Orange Trustees Say Social Services Fight Has Only Just Begun

Conservative trustees for the Orange Unified School District admit falling down in their unprecedented charge to oust certain social services from schools, but say the fight isn’t over yet.

Bowing to pressure from a crowd of 400 on Thursday, the Orange Unified trustees backed off from a sweeping policy to ban grants for medical, dental and psychological services at district schools. But they left room to take up the battle again by retaining the power to reject grants on a case-by-base basis.

“I’ll never give up,” said Martin Jacobson, school board president. “When the individual grants come before us, that will be another hurdle, that will be another test as to how conservative this board is.”

The retreat, however, saddened like-minded school board members in other districts who looked to Orange Unified’s conservative majority for leadership.

“I’m disappointed they caved in to the pressure,” said Santa Ana Unified School District Trustee Rosemarie Avila. “I think people need to be educated more on the issue before it can be looked at again.”

Speaking for many conservative school board members eager to enact similar grant restrictions, Avila said: “I think Orange’s policy is good, but I just don’t have the votes right now.”

Mark Petracca, a UC Irvine professor of political science, contends conservatives are unlikely to win a majority of votes on the issue because public support simply isn’t there.

The proposal to ban services at Orange schools drew opposition from various community groups and a plea from Gayle Wilson, the wife of Gov. Pete Wilson, to save a breakfast program at risk.

“As long as the scope of public conflict is open and broad, they will fail,” Petracca said.

But he added that the Orange district’s decision to address social service grants on an individual basis, where the drama will not be as high as Thursday’s vote, might enable conservatives to ultimately claim victory.

“When the crowds thin out, when all these caveats are introduced, that’s when the strength of their ideology can succeed,” Petracca said. “I don’t think this reversal, this public humiliation, is going to dissuade anyone from trying again.”

Orange Unified trustees who oppose the proposed ban, which was defeated by a 4-3 vote, expect future assaults on social service programs in the district.

” . . . Their agenda is loud and clear,” said Trustee James Fearns, a ban opponent. “We took the teeth out of the tiger, but now they can still win this thing piecemeal.”

The controversy is rooted in a crucial philosophical question: Should a school be responsible for a child’s basic needs when parents are either unable or unwilling to do so?

At Orange Unified’s Lampson Elementary School in Garden Grove, administrators answered with a resounding “yes.” Three-fourths of the school’s 900 students live in poverty, and teachers report many students are simply unable to learn because they have little to eat or suffer from psychological trauma stemming from violent homes.

To combat the problems, administrators won about $200,000 in grants for services such as mobile health vans, student counseling services and other programs to help parents, many of whom cannot speak English.

One piece of that grant package, a $25,000 award from the philanthropic Weingart Foundation, sparked the furor, which culminated in Thursday night’s vote. The proposed ban drew opposition from parents, teachers, the local chamber of commerce and the statewide California Teachers Assn.

The proposal would have banned any grant not specifically related to academics, but was primarily aimed at school-based programs that allowed students to leave class for medical or psychological services.

The effect could have been much wider, however, threatening athletics, federally funded free breakfasts, arts courses, even the drug-prevention DARE program, according to board members.

“The way it was worded it left it open for people to surmise all sorts of terrible things,” Jacobson said of the original policy.

But with grants now being evaluated on a case-by-case basis, school board members predicted a long, hard fight ahead.

“Now we’ve heightened the awareness, but it’s going to be an ongoing battle all the time,” said Trustee Bill Lewis, who voted for the ban. “You’re going to have to fight this fight every time, not just once.”