COSTA MESA, NEWPORT BEACH : Ensign School Gets Computer System

An anonymous foundation has granted the fondest wish of Ensign Intermediate School educators: a $200,000 grant to bring technology into all classrooms.

“If I sound calm and composed, it’s a facade,” Principal Scott Paulson said in making the announcement at Tuesday’s board meeting of the Newport-Mesa Unified School District.

The school was chosen because of its grant proposal and its cultural tolerance program. The donor specified that expanding the tolerance program be a primary function of the new equipment.

The program, “To Know Us Is to Love Us,” includes a parent group and two student groups that work to ease cultural tensions and present cultural appreciation and conflict resolution programs to students. The grant will make it possible to pipe the student meetings into classrooms via a new closed-circuit television system. Schoolroom computers will give students computer access to the Library of Congress and other key resources, Paulson said.

“We will network the entire school,” installing a framework to put computers, televisions and VCRs in each classroom along with a security system to protect them, Paulson said.