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Tuesday, July 23, 2013
OUSD financial disaster predicted by expert
ORANGE Unified Schools INSIDE
a news service of Orange Net News /O/N/N/ Independent insight into OUSD
Surridge OUSD Trustee majority pushes forward Peralta site development plans as
Real Estate expert calls Surridge Peralta numbers “clear and chilling” and a “financial disaster”
On Monday July 22, in an open letter to the Orange Unified School District Board of Trustees, Richard Callahan, Foothills Sentry writer and former VP and Controller of Coldwell Banker Real Estate Group, does the real estate math with the numbers OUSD President Tim Surridge has used to support the Peralta site development in Board meetings and around the community.
In Callahan’s letter titled A Pending Financial Disaster, he calls into question the projects assumptions of occupancy rates, interest rates, its tax-exempt status, and a clause that makes OUSD responsible for all “property taxes”. The real estate expert asserts the numbers are “clear and chilling” and states:
“The Fairfield
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| Peralta opponent signs |
The OUSD trustees however only hold half of the political cards in this high stakes political game. The other political player, that has all the expertise and advantages of the “house”, is the City of To make matters worst for Surridge and his allies they have burned all public and private bridges with the political powers in the small, but influential close-knit City of
Disregarding mounting community opposition, community organizing, mathematical evidence and signs of a political uprising, the Surridge Majority of OUSD Trustees (Timothy Surridge, Mark Wayland, Rick Ledesma and John Ortega) continue their Washington-like ultra-conservative my-way or the highway approach. The often condescending stance toward project opponents, political flip-flopping and outright lies prompted one organizer to tell Orange Net News “This school board has really made it personal.” |
| July 15 neighborhood rally |
This Thursday, as the OUSD Board meets in Closed Session (Agenda Item 4 D) to discuss the Peralta site negotiations and according to the posted legal Agenda for Item 4 D :
“Purpose- Instructions to negotiators concerning price and terms of payment for potential lease”.
On May 14, 2013 a Special Session of the OUSD Board was held to extend the deadline of the ENA negotiations with the developer to July 31, 2013. With Thursday’s OUSD Agenda including negotiation instructions, and just six days left before the deadline, another Special Session will be required to vote to extend the negotiations within the next 6 days if negotiations are to again be extended.
“Purpose- Instructions to negotiators concerning price and terms of payment for potential lease”.
On May 14, 2013 a Special Session of the OUSD Board was held to extend the deadline of the ENA negotiations with the developer to July 31, 2013. With Thursday’s OUSD Agenda including negotiation instructions, and just six days left before the deadline, another Special Session will be required to vote to extend the negotiations within the next 6 days if negotiations are to again be extended.
Also on the Thursday agenda will be an information item, Item 13 C. OUSD staff will be giving information on the Peralta site “Option Agreement and Ground lease”.
Add to this a 5:15 rally outside the OUSD District Offices being organized by the Save Peralta Property group and this Thursday’s OUSD Board Meeting will be one of the don’t miss political events of the year.
For information on Thursday's RALLY CLICK ON: OUSD RALLY
For information on Thursday's RALLY CLICK ON: OUSD RALLY
OUSD continues down expensive antiquated Blackboard path
Like its chalk and slate namesake, the Blackboard course management system has become an antiquated system that has never reached its potential in OUSD or the hundreds of thousands of schools that were early adopters and jumped on the Blackboard band wagon.
In the July 25th Agenda, OUSD Consent Agenda Item 14 J (Agenda page 55) has OUSD sending an all-time high of $128,336 for this year’s Blackboard account.
In the July 25th Agenda, OUSD Consent Agenda Item 14 J (Agenda page 55) has OUSD sending an all-time high of $128,336 for this year’s Blackboard account.
Blackboard critics abound. From colleges to high schools, Blackboard first developed in the late 1990’s is considered a slow awkward and antiquated system. Despite the barrage of criticism, Blackboard has flourished financially as the only game in town for numerous years, spending its early resources not focused on research and development, but on putting out fires and buying out rivals to raid their innovations (most recently ANGEL Learning Inc). Blackboard has also focused resources in an ongoing battle with the barrage of criticism in the media (its Wikipedia page is flagged as unreliable because of the constant monitoring and changing and deleting of critical information). The compay has run into copyright problems, copy and paste problems, MS Word problems and numerous browser compatibility problems with its Java based system. Problems with Google Chrome and Java interface also occur which has prevented OUSD from applying the full benefits of the Google world to its systems.
Despite all its problems, the Blackboard business strategy has led it to be very successful and profitable business (it is listed on the NASDAQ) enabling it to buy its way out of continued problems. However, the internet has changed, and Blackboard is now in trouble with rivals that are “open source” – and unable to be bought- and available for free to schools and districts.
The classic “open source” story is the Mozilla vs Netscape. When AOL released the Netscape source code (it duped Mozilla) the new version produced with open source eventually outperformed and took over the original Netscape AOL freed Mozilla, and discontinued Netscape (the jaded Netscape team then tried to continue its own independent development of Netscape). The new open source Mozilla Foxfire produced a nimble and far superior user friendly product. That is what is taking place now with course management systems. As Blackboard continues with its antiquated-expensive and outdated closed source configuration managed by local administrators, it is losing ground to user friendly free “open source” and cloud based systems. Yet, many districts, like OUSD are slow to react and continue to pay ever increasing fees for a service that few employees and students use- unless forced to. Both the bang and the buck are gone.
Moodle, an open source and free Blackboard rival, is projected to eventually surpass Blackboard in users. Other open source educational management platforms that cutting edge teachers, schools and districts are migrating to include: Sakai
Why are these new platforms so successful with the cutting edge techies? One need look no farther than the case study of the OUSD costs (and few benefits) to understand. Here are the OUSD Board approved costs for problem plagued Blackboard in OUSD:
2006- $39,240
2007- $71,760 (two different accounts one for license one for maintenance)
2008- $89,457
2009- $120, 562
2010- $59,458 (price negotiated by then OUSD Tech Director Blake Chism)
2011- $116,406
2012- $122,226
2013- $128,336
As of this Thursday’s OUSD approval of Blackboard, it will costs OUSD three times more than it did seven years ago. OUSD’s dependence on Blackboard could lead it to fall further behind in the technology world as new teachers brought up on open source platforms in college are forced to work with the technology of their grandparents.
Just take a look at what the education community was saying 5 years ago CLICK ON:
Blackboard vs Moodle 2008
To look at Moodle- CLICK ON: MOODLE
Blackboard vs Moodle 2008
To look at Moodle- CLICK ON: MOODLE
INSIDE the OUSD July 25 Agenda
Closed Session
- Agenda 4 B- Hiring of new Yorba MS Principal (announcement made at the beginning of open session).
Open Session
- Agenda 12 A – OUSD and teacher’s union agreement
- Agenda 12 B – Reduction of furlough days for Leadership Employees
- Agenda 12 C – added days to the Student Calendar for next school year
- Agenda 13 A- demographic updates
- Agenda 13 B – Bond financing information
- Agenda 13 D- Surplus property –Killerfer site
- Agenda 13 E- El Rancho Charter construction projects-information
Next OUSD Board Meeting July25th
OUSD CLOSED SESSION STARTS 6:00 PM, 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
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