Plans approved for schools facing sanctions

Facing federal sanctions, three schools in the Newport-Mesa Unified School District are set to add several hours to the school year, change curriculum for students learning English and make other changes over the coming months.

The school board voted unanimously Tuesday to accept a plan for Pomona Elementary School, Wilson Elementary School and TeWinkle Middle School, which have struggled in recent years to bring their test scores up to federal standards. The schools landed in August on year three of the Program Improvement list, which identifies academically struggling schools with low-income populations.

The plan, submitted by assistant superintendents Susan Astarita and Chuck Hinman, is based closely on the recommendations of a seven-member hearing panel that toured each school last fall. Each school would add hours to the instructional year, while Pomona and Wilson would adopt a new English-learner curriculum. TeWinkle would also eliminate its early Friday dismissal for students and work with an outside middle school expert for 20 days this spring.

According to Hinman and Astarita, altering the English-learner curriculum would cost the district $365,000 for new classroom materials, while the middle school expert would cost about $20,000. Most of the changes, Hinman said, probably wouldn't come into effect for a while.

"At this point in the game, we're so late in the school year, I think most of our decisions will be made in the summer and implemented over the year," he said.

Efforts to reach Wilson Principal Candy Sperling, Pomona Principal Janis King and TeWinkle Principal Dan Diehl were unsuccessful.