County Education Board Member Resigns Her Post

Sheila Meyers, a member of the Orange County Board of Education for the past six years, has resigned effective Feb. 10 to return to her native state of Washington.

Her vacancy on the five-member board will be filled in the June 3 primary election. The person elected will complete the remaining two years of her four-year term, said Robert Peterson, county superintendent of schools.

Meyers has had a long career in education in Orange County. Before joining the Orange County Board of Education, she served 14 years on the Fountain Valley (Elementary) School District Board of Trustees.

Meyers also served as a consultant to the state Department of Education on proposed reform of intermediate and secondary education in California.

On Friday, she said one of the problems she and other education officials struggled with 20 years ago, when she first came into office during Orange County’s booming growth years, is surfacing again.

“It’s the problem of classroom overcrowding,” Meyers said. “We’ve come full circle. When I started in Fountain Valley, we had to build one new school after another, and then in recent years we had to start shutting some of them down. But now enrollment is growing again.”

In south Orange County especially, she said, the need for additional schools is already being felt.

Meyers said a proposed November ballot measure by state Sen. Marian Bergeson (R-Newport Beach) for an $800-million bond issue for new schools statewide would help Orange County somewhat.

Another major problem facing education, Meyers said, is the annual agony over school budgets, especially since the passage in 1978 of property-tax-cutting Proposition 13 has required the state to bankroll most of the funding for local schools.

“I think one of the things the state needs is better long-term financing for school districts,” Meyers said.

‘A Kind of Hodgepodge’

“Right now it’s a kind of hodgepodge, with the districts forced to come up with a budget in June but unsure of what money they’ll get (from the state) until around December every year. Since the passage of Proposition 13, the bent has been for the Legislature to take an increasingly active role in the way schools are operated. And one of the problems is that both state and federal governments are ordering programs for the districts without providing them the money to do it.”

For example, she said, the state requires school districts to provide transportation for handicapped students, but the program “is not properly financed. I think people need to be aware of the need for better financing for the schools.”

Meyers, who has four grown children, said she has greatly enjoyed her years on the school boards. “Next to raising my children, it’s the most rewarding thing I’ve done in my life,” she said. “I’m a firm believer that you only get out of life what you put into it, and working in education has been wonderful for me.”

Meyers said she is building a home on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington, near the town of Lakebay, where she and her mother will live. “I’m going home,” she said. “My mother is getting along in years, and I’m going home to be with her.”