Trustees Create Panel to Review Cooperation

In a split vote, the Orange Unified School Board has established a committee charged with fostering greater cooperation among trustees.

After some discussion at Thursday night’s session, board members voted 5-2 to proceed.

“It’s important periodically to look at where we have been and where we are going,” said Trustee Robert H. Viviano, who had come up with the idea. “We are, in the final analysis, a public institution.”

Viviano is a politically moderate trustee who has frequently been outvoted by the more conservative majority of the seven-member board, one of the most divided and contentious in the county.

Under the plan, the three-trustee committee will meet over the next two weeks to discuss ways to open up the process of putting items on the board’s agenda, among other issues.

District policy states that any board member may put an item on the agenda, but the board president can veto it. Overriding a veto requires a vote by two board members.

Board President Martin Jacobson and Trustee Max Reissmueller, two of the board’s conservative members, voted against the measure. The other five trustees agreed to the plan.

Trustees Bill Lewis and Maureen Aschoff, both of whom usually identify with the conservative majority, and Rick Ledesma, who is in the political minority, will sit on the committee.

The committee will report on its discussions at the March 27 meeting, which begins at 7 p.m. at 1401 N. Handy St. Information: (714) 997-6221.