Advertisement

What Are the Motives Behind Orange Unified Recall Attempt?

Share

The Aug. 16 editorial, “The Troubled Past of a School Board,” was well written but erroneously linked the recall effort to bilingual report cards. The previous board, at the direction of the recently fired superintendent, Dr. Norman Guith, attempted to reach the non-English-speaking parents of Hispanic children by providing report cards the parents could understand. The current board rescinded that sensible policy, bowing to pressure from a minority who viewed bilingual report cards as tantamount to bilingual education, a wholly different and far more complex issue.

The statement that “the board does not fully inform people of the effects of its actions . . . “ is absolutely correct. The Orange Unified School Board not only does not fully inform people; it makes a conscious effort to keep them uninformed. There have been many requests for public information on various hot topics in the school district, and the requested information has been deliberately withheld by acting Supt. Richard Donoghue.

The Orange Unified School Board decided on May 14, 1992, to fire Dr. Guith and buy out his contract, a decision that cost the district more than $120,000. To fund this astounding change, the Orange Unified School District Board cut back $120,000 in high school sports programs, eliminated textbooks for middle-school students, assessed a charge for bus transportation, and reduced teachers’ salaries by 2.6%.

Advertisement

The board insists that it has a master plan into which these otherwise meaningless changes fit; the community at large has not seen the plan, had no input into the plan, and must take its very existence on faith.

It is a credit to the dedicated teachers, aides, administrators and volunteer parents in this district that test scores have remained high in spite of the lack of competent leadership at the top. Recall is not only appropriate, it is absolutely necessary if the district is to survive.

DONNA GRUBAUGH, Orange

Advertisement