Rigonomics:

Last week I told you about a couple of our local schools that we can be proud of for their Veterans Day programs. Now I want to give a big shout out to another school in our Newport-Mesa Unified School District: TeWinkle Intermediate in Costa Mesa. But first I want to talk about what’s happening in our community.

Too often we only talk about the negative and not the positive aspects of our schools; we need to change that conversation around. Whether it is real or just perception, our schools in Costa Mesa are not considered as good as other schools in neighboring districts. How do we know that? Because hundreds of Newport-Mesa District parents send their children to neighboring school districts every year.

We cannot continue to have parents transfer their children out of our schools to Huntington Beach or Laguna Beach schools. That does two things: It shifts good kids who should be in our schools and moves them to neighboring districts, thereby lowering our enrollment here. Secondly, it perpetuates the myth that our schools do not turn out top-level students who get accepted to the best universities in the country. Last year, Estancia High School had many students get accepted to UCLA, USC, Berkeley and Harvard.

We also have to understand that a parent who will go though the trouble of sending their child to an out-of-district school is exactly the kind of parent we want in our district. They are willing to make sacrifices to do what they perceive is best for their child.

I am not here to compare our local religious-based schools with our public schools. Parents have the prerogative to send their children to schools that espouse their religious faiths. My concern is that we have parents in Costa Mesa and Newport Beach transferring their children to schools in neighboring districts. There may have been reasons in the past to send your child out of district, but those reasons are quickly going away.

I had a conversation yesterday with TeWinkle Intermediate School Principal Kirk Bauermeister. If you have not been following the progress of TeWinkle school since Bauermeister got there three years ago, you have missed out. Bauermeister is a man on a mission. His goal is to make TeWinkle the best intermediate (seventh- and eighth-grade) school in the district. He told me it is all about expectations.

“If your kids think they cannot score as high as kids at Corona Del Mar, they won’t,” he said. “We’ve changed that expectation. Now they know they can — and they do.”

Several years ago, the school had a reputation for students getting into fights on campus. The school changed that by enforcing the dress code. The district had the same dress code for all the schools, but, for some reason, students at TeWinkle thought it did not apply to them. Sagging jeans are not allowed at any school. When Bauermeister came in, they immediately enforced the standard. It took about a month to get every student and parent onboard. Bauermeister commented that it was amazing how kids do not get into fights when they are dressed nicely.

So with all that in mind, let me show you some of the improvements that have occurred at TeWinkle. Last year, 35 eighth-graders were considered “at risk” (students with two or more Fs). This year, they only have eight. That is a 77% improvement year over year. Bauermeister’s goal is to have that at zero.

Also, they received Supt. Jefferey Hubbard’s Top Five Award for being one of the five schools in the district with the highest gain on their State Tests last year.

Now they have added two mentoring groups after school and will begin a third after Thanksgiving.

The reality is that our schools are doing well. We as a community need to continue going in the right direction and help improve the perception of our schools by spreading the word.

There is no reason for a parent to have to leave our district to find a school that meets their needs. It is my goal that a Costa Mesa or Newport Beach parent’s first choice is to have their child go to a school in their city — it is Bauermeister’s too.

He said any parent that isn’t sure where they want their son or daughter to go to school can call him directly, and he will answer any of their questions and even give a personal tour of the campus. Here is his cell phone number: (714) 315-8328.

That is how much he cares about his school. You should too.

JIM RIGHEIMER is a Costa Mesa Planning Commissioner, local business owner and a father of four. He can be reached at jim@rigonomics.com.