Challengers Claim Trustees Not Responsive to Community

Claiming that the Fountain Valley School District Board of Trustees has not listened to the community, four challengers are trying to unseat the three incumbents seeking reelection on Nov. 6.

The incumbents--Roger Belgen, Mary Lou Crossett and Stephen Einstein--are campaigning largely on their record and experience, but three of the challengers claim that they and the rest of the board have not acted responsibly.

Challengers Robert J. Sedlak, Felix Rocha Jr. and Barbara A. Vogel, in particular, are critical of the board’s financial decisions and a vote last spring to close Fountain Valley Elementary School.

That decision, on a 4-1 vote with Einstein dissenting, was unsuccessfully challenged in court by a parents group called the Future Education Protection Committee.

Saying that they question the judgment of current board members, Future Education Protection Committee leaders have endorsed Sedlak, Rocha and Vogel. The fourth challenger, Larry R. Crandall, said he chose to run because several teachers asked him to. The teachers union has not yet endorsed any candidates.

Since the closure of Fountain Valley Elementary School, the parents group has urged the board to try to prevent possible health hazards from electromagnetic fields generated by power lines near the district’s other schools.

The electromagnetic-field issue catapulted the district into the national limelight over the last few months and is likely to become a campaign issue. The incumbents, however, say it should not be.

“Electromagnetic radiation is present everywhere in Orange County, and I think that issue is much larger” than just the district’s, Crossett said.

Board members have studied the electromagnetic fields. They have requested guidance from county and state officials, allowed testing at six of the district’s 11 schools and formed school-site committees to consider possible measures. But they have stopped short of taking further action because they say it is a national issue rather than one to be addressed by a local school board.

Challengers have also raised questions about the district’s financial management.

“I’m not sure that the decision to sell any of the (surplus) school sites was fiscally responsible,” Vogel said, referring to the four closed schools now in escrow.

Sedlak, who touts himself as the only candidate with extensive financial experience, is especially critical of the district’s decision to sell the school sites because it means that the district must pay back a state loan of more than $35 million that would have been forgiven in 15 years had the sites not been sold.

However, by selling the sites, Belgen argued, the district stands to create an endowment of about $50 million, which it can use to pay off the loan and fund other programs.

“I believe very strongly that what we have done is a financially sound decision,” Belgen said.

The three incumbents agree that finances are an important issue since enrollment and state funding have dwindled in recent years. They maintain that they have been financially responsible.

“Unfortunately, we’ve had to cut some things, and that has been very painful,” Einstein said. “But given the resources in our district, I think we’re putting out a really good product.”