‘Crooked’ Administrators Bled Schools

* I read Bill Lewis’ rebuttal (Letters, Feb. 20) to the two parents who complained about the situation in the Orange Unified School District, and I think Mr. Lewis missed the point.

Orange does not have too many administrators.

It has too many crooked and incompetent administrators.

Administrators who, over the past six years, engaged in multimillion-dollar construction fraud. Administrators who were fired and their six-figure contracts paid off. Administrators who have proven their inability to manage the district by continuing to lay off employees each year, despite the fact that all of the other school districts in Orange County, facing exactly the same state budget problem, have been able to balance their budgets through attrition, minimal cuts to student services and--a concept that is obviously foreign to the Orange board--effective management.

And Lewis’ bizarre statement that taxes are the root cause of the lack of money for education suggests to me that he should take a remedial economics course before attempting to balance his own checkbook, let alone handle the finances of a large school district.

MIRIAM F. GREGORY

Anaheim Hills

* I just read Orange school board member Bill Lewis’ letter. Interesting. George Bush, Pete Wilson and Bill Clinton raised taxes and that caused the current financial crisis in the Orange School District. So let me get this straight. The fact that I have $5 less in my wallet this year is the reason that essential school employees are being laid off? Stupid me. I thought it was the fact that former district administrators siphoned off millions of dollars in fraud and embezzlement.

HANK THOMPSON

Orange