"They need to cut the money at the top"

In the March 25th edition of the OC Register, Kimberly Edds reports on the funding crisis facing the Orange County Fire Authority.

Edds interviews Modjeska Canyon resident Janice Beasley whose home was lost in the October 2007 Santiago fire.

excerpt:

"The help needs to go to our fire department," she said. "We didn't have enough help to begin with, and now this?"

The Santiago fire destroyed 15 homes in the canyon communities of Modjeska and Trabuco. ..For more than a year, the Beasleys have been living out of a trailer. They lost most of their possessions and relied on friends and neighbors for handouts.

Budget crisis or not, Beasley's anger at the cutbacks spilled out to include the announced closing of nearby Silverado Elementary School and other things she sees as community necessities.

"They need to cut the money at the top, from the salaries of the senators and the other politicians who continue to get raises," Beasley said. "My husband took a pay cut because of the poor economy – why not these people?"

To read the article in its entirety, click here.

Janice Beasley makes an excellent point about the need to chop from the top, one that you might want to echo in your letters to local elected officals.

Please see the recently updated sidebar to the right for information on how you can communciate our concerns to those who can make a difference.

*

How the LAUSD Does It

Celeste Fremon, who teaches in the Literary Journalism program at UC Irvine and blogs at Witness LA, has written a post about how the Los Angeles Unified School District is cutting $718 million out of its budget. Ouch.

Now I know that the LAUSD is a big beast of a school district but Fremon's post and the LA Times article she cites have lessons for our own OUSD situation.

For example, the LAUSD has pinkslipped some 4700 teachers but as the Times and Fremon point out, an internal audit reveals some interesting expenditures. Case in point, some $17 million spent on unqualified, unecessary consultants.

To check it out, click here.

And then, somebody, let's start looking at OUSD expenditures.

As Fremon writes, "Perhaps this is the sort of thing that some nice, smart group of investigative journalism students ought to be looking at a little more closely. Hint, hint."

*****

(Stay tuned for an update on last night's meeting. Thanks to all who turned out. Needless to say, the struggle continues. Keep those cards and letters and emails coming, folks.)
*

OUSD March 12 Board Meeting

From the Orange County Register:

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Silverado Elementary to shut its doors
Orange Unified trustees OK plan to boost class sizes, kill middle school sports and reduce high school counselors.
By FERMIN LEAL

ORANGE Orange Unified trustees voted 4-3 today to close Silverado Elementary as part of an effort to trim $33.1 million from the district budget...

...About 150 parents, teachers and others attended the meeting to hear about the proposals. Several of the Silverado parents attended to plead with board members.

...Silverado parents and residents had been working for weeks to save their small school. The group tried to persuade district officials to convert the campus into a magnet or charter focused on environmental sciences and technology. Community members said they've been raising money through grants so the school could remain open for at least one more year.

To read in its entirety, click here.