Orange Moves Ahead With Charter Schools Idea : Education: Trustees vote 6-1 to spend $2,700 for two workshop sessions about the concept. Such schools could create curricula and even hire uncredentialed teachers.

School board members took the first step Thursday toward declaring freedom from the state for some of the district’s 36 schools in creating their own curricula, managing their own finances and even hiring teachers without credentials.

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Trustees of the Orange Unified School District voted 6 to 1 to spend $2,700 to conduct two workshops in August to consider establishing a multi-campus school charter, despite wariness of some union representatives, parents and others about board members’ motives for the plan.

A 1992 state law allows 100 such charters statewide, and 87 already have been granted. Officials in these charter schools are free of many state regulations regarding who to hire, what to teach and how to spend. They still must adhere to some basic curricula, however, officials said.

Board members have said they are attracted to the charter school concept because the schools are governed by a local board of parents, teachers and administrators instead of the state’s massive Education Code, which they regard as restrictive and ungainly.

At the August workshops, board members and principals will hear from administrators in San Diego who have successfully established a multi-school charter.

“They have been at it longer. They have gone through a lot of the pain, and I think they can bring a lot of enthusiasm for investigating the idea,” Supt. Robert L. French said.

Union officials for both teaching and non-teaching staffs have watched nervously as board members discussed charter schools during the past year. And representatives are wary of the seven-member board, which has presided over the long-troubled and frequently dysfunctional district, one of the largest in the county.

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While the teachers union said earlier this month that it fears “union-busting,” David Reger, president of the Orange Unified Education Assn., said Thursday night that one advantage would be the charter school’s freedom from the dictates of the school board itself.

“Just think, schools able to go their own way, parents, administrators and teachers working together independent of the school board. Wow. Many teachers could find that appealing.”

On the other hand, he said, “We are against charter schools done for the wrong reason, such as to facilitate a political or religious philosophy.”

Parents and teachers who spoke at the meeting all advised caution and urged the board to proceed slowly.

“It is an experiment,” teacher John Rossmann said. “It would be like deciding to inject a new drug into thousands of children before the effects are known. And that would be immoral.”

Parent Alan Trudell said, “As parents, we do not want the charter schools issue to become a battleground for personal or ideological beliefs.” In defense, Board Member Martin Jacobson said this is still in the conceptual stages, and that the board envisioned having a vehicle in place should schools choose to become charter schools.

“I think this board is aware that a top-down approach cannot be used.” Before a charter can be effected, 50% of that school’s teachers, or 10% of teachers districtwide, must endorse it.

The county’s only charter school, Orange Unified’s Santiago Middle School, is set to open its doors in September after two years of preparation. The teachers at Santiago continue to be represented by their union.

Representatives for the non-teaching staff are also in a wait-and-see mode.

“We are not encouraging charter schools, but they are a lesser evil than the voucher system,” which rebates tax money to pay for private schools, said William Lokay, labor relations representative for the district’s chapter of California School Employees Assn. “We are concerned that this board is not truly supportive of the public school system. If anything, they are trying to circumvent the public school system rather than improve it.”

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But French said he views charter schools as an innovative educational system that allows teachers and administrators “flexibility and freedom in educational techniques.”

He viewed the vote for the workshop as an endorsement of the concept, which he supports as an educator because “it involves the community and the business world and that’s what I like to see,” he said.