ORANGE : Board to Continue Charter School Study

Orange Unified School District trustees have committed themselves to further study of the controversial privatizing of schools, despite earlier protests from unions and residents.

The board last week urged more district schools to go forward with the charter-school process, which would free them from state control. The trustees agreed to sponsor workshops for administrators, teachers and parents to help them understand the charter concept.

The board also discussed seeking waivers for the district from portions of the state code. “I think it would be an outstanding idea for the district to show the state that parts of the education code are unnecessary and a burden to education,” trustee Bill Lewis said.

Attorney Clayton H. Parker briefed the trustees on what to expect if they decide to pursue waivers from the state code or try for a full-scale chartering of local schools.

“I would say you should prepare yourself like you’re preparing for trial,” he said.

A lengthy legal analysis from Parker’s Tustin firm outlined educational areas subject to waivers and those that could be changed by the charter school process.

Transportation, custodial jobs, food and health services are to some extent open to private contracting, Parker said. But any contracting out of teaching or administrative posts would have to go through the charter process, he said.

One of the district’s schools, Santiago Middle, is to open as a charter school next fall. Parker noted that the Santiago school had the blessing of the teaching staff--a legal necessity and a crucial element in the often contentious school district.

Supt. Robert L. French noted that the district would have to provide alternative public school instruction to any resident who requested it if all 37 schools went charter, “and that could be very costly.”