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Tuesday, December 10, 2013
Surridge's failed Year of Living Dangerously...
ORANGE Unified Schools INSIDE
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Orange
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OUSD Board to elect
new officers after Surridge's failed Year of Living Dangerously
The
Orange Unified School Board is set to elect officers at their December 12, 2013
School Board meeting for the next 12 months.
The election could have major consequences for not just the 2014 OUSD
Trustee elections, but also a possible 2014 OUSD School Bond.
In
December of 2012, the Orange Unified School Board elected Timothy Surridge for
a second term as OUSD Board President.
Surridge's second term has been one of the most controversial and
contentious policy years in OUSD history since the years leading up to the 2001
Orange Recall.
Surridge's
contentious Year of Living Dangerously
started with his public policy statement of his "vision" for OUSD at
the January 17, 2013 OUSD Board Meeting. That was when Surridge outlined his
goals for the coming year. Those goals included investment in schools by the
local community, exploring
using unused portions of school sites for city recreation purposes, and dealing
with "the size" of the OUSD governing body ( the Board of
Trustees).
By any
means of measurement, over the past year Surridge failed to deliver anything but
controversy across the Greater Orange Communities.
The
Surridge "vision" included what many community members characterized
as a “radical
un-democratic plan” to eliminate two OUSD Trustee seats. This "Surridge
Plan" was seen as ultimately stripping away representation from Villa Park and Anaheim Hills on the Orange
Unified School Board to consolidate power for the Surridge majority.
Publicly
stating the reasoning for his plan was “a turn-over” of superintendents,
Surridge tried to begin to build a case that having more than five trustees on
a school board leads to a higher turn over of superintendents. He offered no evidence
to support his theory.
In
fact, there was no evidence to support his assertion. Almost as fast as he
presented it, Surridge's theory was promptly debunked ( CLICK ON DEBUNKED ). In fact one of the reputable academic
studies circulating throughout Greater Orange after the "Surridge
Plan" was introduced reported that five member school boards are actually
more unstable for superintendents
because one election can completely change a board majority that
supports a district's superintendent.
OUSD Trustees Kathy Moffat (Trustee Area 4- majority Villa Park
neighborhoods) and Diane Singer (Trustee Area 1-majority Anaheim Hills
neighborhoods) have been the minority on the OUSD Board since
Surridge was elected and have frequently clashed with Surridge (an Orange
resident) over numerous policies, especially his center piece effort to
privatize surplus property and build high density apartments on the Peralta
Site.
They were not alone. Many City
of Orange and Villa
Park officials and
numerous leading citizen’s have also been outspoken opponents of the Surridge
backed plan to lease the Peralta site property. The Villa Park
headquartered Foothills Sentry
too has been a leader in
reporting on the Peralta deal and its stories were routinely blasted by
Surridge and his allies on the Board.
Surridge wasted no time in working on his "vision" of reconfiguring the OUSD Board. As Board
President, Surridge added Informational Item 13 D to the February 21, 2013 Board
Agenda. The agenda item titled a “Discussion Requested by Board President
Surridge”, the item description
on page 30 states:
At the January 17, 2013 meeting,
during the Board President’s Report, Mr. Surridge laid out a vision for the
District. Included was the reduction of the Board of Education from seven to
five members. Additionally an intereste [sic] has
been expressed regarding term limits for members of the governing board.
Mr. Surridge has requested that the
Board discuss reducing the number of Board members and term limits.
At
that February meeting, with his "superintendent" theory debunked,
Surridge glossed over the original reasoning he had stated was the purpose in
his introducing the item -to keep superintendents longer.
While
Surridge tried to change his “vision” approach to the “just starting a
discussion”, approach, Trustee Kathy Moffat quickly pointed out that
Surridge had offered no concrete reasons for the radical board change-except to just do it.
The Greater Orange Community Organization blasted
not only the "Surridge Plan", but also Surridge ally OUSD Trustee Mark
Wayland for his call to do away with district-wide voting in favor of “election by Trustee Area only” votes
to elect trustees. GOCO made
the case that an area like the Peralta community would have no electoral
recourse if the other 6 Trustees voted to build apartment buildings- but its
"local" Trustee “safely” oppose the project. Under such a scenario,
the Peralta voters could not influence other trustees with election upsets-
just their trustee- who would have political cover by opposing anything
unfavorable in their Trustee Area. Nor could any other group-civic, business, school, environmental etc. have any political
clout with trustee
area only elections.
