Orange Unified: School Board of Hard Knocks : Education: Recall effort is just the latest upheaval to strike the district. Turmoil goes back for years.

Eighty degrees hot. Sixty percent humid. Go to a beach, find an air-conditioned movie theater, do anything but stand out here in front of the school district headquarters waving signs, chanting and wilting. But no, that would be the easy thing to do.

The Orange Unified School District board members, who over the years have rivaled Frank Sinatra in the ability to do things their way, are again under siege. It’s the summer of their discontent--but fall, winter and spring are not expected to be much different.

And so as dusk falls and noisy cars whip by on Glassell Street, as helicopters clatter in the sky and giggling children tumble on the grass, two dozen adults rally to remove six of the seven school board trustees.

“I’m an angry parent,” proclaims Steve Hain, leaning into a microphone attached to a hastily assembled podium. The school board members are “unresponsive, indifferent, arrogant.” They follow “petty, vindictive, personal agendas.”

The recall movement, which board members dismiss as politically contrived, is but the latest upheaval to strike the district.

A maintenance superintendent and two contractors were convicted last year in a bid-rigging scandal dating back to the early 1980s; previous school board members were charged with “willful misconduct” for not choking off the crime; the estimated cost of moving the district headquarters has mushroomed from $400,000 to $1.2 million; parents who say they were promised two new schools in Anaheim Hills now worry that they will get only one; three principals were demoted to teachers.

Why Orange? Why not Los Alamitos or Newport Beach? Is there something in the water supply? Can it be a legacy of driving around that traffic circle in the center of town?

Or is it that when the scandal did break, it so enraged parents that to this day they watch every move the board makes, looking for any whiff of wrongdoing, even where none exists?

“I’ve been trying to figure that out, too,” said Donna Grubaugh, who ended her term as PTA president in May and two months later is working to recall the school trustees. “It doesn’t happen in Garden Grove or Santa Ana.”

The school district’s woes have mirrored problems in the city, which at age 103 is one of the oldest in the county. Long a solidly middle-class, white community of Victorian homes and mom-and-pop stores, in recent years the crime rate has shot up, the homeless population has increased and illegal immigrants have poured in. This year, the city said it lost $7 million in a fraud it blamed on Newport Beach investment adviser Steven D. Wymer, who is awaiting trial.

“In Orange, it’s almost like a little Tammany Hall. And Boss Tweed’s first job was on a school board,” Grubaugh laughed. (Actually, Boss Tweed’s first job was in Congress; he quit and went on the New York City school board because he figured he could steal more money there.)

Grubaugh said the wheeling and dealing of the school boards resemble big-city politics in a place like Chicago so much that “I want to know where my alderman is.”

Turmoil is nothing new to the district.

Russ Barrios, who served eight years on the board and was defeated in his reelection bid last November, remembers hearing about an entire board that resigned in the 1940s when it couldn’t get money to earthquake-proof the schools. He also recalls the tale of the board member who never showed up for meetings after he was elected.

And yet Barrios said that when he went on the board eight years ago it was a sleepy, down-home kind of group. Some of the trustees had served 15 or 20 years; few people knew the board members’ names.

Then the Presson case exploded.

On April Fools’ Day of 1987, the Orange County Grand Jury indicted the maintenance supervisor of the school district, Steven L. Presson, his wife, and two contractors on charges of misappropriating public funds. Presson had been rigging contracts to go to favored contractors.

Exactly how much money was lost is in dispute. The judge who decided the case figured that less than $100,000 disappeared. He wound up convicting Presson and fining him $9,900 but suspended Presson’s one-year jail term. The contractors also got suspended sentences, but no fines.

The sentences outraged the prosecutor and parents in the district, who contended that the total was far higher. About 400 of them signed petitions demanding stiffer penalties. Kathy Moran, a parent who had monitored the case, said after the sentencings: “The Easter Bunny died. For everybody who believed in truth and justice, boy, what a sad day.”

As the case dragged on for more than four years, the board also was forced to grapple with a teachers’ strike and the threat of bankruptcy, brought on in part by declining enrollment as the baby boom went bust. Fewer students meant fewer dollars from the state.

Ruth Evans said that when she went on the school board in 1969, people were moving into the district like bees swarming after honey and “we couldn’t build schools fast enough.” By the time she left 20 years later, “we were closing schools.”

From a high of more than 30,000 students, the number dropped to a around 25,000, officials said. Evans said that when she moved into her home in 1961, there were 16 homes on her street with 36 students in the schools. Now the street sends off only three students to public schools.

Of more immediate concern to Evans and three other board members were non-criminal charges against them of “willful misconduct in office,” stemming from what the grand jury saw as their snoozing while the kickbacks took place.

