Trustees Seek Ban on Social Service Grants

A new written policy introduced Thursday by the Orange Unified School District board would prohibit schools from seeking grants that offer medical and social services to students.

The board decided to draft the policy last month after narrowly approving a $25,000 grant from the Weingart Foundation.

Trustees said then that they were reluctant for philosophical reasons to accept the money, which will be used as part of a broader program offering counseling and medical services to low-income students at Lampson Elementary School in Garden Grove.

Trustees approved the grant on a 4-3 vote but said they will review future grant applications before they are mailed out.

Trustee Bill Lewis cast the swing vote for the grant, which will pay for only part of the program. He said later that he did not realize the extent of services offered at Lampson and now regrets his vote.

“I’m not happy . . . if what I’m hearing is true,” he said Thursday as the board began a review of programs offered at the school. “I want to know when it became a district responsibility to get a child to school healthy and well-fed.”

Several other trustees said that families, not schools, should provide such services.

The new policy, which administrators are still refining, states that grant requests “shall be related to the academic programs . . . and not for district services such as medical or dental health, psychological services, etc.”

A vote on the policy could come Feb. 22, officials said.