Investigation will look into claims made by principal in Gold Ribbon Award application
The Newport-Mesa Unified School District has retained a private investigations firm to examine the accuracy of claims that the principal of Mariners Elementary School made on an application for a statewide award, district officials said.
In a complaint filed by the teachers union, some Mariners teachers allege the application for a Gold Ribbon Award contained inaccurate statements about programs offered at the Newport Beach school.
A district official said Dana Point-based Nicole Miller and Associates will perform an independent evaluation of the allegations.
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In March, on-site teachers raised concerns over the application with the Newport-Mesa Federation of Teachers, asking it to file a formal complaint with the school district.
The award application states that certain programs are being “piloted.” However, the March 28 complaint filed by the union said some of the programs, such as technology and reading programs, had not, in fact, been fully implemented.
The complaint also points out goals and practices in the application that teachers said they have not been made aware of, such as a goal of a one-to-one ratio of devices for K-6 students and staff collaborations with businesses like Google and SpaceX.
The current investigation comes after Mariners teacher Tamara Fairbanks voiced her concerns over the application at a May 24 school board meeting with around 30 fellow teachers and parents standing behind her in support.
“The application was filled with programs that did not exist, ideas that were not implemented and goals that were never discussed,” Fairbanks said at the meeting. “The staff at Mariners was instantly placed in a quandary of standing up for what they actually do in the classroom, versus putting a show on for the Gold Ribbon committee. We had to choose our educational integrity over an award.”
We had to choose our educational integrity over an award.
— Tamara Fairbanks, Mariners Elementary School teacher
Laura Sacks, who is completing her first year as principal of Mariners, submitted the application for the award to the California Department of Education in the fall. She could not be reached for comment Thursday.
The application was also sent to Mariners staff, but only after it had already been completed, said Federation of Teachers Executive Director Nicholas Dix, who wrote and submitted the complaint in late March.
“What the teachers have been seeking is a district-level intervention,” Dix said. “They’re working at a great school. They wanted the application to include programs that had been implemented.”
As part of the application process, a site validation team visited Mariners April 1 to confirm the application’s information. The validation team from the Orange County Department of Education wrote in its site report that the information in the application was consistent with its findings at the school.
Mariners went on to win Gold Ribbon designation.
Fairbanks stated in the May school board meeting that some of the programs mentioned in the application were not in place until a week or two prior to the site visit.
“It is my understanding that the Think Tank wasn’t completed in terms of furnishing and set up until the day before the site visit,” Dix said of the Think Tank technology space referenced in the application.
For the past few weeks, the investigative firm has been interviewing school staff and administration relevant to the complaint, according to district spokeswoman Annette Franco.
“Once that process is complete, they’ll respond to the complaint and to the [federation],” Franco said.
The Orange County Department of Education does not have plans to intervene.
“As a county office, we’re here to support the districts, we’re not an overseer,” said Ian Hanigan, Department of Education communications officer.
This year, 780 elementary schools statewide received the Gold Ribbon Award. Twelve campuses out of that pool are Newport-Mesa schools.
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Alex Chan, alexandra.chan@latimes.com
Twitter: @AlexandraChan10
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