Parents Launch Bid to Recall All Orange Unified’s Trustees

A group of parents angry about a recent teachers’ strike and school district finances has launched a recall effort against all seven Orange Unified School District trustees, officials said Friday.

Unhappiness over the school board’s failure to prevent the strike helped provoke the proposed recall, said Howard Chassagne, a parent in Orange who is one of the two co-signers of intent-to-recall papers served on the seven board members.

The papers of intent are the first step in a process that could lead to a recall vote in the June, 1989, election, said Rosalyn Lever, Orange County assistant registrar of voters. Incumbent trustees have seven days after being served with the notices to respond in writing. Then wording of signature petitions are screened by the registrar’s office.

Lever said her office may be able to certify the recall group by early September to begin collecting signatures.

She said “about 12,000 to 13,000 voter signatures” will be required to trigger a recall in Orange Unified.

24,500 Students

The school district, the third-largest in Orange County, has about 24,500 students and serves the cities of Orange, Villa Park and parts of Anaheim, Santa Ana and Garden Grove.

The group of parents seeking the ouster of the Orange Unified school board simply calls itself Recall. The loosely knit organization of about 70 people hopes to oust all seven board members and replace them with “a board that will administer more efficiently,” Chassagne said.

Russell Barrios, president of the school board, said Friday that the intent-to-recall papers served on all seven board members are identical “and make vague charges that obviously show these people know nothing about Orange Unified.” Barrios said he knows very little about Recall. “I think it’s a fringe organization, and we don’t know what their real agenda is,” Barrios said.

Chassagne, who is an aerospace worker, said that the organization’s central goal is to replace the current school board with “people who will do a better job in handling the money and administering the district.”

Chassagne added: “Parents have been unhappy with the present school board for a long time. You might say that the teachers’ strike was the straw that broke the camel’s back. We were unhappy that the school board didn’t sit down and work things out with the teachers to prevent the strike.”

$140,000 Election

Barrios said that among Recall’s formal charges against the school board members is “failure to act in the best economic interests of the school district.” He said he found that charge ironic “because it would cost the school district about $140,000 to have this election if this recall is effective.”

William T. Fitzgerald, an Orange businessman, is the other co-signer of the intent to recall. He said the criticisms of the school board members include “increasing class sizes . . . failure to provide campus security . . . lack of sound fiscal planning.”

Two of the accusations against the board involved the strike. One is that the school board did not provide “competent substitute instructors” to replace teachers on strike and the other is that the board of issued “false propaganda” during the walkout.

Teachers in Orange Unified went on strike in May after 15 months of deadlocked negotiations over a pay raise and new contract. The seven-day strike ended May 23 with a new contract that included a pay raise for the teachers.