Conviction hurts school

Prince of Peace School, a private Christian campus in Mesa Verde, is struggling to stay open with enrollment plummeting after parents learned that the pastor of the church that owns the school once was convicted of prostitution charges.

“I love this school, and I want it to stay open,” Michael Gaumond, an administrator for the Costa Mesa school, said Friday. “Hopefully, God will intervene and we will have a school next year — that’s what I’m hoping and praying for.”

With enrollment numbers looking grim, it doesn’t appear that the preschool and K-6 school will have enough students to remain open at every grade level next year, Gaumond said.

Parents are pulling their children from the school for next year after learning that the pastor of the church that owns it, Beach Cities Calvary, was convicted in 2008, a group of parents from the school said in a written statement submitted to the Daily Pilot on Friday. After speaking with the parents, who feared retribution against their children, the Daily Pilot agreed to withhold the parents’ names.

“With this information, many outraged parents made decisions to not re-enroll their children in the school next year, bringing enrollment down to an all-time low,” the statement said.

Beach Cities’ pastor the Rev. Jim Kempner, who has presided over the church since 2001, was arrested as part of a special prostitution investigation conducted by the Tustin Police Department in May 2008, police said Friday.

He was charged with one misdemeanor count of agreeing to engage in prostitution after he placed $100 on a dresser in exchange for sex, according to documents provided by the Orange County district attorney’s office.

Kempner pleaded guilty and was ordered to complete an AIDS testing and education program, eight days of community service and two years of probation, according to court records.

The charges now show up on court records as having been “dismissed” as part of a plea agreement that required Kempner to meet their terms of his probation, said Farrah Emami, a spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office.

When reached by phone Friday, Kempner at first denied that he was convicted, but later admitted that he had pleaded guilty as part of an agreement.

“The only reason we did that is that I couldn’t afford the $10,000 to go to court,” Kempner said.

The pastor also said he did not know if the school was struggling with low enrollment numbers.

Kempner said he has not had any involvement in the day-to-day operations at the school in about two months.

The school’s board had in fact passed a resolution banning Kempner from being on school grounds or dealing with school matters, Gaumond said. However, the church over which Kempner presides is on the same property as the school at 2987 Mesa Verde Drive East.

Parents found out about Kempner’s past arrest and conviction when he failed to complete a required background check to work in close proximity with young children who attend Prince of Peace’s preschool program, the parents said in a written statement.

The campus serves about 140 students, a parent said.

“It is unfortunate that the decisions that were made impacted this small but beautiful community school so greatly,” the parents’ statement said. “Our hope is that a miracle will happen in order to keep this amazing school open next year.”

The school was owned until last year by Prince of Peace Lutheran Church, when it was sold to Beach Cities Calvary.

It appears the Prince of Peace church has dissolved since it sold the school. Attempts to contact the Rev. Mark Rogers, former Prince of Peace Lutheran Church pastor, were unsuccessful Friday.

Prince of Peace School was in a state of flux when Beach Cities Calvary took over, Kempner said.

“We put $40,000 into the school just to pay teachers’ salaries, because it had become insolvent,” he said.

World War II prison camp survivor Esther Olson helped found the Prince of Peace school more than 40 years ago.

Olson served as a Lutheran missionary in the Philippines during the war.

She spent three years in a Japanese prison camp there and was a survivor of the Bataan Death March of 1942.

Parents and former administrators at the school described Prince of Peace as a community institution in the Mesa Verde area with a long tradition of high educational standards.

The latest issue of the school newsletter, the Lamplighter, includes pictures of a recent school skate night, an announcement for the spring school fair and pleas from the fifth-grade class for recyclables to raise money for a trip to astronomy camp.

“The memories I have of the place are fond and wonderful,” said retired Prince of Peace Principal Debra Ogas, who presided over the school for 10 years. “I hope the school can thrive again one day.”