HUNTINGTON BEACH : Parents Council Will Assist School Board

A group of parents in the Ocean View School District, hoping to gain a greater voice in their children’s education, have formed a council to organize volunteer efforts and monitor school board actions.

The Ocean View Parents Council will also help raise money for the district’s planned educational foundation, organize candidates’ forums leading up to the Nov. 6 school board elections and work to influence district policy, according to Angie Wright, secretary of the council’s founding committee.

The council, formed by Wright and six other parents who became active during the board’s hearings on whether to close three schools, now has about 70 members, she said.

Wright said she and other parents were inspired to organize after hundreds of angry parents packed the Marina High School gymnasium on three consecutive nights in June to denounce a proposal to close the Golden View, Haven View and Lake View elementary schools. The school board voted to postpone any closures for at least a year.

“At those meetings, a lot of parents spoke before the board and volunteered to help out however they can. So those are the people we’ve organized,” Wright explained.

The council is most interested in providing volunteers to help in the classroom so that instructors can devote more time and effort to teaching and preparing lessons, she said.

Members also plan to get involved in the board’s budget hearings before the budget is adopted in September, she said.

However, Wright said, the council is not a political action committee and will not endorse candidates for four contested school board seats in the November election.

The group has held weekly meetings throughout this month to organize and recruit new members. It plans to meet again at 7 p.m. Monday in the Murdy Community Center meeting room.

Board president Charles Osterlund, trustees Janet Garrick and Elizabeth A. Spurlock and teachers union president Carol Halbach have all attended previous meetings, Wright said.