Take Back Control of Orange Unified

Your article about our recall campaign (“Rally Aims to Enlist Foes of Orange Board,” Nov. 19) didn’t tell the whole story. As a concerned Orange Unified parent and chairperson of the recall campaign, I’d like to offer your readers some key points that the community should know about us.

We are working to recall three school board members--Linda Davis, Marty Jacobson and Maureen Aschoff--who have isolated themselves from the community they were elected to represent. Recent examples of their mismanagement include: a teacher strike last April; exodus of 1,000 district employees since June 1997 (a turnover of nearly two-thirds of the district’s credentialed educators, including classroom teachers, administrators, mentor teachers, school psychologists, counselors, librarians, nurses, reading specialists and special education teachers); and well over $1 million in legal fees in the past two years to defend lawsuits that should never have happened in the first place.

Our campaign is a grass-roots organization of concerned parents, students, teachers, merchants and business owners. We started last July with five parents who had reached the sad but inescapable conclusion that to save Orange schools we needed to place new leadership at the helm of the district. People who actually support Public Education for All. We launched a signature-gathering drive in August with a clear goal: to collect 14,500 signatures by Jan. 11. The purpose of our Saturday rally was to announce that we already have 10,400 signatures in hand and two more months to collect the remaining 4,100.

MELINDA MOORE

Orange

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Re “Conservative Group Backs Only 10 for Board Seats,” Nov. 6:

Anyone who would like to know the consequences of electing Education Alliance candidates to their school board can look to the Orange Unified School District. The damage done to our once-proud district is clearly evident.

In keeping with the anti-union stance of the Education Alliance, the extremist members of the school board have for the past 11 years waged war against our teachers union. They blame the teachers for district financial problems, refuse to bargain fairly with them, play games with their medical benefits and consistently treat them with cold disrespect. As a result, hundreds of our teachers and administrators have left for jobs in neighboring districts, where they are treated with dignity as well as being paid substantially higher salaries. Teachers looking for work are hesitant to come to Orange schools.

The school board members like to brag about their accomplishments in the district: a new music program, a charter school, English-only language instruction, reduced class sizes. Yet who accomplished these goals? The actual work was done by the teachers, principals and other staff members who worked together, overcoming obstacles and solving problems along the way. One would think that such an outstanding, hard-working, dedicated group of employees would have the appreciation and support of their governing board. Instead, the board members treat them as the enemy.

To everyone in the Orange Unified School District: It is time to take back our district from the extremists who are bent on destroying it. Support the recall of the OUSD school board members.

GISELA MEIER

Orange