The AN EDITION OF
Current
NEWPORT BEACH & COSTA MESA’S DAILY NEWSPAPER WEDNESDAY, NOV. 1 3, 20 1 3
OCREGISTER.COM/CURRENT
LOCALS QUICK TO LEND HELP AFTER STORM
CHRISTINE COTTER, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Skateboarder Nick Dunner practices some moves in front of a large E in the designated skateboard area at Estancia High School. Estancia and other schools around Newport-Mesa are undergoing rebranding as part of a campaign to reduce transfers.
Jules Barba just waits. It’s all he can do. The Newport Beach resident waits for updates from his niece, who travels four to five hours – in what usually is a two-hour drive – from Iloilo City to his hometown in Pa-on, Estancia, JOSEPH Iloilo, Philippines PIMENTEL to get news of his REGISTER WRITER family. He waits for the electricity to come back in Pa-on so he can finally hear the voices of his two older brothers and be assured of their safety. Barba’s hometown, a small coastal village known as “Little Alaska” for its fishing industry, was one of the provinces badly damaged by the super typhoon, Typhoon Haiyan, that hit the area last week. “I am completely helpless,” he said. “I’m here and they’re there and I can’t do anything to help. I’m glad they are OK but my family home and their homes were destroyed.” Barba, 57, is the owner of JB Diamonds and Fine Jewelry in Newport Beach. His own family is safe here but he worries about his brothers’ predicament and the damage the typhoon has caused to their childhood home and fam-
MORE INSIDE
REIMAGINING
ESTANCIA A marketing campaign, and logos everywhere, aim to reinvigorate the school after years of heavy outbound transfers and a problematic reputation.
T
ake a stroll on Estancia High School’s campus. There’s a marching band for the first campus these days and you see it at al- time in 10 years, says the school’s principal, most every turn: the school’s bright Kirk Bauermeister, as he high-fives a skatenew logo – an encircled crimson “E” on boarder rolling across the edge of the campus – likely a member of the newly formed a golden background. skateboard club, which meets in front of The symbol is painted on the school in the afternoons. walls, sidewalks and hallways. It adorns Bauermeister said the changes are in windows and bulletin boards. A flag line with Estancia’s new motto: “The with the E hangs just below the Amerischool of opportunity.” can flag at the school’s entrance. Though the new attitude is meant to More than just a visual reminder of say there’s something for everyone what school you’re at, Estancia’s E has LAUREN here, the hope is to attract more “highbecome the emblem for what’s meant to STEUSSY end” students to the school and its acbe a new era of self-improvement, REGISTER companying middle and elementary helped along by a nearly $19,000 public WRITER schools, Bauermeister said, referring to relations campaign. The campaign, now in its second year, is working to boost the high students who take advanced classes, participaschool’s reputation, which has suffered after te in athletics and are involved in extracurricyears of low test scores, negative transfer ular activities. The district’s board recently voted to pump trends and the perception by some that the school is a dangerous place to send more money into the campaign’s efforts, setting aside an additional $10,000 for the public children. An influx of academic clubs and extracurric- relations consultant’s advice and travel expensular activities have helped to invigorate the es, on top of the day-to-day salaries of the disS E E E S TA N C I A ● PA G E 4
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THE COST OF A BRAND
Invoices shed light on the costs associated with Newport-Mesa’s public relations consultant, Tom DeLapp
$8,850 communication walks
$5,449.1 5 travel expenses
$900 superintendent consultations
$ 1,500 communication workshops
$ 1,050 management team and school board training
I don’t think we were doing a good enough job attracting high-end kids.”
$ 1,050 consulting on Estancia zone and crisis communication
KIRK BAUERMEISTER P R I N C I PA L
Youth lend their voices to Philippine typhoon relief. PAGE 6 S E E T Y P H O O N ● PA G E 3
HOMELESS WOMAN DIES AFTER BEING STRUCK BY CAR A 44-year-old homeless woman who was struck by a car a week ago has died at Western Medical Center Santa Ana. Michelle Lounsbury was well-known in the homeless community, said representatives of the Churches ConANTONIE a BOESSENKOOL sortium, REGISTER group of Costa WRITER Mesa churches working on homelessness. “She was always there for everybody,” said Ashley Clark, who kept in contact with Lounsbury through the Churches Consortium’s outreach. Lounsbury was with her bicycle when she was hit on the morning of Nov. 5. She was known for riding it around the city, Clark said. “She had a cruiser, like a black cruiser. It was very Michelle. She’s kind of like a rocker chick, so her bike was black. She had black hair, black outfits, black everything … The homeless people, the thing about them is they stick together,” Clark said. “So when one of them passes away, it’s difficult. … That moral support that they would’ve gotten from her is gone.” Lounsbury was scrappy, outgoing and direct, and could also be
Source: Invoices sent to NMUSD
S E E D E AT H ● PA G E 3
INSIDE TODAY’S CURRENT HOLIDAY SURVEY
TRAFFIC THOUGHTS
REDEEM TEAM
Help The Current figure out what’s for Thanksgiving dinner.
Costa Mesa, Newport Beach residents continue to weigh in on proposed I-405 toll lanes.
On heels of a tough season, Sage Hill football proves it can be a winner. SEE STORY ON PAGE 8
SEE STORY ON PAGE 2
SEE STORY ON PAGE 7
FILE PHOTO: ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
STUART PALLEY, THE REGISTER