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About Ensign |
| Ensign Intermediate School was built in 1949. It is named after Horace Ensign. Mr. Ensign was the district's first principal-teacher in 1919. Our nickname is the Seabees. Much like the Navy's Seabees, we too are dedicated to constructing the "foundation" necessary to ensure democracy. The school is located at 2000 Cliff Drive within the city of Newport Beach and serves 7th and 8th graders. 1,230 students are currently enrolled, evenly distributed between the two grade levels. Students from twelve different ethnic groups are represented on our campus. 19% of our students are limited English proficient. Ensign is a neighborhood school. Most of our students walk, skate, or ride bicycles to school. A small percentage of our students are bussed. Housing in our community is diverse, consisting of single family homes, condominiums and apartment units. More than one-fourth qualify for the free lunch. program. Students arrive at Ensign from a variety of public and private elementary schools from both Newport Beach and Costa Mesa. Newport Elementary on the Balboa peninsula, Newport Heights Elementary in Newport Heights, and Mariners Elementary in Newport Beach feed Ensign from the city of Newport Beach, while Kaiser and Rea Elementary schools send students from their Costa Mesa locations. Collectively, our feeder schools provide Ensign with a rich and diverse student population. Eventually our students will make their way to Newport Harbor High School. 1997-98 SAT 9 test scores are indicative of Ensign's rich academic tradition and commitment to a strong instructional program. Including Ensign's limited English speaking population, almost 70% of the 1,048 students tested in 1997-98 scored above the national average in reading, language, and mathematics. Fewer than 20% of our students scored below the bottom quartile. Course work includes the core classes Mathematics, World History, US History, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and Language Arts. Honors courses in Language Arts and Mathematics are available on both grade levels. Students beyond the scope of our academic offerings often take one or more classes at Newport Harbor High School. Our science program is augmented by a fully equipped laboratory available to all students. Support programs include intervention, remediation and acceleration learning labs in reading and mathematics, lunch time tutorials, and a homework assistance program. Ensign also has six resource specialists who focus their attention on students of special needs. Our English language development program is committed to strengthening our non-English speaking population's English language skills by immersion. Our performing arts elective program features both instrumental and vocal music, as well as drama. Other elective programs includes Foreign Language, Fine Arts, Technology, and Woodworking. To supplement our academic and elective programs, we have a number of extracurricular programs such as a science club (Nature Academy), dedicated to studying science in a natural environment; a year round athletic program, featuring boy's and girl's volleyball, basketball, softball, soccer, and track; an Ambassadors' club dedicated to promoting tolerance and cultural diversity; an Academic Pentathlon club; a yearbook club, a journalism club, and a variety of clubs focusing on the varied interests of our students and faculty such as the fishing club, the bible study club, the card collecting club, the chess club, and others. Our multimedia library and resource center features Power Macintosh computers as well as pentium-powered PC's with Internet access. The library houses over 1,200 volumes of books. Computers are also on-line in two classrooms labs to support instruction and utilize technology as a learning tool. Our spacious campus, well kept and adorned with finely primed greenery, is situated high above Pacific Coast Highway and serves the entire Newport-Mesa community. Our grounds include a soccer field and two baseball fields, which we share with the Newport Harbor Baseball Association, Youth Soccer Organization, and other community groups and agencies. It is not unusual to see as much activity at Ensign on a weekend as you would on a school day. And that's the way we like it! Support services at Ensign include a school psychologist, a full time site counselor, two part time counseling interns, a speech therapist, a school community coordinator, a speech, hearing and language specialist, a learning handicapped specialist, four resource program specialists, English-language support, Title VII resources, one PC and one Mac computer lab, a multimedia center, a web site, and daily planners provided to all students. Our library features a full time librarian and multimedia center featuring 12 computers, including 6 Pentiums and Internet access, as well as over 1,200 books for circulation.  DON'T MESS WITH THE SEABEES |