Orange Trustees Show Ignorance

Re the Orange Unified School District’s Board of Trustees action against Lampson Elementary School (“Differing Schools of Thought,” March 17):

Once again, Orange County’s barbarian conservatives are publicly displaying their ignorance. This time, however, they are the Board of Trustees for the school district.

The argument against serving the needs of ill-nourished and ill-nurtured children is based on their belief that “schools shouldn’t usurp the role of social services agencies,” and should “focus more on academics.” The first statement presumes that the school is usurping the role of such agencies because it is acting to fill an unmet need; nonsense! To serve the needs of our children is responsible and enlightened behavior, pure and simple.

Furthermore, social services agencies need all the help they can get. One needs only to look to find the remnants of ignorance all around us--decay and neglect are rampant.

Lastly, the notion of “focusing more on academics,” is akin to expecting flower seeds (our children) to grow simply by putting them in dirt (our public schools), utter drivel. Those seeds require dirt, sunshine, water and care. Shame on the board. You were put in trust of our children and you have fed them to the wolves of ignorance in your lust for power and control of the so-called conservative agenda.

PHILLIP JAMES NICHOLS

Newport Beach

* As a member of the Santa Ana School District’s Board of Trustees, I battle the extremist positions of two board members who are aligned with the board majority in Orange. Like their comrades in Orange, they would dismantle academic and student support service programs that don’t fit their vision of a new society.

The Times article did two important things. It pointed out the value placed on student support programs by parents, teachers and principals, and the need for such programs. And it exposed the raw ideological basis and authoritarian perspective of those that would cut off grant aid for student support services. The problems we are challenged with in Santa Ana--teaching non-English-speaking students, low levels of parental education, multiple cultural backgrounds--are identical to those at Lampson. It is clear in your article that there is a demonstrated need and local school support for programs that address those needs.

The most discouraging aspect of your report is how board members reduce their arguments to labeling opponents of these programs cuts as “socialist” or, even worse here in Orange County, as “liberals.” They discuss the teachers’ desires to offer a helping hand as misguided, but understandable given the “big hearts of our teachers.” How insulting to the teachers, parents, principals and those of us in the community who see the need and work to address those needs in a responsible way.

ROBERT W. BALEN

Member, Board of Trustees

Santa Ana Unified School District

* Let’s get this straight. A Garden Grove elementary school has brought in more than $200,000 in grants, free of matching requirements for the district. Among other things, these grants fund dental and health clinics and parenting, English as a second language, Head Start and breakfast programs for the desperately poor student body.

The school board’s response to the astonishing ingenuity and compassion of this extraordinary principal and staff is to threaten to walk away from this “free” money which has nurtured the bodies and souls of the students and their families, because “test scores are low.” Has the board given any thought to how low those scores may go when the children who take those tests are unable to concentrate because their stomachs are empty, they are sick with a treatable illness or distressed by family troubles, which could be addressed by counseling?

This program is based neither in socialism nor liberalism, as trustee Max Reissmueller would have us believe. It is progressivism, incorporating the best of our heritage, i.e., when the little red schoolhouse was the heart of the community, into the reality of the present in order to craft a better future. The success of a culture has never been measured solely by test scores, but rather how it provided all of its citizens with access to the tools to better themselves and, ultimately, society.

SUSAN EASTMAN

Health Issues Project

Santa Ana

The success of a culture has never been measured solely by test scores, but rather how it provided all of its citizens with access to the tools to better themselves and, ultimately, society.