ANAHEIM : Old Issues Resurface in Trustee Elections

Old issues are resurfacing in the Anaheim Union High School District board race as campaigns heat up in the final days before Tuesday’s election.

The seven candidates seeking three open seats have tackled issues such as low teacher morale, problems with the administration and how to allocate the district’s $106-million budget.

Now, talk at the various candidates’ forums has brought up the decade-old issue of whether to allow the secession of Lexington Junior High and Cypress High schools from the 19-campus Anaheim district.

“There’s been a lot of talk of separation,” said Cypress City Councilwoman Gail Kerry. “I don’t think that talk is ever going to go away.”

Parents of children at Lexington Junior High and Cypress High have brought up the possibility of separating from the district a number of times in recent years. They see their small city as much different from the racially and economically diverse Anaheim, and many prefer the idea of joining the two schools with Cypress’ elementary district.

The issue has surfaced again because none of the seven candidates for the school board is from Cypress. One outgoing board member, Chuck Hicks, lives in Cypress and is running for City Council. One of the candidates lives in Buena Park, where there is one Anaheim Union district school.

Cypress residents fear that board members will not represent their concerns, since the two schools in their city make up a tiny part of the 19,000-student district.

The fate of the soccer fields at vacant Oxford Junior High is an important concern of Cypress’ active American Youth Soccer Organization, but at a recent forum, none of the candidates were aware of the issue.

“If they want to keep a big district, they need to come down to the community level,” Kerry said.