OC Register Coverage and Letters!

In today's OC Register, Fermin Leal writes about the redistricting proposal that OUSD will consider at Thursday night's meeting.

excerpt:

"There is almost unanimous support from this community to move into Saddleback," said Deborah Johnson, a parent of the former Silverado school.

Johnson says the proximity of schools in Saddleback Valley compared to Orange Unified, and other factors make sense for transferring the Silverado area. Ultimately, the goal is to have one kindergarten through eighth-grade campus that serves all the canyon communities in eastern Orange County, Johnson said.

To read the rest, click here.

Please consider joining concerned community members at the September 24 Thursday night meeting! 7 PM at 1401 N. Handy Street.

On a related note: Last week, the Register published a link to a datebase of the pensions given to local education administrators who earn six-figure penisons. The top recipient in the OUSD was the former super Thomas Godley who gets a monthy payment of $17,517.65 which works out to an annual payout of $210,211.80.

excerpt:

"Another member of the "100,000-plus" club, former Orange Unified School District Superintendent Thomas Godley collects $210,211 a year. He was the budget chief for Newport-Mesa Unified when a finance worker siphoned $3.7 million to buy such things as full-length fur coats in 1992.

Godley was one of several officials who received a vote of no confidence from Newport-Mesa teachers, although board members did not hold him responsible for the theft. Godley later became superintendent of Grossmont High School District in 1997, where he received another vote of no confidence from teachers at war with the school board."

For more details, click here.

MEANWHILE, PEOPLE WRITE LETTERS.

In the wake of last week's road closure, concerned Silverado resident Laurel Ward sent this one to the OC Register:

Over the objections of local residents, the Orange Unified School District closed Silverado Elementary that serves the remote canyon communities of Orange County. As we argued, one of the main tragedies of this action is the long, winding bus ride on these narrow roads that our kids would be forced to endure. The bus route can take over an hour one way, and goes past the toll road intersection with Santiago Canyon, which is troubled by frequent closures. Last week the bus was observed driving poorly on Santiago Canyon road: weaving into the bike lane, driving at inconsistent speeds, trailed by a huge train of commuters and not getting to the right in the only passing zone. In a residential section of Silverado Canyon, the driver waved following cars around him (illegally) on a blind curve where there was oncoming traffic. Lastly, today, due to a vehicle fire, Santiago Canyon Road was closed to traffic in both directions, and the students stuck on that bus languished there for an extra 45 minutes. The OUSD has failed our children and betrayed the tax paying parents of this community by closing a school that has served this area for over a hundred years. Re-open Silverado Elementary!

And this letter was sent to OUSD officials:

9/20/09

To: Superintendent and School Board Members, Orange Unified School District

It seems probable that there have been multiple violations of the Brown Act on the part of Orange Unified Board Members and the Superintendent.

Over the past six months, Board Members have refused to meet with canyon residents on numerous occasions citing the Brown Act. But have they actually read it? The Brown Act forbids elected officials to meet and share information about public concerns outside of the public eye. However, it explicitly does not restrict elected officials from meeting with their constituents. The citations below are from the Attorney General’s office:

"Individual contacts or communications between a member of a legislative body and any other person are specifically exempt from the definition of a meeting. (§ 54952.2(c)(1).) The purpose of this exception appears to be to protect the constitutional rights of individuals to contact their government representatives regarding issues which concern them…

Accordingly, if a member of the public requests a conversation with an individual member of the board, who then acts independently of the board and its other members in deciding whether to talk with the member of the public, no meeting will have occurred even if the member of the public ultimately meets with a quorum of the body."
Given these clear guidelines, why have board members refused to meet with us under the guise of a possible violation of the Brown Act? We were told the Superintendent instructed them in this misguided denial of our civil rights. This action does appear to be a violation of the Brown Act.

In an earlier instance, prior to the vote to close Silverado Elementary School, a Board Member voiced publicly that the closure of the school was a "done deal". How would this Board Member know the vote was a "done deal" if she had not discussed the matter with other Board Members, in obvious violation of the Brown Act?
Communication from the Orange County District Attorney's office indicates there is reasonable cause to suspect Brown Act violations in these, and other instances. Interestingly, if an action by an elected body is accompanied by a proven violation of the Brown Act, the action is automatically nullified. That would be an intriguing turn of events.

Is this a relationship worth continuing? The situation has deteriorated to the point that Board Members will not meet with us, in mockery of their elected responsibilities. In response some are looking carefully at the potential illegality of the Board's actions. None of us in the Canyon Communities relish spending considerable time and energy on these matters, but we will if necessary. This is a sorry state of affairs, not productive for any of us.

