Orange School Board Recall: Afterthoughts

I’ve seen letters asking why there was a recall election. Here’s the tip of the iceberg:

1. Spending an estimated half-million dollars on the Gay-Straight Alliance lawsuit when the school board admitted going in that the law was against them.

2. In the fall of ‘99, The Times reported that the school district had a $20-million reserve. That reserve was $10 million on the budget report of 2000. Where did the rest go?

3. Hiring a labor lawyer to handle a civil-rights lawsuit. In fact, for the money spent on lawyer fees for the gay-straight club suit alone, they could have hired full-time labor and civil-rights lawyers.

4. Firing a risk manager, whose job it is to help them avoid such lawsuits. That’s not cost-effective.

5. Rejecting government funding for programs such as those designed to provide breakfast for students. That’s a return of our tax dollars to our community that they are rejecting.

6. Failing to negotiate reasonably with teachers, with the result that large numbers of quality teachers left the district.

Judy Anderson

Anaheim

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The school board would like to take the credit for rising test scores where they have occurred. Are they willing to take the blame for low test scores?

I teach at Portola Middle School, typical of the schools on the west side of Orange Unified. More than 70% of our students live below the poverty level, and more than 60% of our students are minority.

Although our students met our Academic Performance Index growth target, our test scores remain among the lowest in the district and the county. Here is what the school board has done for our students: denied access to federal funding for medical care, threatened to drop the free and reduced-price breakfast and lunch program, and forced our school and others on the west side into a multitrack year-round schedule, thus losing four instructional days and many veteran teachers.

Other schools in the district are more crowded than ours, but the board has opted to spend the money for portable classrooms at those schools rather than go year-round. At this writing, our school has neither heat nor air-conditioning in the majority of classrooms and has had none for several years.

In the winter, our students take turns warming their hands in the exhaust of the overhead projector. This year, our students took their STAR tests during the recent heat wave. Try to imagine 35 adolescents crammed into a classroom in 90-degree heat.

Our classroom floors are littered with broken and loose asbestos tiles. I teach on a bare concrete floor. Maureen Aschoff is the board member who is supposed to represent the west side of the district. Yet neither she nor any other board member has visited our school in over four years.

The students on this side of the district have not been well-served by Aschoff. Our gains in the Academic Performance Index have been due to the hard work and dedication of teachers, students and parents of our community in spite of, not because of, the actions of this board.

Mary Ellen Oves

Orange

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I sincerely hope the new board majority does not undo the responsible decisions that we have proudly made over the past four years, saving the district from bankruptcy, raising the salaries of our teachers and most of all, bringing back quality education for our children.

This was accomplished without tax increases or cuts in academic programs as other districts are currently experiencing. We all must continue to focus on what is in the best interest of our children.

Linda Davis

Former member, Orange Unified School Board

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It would be nice if just once, the local media would recognize the monumental volunteer effort that went into the Orange Unified recall, rather than portraying it simply as a battle between the school board and the teachers union.

The recall was initiated by five parents with no ties to the union. Most petition drives use paid signature collectors, but nearly all of the signatures on the Orange recall petitions were obtained by volunteers. Hundreds of people put in countless hours to complete the petitions and work on the election.

Yes, the teachers union supported the effort and many teachers gave up their free time to participate in the recall. Why wouldn’t they, since their jobs and the students and schools they love were at stake?

Orange Unified is in one of the most politically conservative areas in the known universe. Anyone who thinks that this vibrant coalition of volunteer recall supporters came together to promote some loony liberal agenda--as the recall opponents claim--needs a major reality check.

Gisela Meier

Orange

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The Orange Recall Committee was criticized by the L.A. Times and many others for the fact that the special election was taking place only four months before the real election.

As reported, only 131 teachers resigned from Orange Unified effective June 30, which is the cutoff date for teachers to give notice if they plan to stay or return.

By accomplishing the recall, we saved ourselves at least the loss of more than 100 additional teachers this summer. Many teachers had expressed that they would seek employment elsewhere if the Orange recall failed.

And, remember, the Orange school board majority set the June 26 date for the election instead of June 5, which would have aligned with the City Council runoff election. Not only did this cost the taxpayers an additional $150,000, but it probably also cost us the loss of some of those 131 re-signees.

Karl Baysinger

Orange