Newport Mesa Unified School District

With the exception of Katrina Foley, the members of the Newport-Mesa Unified Board of Education need a civics lesson. For some reason, they were under the misperception that Supt. Jeffrey Hubbard was "innocent until proven guilty" and "entitled to his day in court. " While that was true in the criminal proceeding, it was not true in the employment context. Hubbard held a position of trust and fidelity as a superintendent of schools. The criminal charges against Hubbard, and the strong evidence in support of those charges, were enough to justify his termination for cause.

LOS ANGELES - Newport-Mesa Unified Supt. Jeffrey Hubbard was convicted Monday of two felony charges for misappropriating public funds during his tenure as the schools chief for Beverly Hills. A jury in Los Angeles County Superior Court found Hubbard, 54, guilty of giving to a subordinate $20,000 in bonuses and increasing her car allowance without required school board approval. He was acquitted on a third felony charge that he illegally increased another subordinate's pay. Just after the verdicts were read, Hubbard appeared stunned and placed a hand on his face.

Elementary school backpacks are about to get a little lighter. Although the Newport-Mesa Unified School District has posted some of its textbooks on the Internet since 2007, all K-6 social science, math, English, language arts and science textbooks are now available to students online. "I think the biggest impact is they won't have to lug those textbooks home," said Jenith Mishne, the district's director of educational technology. Depending on the publisher, the online textbooks range from PDFs of books to interactive experiences with features like practice books, word definitions, videos and audio, Mishne said.

The California School Employees Assn. is accepting applications from anyone interested for a single open spot on the Newport-Mesa Unified School District's three-person Personnel Commission. The commission's job is to oversee the hiring and treatment of classified employees, which include bus drivers, custodians, officer managers, teacher's aides and nutrition services. Commissioners oversee the merit system for recruitment and selection, hear appeals to disciplinary action, and maintain a job classification system.

The Chicago Public Schools website doesn't have this fantastic page, nor do the websites for the New York City Department of Education, the San Diego Unified School District or the Dallas Independent School District. You won't find a similar page for the Anne Arundel County Public Schools, which includes Annapolis, Md., home of the U.S. Naval Academy, nor the Academy School District 20 in Colorado Springs, Colo., where the U.S. Air Force Academy is. And this webpage does not appear on the website for the public schools in West Point, N.Y., home of the U.S. Military Academy.

The graduation rate in the Newport-Mesa Unified School District improved by nearly 2% last year, according to state data released Thursday. The districtwide graduation rate increased to 94.8% in 2009-10 from 93.2% in 2008-09. One campus, Early College High School, had a rare-for-Orange County 100% graduation rate, according to data from the state Department of Education. Asst. Supt. of Secondary Education Charles Hinman said the data came as no surprise with Newport-Mesa's tradition of achieving high graduation rates.

My sister was wearing her "I love Costa Mesa" pin on our trip up the Central Coast. "What's so great about Costa Mesa?" a proprietor of one of the region's wineries asked her. That's the wrong question to ask my sister. She leaned across the counter and began the whole list of things that make our city great: the first Wahoo's Fish Tacos, Mitch Hurwitz, the creator of "Arrested Development," the surfwear industry, South Coast Plaza, hub of Orange County performing arts, a free train, international headquarters of several justice organizations, Cla-Val who has the valve contract for the world's tallest building, our recycling program and community gardens.

The trial of a former Beverly Hills schools administrator charged with accepting illegal stipends from a superintendent who later took over the Newport-Mesa Unified School District is scheduled to begin Thursday. Karen Anne Christiansen, a former facilities director with Beverly Hills Unified, is charged along with Newport-Mesa Supt. Jeffrey Hubbard of misappropriating funds when they worked together in Beverly Hills more than four years ago. The two co-defendants are being tried separately.

The state Department of Education has created a new webpage to give taxpayers a look at the budget cuts and teacher layoffs happening across California. The department created a "School Financial Emergency" page on its website to keep state residents up-to-date on the "dire fiscal situation facing the state's public school system," according to a news release from the department. The webpage gives an introduction into the financial crisis in education, a tally of educators let go across the state and a county-by-county look at the budget cuts each district faces.

COSTA MESA — The Newport-Mesa Unified School District can balance its budget for the next two years, but after that, programs and services could face the chopping block, depending on what the state does, officials said. Acting Supt. Paul Reed presented a report that analyzed the district's financial status at Tuesday night's board meeting. The report shows the district keeping its head above water for two years, no matter what happens with the troubled state budget. "We have challenges coming, but we're where we need to be," he said.