bruce Garlich wrote “… the school district recognizes that it has been ineffective in this area and is committed to improving the process.”

I agree. It’s nice to hear someone say what should be obvious: There are problems in the district.

For a while, I was beginning to wonder. After all, I’d heard Supt. Jeffrey Hubbard call three failing schools — failing so badly by the standards of the No Child Left Behind Act that they are on some serious probation — “good schools” when in fact they are not. And I heard the superintendent and two other members of the board call the federal standards, in so many words, a veiled attempt to initiate a school voucher program across the country.

In short, I’d heard just about everything except an acknowledgment that there are problems they simply cannot solve alone.

One mark of a sensible organization or person is knowing when you’re in over your head and asking for help. Unfortunately, many people perceive asking for help as a sign of weakness.

In fact, asking for help is often a sign of strength.

The bottom line is that the district’s truancy policy is not working, and it wants to try something different to achieve a different result. Hooray for them.

And I can’t help but wonder whether the fresh eyes of new school board members Karen Yelsey, Michael Collier and Walt Davenport are making this positive difference.

In a response to this issue on April 8, someone posting online as Costa Mesa Mayor Allan Mansoor added this to the message threads for a Community Commentary (“Curfew is one of many tools”): “… with all due respect, I believe it is parents, teachers, and the school board who need to reduce the 222 unexcused absences per day. The ‘it takes a village’ approach is not the answer.”

This comment strengthens my resolve to adhere to at least one of two criteria when voting for almost any candidate. That one qualification is that the candidate is a parent.

This is no small requirement. Anyone with kids will tell you that the perspective they gain is life-changing. Mansoor is 41, unmarried and does not have any children.

Parents understand that it does indeed take a village or a community to raise a child. If the village were irrelevant, there would be no urge to live in areas with good schools, low crime, strong religious support or other advantages for kids. Ask any real estate agent, and you’re likely to be told that one of the most common questions buyers asks is about the quality of the local schools. Even childless people ask about schools.

The village or community is made up of its teachers, sports coaches, clergy, police and many other people who watch over and care for its kids.

But unless you are a parent, it’s hard to know just how crucial this local support is. Unless you are a parent, you cannot know the feeling of leaving your child in day care to be raised, even temporarily, by someone else, or the feeling you get when you hand your child over to a coach who has the potential to inspire or discourage future participation in sports.

Truancy is not a school board issue. It is a community issue — and an important one at that. But the mayor is paying less attention to local truancy than he did to swapping seats on the council dais.

I support a test of the new truancy program. I am sorry that Costa Mesa City Councilman Eric Bever has decided to politicize this program by writing online that one of its chief supporters in the Police Department did not support the mayor in last year’s elections.

Perhaps its time for Mansoor and Bever to show the strength of their characters and ask for help from parents who will be delighted to tell them how the village thing works.