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Ken Noonan Retires after Leading Major Turn Around in Oceanside Schools

By Jeff Brownlee

Oceanside Unified School District Superintendent Ken Noonan will be stepping down this June after ten years of service to the district. Noonan’s tenure was characterized by significant improvements in performance by a previously underachieving student body and the perception that he had produced a remarkable turnaround in a troubled school district.

As of today, 15 of Oceanside’s 24 schools are categorized as California Distinguished Schools. A California Department of Education website explained that the California Distinguished School designation is intended to, “Honor some of the state’s most exemplary and inspiring public schools. Schools selected for Distinguished School awards are strong well-rounded community schools.”  The same site notes that only a small percentage— approximately five percent—of California schools achieve this distinction each year.

Emily Ortiz Wichmann, a member of the Oceanside Unified School District Board of Education, pointed out that all 15 schools achieving California Distinguished School status had earned this recognition during Noonan’s tenure.

 Noonan expressed some sadness at leaving his post, saying that he loves the job and that he had hoped to oversee one last milestone for the district. “I had hoped to see all 24 schools achieve California Distinguished School status,” he said. Noonan went on to say the process is already in place and he is confident that the district will eventually achieve this goal.

Noonan inherited a school district known to have the lowest academic standards in San Diego County. Oceanside Board of Education member Janet Bledsoe Lacy described just how far things had gone. “People who weren’t passing in other districts would transfer here because of our low standards,” she said. Noonan devoted his first 90 days on the job to an extensive fact finding mission. “During my first 90 days I let my staff run everything. I spent that time meeting with the community, asking them what they wanted. People took me into their homes,” he said. Noonan also spent much of this time observing classrooms.

The results of that fact-finding mission proved to be a bitter pill for many Oceanside teachers and administrators. After observing students showing up late for classes, not paying attention, and teachers not teaching, Noonan reported back to the trustees that low expectations were handicapping both students and teachers and that things were going to have to change. Lacy remembers “He looked them in the eye and said we need to raise expectations.” Lacy also recalled one of Noonan’s favorite analogies for the relationship between teaching and student performance, “If the ship misses the harbor it’s seldom the harbors fault.”

 Noonan instituted sweeping and at times unpopular change, and he did meet with some resistance. But to draw on an analogy from military history, Noonan was no swaggering George S. Patton bullying his staff and summarily sacking poor performers. Rather he was more the paternal Dwight D. Eisenhower figure with a knack for putting the right people in the right places and getting the best out of people under him. Those working under Noonan were nearly unanimous in their expressions of praise and respect. “He will be sorely missed. He is a good man,” said Jefferson Middle School Principal Duane Coleman.

Lacy ran through a long list of improvements that have taken place in the Oceanside Unified School District under Noonan including the district instituting graduation requirements equal to the highest in the county and bringing about a rise in test scores, especially among minority students, that has caught national attention. “We were in U.S. News and World Report’s national spotlight,” Lacy said.

Oceanside Unified School District’s success with minority students at one point involved a controversial paradox. Both Noonan and Lacy were longtime advocates of bilingual education, but proposition 227 effectively banned this approach in June of 1998. Noonan, a former bilingual education teacher himself, who had opposed proposition 227, was forced to implement it. “I had campaigned against 227,” he said.

 All bilingual education courses were converted to English immersion, and to both Noonan and Lacy’s surprise the new approach worked out quite well. “We had such good performance we couldn’t believe it. Kids at Ditmar Kindergarten are speaking English even though their parents can’t,” Lacy said. Though recognized as a major success now, the new approach initially produced protests, shouting matches at school board meetings, and abortive lawsuits.

Coleman credited Noonan with exceptional listening and memory skills. “ I’ve been in a lot of meetings with him with parents and teachers. He listens to all stakeholders. He takes everything in,” he said. Lacy praised Noonan for campaigning tirelessly for a 2000 school construction bond measure. “We passed it with 68 percent, which is unprecedented,” she said. The bond measure had failed twice previously.

Noonan’s track record in Oceanside caught the eye of state officials and he was appointed to the California Board of Education in 2005. He was eventually picked to serve as vice president of the board and last July he was elected president.

