Locals vie for spots on the school...

Locals vie for spots on the school board

Three Surf City candidates are already officially in the running

to serve on local school boards.

Celia Jaffe, a parent, filed papers Monday to run for an open slot

on the Huntington Beach City School District’s board. The seat became

vacant after board president Robert Mann retired in June. If elected,

Jaffe would serve the remainder of Mann’s term, which expires in

2006.

Jaffe, a registered Democrat, holds a master’s degree in education

and said she worked as a teacher for five years until her oldest

child, Diana, was born 17 years ago. She is a member of the

Huntington Union PTA Council and served on the district’s budget

advisory committee. She spent four years on the Huntington Beach

Education Foundation Board before leaving the body last year and has

been a volunteer at district schools for nine years.

“I think you’d be hard-pressed to find someone who knows the

district for as long a time as I have,” Jaffe said.

Jaffe ran an unsuccessful campaign to serve on the board in 2002.

On the same day, Diane Lenning announced she would enter the race

to represent Huntington Beach on the Coast Community College District

Board of Trustees. The seat is held by Armando Ruiz, who said he

plans to run again, though he has yet to file papers. Lenning, a

registered Republican, ran for City Council in 2002 and missed

election by 299 votes. She is a member of the Chamber of Commerce,

and her civic activities have included the Amigos de Bolsa Chica and

Kiwanis Club. Local Libertarian Party activist Norm Westwell is

attempting what he called a “trifecta” on the campaign trail this

year, running for a seat on the Ocean View School Board, in addition

to vying for a City Council slot and the State Assembly. Westwell,

who ran an unsuccessful dual campaign for the school district and

City Council in 2002, said his primary goal in running for public

office is to cut back on the scope of bureaucracy and regulations.

“We need to get government out of people’s lives,” he said.

Two seats on the school board, held by Barbara Boskovich and Pam

Ogden, will be up for grabs in November. Boskovich has not yet filed,

but said she plans to run for reelection.

District looking to sell acreage of mesa

The Ocean View School District could sell 15 acres of the Bolsa

Chica Mesa in the aftermath of Hearthside Homes’ decision to sell the

lower half of the land to the state’s Wildlife Conservation Board.

The state and Hearthside Homes agreed on a $65-million deal for a

103-acre portion of the mesa on June 30. The school district could

net $10 million to $15 million for their land, said Carol Stocker,

chief operations and facilities officer for the district.

The district has not yet received a formal offer from the Wildlife

Conservation Board. Al Wright, the board’s executive director, said

the school district will likely get an offer if the board formally

approves the Hearthside deal, which is on the body’s Aug. 12 agenda.

The school board could make a decision on whether to declare the

land surplus and make it available for sale at their Aug. 10 meeting,

Stocker said. If the state’s deal with Hearthside falls through, the

district could sell to another buyer or keep the land.

The district purchased the land in 1966, anticipating Bolsa Chica

Mesa would become a neighborhood and need its own school. In May of

last year, the District’s advisory committee gave a report to the

school board saying the district had enough room at other schools

near the mesa if the land was developed. The committee recommended

the school board declare the land surplus property and look for a

buyer who would use the land for a park, open space, conservation or

recreational purposes.

“We hope that our board will just move forward with it,” Stocker

said. “We’ve waited a long time to see if it moves forward with

Hearthside.”

Agreement saves library clerks’ jobs

The Huntington Beach City School District and the union

representing classified employees in the district has reached an

agreement that will save the jobs of two library clerks.

The deal was made on June 30, one day before Kathy Kessler, the

district’s assistant superintendent for human resources, went on

vacation, union president Midge Hill said.

Hill said she was glad to have reached an agreement, though she

feels district staffers have already paid too heavy a price as the

district slashes its budget because of shortfalls arising from the

state’s fiscal troubles.

“The downside of it is this is the third year that the classified

bargaining side has suffered eliminations and reductions,” she said.

On June 22, the school board approved a resolution that placed the

library jobs at Hawes and Kettler elementary schools on the chopping

block if budget cuts could not be negotiated with the union. Under

the new agreement, library clerks at those schools, which have lower

enrollment than others in the district, will work fewer hours than

their counterparts at other campuses. The board had already approved

layoffs for two custodial positions and a bus driver’s job.

The custodians will be able to interview for new jobs as the

district restructures its maintenance program, Hill said.

District officials made their budgeting decisions, which included

about $890,000 worth of cuts, based on expectations of what the final

state budget would look like, Assistant Supt. for Fiscal Services

David Perry said. The deadline for a budget was June 30, and until

that process is complete, there remains the possibility that the

district might have to make additional cuts to next year’s budget.

“Until we see the state budget and see the final analysis, I can’t

say there won’t be any more reductions,” Perry said.