Greater Orange News Service

39th Annual Orange International Street Fair this Labor Day
The Orange International Street Fair is the annual end-of–summer Labor Day Weekend bash that is celebrating its 39th year since being the centerpiece of the City of Orange centennial celebration in 1972 as a re-creation of a 1910 Orange International Fair. The celebration literally draws the world to the center of Greater Orange as world famous Orange Traffic Circle becomes the center of pedestrian traffic on the numerous international themed food streets. Over 1200 volunteers have been preparing to make the expected half million visitors feel welcome. More than 80 community organizations dedicated to serving the Greater Orange Communities rely on the Orange International Street Fair as one of their biggest fundraisers of the year.

A World of Flavor at Your Finger Tips

This year’s theme is “A World of Flavor at Your Finger Tips!!”. Like the past 39 years, the fun is all about the food, music, more food, drinks…and don’t forget the FOOD…from around the world. Craftsmen will be selling handmade items around the Plaza and present and past Orange Street Fair commemoration's will be on sale to complete your Orange Street Fair collection. As always no pets are allowed at the orange Street Fair and wristbands for public alcohol consumption are required.

Fourteen bands to play
The free entertainment includes fourteen bands that will perform thought the four block downtown Old Towne Orange Plaza traffic circle center representing music from around the globe on the numerous stages on the various streets including the famous Main Stage.
Band Entertainment Schedule CLICK ON: BANDS

Children’s Street
The Children’s Street family oriented activities will again be offered on North Orange Street just off East Chapman Ave. No alcohol is allowed in the Children’s Street area. Children’s Street hours are:
Friday September 2nd: 5 pm – 8:30 pm
Saturday September 3rd: 10 am – 8:30 pm
Sunday September 4th: 10 am – 8:30 pm

Parking and Traveling to the Orange Street Fair
The event draws half a million visitors over its three days. Visitors from out-of- town are encouraged to avoid the parking crunch by taking the Metrolink (at reduced weekend rates-see below) to the historic Orange Santa Fe (Metrolink/Amtrak) Depot conveniently located adjacent to the street fair. OCTA will sell you a $10 weekend Metrolink trains will allow you to ride anywhere in the regional system from 7 p.m. Friday to Sunday midnight. Weekend passes are only sold at the vending machines located at Metrolink stations (no web sales). Those wishing to brave the parking drama may try the Chapman University lots or parking on the surrounding streets. Expect to walk several blocks from where you park just to get to the Traffic Circle area where the Street Fair takes place.

LINK to Metrolink Pass story: $10 Metrolink Pass

LINK to Orange Old Town Metrolink Station Information:Orange Station

Orange Street Fair Schedule
The Orange Street Fair is in Orange Old Towne at the Orange Plaza the Traffic Circle intersection of Chapman and Glassell Streets in Orange. The fair runs Friday- Sunday (yes Sunday is the last day…Monday Labor Day is clean-up). Entering the street fair as always is free. Alcohol Sales on the street are over at 9:00 p.m. and a wrist band to purchase and drink at the fair must be purchased each day

Dates and hours of the 2010 Orange International Street Fair are:
Friday Sept 2nd 5:00 pm - 10:00 pm
September 3 & 4 10:00 am - 10:00 pm
CLOSED MONDAY

Link To Orange Street Fair website: Orange International Street Fair

ORANGE Unified Schools INSIDE
a news service of Orange Net News /O/N/N/
Independent insight into OUSD

Spencer Covert remains in OUSD with 2-5 Board vote
Orange Unified Board President Rick Ledesma was handed a rare defeat during the July 28, 2011 OUSD Board Meeting on Action Item 12 B (Agenda page 5) as the OUSD Board voted 2- 5 against Ledesma’s proposal to replace long-time OUSD law firm Parker & Covert. Ledesma sought to replace OUSD’s lead counsel Spencer Covert of Parker & Covert as lead negotiator for OUSD with its employee groups with Atkinson, Andelson, Loya, Rudd & Romo. Only OUSD Trustee John Ortega voted with Ledesma to replace Covert, who was once replaced in OUSD by various right wing counsel under the Radical Board, but then brought back as lead counsel in 2001 after the Citizen’s Board won the Recall election. At the May 12, 2011 Orange Unified School Board meeting, OUSD Board President Rick Ledesma recommended that OUSD change legal representatives for negotiations with its employee groups. Ledesma asked the OUSD Board for consensus to have staff ask for a quote from law firm Atkinson, Andelson, Loya, Rudd & Romo to be the legal representative for the district in employee negotiations. At that time Ledesma stated it was “good business sense” to occasionally rotate firms for a fresh perspective. While Ledesma during the May meeting was getting the consensus of nodding heads to pursue the switch, only Trustee Kathy Moffat spoke up at that time with concerns. However when the proposal was brought forward at the July meeting, most of the Trustees spoke up against the switch for various reasons, many echoing the concerns Moffat had initially raised in May.

The July 28 meeting was also the last for the popular retiring OUSD Superintendent Dr. Renae Dreier.

