Board of Education’s Policy Revision Criticized

As attorney fees for the Ventura County Board of Education’s revision of its policies approach $25,000, critics continue to question both the cost and the proposed changes.

“I think it is excessive,” said Janet Lindgren, who has announced plans to run against board member Wendy Larner in November. “They could have done it for less money.”

Lindgren, a former member of the Oxnard Union High School District’s board who served 22 years, said the board could have asked county school employees to work on the revisions and save taxpayer dollars.

The board’s conservative majority, which has clashed with County Supt. Charles Weis on issues ranging from AIDS education for teachers to which federal grants to apply for, decided to spend up to $30,000 to update board policy last year.

Larner said the board’s majority initiated the policy review to update guidelines and to gain more oversight of the $39-million county superintendent of schools’ office. But critics counter that the school board’s primary motive was to exert more control over Weis.

In the fourth meeting on this topic, the board Monday night reviewed the proposed changes with a committee of advisors it selected before it actually votes on the complete policy overhaul in September.

The suggested revisions would give the board new powers, including:

* The ability to tell Weis how to implement specific board policy. Currently, the superintendent proposes procedures to put educational policy in place, with the board having veto power. But any subsequent revisions now are designed by Weis. After the change, the board could specify exactly how its policies would be carried out.

* The power to evaluate the superintendent’s performance. Because the superintendent position is an elected office, the board now has no authority to appraise his performance.

* The chance to veto volunteers before they participate in classroom instruction or education programs. Current policy allows county school employees to select any guest speakers.

The revisions would also change how parents of the 1,200 students in the county’s special education classes and programs for troubled teen could keep their children from learning about prevention of AIDS and HIV. Under the new rules, parents would have to request in writing that their child attend such sessions. Now, all students receive such lessons unless their parents ask in writing to have their children excluded.

Larner, who usually sides with her philosophical allies President Marty Bates and member Angela Miller, supported the hiring of the Sacramento law firm Kronick, Moskovitz, Tiedemann & Girard to rewrite board policies, saying it was the cheapest and quickest alternative.

“It is minimal to what it would have taken to do in-house,” Larner said. “It would have taken years.”

But critics of the review say the board majority is actually seeking more than just oversight of the superintendent’s office, which provides administrative support for the 21 school districts in the county and runs programs for troubled teens and special education students, and operates three schools for incarcerated youths.

“The truth of the matter is, they want to control what I do and they want to control the services that my office provides to the school districts,” Weis said before the meeting.

Board member John McGarry said a panel that meets once a month should only have the ability to make broad policy recommendations.

“The board is in no way, shape or form designed to administrate anything,” McGarry said.

But Larner countered that the board was elected to make sure educational policy reflects the interests of parents throughout the county.

“You have to have civilian oversight, and that is what the board is to a very insular organization.”

Weis, who is elected to a four-year term, is one of 53 county superintendents who are elected; five are appointed.

In one of its most publicized clashes with Weis, the board’s conservative majority voted last year to ban the organizations Planned Parenthood and AIDS Care from speaking at regular teacher workshops on sex education and HIV/AIDS prevention.

But state Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren ruled earlier this year that the superintendent had the authority to select speakers for such teacher-training sessions, dealing a blow to the board majority. But the ruling also said that the board may have the ability to “withhold approval of such a program based on the [speaker] selections made by the superintendent.”

Weis said he fears revising the rules to require board approval for all volunteers for educational programs could be used by the panel to keep certain speakers out.

As part of the policy review process, Larner and the other members of the board’s majority have proposed changing the name of the Office of the Ventura County Superintendent of Schools to the Ventura County Office of Education, to better reflect the board’s role in countywide education.

Although Weis said he is not opposed to changing the office’s 123-year-old name, he said the move is unnecessary and would be a waste of taxpayer’s money, costing more than $5,500 to place new signs on buildings and new logos on office cars.