Greater Orange News Service

OUSD Board Plans on “junket” travel to Colorado District
OUSD PICKS COLORADO WOMEN AS FINALIST
FOR SUPERINTENDENT POSITION

Orange Unified announced that it had selected Dr. Renae Dreier as the OUSD Board of Education’s final candidate for the next OUSD Superintendent. Dreier is currently the Superintendent of Weld County School District Six based in the Greeley- Evans communities of Colorado. The OUSD Board announcement that it would visit Dreier’s district has created another local budget furor. The watchdog Greater Orange Community Group in an email to the community characterized the planned OUSD Trustee trip to Colorado a “junket” and “more wasteful spending on personal perks during a budget crisis”. the group criticized the OUSD Board for being “wasteful” with educational tax dollars in light of recent OUSD budget cuts to class size reductions, the OUSD library staff, and the continued political situation in Sacramento that has not produced California state budget yet, as well as OUSD plans to ask the community for a Bond measure in November.

Two years ago District 6 had been added to the Colorado Department of Education’s accreditation “watch” list for low student achievement, the largest district in the state to be on the dreaded list. Following two years of improved student achievement, Dreier made a very public plea to the state to remove the district from the “watch” list ahead of the five-year period. Dreier made her plea in a letter made public to the state after the most recent Colorado state testing results of the CSAP. Dreier stated that in the 27 state tested indicators, District 6 “only dropped in three”, improved in 14 and stayed the same in 10. The state did remove District 6 from the list based on performance in “weighted indices”. Aside from on-going student achievement issues, the district is still dealing with the largest drop-out rate in the county. In addition, the district went to negotiation impasse with it’s the teacher’s association resulting in mandated federal mediation needed to settle the contract issues late last year.

Previously Dreier served as in 2003 as Superintendent of the New Millennium Partnership (NMP) in Northern California. The NMP was made up of districts that shared a superintendent of schools: Redding Unified; Shasta Union; Igo-Ino-Platina Union, and French Gluch-Whiskeytown School District. Prior to her appointment as NMP Superintendent, Dreier served as principal of Sequoia Middle School in Redding Unified and as a deputy superintendent. She began her education career as a teacher for nine years in Gateway Unified School District and received her doctorate in educational leadership from USC in 2000. Her pay in 2007-2008 as District 6 Superintendent was $175,000.

North of Denver and east of Ft. Collins, Colorado, Weld County District 6 School District serves 18,500 students and traces its history to 1864 as the Latham-East Poudre District 6 School District. Later as the Evans District 15 School District the district built the first high school in Colorado, Meeker School. The current District 6 School District was established in 1960 after taking combining with the District 15 schools. The ethnic make-up of the district is 52% Hispanic, 42% white. The 33 schools (17 elementary, 5 middle schools, 3 high schools, 3 alternative schools) employ 1280 teachers and 54 administrators. The Central Office staff and support is 500 employees. The district also includes four private charter schools. Forty nine percent of the students are eligible for reduced and free lunches. General Fund Budget expenditures totaled $103 million.

“Success, No Excuses” mantra
Dreier like Godley had established a district strategic plan. Called Reaching for Excellence, the plan was in response to the district being placed on the accreditation watch list by the Colorado Department of Education. The plan used the mantra “Success, no excuses”. The plan includes a community communications plan and is credited with helping the district get off the watch list earlier than anticipated.

Dreier will be the second women to serve as OUSD Superintendent. The Orange USD Recalled Board hired OUSD Superintendent Barbara Van Otterloo to replace ousted OUSD Superintendent Dr. Robert French. Shortly after the Orange Recall replaced the OUSD Recall Board, Van Otterloo “retired” and was replaced by her predecessor, Dr. French. After his second retirement from OUSD, Superintendent French was replaced by current OUSD Superintendent Dr. Thomas Godley. A hire date of August 1st for Dreier is anticipated. The June 19th OUSD Board meeting has Consent Agenda 14 H (Page 30) extending OUSD Superintendent Dr. Thomas Godley’s job from his retirement date of June 30th until a new superintendent starts, or either side gives the other a three day notice

District 6 Strategic Plan CLICK ON: PLAN

For the District 6 Organizational Chart CLICK ON: CHART

Greeley Tribune article on Dreier’s departure with comments from the community about her departure CLICK ON: TRIBUNE Article 1

TRIBUNE Article 2

Next OUSD Board Meeting Thursday, June 19, 2008. For more information
CLICK ON: AGENDA

OUSD CLOSED SESSION STARTS 7:00 PM, Regular Session: 7:30 pm
For more information call the OUSD Superintendent’s office at 714-628-4040
For budgeting questions call Business Services at 714-628-4015
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