One board member quit soon after the indictments; Evans and another declined to run for reelection; the fourth stuck it out until November of 1989, when he lost his bid for reelection. The charges were dropped as the accused members dropped off the board.

The sweeping away of board members with decades of experience set the stage for the five men and two women who now oversee the affairs of a district with schools flung across a landscape stretching from parts of Santa Ana, Garden Grove and Anaheim through all of Orange and Villa Park. The district includes the affluent (Villa Park), and the non-English-speaking children of newly arrived immigrants (Orange).

But new faces on the board have not meant newfound calm.

Two years ago, the teachers’ union demanded an investigation of the district purchase of a $2-million computer system, which turned out to be OK. Last year, the board’s approval of a “maintenance assessment district” that foes said was really a new property tax sparked so much outrage that the board backed down.

This year has not been any calmer:

* In April the board voted to demote three principals to teaching positions. That led to the recall movement against all six trustees who voted for the demotions.

* In May the trustees ousted the schools superintendent, buying out the last year of his contract for $120,000. Critics say the superintendent told the board that he was looking for another job, expected to get it and would leave without the payout from the financially strapped district if they would just give him a little more time. Board members said they didn’t know if he would actually get a new job and decided to pay him off and wave goodby. They claim that the true extra cost is only $14,000, the raise given to the district financial officer, who is doubling up as acting superintendent.

* In June a newly formed parents committee accused the board of violating state law by taking private votes on public matters. The group also questioned the hiring of a district maintenance superintendent who had contributed to a board member’s reelection campaign; another complaint about the alleged conflict of interest--denied by the trustee and the superintendent--is under investigation by the district attorney’s office.

* Also in June, the board passed a $101.8-million budget that included wage cuts for all district employees to make up for a $5-million deficit. The problem is the cuts were not worked out with the two unions representing teachers and other workers. Negotiations with the unions are now going on.

As the conflicts pile up, the rhetoric escalates.

Board member Bill Lewis accused “certain elements of the PTA” of being “out to terrorize the school district” after the complaint involving votes in closed session. The parents group said that if its “suspicions” about nefarious shenanigans were correct, there was a “cancer” in the district.

Of late the board has tended to split along 4-3 votes, which hasn’t calmed things down any.

Lewis, at 39 the youngest member of the board, said he thinks that when previous school boards and Orange City Councils backed down on tough decisions, it “encouraged citizens to scream and yell and hold their breaths until their faces turn blue.”

Lewis branded the parents’ complaints about secret sessions, conflict of interest and the recall “ridiculous” and the work of “a very small group of people.”

But the board sometimes seems to shoot itself in the foot.

For instance, a month ago the meeting agenda called for routine approval for the expenses of board members and the superintendent at upcoming professional conferences. The problem was, no cost was given. Critics in the audience jumped on the item like a greyhound on a rabbit.

Within minutes, the board calculated the cost of similar meetings in the past, agreed to set a $15,000 ceiling on such expenses, and the tempest was over. It might not have ranked with the decision of a previous board to approve a school boundary change at a meeting in Palm Springs, with no members of the public present, but it did appear that with a little more thought the controversy would never have occurred.

Board member Robert H. Viviano said he thinks that because of the Presson case and gaffes by previous boards, “people essentially hold the district in low esteem and they have a low confidence level.”

The trustees say they’ve managed to stave off bankruptcy for the district without laying off teachers or other employees. And they say that while they may take their lumps from the public, the upside is that parents show up for meetings and are interested in board goings-on.

A number of board members also decried the involvement of unspecified “political agendas” by unidentified fellow board members, homeowners or parents as a problem. Viviano said he thought that he was able to beat Barrios because “the people looked upon me as a fresh, nonpolitical outsider, which I am. I’m not a political fellow, I don’t like politics very much.”

Yet last year Viviano wanted state Sen. John R. Lewis (R-Orange) to administer his oath of office. Lewis is one of the more conservative Orange County representatives in Sacramento and was a foe of Barrios, whom he derided as a “two-term liberal Democrat.” Lewis also endorsed Bill Lewis, no relation, in last November’s balloting.

Board member Lila Beavans worries that “if the board looks like a band of yahoos, no one of any substance is going to want to run” for a trustee’s post.

Administrators may not want to campaign for the superintendent’s job, either, given the revolving door that seems to lead to the office. The superintendent who went to the police with his suspicions about the Presson case got the boot not long afterward; there were three acting or permanent superintendents before the one who was paid off and shown the door in May.

The upheavals then and now have not affected students, according to teachers, most parents, board members and school administrators. Test scores vary from school to school, but overall the district surpasses many state and national norms on standardized tests.