The solution is to support the proposed redistricting of the Canyon Communities to Saddleback Valley Unified. Think of this as similar to a request for a divorce. There is no future for our community with Orange Unified. Why not just let us go our own way? Staying in a conflicted relationship is of no benefit to either party, nor to the children. Remember the children? The Canyon Communities' School children especially are being harmed the way things are.

Sincerely,
Jeffrey Wilson and Marta Abello
Parents of two children now attending school in Saddleback Valley Unified School District

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Back to School Update: Bus Rides and Car Fires

Now that so many of us are back at school - whether Chapman, Portola Hills, Trabuco Elementary - or the school that is homeschool - it's time to revive the blog with the latest news.

When we last left off, Silverado Elementary had been closed, its students scattered to the four directions, many opting for the long bus ride to Chapman Hills Elementary in Orange. Silverado Elementary School remains closed, its once green grass field turning brown.

In Modjeska Canyon, where my family lives, the school bus picks up students at 6:30 am.

I see the school bus leaving the canyon in the afternoons, around 4:15-4:30. That's a ten hour day, some three hours spent in transit.

This morning that commute was extended an estimated 45 minutes when the inevitable happened - a closure on that two lane rural road. (UPDATE: the bus that carries the elementary school children was not delayed - apparently only the high school bus was.)

A car fire near Irvine Lake closed Santiago Canyon Road in both directions. As you may know, parents and concerned community members warned the Orange County Board of trustees that the bus would often face significant road closures, resulting in extended commutes, missed classtime and other problems.



Serena Marie Daniels and Bruce Chambers writing in the Orange County Register report:

"Firefighters worked to knock out a vehicle fire at Santiago Canyon Road next to Irvine Lake this morning, causing morning traffic to backup in both directions, police said...California Highway Patrol officer Alvin Yamaguchi said when he arrived, the smoke was thick and he thought the canyon was on fire but it never got the vegetation."

To read the rest, click here.


(photos by Bruce Chambers, from the OC Register)

Please consider writing letters to the OC Register about these issues - as well as letter to the OUSD trustees.

Send your letters to: letters@ocregister.com

To contact OUSD trustees, see the sidebar to contact info.

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Mark Your Calendar:

The OUSD board has agendized the proposal to redistrict the community affected by the school closure to the nearby Saddleback Valley Unified School District.

Please plan to attend the Thursday, Sept. 24 AT 7 P.M.

Consider writing to the OUSD trustees with your views.

More information soon.

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Foothills Sentry Coverage Continues

In the July issue of the Foothills Sentry's Canyon Beat column, Linda May celebrates the new Santiago Canyon bridge - and Lisa Alvarez and Andrew Tonkovich write about Silverado Elementary School.

excerpt:

Meanwhile, down the road from the new bridge, a sad example perhaps of what happens when the community is disenfranchised and ignored, offers itself in the now-abandoned and empty historic elementary school. Silverado Elementary, which served the children of the canyon for over a century, held its final class session on Thursday June 11 and was formally shuttered the following week on Friday June 19, this the result of the OUSD board vote two months ago.

Reports indicate that about half the canyon's K-6 children will be enrolled in the fall at Chapman Hills Elementary, their parents opting for the long bus ride or providing their own transportation. Understandably, residents continue to express concern about the duration of the bus ride and its impact on their kids' education and health. A 6:30 am pick-up is scheduled for the children of Modjeska Canyon. Parents point out that this requires a 5-5:30 AM wake-up call for the youngest of them – and a school day (including transportation) that approaches 9 hours. Many children have been enrolled at Trabuco Elementary School in nearby Saddleback Valley Unified District while others have embraced other options, including homeschooling and private schools.

But in the wake of the vote, efforts to challenge the vote, the school's closure and transfer of students, many parents express disappointment at the failure of district representatives, including board members, to bother to show up on the last day of classes or to otherwise acknowledge the tragedy of closing the campus, arguably the heart of the canyon community. Further, the apparent failure of district managers to develop a plan for the closing struck many as problematic, especially in light of the seemingly disorganized or unsupervised closing process.

Sure, the joyful end of the normal school year is always tinged with sadness but the sight of classrooms packed up and cleared out for good was chilling. The staff and heroic soon to be former teachers of the small school could be seen working beyond the call of duty but community members wondered indeed where the on-the-ground physical services support from the district was. The task of dismantling a school is enormous and district services and support staff didn't seem in evidence. One of the perhaps best, if easiest

The best evidence of their absence was what was found in the overflowing single recycling dumpster and the two trash dumpsters: books. A picture tells a thousand words, but in this case the single word seemed to be "waste."