At
the February meeting, Trustee Diane Singer brought up the fact that there could
be possible Voter’s Rights Act problems
in changing the trustee numbers and voting arrangements. While she did not
specify, a change that diluted the
minority vote, (which is concentrated in specific neighborhoods, in specific
Trustee Areas) could prove to be an expensive problem for the cash strapped
district if a deep pocket organization like the ACLU (which took on the
district in Colin vs. OUSD and won a precedent setting case) challenged
a trustee area change. Just this year, OUSD backed down from a lawsuit threat
by the deep pocketed National Rifle Association over an OUSD student wearing an NRA t-shirt.
Another
focus of attention in Surridge’s February Agenda was term-limits. Originally
brought forward as a campaign promise by OUSD Trustee Dr. Alexia Deligianni
when she ran five years ago for her first term, Deligianni –has taken no action about term limits since her
election. Deligianni also said nothing on the subject during the discussion at
the February meeting. Ironically, speaking in favor of term limits at the
February meeting was OUSD Trustee John Ortega. Saying he has "always
favored term limits", Ortega failed to point out that after being originally
elected in 2001, he has filed to run for office each successive time he has
been eligible, thereby negating any personally imposed term limits he believes
in.
Later
in the year, Surridge ally Trustee Rick Ledesma also took an aim at the "Surridge
Plan" stating that when he goes to public meetings throughout the Greater
Orange communities, when it comes to discussing the schools, people want to
know what seats the OUSD majority wants to eliminate. Not exactly the subject a
school board trustee wants to be foremost in the community minds when it comes
to schools.
While
the "Surridge Plan" died a quite death, Surridge's push for high
density apartments at the Peralta Site had the Greater Orange Community in a
complete revolt throughout most of the
year. Month after month, against universal opposition, not one community member
publicly supported Surridge and the Board majority's position on Peralta.
To
make matters worst for the High Density Apartment majority, which were all the men
on the OUSD Board, was the degrading and demeaning manner they spoke to the plans
opponents who were all the OUSD women trustees. The men's tone, attitude and
bullying toward the women did not go unnoticed in the Greater Orange
Communities that are filled with women elected and civic officials, PTA moms
and women activists.
Surridge's
Year of Living Dangerously could have far reaching effects with the 2014
election cycle and the 2016 election cycle.
With Rick Ledesma and Timothy Surridge on the ballot in 2014 ( along with
Kathy Moffat and Diane Singer) the Peralta community could flex its politcal
muscle by using the ties it has forged with anti-growth and open space
advocates
The
2014 OUSD races and the elusive OUSD School Bond quest really starts with the
vote on Thursday night for the 2014 OUSD leadership. Another term of Timothy Surridge could prove
disastrous for OUSD as Surridge runs for re-election. Both Ledesma and Ortega have had experience
as President, but both of them also can be irritated into confrontation with
Moffat and Singer- not a good look. Wayland has repeatedly ruled out leading
the Board and while there is no doubt Dr. Deligianni would welcome the duties,
her reputation in Greater Orange is well known and with a possible OUSD School
Bond would she be the leader of OUSD that the Trustees want representing the
Bond effort?
Perhaps
the late OUSD Trustee Robert Viviano's short-lived rule for rotating officers
is looking really good right now to a number of OUSD Trustees.
INSIDE the December 12, 2013 Agenda
Agenda
Item 9 B- 2014 OUSD Calendar-
Moffat and Singer have been pushing to revert back to bi-monthly meetings for
the OUSD Board. Coming right after the leadership election, look to this item
to be the first test of the new OUSD President in setting the tone for the 2014
OUSD Board.
Agenda
Item 13 B- First Interim Financial
Report.
NEXT OUSD BOARD MEETING December
12, 2013
Next OUSD Board Meeting -OUSD BOARD ROOM
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
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at:
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