Ensign Intermediate School

(Horace) Ensign Intermediate School is a public junior high school located in Newport Beach, California. It is part of the Newport Mesa Unified School District. It is one of four public junior-high schools located in the Newport Mesa Unified School District.

History

Ensign Intermediate School was built in 1949. It is named after Horace Ensign who was the first teacher-principal of the school. The school was the first Intermediate School in the Newport-Mesa Unified School District.

About Ensign

The school currently has about 1,200 students enrolled in the school. The school is evenly divided into two grade levels, 7th and 8th grade. Students from 12 different ethnic groups are on campus with the majority white or hispanic. Ensign is a neighborhood school and most students walk or bicycle to school. A small percentage of the students are bussed. More than 1/4 of students qualify for the free or reduced price lunch programs.^[1]

Academics

The school offers a variety of pre-high school preparatory curricula, including World and United States History, Science, English, Spanish and exploratory electives such as Visual Arts and Music. Particularly progressive are the Mathematics and Physical Education departments. The Mathematics programs currently offered at Ensign Intermediate allow for qualified students to enroll in high school at the Algebra II level, and the Physical Education program offers team sports such as volleyball and basketball.

Incidents

On March 20, 2004 six male students dressed in pink were denied posing in the school photo by principal Ed Wong, who believed their attire could have been gang related. The next day, hundreds of students at the school protested by wearing the color pink. ^[2]

On December 12, 2007 students were threatened when a student brought hazardous materials onto the campus. The hazardous materials were claimed to be some sort of bomb and the students were sent out to the school's soccer field for a few hours until bomb squad took care of the situation. The threat was initiated by a 7th grade male student attending the school who had stowed these materials in his locker.^[3]

Feeder Schools

Students at Ensign arrive from different school both public and private from both Costa Mesa and Newport Beach. Some of the schools include:
Newport Elementary;
Newport Heights Elementary;
Mariners Elementary;
(Heinz) Kaiser Elementary;
Whittier Elementary and formerly Rea Elementary.
Typically, graduating students go on to attend Newport Harbor High School.