So, diving in where the district would not, some concerned parents and children spent a recent morning in the school parking lot "dumpster diving," rescuing furniture, art supplies, bulletin boards, workbooks and, yes, hundreds of books --- hardbacks, textbooks, art books, readers and paperbacks --- sorting through and arranging them in boxes. The salvaged treasure was driven to Santa Ana where volunteers in a tutoring program were grateful to receive it.

A blog post at http://savesilveradoelementary.blogspot.com meant to call attention to the failure of administrative planning at the district level seems to have brought unwarranted scrutiny on school staff, with still no acknowledgement of the problem or any effort to address it.

Activist parents and community members say they are grieved by the sight of the empty school, whose community garden is abloom in sunflowers. They say they are still working on creating a future for the school within OUSD or without it.

Consider writing letters to the Sentry to keep this issue before the public.

email:foothillssentry@socal.rr.com

To read the Canyon Beat column in its entirety, pick up a copy or visit their website: http://foothillssentry.com/
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On the Road

My family will be heading out of town so posting will be intermittent for the next month or so...

Still, there's lots going on.

Most important is this upcoming meeting:
On Wednesday, July 15 at 7 p.m., you are invited to a community meeting at the Silverado Community Center. The purpose is to discuss the proposed school re-districting for the canyon area. IT IS VITALLY IMPORTANT THAT EVERYONE PROVIDE THEIR OPINION ON THIS ISSUE. PLEASE ATTEND THE MEETING.

Currently the canyons are in the Orange Unified School District (OUSD). As many of you know, OUSD has closed Silverado Elementary School and starting in September, will bus students to Chapman Elementary in Orange. This means that kindergarten students in Modjeska will be picked up by school buses as early as 6:30 a.m. for an 8:00 a.m. class.

A group of concerned residents has been making inquiries about transferring to the Saddleback Valley Unified School District. Headquartered in Mission Viejo, SVUSD is Orange County’s fourth largest school district. SVUSD has twenty-six Elementary Schools, four Intermediate Schools, four High Schools, one Continuation High School, one Independent Study High School, and one Special Education School. It serves 35,000 students.

Our vision is to create a K-8 school to serve the canyons. SVUSD is willing to establish a committee that includes community representatives to work on fulfilling this vision.

The two questions before you now are:

1) Do you want the canyons to remain in OUSD?

2) Would you prefer for the canyons to join SVUSD?

THIS IS A CRITICALLY IMPORTANT ISSUE FOR EVERYONE IN THE COMMUNITY—NOT ONLY THOSE WITH CHILDREN. IT WILL AFFECT THE NATURE OF OUR COMMUNITY IN MANY WAYS.

Please attend the meeting or share your opinion. You can also send your thoughts to: The Inter-Canyon League, P.O. Box 301, Silverado, CA 92676.

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The new edition of The Sentry should have an update - check out the Canyon Beat column.

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As soon as I get more information, I'll post an interesting tale about fossils (on site at the school) that were given away on the day that some locals are already calling The Day of Looting. There's a happy ending here because the person who received the fossils recognized that they should probably stay in the canyon and handed them over to another educational institute. Whew.

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Have a good summer - stay safe!

Sublime Tomatoes!

CSA Meets SCC: Order Tanaka Farms Produce and Benefit the Silverado Children’s Center, Too!



Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) will save the world. It’s a cooperative economic arrangement between local, organic, thoughtful produce growers and the rest of us. It removes the need to shop at dreadful superdupermarkets, saves energy and builds community. CSA keeps outfits as Orange County’s terrific Tanaka Farms in business and gets hearty, wholesome, fresh, in-season organic produce into your fridge. And now it’s part of canyon life because Silverado Children’s Center, always in need of your support, is now part of Tanaka’s “Fundraising for Schools” program. Do consider signing up to receive a bounteous carton of fruits and vegetables, delivered to the Center every other Thursday.

The Tanaka Farms folks currently deliver nearly two dozen of these cartons to subscribers, with different contents each time. The $25 cost includes $5 that goes to the Center.

For more information on the Tanaka Farms program, go to http://www.tanakafarms.com/CSA.html

To sign up right away, contact the wonderful and innovative Ms. Aimee Bryer, Director of the SCC at (714) 649-2214 or SilveradoChildren@sbcglobal.net.

Tell Aimee you’d like to help out the best day care center around AND support organic local agriculture, not to mention enjoy those righteous berries, beans, onions, lettuces, peppers and tomatoes you can’t find unless you go to farmers’ markets or pay twice as much at your local retailer.

Bon appétit!

In Case You Missed It:

from the June 23 OC Register and also reprinted in Canyon Life:

Protest continues over Silverado school closure

Two residents bring signs of protest to Santiago Canyon Bridge ribbon cutting.