INSIDE the August 25, 2011 OUSD Board Meeting
The August 25, 2011 OUSD Board Meeting will be the first official meeting for incoming OUSD Superintendent Michael Christensen. As OUSD’s first Deputy Superintendent, Christensen was a familiar figure at OUSD Board Meetings keeping the OUSD Board updated on the OUSD’s responses to the states financial crisis. Christensen is widely credited with making OUSD a standout in the state for fiscal management during the current budget crisis. If anyone on the Board was hesitant about moving Christensen up from his stellar performance as OUSD’s head budget guru, the August 28 Agenda may lay any fears aside that Christensen will not keep an eye on the hard-won fiscal soundness that has made OUSD the envy of statewide educational insiders. Under the Consent Agenda Item 14 F (pages 21-23) Christensen will remain a member of the OPED Bond Board of Authority. In addition, Thursday’s four Action Items 12 A-D (pages 1-13) are applications to the state to waive state requirements for an open bidding process on four district surplus properties. While on the face of it, retreating from an open bidding process may not seem like an ideal course of action, but as the Christensen Administration explains it, the purpose is to give OUSD greater flexibility to not only get the right price for the properties, but also the right match for the surplus properties since two of them ( Killefer and Walnut) are adjacent to existing school sites.

Earning the trust of the community over these last 2 years also earns the OUSD Administration community support for this waiver and the reasoning behind the waiver request. We expect the OUSD Board will vote to support the waivers.


INSIDE the OUSD Budget
Former Superintendent Godley’s Retirement Bonus running total (beginning 8/2008):
$42,340.00*

* The Godley Retirement Bonus presented here is an estimate of the amount in “bonus retirement” accrued since the Superintendent’s retirement on 6/30/08 using a 6% lifetime formula calculated here at $1210 a month since 8/08. The actual retirement plan the former OUSD Superintendent opted to take is not public information and the figures presented are only as an estimate of the taxpayer costs after the OUSD trustees voted against an amendment to exclude Godley from the retirement program. The on-going estimated figure is presented as a reminder to the community of the high cost in educational tax dollars the OUSD Board vote to allow the former Superintendent to participate in the 6% retirement incentive cost the OUSD education community in tax dollars. Godley retired from OUSD on June 30, 2008 after he worked for the school district for a little over five years.

NEXT BOARD MEETING: THURSDAY August 25, 2011, OUSD BOARD ROOM
For AGENDA-CLICK ON: AUGUST 2011

CLOSED SESSION- 6:00 pm
OUSD Regular Session: 7:00 pm

For more information call the OUSD Superintendent’s office at
714-628-4040

For budgeting questions call Business Services at 714-628-4015

ORANGE Unified Schools INSIDE
Independent insight into OUSD
is an independent news service of
/O/N/N/ Orange Net News
“Independent Local Insight”

ORANGE Unified Schools INSIDE
2011 STAR test scores results:Culture continues to be ignored by state educational bureaucrats

California has released the 2011 STAR (Standardized Testing and Reporting) results for the 2010-2011 school year. In a news release like his processors, California State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson began by heaping praise on the system and students scores:

“California's students continue to steadily improve their performance across the board, with a larger proportion than ever scoring proficient or higher on the 2011 Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) Program exams in English–language arts, mathematics, science, and history–social science”

Five paragraphs into his press release however, the real news of the continued “achievement gap” was given in this short terse paragraph:

“While the STAR results show an increase in proficiency levels among all subgroups, a troubling and persistent achievement gap exists for African American, Latino, English-learner, and low-income students, compared to their peers.”

The “achievement gap” is the real racial and socio-economic difference in scores on the STAR test that have persisted since its inception. However, while the state acknowledges the differences in “a troubling and persistent achievement gap exists for African American, Latino, English-learner, and low-income students, compared to their peers”, it continues to ignore the real issue of “culture” by failing to address those who make-up the over-achieving “peers” of the under-acheiving minorities. The acheivers are by-in-large middle-to affluent white students AND all economic levels of Asian students. The fact that all economic brackets of Asian students out perform their white counterparts and all other minorities across the state continues to provide clear and present evidence to the de facto role of culture in education. However, because "culture" cannot be addressed by the educational system, educational bureaucrats continue to ignore the elephant-in-the-room of long standing and overwhelming evidence that culture plays a significant role in test scores and those bureaucrats continue to chase after a solution that cannot be addressed by the current testing system that reports scores by race, but ignores the cultural differences of those races.

This fact can be seen in Orange Unified that is divided by the clearly defined and now openly acknowledged OUSD 55 Divide of economics and culture. In OUSD’s 2011 Hispanic/Latino Economically Disadvantage CST General Math scores for 8th Grade, 4% of those 678 students scored advanced and 28% scored Proficient. Looking at the 2011 CST General Math scores for OUSD’s 19 8th Grade Asian students who are also Economically Disadvantage; 32% scored Advanced and 32% scored Proficient. Clearly the differences are stark and real. The stark differences can be seen across the board (see LINKS below), not only in OUSD, but state-wide. In addition, the shear numbers of the different cultures continue to take a toll on the education system. The facts are crystal clear, a school with a high percentage of Asians will outperform a school with a high percentage of other minorities.

This is not an “achievement gap” it is a “cultural gap”. To deny this is to deny reality. However, that denial is deeply seated in today’s educational bureaucracy and continues to eat away at public confidence in our schools. To ignore the cultural differences and to demand that “better” strategies are needed (paid for by taxpayers) is the modern equivalent of the continued saga of The Emperors New Clothes, or perhaps the Superintendent of Public Instruction’s New Clothes.

LINK for OUSD District-wide Scores 2011 OUSD

LINK for OUSD Individual School Scores
OUSD Individual schools (select school on drop menu)

LINK for OUSD Asian Economically Disadvantage Scores
2011 OUSD Asian Economically Disadvantage Scores

LINK for OUSD Hispanic/Latino Economically Disadvantage Scores
2011 OUSD Hispanic/Latino Economically Disadvantage Scores

ORANGE Unified Schools INSIDE
Independent insight into OUSD
is an independent news service of /O/N/N/
“Independent Local Insight”