For his part, Noonan gave most of the credit for the success of his administration to his staff. “My faculty and staff made it happen. I don’t take credit. I hope for them I made a difference,” he said.

To the degree Noonan was willing to accept recognition for the renaissance in Oceanside schools, he credited a solid foundation in both teaching and administration. “It helps a lot to have been a teacher. Being an administrator at lower levels also helped me learn the politics of it,” he said. Early in life Noonan had trained to be a Benedictine monk. Though he eventually decided his calling lie elsewhere, he believes his time in the monastery and college run by the monks benefited him later in life. “I received an education at the highest level. Both the self-discipline and imposed discipline were hard. I thrived,” he said.

Noonan’s accomplishments in Oceanside have led various consulting firms to seek him out and he has given some seminars on education and administration. However, he is reluctant to commit to any kind of post-educational career saying, “I want to see what its like not to have to wake up to an alarm clock.”

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Loma Alta Creek: Little Known but Important Waterway Struggles for Respect

By Jeff Brownlee

Loma Alta Creek is a waterway that gets little respect. The little known but environmentally sensitive stream runs from the Oceanside/Vista border westward to the sea, roughly paralleling Oceanside Blvd for most of its course. Part of the Carlsbad Hydrologic Unit, a system of seven North San Diego County streams that empty into the Pacific Ocean, Loma Alta Creek has a long history of pollution and neglect. Environmental attorney and activist Nadine Scott described the creek as, “A suburban stream that’s very mistreated.” 

In the past, Scott worked closely with the City of Oceanside to clean up the creek. Scott said that much progress had been made, but that more needs to be done. Loma Alta Creek, though often the repository for abandoned shopping carts and other urban detritus, is in fact an important habitat for numerous protected species. “Loma Alta Creek is home to the Gnat Catcher and other endangered species such as plant life that is very important to wetlands,” Scott said.

Though important in its own role as a habitat for unique plant and animal life, the condition of Loma Alta Creek also impacts other ecosystems, one of the most important being Oceanside’s Buccaneer Beach, where the creek empties.

In part due to the efforts of surfing legend Skip Frye and others, contamination of coastal waters and the attendant health risks became a major issue. This focus has been both a blessing and a curse for coastal cities. Authorities are quick to close beaches when levels of contamination reach unacceptable levels, thus protecting the public. Unfortunately, quarantined beaches and beaches with a reputation for contamination are of little economic benefit to coastal cities.

Buccaneer Beach is suffering serious impairment as a resource to the City of Oceanside as a direct result of ongoing problems with keeping its water clean. “We know the water quality is bad. The number of closures of Buccaneer Beach increased from five to 101 times over the past five years,” said Scott. Buccaneer Beach’s contamination arrives in part via Loma Alta Creek.

Mo Lahsaie, the City of Oceanside’s Clean Water Program Coordinator, said Loma Alta Creek suffers from two types of pollution. “Loma Alta Creek is impaired for two types of pollution, Bacteria and nutrients,” he said. Excessive bacteria are the result of runoff from residential areas and are largely the product of animal waste. Nutrients—contaminants that promote the growth of algae, which in turn use up dissolved oxygen choking off life in the creek—are largely the result of lawn and other fertilizers being washed from residential areas into the creek

Lahsaie said that sediment— essentially excess dirt washed into the creek—is also an issue. North County Transit District (NCTD) recently received a letter from the California Regional Water Quality Control Board informing them that their contractor for the Sprinter rail line had not maintained adequate storm water controls. These controls are designed to prevent dirt from the construction site from being washed into Loma Alta Creek. Tom Kelleher, spokesman for NCTD, said his organization had moved quickly to fix the situation. “We began working with the contractor immediately to correct the situation. We’ve used straw mats, gravel bags, and silt fences in problem areas to prevent runoff,” he said.

Though large industrial and commercial operations are sometimes cited for violating environmental regulations Lahsaie’s analysis suggests that much of the problem with Loma Alta Creek resides with ordinary citizens who can do a lot to prevent pollution by cleaning up after their pets and avoiding excessive watering and fertilizing of lawns. 

