Quirky Orange Trustee Remains a Mystery Man

Wearing an indigo knit cap and sunglasses, Steve Rocco slipped into the last Orange school board meeting of the year. Over the next two hours, he abstained from several votes, uttered a few eyebrow-raising comments and ended the night with a ramble that touched on the anniversary of John Lennon’s murder, the folly of allowing soda in schools and the completion of his first year in office.

“The freshman year has ended,” Rocco, 54, said. “That makes me a sophomore.”

It was a fairly typical meeting for the conspiracy-minded Santa Ana resident who last year beat out a PTA president endorsed by the teachers union to win a seat on the Orange Unified School District board with nary a campaign appearance or flier.

The district is one of Orange County’s largest and most contentious, with a $230-million annual budget, more than 31,000 students and a long history of political activism. But the election of Rocco -- a total unknown with some quirky ideas -- called into question voters’ attention to school board races.

Many in the district suspect that voters facing a lengthy ballot chose Rocco because he listed his occupation as a teacher, although he has not taught in years and currently is a caregiver for his elderly mother. Rocco, the author of a rambling self-published book, “Behind the Orange Curtain: Secret Chronicles and Public Record Accounts of Corruption, Murder and Scandals of Corporate and Political California,” had twice sought public office unsuccessfully.

Since his election, Rocco has abstained from scores of votes because he believes administrators fail to provide enough information and refuses to vote to expel students or fire teachers because he believes administrative hearings are biased against them.

He doesn’t recite the Pledge of Allegiance, doesn’t visit schools and refuses to participate in closed school board meetings to discuss issues such as personnel matters. Rocco says all school business ought to be done in public.

When elected, he was a mystery man. Today, he remains a mystery to many school board observers who say his eccentric behavior has relegated him to the margins of school-board business.

“You have done nothing to advance the education experiences of our students,” Denise Bittel, vice chairwoman of the district’s legislative coalition and president of the Orange Education Foundation, told Rocco during a recent school board meeting. The two have had a tense relationship.

Rocco occasionally speaks at the end of school board meetings. Some comments are on education matters, such as questioning the immigration status of students in poorer-performing schools or the fees charged by the teachers credit union.

Often, though, Rocco veers from the business at hand, for instance alleging that his father was murdered, his parents were abused and a contract was taken out on his life because of his politics and other work.

He ended the Dec. 8 meeting by saying, “I hope we go into 2006 on a new course. 2005 was not good for many reasons. I will say happy birthday to Jesus, and I’m sorry we let you down again.”

Though Rocco frequently abstains or votes against board motions, he says he has made a difference in the way his colleagues operate. He credits himself with pushing the board to reverse decisions that would have stopped board meetings from being telecast and would have eliminated a class-size reduction program to save money.

“Come on. If I wasn’t here, they wouldn’t be watching their backs,” he said. “They’re doing what I want them to do. It’s just taking them a little more time.”

Kathy Moran, a critic of the board majority who has followed the district for two decades, agrees. She says Rocco’s presence as a dissenting voice means all alternatives are more likely to be explored.

“He knows he’s a lone vote on the board,” she said. “The only real power he has ... is to stand up and say, ‘This isn’t right.’ ”

She urged Rocco to attend closed sessions to monitor whether other board members were breaking state law, which allows such meetings only in a narrow set of circumstances.

Rocco has contempt for most of his board colleagues, labeling them bureaucrats who associate with “corporate racketeers.”

The lone board member he has kind words for is fiscal conservative Rick Ledesma, whom he occasionally votes with in opposition to spending matters such as contracts with law firms.

“He has a conscience,” Rocco said. “The others are just straight bureaucracy.”

Ledesma did not return calls seeking comment. Other board members also didn’t return calls or wouldn’t comment on the record about Rocco. Some are simply tired of the attention devoted to their colleague’s unconventional behavior.

“I think it’s like actually pretty funny that you guys are writing an article about him,” board member Melissa Smith said. “There’s a lot of great things that happened in the district this year. No one seems to pay attention to that.”