Mailbag: District should place Hubbard on leave

As most readers know Newport-Mesa School Supt. Jeffrey Hubbard has been charged with two felony counts related to his past job at the Beverly Hills School District and now has seemingly distorted his relationship with a (former) female employee. When will the Newport-Mesa School Board take the high road and put Hubbard on temporary leave?

That is a question I asked one of the school board trustees before Christmas and received the same answer the Daily Pilot got last week. “There is really no reason for concern,” I was told, along with the comment, “We have information that we feel will exonerate Dr. Hubbard.” So it seems that the trustees are creating their own criteria for evaluating Hubbard instead of Beverly Hills Police Department.

This seems to conflict with a trustee, who said, “It’s a Beverly Hills issue.”

Regardless, the issue at hand is proper governance. The trustees of a school board, along with all of those in leadership at the district, are held to a higher standard. That’s the oath they took and that is what we expect.

The situation is quite similar to what took place in the city of Costa Mesa. The city manger informed the council that the police chief was involved with certain activities that he could not disclose and recommended that he be temporally suspended. The council agreed with that recommendation — good governance!

Hubbard is the figurehead of our local K-12 school district. His actions and character set the bar for all of our students. Even if he is innocent, there will be much work needed to restore his position of leadership at the district. I pray it can be salvaged. There is no harm in temporally suspending him until we know the outcome. If Hubbard is found guilty, the road will be bumpy, not only for him, but for the board as well. Our character is the sum of our habits; it’s time the trustees show their character and put Hubbard on temporary leave.

Bill Dunlap

Newport Beach

What I want from the Pilot

Re. “Letters from the editor: Asking the readers for input” (Jan. 12): After this past election, the OC Fair and no budget, what I would like to see is one full page dedicated to “open line Friday” (sorry to steal this from Rush Limbaugh). How cool would it be to print articles from some of the bloggers comments, not just quick three-sentence comments?

Don’t know about you, but I am seeing more and more of the online editor writing pretty good stuff. Why not open the Pilot to printing more of this type of writing?. Get the high schooler interested in writing articles. How about over-70 wisdom or anecdotes? Just one page, on Fridays, and as many articles you can squeeze in. And no ads on this page.

You could also add some comics from the readers. I have done some Costa Mesa-specific, political cartoons and satire for friends and fellow bloggers. I would love to see if we have any other talented anime artists with a sense of humor in Newport-Mesa.

C Longhair, via DailyPilot.com