Lahsaie was excited about a new ultra violet disinfecting facility planned fro Loma Alta Creek. The treatment plant will disinfect water from Loma Alta Creek before it enters the ocean. “ We received a five million dollar grant from the state water resources control board for a UV treatment plant. Construction will start soon,” Lahsaie said.

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Terry Garrison to Assume Role as New Oceanside Fire Chief

By Jeff Brownlee

Oceanside has a new full-time fire chief. Terry Garrison, assistant chief with the Phoenix Arizona Fire Department, came out on top of a recruitment process that evaluated more than 30 potential candidates. Garrison, who is currently wrapping up his duties in Phoenix, is expected to take the reigns at the Oceanside Fire Department in early June 2007. 

City of Oceanside Director of Human Resources Tony Kammerer provided some background on Oceanside’s new top firefighter.  “He has an extensive background in executive management positions,” he said. Kammerer also gave an impressive list of Garrison’s varied educational accomplishments. “He has a Masters degree in Educational Leadership. He has an Associates degree and a Bachelors degree in Fire Science.”

Garrison has also performed a diverse number of jobs within the Phoenix Fire Department, including paramedic, shift supervisor, battalion chief and liaison to city hall.

Oceanside City Manager Peter Weiss described the selection process for fire chief as rigorous. Several different panels reviewed Garrisons qualifications. These panels were made up of the firefighters union, a panel of citizens, a management panel and others.

Though all of these panels highly recommended Garrison for the job, he still had one further hurdle. Weiss and Oceanside Police Chief Frank McCoy traveled to Phoenix to personally check out all of Garrison’s references. “We wanted to check references face to face. This is a key position for the city and we believed it deserved some extra effort and attention,” Weiss said. Both Weiss and McCoy were impressed and Garrison received an offer.

Garrison, a 30-year veteran with the Phoenix department, deliberately sought out the Oceanside position. He said, “Fire chief is not a position you just apply for. You have to want the city and the city has to want you.”

The new chief said he has three criteria for a successful fire department. These are a strong commitment to customer service, a commitment to firefighter safety, and good management/ labor relations. Upon meeting some visiting Oceanside firefighters in Phoenix, Garrison decided the Oceanside Fire Department met or exceeded all of these standards. “The firefighters spoke and I could tell there was a commitment to safety and customer service both from them and city management,” he said.

Kammerer emphasized that Garrison started out as firefighter and worked his way up through the ranks in Phoenix. He believes that Garrison’s background will give him a solid rapport with rank and file firefighters. According to Kammerer, the union that represents Oceanside firefighters—the Oceanside Firefighters Association—had direct input on the selection process. He believes that this bodes well for management/employee relations at the Oceanside Fire Department. In reference to Garrison’s management style, Kammerer said, “He prides himself on taking care of his troops.”

Garrison himself spoke highly of Oceanside’s Firefighters Association, noting that both the president and vice-president of the union made a trip to Phoenix, on their own dollar, to interview Garrison’s coworkers. “It was a great commitment,” he said.

Garrison hopes to take care of the public as well by quickening emergency response times. He referenced an outside audit commissioned by the City of Oceanside, which expressed concern that the Oceanside Fire Department’s response times were too slow in some parts of the city. The report attributes this problem to a lack of fire stations. Garrison said that the audit has not yet been released to the public and that he will have to subject it to more detailed analysis. He was willing to say that Oceanside’s rapid growth has possibly left certain areas with inadequate fire coverage. “We probably need a few more stations,” he said.

Garrison pointed out that Phoenix and Oceanside are similar in their rapid growth rates. The Phoenix area’s population grew by 34.3 percent in just the last 10 years, and Phoenix is now the sixth largest city in the United States. Garrison believes his experience with Phoenix’s explosive growth has prepared him for a similar situation in Oceanside. “Both Cities have much in common. Both have developing downtowns. The challenge of new construction is both fire protection and code enforcement,” he said.

An Arizona native, Garrison admitted that he is looking forward to assuming his position in Oceanside before Arizona’s brutal summer temperatures arrive. Most of all Garrison is looking forward to working for the people of Oceanside. “Everybody I’ve talked to has been very kind. If this is indicative of the City of Oceanside, I’m going to be very happy,” he said.

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