ORANGE COUNTY VOICES : Schools Continue to Succeed Despite Bankruptcy’s Cruel Blow : Help is on the horizon as the county copes with overcrowding, reduced resources. Above all, students are being served.

Public schools in Orange County are alive and (academically) well, despite the financial trauma of 1995. Our more than 500 schools in 28 school districts opened their doors to more than 412,000 K-12 students, and more students rushed in than had left the previous year. We’re alive, well and overcrowded!

Financially, the past year was a disaster for the county and the schools, but the bankruptcy issue is now about 90% behind us. We’re still $109 million short; that’s more than $260 per student, but there is promise on the financial horizon. According to the recently signed agreement, the schools will receive about half of the shortfall from the first litigation settlement. That return is a virtual certainty; when is the question.

Excepting a natural or unnatural disaster in the next two years, none of the districts is on the verge of closing its doors. From the very beginning on that fateful Dec. 6, 1994, all but the most crucial purchases have been postponed or deleted. Still delayed for most schools are purchase orders for computers and other technology, hook-ups to the Internet, cosmetic maintenance (paint, etc.), field trips and many of the kinds of classes that are most attractive to students. The state budget’s recent cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) allocation of 2.7%, the first in six years, helps to overcome the cost increases since 1989. However, far too many schools still are without adequate nursing and other support services.

One of our schools’ primary needs is more space to handle the student influx. A mere 2% annual increase is more than 8,000 students. At 35 per room, that’s 228 classrooms or a dozen schools spread all over the county. Last year, one of our districts opened five new elementary schools in September, and portable buildings were moved on to some sites within two weeks of the grand opening. Statewide, school building needs exceed $10 billion. In September, the Legislature refused to put a $3-billion school bond on the March ballot. School people are hoping that our children will not be victims of partisan politics again. With California earning the unenviable “worst class-size in the nation” reputation, we must act quickly to resolve the school housing problem.

Our elected nonpartisan Board of Education members responded strongly and responsibly in reducing expenditures to meet the financial demands of the county’s monetary crisis. With the instructional program and school safety as their highest priorities, every other aspect of their annual budgets was open to reductions or elimination. I am pleased to report that every district’s budget, with the requisite reserves, was approved by my office, as required by law.

One major breakthrough was achieved last summer when the State Board of Education removed the “lock-step” approach to bilingual education. Each district may now develop its own distinct program to move every English-as-a-second-language student into English as quickly as possible. No longer will the state direct how that is to be accomplished, thereby freeing each district to develop the program that best meets their students’ needs. The law remains; the resolution is now in local hands, as it should be.

Orange County schools’ reputation as best in the state was well-earned. In part, two major criteria were evident: high numbers of graduates accepted to leading colleges and universities and very low (1.8%) secondary school dropout rates. Quality education prepares students for post-secondary schools and keeps interested children in schools until they graduate. With the “zero tolerance” board policies on drugs in effect, and the Orange County Department of Education’s Horizon High Schools as the last safety net, more students than ever before are graduating. And the dropout rate is certainly among the lowest in the nation.

What’s ahead for 1996? We’re working with districts and the business community to better prepare our graduates for their post-high school activity, whatever that may be.

Seventeen-year-olds need salable skill preparation, either for community college/university success or the working world. Partnerships with business and industry have brought forth successful occupational-awareness opportunities and experiences for students.

Our office continues to play a major role in those ventures. To challenge the college-bound, Advanced Placement classes are available throughout the county’s high schools.

Basic to each of those choices is a strong foundation, and your schools are meeting that demand. The much-discussed whole language/phonics, seemingly dichotomous approach to teaching reading is a straw man. Without question, phonics is a strong component of any reading instruction, and it has not, repeat has not, been replaced or removed from the schools’ curriculum. But it cannot stand alone. Good literature and classic professional writings must be an integral part of the beginning and early reading mix.

The much-ballyhooed almost-worst-in-the-nation California test scores are not accurate nor reliable measures of Orange County student performance. When the infamous CLAS test replacement is in place next year, we will prove that. In the interim, count on your schools to continue producing students who do very well on the SATs. They cannot achieve those levels with a weak foundation.

Only 25% of those reading this column have children in our schools, and research shows that they and their children like our schools. Give us a place to stand, and we can change the world. Give us the tools we need, and we will.