For instance, in California Assessment Program tests for eighth-grade students in the 1988-89 school year, the last it was given, the average score in Orange Unified was 293. Santa Ana Unified scored 239 and Fullerton Elementary 275. Newport-Mesa Unified scored 296, and Irvine Unified, 330.

Regardless of the effect on students, teachers union president Ruby Penner faults the district for doing little long-range planning over the years. “They run their business operations much like a new family: check to check.”

The teachers have wound up with contracts that some think have too many benefits, especially the ability to retire after 10 or 15 years with full medical and dental care for life for the retirees and their families. Board members who last 10 years also get those benefits.

The teachers have tentatively agreed to take a pay cut this year, though less than the 4% the district attempted to impose unilaterally. Union members are scheduled to vote on the new contract Wednesday. Penner, who negotiated the new contract, said teachers have had to widen their roles in the 24 years that she has been teaching first- and second-graders.

Where once nearly every school had a nurse, now there are only seven nurses in the whole district. Music and physical education teachers have been cut, as have extra instructors for students needing additional help.

Teacher salaries range from $24,240 for a beginner to $47,870 for the most experienced. Penner said most of the district teachers have been on the job for a long time.

“I think it’s been what has held the district together in the hard times,” Penner said. “Teachers have been able to draw on experience and hold things together during the years of turmoil downtown and on the school board.”

Board member Alan E. Irish said one legacy of the Presson scandal is to make parents and the press scrutinize the district more closely than others in the county. An occurrence in Orange may be “just not that noteworthy itself. But given the history, it then creates a noteworthy item.”

He concedes that the board doesn’t always operate smoothly at its meetings, either. July 9, someone in the audience had to instruct the trustees on how to make an amendment to a motion. Then there was wrangling on whether those wanting to speak had to fill out a card or even several cards. Irish said occasional confusion is due to all seven members’ being “new to public office.”

“We are going to do more in developing ‘boardsmanship,’ ” he said. A state association of school boards holds classes on “how to handle yourself in public,” what laws apply to trustees, and other matters, a curriculum that could assist the board, he said.

But it is unclear how long it will take for the board to shake off the scandal albatross and run humdrum meetings with routine agendas and an absence of controversy.

Irish said the district is so large and the history so pervasive that “it’s sort of like an Exxon Valdez. It takes some time to turn it around; it’s not like a five-foot rowboat.”

Board of Controversy

November, 1948: Five-member Orange High School District board resigns over voters’ refusal to approval earthquake safety changes in buildings. Chamber of Commerce picks new one.

July, 1953: Five elementary districts and the Orange Union High School District form Orange Unified School District, with 2,476 students.

1976-77 school year: Student population in district peaks at more than 30,000.

December, 1984: District maintenance supervisor Steven L. Presson resigns.

July, 1986: Orange Police Department discloses it has been investigating alleged wrongdoing in the district for two years.

October, 1986: School board fires superintendent who asked police to investigate district finances.

April, 1987: County grand jury indicts Presson, his wife and two contractors on charges of misappropriating public funds. Charges against his wife are later dropped.

July, 1987: County grand jury files non-criminal charges of “willful misconduct” against four of the seven school board members for not stopping the Presson misappropriation. Charges carry no fines or criminal penalties but are intended to get trustees to resign. One of the four does so.

May, 1988: Teachers strike for seven days for more pay and benefits.

November, 1989: Two board members accused by grand jury decline to run for reelection. The final accused member loses reelection. Two other incumbents also lose, so the board gets five new members. Superintendent resigns.

May, 1991: Presson is convicted of conspiracy and embezzlement, fined $9,900 and given a suspended sentence.

June, 1991: The two contractors indicted with Presson are convicted and given suspended sentences but no fines.

June, 1991: District hits property owners with $30-a-year fee to pay for upkeep and improvement of facilities. Statewide taxpayer group files lawsuit, contending the fee needs voter approval. School board reverses itself, drops fee.

November, 1991: Two new board members are elected, with one of them beating an incumbent. Board now has no member elected before November, 1989.

April, 1992: Board votes 6 to 1 to demote three principals to teaching positions, prompting recall movement against the six.

May, 1992: Trustees oust superintendent, buying out last year of his contract for $120,000. They give no reason, saying it is a personnel matter, but critics contend superintendent was soon to leave anyway and district could have saved the money.

June, 1992: Newly formed parents committee accuses board of violating state law by private votes on public matters. Group questions hiring a district maintenance superintendent who contributed to a board member’s reelection campaign. District attorney’s office investigates alleged conflict of interest, denied by the trustee and the superintendent.

June, 1992: Board passes $101.8-million budget that includes pay cuts for teachers and other employees. Unions vow to fight the cuts.