By RASHI KESARWANI


SILVERADO CANYON – Canyon residents Lisa Alvarez and Andrew Tonka [sic] carried signs protesting the closure of Silverado Elementary School during Friday's Santiago Canyon Bridge ribbon cutting ceremony.

Residents continue to update the blog, Save Silverado Elementary School, documenting the closure of the century-old school. The latest blog post features pictures of the empty school.

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For more (including photos), click here.

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Inside the OUSD Budget - highlights

Someone over at the Greater Orange News Service does a lot of work.

Check it out.

There's much more on their site if you scroll around or do a search for Orange Unified.

Attorneys fees are generally appalling, but seem especially so in this year of cutbacks. The money the OUSD spends on lawyers - or consultants - could fund a small rural school.

Via the Greater Orange News Service:

excerpts:

OUSD TRUSTEES VOTE AGAINST OWN PAY CUT

A week after voters defeated six ballot propositions in the May 19th Special Election sending the state into financial chaos, the Orange Unified Trustees at their May 28 Board Meeting defeated a move to cut their $750 monthly stipend by 10% (to $675 a month) due to the current budget crisis. They also defeated a Board Bylaw change that would require the OUSD Trustees to pay the entire cost for their health care if they opted to use the school district’s health plan. The annual savings to the district taxpayers if the 10% reduction in pay were approved would have been $6,300 per year ($18,900 through July 2012) while the health care change would reportedly have saved $100,000 a year.

INSIDE the OUSD Budget

INSIDE’s EDUCATIONAL TAX DOLLARS WATCH 2009:
Total $1,041,000

2009 Attorney Fee Tally:
11/13/08 Parker & Covert (for 1/09 -6/09) $ 200,000
3/12/09 Atkinson, Andelson, Loya (Sp. Ed) $ 50,000
3/12/09 Parker & Covert (Special Ed) $ 98,000
6/18/09 Parker & Covert (09-10) $ 400,000
6/18/09 Parker & Covert (Special Ed) $ 200,000
6/18/09 Parker & Covert (property) $ 55,000
6/18/09 Atkinson, Andelson, Loya (property)$ 35,000
Total $1,038,000

2009 Consultant/ Speaker Fee Tally:
01/24/09 Leadership Associates Consultants $ 3,000
2009 TOTAL $1,041,000


Total for Watched Tax Dollars approved in 2008: $901,200
2008 Attorney Fee Tally:
6/19/08 Parker & Covert $ 60,000
6/05/08 Miller, Brown & Dannis $ 40,000
6/05/08 Parker & Covert $150,000
6/05/08 Parker & Covert $200,000
2/07/08 Parker & Covert $100,000
11/15/07 Parker & Covert (for 1/08 to 6/08) $200,000
$750,000
2008 Consultant/ Speaker Fee Tally:
11/13/08 Subs for SDCDE (Reading First) $24,000
11/13/08 SDCDE (Reading First) $30,000
10/30/08 Dr. Willard Daggett (ICLE) $ 4,500
10/16/08 Dr. Parker 40 pt Consultant $ 4,200
9/25/08 Visual Ink for Sadler Consultant <$ 6,600> CANCELED in 2009
9/25/08 Bob Sadler Consultant Fee $ 8,500
9/25/08 Candace Simpson-Sadler Helper $ 5,500
7/24/08 Dr. Parker 40 pt Consultant $ 10,000
4/17/08 Dr. Kenneth Stichter Speaker Fee $ 6,500
3/7/08 Dr. Kathleen Weigel Speaker Fee $ 8,000
Consultant Total $ 101, 200
2008 TOTAL $ 901,200

Total for Watched Tax Dollars approved in 2007: $704,090.00**

2007 Administrative Conference/Travel: hidden since 6/8/06**

**JUNE 8th, 2006 Trustees VOTE to Give OUSD Superintendent the power to APPROVE Travel Requests taking this item OUT of the PUBLIC AGENDA

Total for Watched Tax Dollars approved in 2006: $849,717.00*
2006 Consultant Fee Tally: Total $176,400
2006 Attorney Fee Tally: Total Approved $655,000
2006 Administrative Conference/Travel: Total $ 18,317 *

* JUNE 8th, 2006 Trustees VOTE to Give OUSD Superintendent the power to
APPROVE OUSD Travel Requests taking this item OUT of the PUBLIC AGENDA

Total for Watched Tax Dollars approved in 2005: $978,300.00:
Total 2005 Conference Administrator/Board Fees: $ 7,500.00
2005 Attorney Fee Tally: $730,600.00
Total Watched 2005 OUSD Consultant spending: $ 270,200.00

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