School board to vote on Early College’s spring semester

Newport-Mesa’s school board will consider a more than $100,000 deal with the Coast Community College District to keep Early College High School operating in Costa Mesa through the end of the spring semester.

They will vote on paying CCCD up to $127,500 to teach college-level classes to about 270 students for the term ending June 30.

Early College is a joint venture between Newport-Mesa Unified and CCCD since 2006 that offers a small group of high school students college-level courses at a Mesa Verde campus.

Since 2011, the two districts have entered into a series of short-term deals that kept Early College running after the original five-year deal ended.

Newport-Mesa is without a long-term strategy for Early College since plans to move the campus to CCCD’s Newport Beach campus fell through.

At past board meetings, Trustee Katrina Foley has told staff she wants more opportunity to weigh the future of Early College before asking the board to approve infrastructure expenses.

In December, the board approved $450,000 to modernize classrooms at the Mesa Verde location and in January approved $72,816 to replace telecommunications equipment CCCD previously provided.

Tuesday, staff will ask the board to consider an additional $6,000 to replace the school’s fiber optic network, which was also previously provided by CCCD.

“How do we save this program without spending this much money?” Foley said Monday.

— Jeremiah Dobruck

Twitter: @jeremiahdobruck