Greater Orange News Service

eLECTION Watch 2012

OUSD Board Member Dr. Alexia Deligianni pulls papers for re-election

On the first day to file for three seats up for election in November on the Orange Unified School Board, incumbent Dr. Alexia Deligianni pulled papers for re-election to Orange Unified Trustee Area 3. First elected in 2008, Deligianni less than half way through her term ran for the California State Superintendent of Public Instruction Office. The “quite one” as she has become known, has said little and done less in her term as an OUSD Trustee. Deligianni rarely speaks at all during entire Board Meetings.

During her term as OUSD Trustee Deligianni she has introduced only one item- a reconsideration to cut OUSD Trustee stipends after it was initially defeated. The only other issue Deligianni has taken a public stand on (aside from voting) was in support of the Silverado parents who tried to keep their small school of less than 75 students open in the wake of massive state budget cut backs. In her campaign for the OUSD Board she had promised to work for term limits for Trustees. In her campaign for election in 2008, Deligianni’s website, titled “Save OUSD” promised:

As your next school board member, I will:
• Make sure money goes directly into our classrooms
• Stand up to the educational bureaucrats
• Make sure the students come first in all of our district's decisions
• Implement a back to basics education
• Create term limits for OUSD Board Members.

Longtime OUSD Board watchers contend that Deligianni has done nothing to “Create term limits for OUSD Board Members”, “Stand up to educational bureaucrats”, “Implemented a back to basics education”, “Make sure money goes directly into our classrooms” nor, “Makes sure the students come first in all of our district’s decisions”. In short, she has failed to “Save OUSD”. Even more incredulous, the website listed on the papers she pulled today, (http://www.votealexia.com/) lists the same exact information from 2008. To see Deligianni’s 2008 website CLICK ON: http://saveousd.com/ (this website is still functioning as of our first posting on July 16, 2012).

The Greater Orange Communities Organization in a June email looking for candidates for the OUSD election described Deligianni as “Someone who has just earned her stipend by basically smiling, nodding and staring into space while running for another office with a larger taxpayer supplied paycheck.”

The two other Trustee Area’s that are also up for election are Trustee Areas 2, represented by Trustee John Ortega and 6, represented by Mark Wayland. Trustee John Ortega, who was first elected in the Orange Recall of 2001, has never faced re-election. Ortega was rumored as a possible congressional candidate until a sex scandal surfaced concerning his employment with Mt San Jacinto College Police Department.
(For more information CLICK ON:SEX SCANDAL).