Concerned parents protest potential 4x4 learning model in Laguna Beach

The coronavirus pandemic required school districts and families to adapt their learning models so that education could carry on safely.

Over the last year-plus, the Laguna Beach Unified School District has seen a couple of transformations, and it is now looking into another.

District stakeholders were invited to partake in a pair of online community forums — one for Thurston Middle School and one for Laguna Beach High School — on Monday, May 17.

Following the hourlong sessions, concerned parents decided to organize a protest in opposition to one of the new schedule proposals, known as the 4x4 learning model.

Under such a plan, students would be allowed to sign up for up to four classes per semester. They would have a different set of classes in the fall and the spring.

Several dozen people showed up to demonstrate on Park Avenue in front of Laguna Beach High School and the district office on Friday afternoon.

With the pandemic pushing students into distance learning to end the previous school year, followed by a two-class trimester system this year, some parents pointed to learning loss as a reason why more continuity must be a point of emphasis.

“A lot of people are feeling like there’s learning loss, and we get it because it was COVID,” said Lisa Temesvary, 54, who has twin daughters heading into high school. “Now we need to catch up, and we need a regular year so that we can get back on track and everyone can make sure that they fill in the gaps that they didn’t get this last year.”

A group of demonstrators expressed similar concerns in October, when a protest was held on Main Beach for the district to reopen its secondary schools.

On Friday, about 60 people showed up, many of them with signs in hand. Some drivers that passed by honked in support of the message. At various points, the demonstrators chanted, “We deplore 4x4!”

Parents and students demonstrate along Park Avenue outside Laguna Beach High, where they protested a proposed 4x4 learning model by the Laguna Beach Unified School District.

(Don Leach / Staff Photographer)

Lynea Rodriguez, 46, said she is worried that secondary students would be asked to complete a full year of coursework in a short amount of time.

“The trimester was a disaster, 100% a disaster,” Rodriguez said. “So anything is better. However, just adding one more month is not a solution.”

Laura Sextro, 46, said she has a daughter who took an AP class in the first trimester. Noting the lag time between the end of the class and the AP exam in May, she questioned how well that served the students.

In the event that the 4x4 model is chosen, she said it would be more of the same, adding that her family has considered leaving the district.

Freshman Elliott Leeds, 14, said a healthy percentage of the students at the high school participate in athletics. He said he believes the 4x4 learning model would do those students a disservice.

“It’s just so tough because it’s focusing only on the people that don’t do any … sports or anything,” Leeds said. “Yes, they do get a little easier with that, but the people who are athletes, they lose an elective, and that’s just terrible for us.”

When the Newport-Mesa Unified School District looked into implementing the 4x4 model last summer, the board approved it by a 5-2 vote. It then went back on its decision, with only Estancia choosing to move forward with 4x4 learning.

Laguna Beach school district spokeswoman Shelley Spessard said the district’s secondary schools are exploring schedules, including block scheduling and the 4x4 model. She said the schools are connecting with stakeholders via virtual community forums, a thought exchange with students, staff and parents, and discussion with other districts.

Spessard added a decision on a new learning model for the secondary schools has not been made, it will be a site-led decision, and both schools plan to follow the same structure.

“As an educational institution, we are working to do what’s best for our students and ensuring, especially coming off the pandemic, that we have a place where students have those deep connections with their staff, their teachers [and] support,” Spessard said. “We really want to hear everyone’s input before we make this decision, and so that is the process that we’re engaging in now.”

Terri Meisberger, who has had two kids graduate from the district and has one still in it, summarized her take on the issue.

“The bottom line is what we’re focusing on is yearlong education in core courses and AP courses,” Meisberger said in a phone interview on Thursday. “We need to keep our kids competitive. We’ve already been at a huge disadvantage this year with the trimester, and we want our kids to get the education that we paid for with our tax dollars and that we feel they deserve, and that’s year-round education — and not year-round in summer, but yearlong classes, like we used to have.”

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