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Wednesday, February 19, 2014
OUSD's own Realty Reality show continues
ORANGE Unified Schools INSIDE
Independent
insight into OUSD
a news service of
Orange
Net News
/O/N/N/
OUSD's own Realty Reality show
continues....
Peralta site Super Sports Golf and Recreation Center
In
its second "On the Road" meeting this month on Thursday, February 20,
2014, this time at Canyon
High School , the Orange Unified School
District School Board will hear from one of the owners of Super Sports Golf and
Recreation Center
Information
Item 12 B (Agenda page 20) reports that Kent Hawkins, a partner of the Super
Sports Golf and Recreation
Center
Information
in the Agenda about the proposal includes "making
it a more educational oriented facility while still keeping the sports" .
The business which currently leases the Peralta site is proposing to change the
name to "Super Sports and Education Center
Earlier
in the same meeting, the Closed Session Agenda 4B again includes the Peralta
Site as part of the Closed Session discussions with the purpose of "Instructions to negotiators will
concern items and conditions for possible sale of sites" .
OUSD Board to approve Riverdale
site sale for $15.9 million
After
the February 20th Closed Session and before the Information Item Super Sport
presentation, the OUSD Trustees will vote to put the former 11.5 acre Riverdale
School site up for sale for $15.9 million dollars. The resolution includes the
exemption from environmentally sensitive areas as outlined in the California
Environmental Quality Act (CLICK ON
Action
Item 13 A ( Agenda pages 3-15) on the
February 20, 2014 agenda includes a Resolution to sell the City of Anaheim
The
resolution also declares that no public agencies (which would have first choice
in buying the land) had expressed any interest in acquiring the land.
The
OUSD Board voted to close Riverdale at the height of the Great Recession in
December 2009. The school closed in June
of 2010 at an estimated savings of $349,000 annually to the cash strapped
district. In October of 2013, OUSD Trustees officially voted the Riverdale site
to be surplus property.
Discussion of Automatic External Defibrillators on Agenda
On August 7, 2013 fourteen year-old Canyon High
School
As a result of Cook's death
and other reported national high school related deaths, in October 2013, the
OUSD Board directed staff after a presentation on AED's to report back with a
policy for their potential use.
In a bit of fate,
Information item 12B and 12 C (Agenda pages 16-19) on Automatic External
Defibrillators (AED) will also be discussed at the Canyon High School meeting
on February 20, 2014 meeting.
The information item on the
progress and change to the Board Policy's to allow AED's are included in theses
two agenda items.
 |
| Lobby of the Hilton Arden West -site of teleconference |
Trustee Kathy Moffat will
be participating in the February 20, 2014 meeting from a hotel lobby in Sacramento
Other Brown Act
Requirements about teleconferencing include:
- The agenda must be posted at the teleconference
site
- The site will be identified on the agenda
- The teleconference site will be accessible to
the public and the public must have an opportunity to address the Board
from the telecommunication site
- A quorum must be present in the boundaries
of board's jurisdiction
INSIDE the February 20, 2014 Agenda
Item 12 A- and the reason
to hold the February 20th meeting at Canyon
High School is to update the Master
Planning on the High School Needs Assessment for Canyon High School
For an UPDATE on the Canyon
H.S. Master Facilities Master Plan CLICK ON: CANYON.
NEXT OUSD BOARD MEETING February
20, 2014
Next OUSD Board Meeting -Canyon High School
CLOSED SESSION- 5:00 pm
OUSD Regular Session: 6:00 pm
For AGENDA-CLICK ON
For more information call the OUSD
Superintendent’s office at 714-628-4040
For budgeting questions call Business Services at
714-628-4015
ARCHIVAL Information and direct news can be found
at:
the Greater Orange News Service
http://greaterorange.blogspot.com/
ORANGE
Unified Schools INSIDE
and the
Greater Orange News Service
are independent news services of /O/N/N/
Orange
Net News
“Greater Orange
Monday, February 10, 2014
OUSD votes $50,000 in educational tax money for PR
ORANGE Unified Schools INSIDE
Independent
insight into OUSD
a news service of
Orange
Net News
/O/N/N/
"IMAGINE"
that!
OUSD Board votes 4-3 to spend
$50,000 in educational tax funds for public relations
Just
as the Great Recession starts to end and educational tax monies are again flowing into
OUSD, at the January 23 2014
Orange Unified School District Board Meeting the four previously
"fiscal conservative" male OUSD Trustees started a new taxpayer
funded spending spree by voting to spend $50,000 of educational tax monies on a
public relations firm against the votes and advice of the three female OUSD
Board members.
The
former self-described fiscally conservative OUSD Board President John Ortega, Trustees
Timothy Surridge, Mark Wayland and Rick
Ledesma all joined together to vote to approve OUSD spending $50,000 in
educational tax funds for a public relations firm for a purpose not exactly
clear.
Wayland,
who characterized the $50,000 as a "trial run" said that the district
was getting "beat up locally and nationally in the press" and questioned "Where do people turn to get the truth?". Wayland characterized spending the $50,000 in educational tax funds
as "a good investment".
Voting
against using the $50,000 of educational
tax money for a public relations firm were the three women trustees:
self-described fiscal conservative trustee Dr. Alexia Deligianni; and
pro-education trustees Villa Park 's Kathy
Moffat and Anaheim Hills Dianne Singer.
Singer
stated her vote against spending $50,000 in educational tax funds on PR was that
the educational tax monies would be better spent on a variety of still needed educational
priorities. Singer stated the district
had a long way to go in restoring educational program cuts from the Great
Recession and reasoned that spending $50,000 of educational funds on PR was not
a high priority.
Kathy
Moffat was against the PR spending because of her concern about the
"timing" of spending $50,000 of educational funding for a public
relations firm so close to an election cycle. Surridge and Ledesma are two
trustees who are up for re-election in November 2014 and have been initially
targeted by community open space advocates for leading efforts to lease the
Peralta site for a high density apartments and now are leading the efforts to
sell Peralta and other OUSD properties across the Greater Orange Communities to
developers. If either trustee were to
lose in November the balance of power on the Board would shift away from the
current OUSD pro-development majority of which they both are part.
 |
| KCOMM Account Exec Daniel Moorlach |
Ledesma
at first reasoned that he was in favor of spending $50,000 in educational
taxpayer monies on public relations because it could be used to sustain the
"buzz" in the community about supporting a possible OUSD High School
Bond. After the Ledesma "bond buzz"
comments, Dr. Deligianni quickly asked
OUSD Superintendent Michael Christensen about district money being spent on Bond publicity. Christensen
confirmed that once a Bond is authorized by the OUSD Trustees, no educational
tax dollars can be spent on Bond related publicity. Ledesma quickly thanked the Superintendent for
correcting him. Ledesma also characterized the $50,000 in educational taxpayer
money as "just a drop in the
bucket".
Moffat
also reminded the Board that the "Bond Buzz" referred to by Ledesma
was created by the meetings held for the High School Master Facilities
Plan. Moffat noted that each of the
planning firms had the responsibility for the pubic relations related to the
Facilities Plan as part of their contracts.
The
fear of using the $50,000 in educational tax funds ending up for
"political PR" is not a far
fetched theory. Another OUSD School
Board that was "beat up locally and nationally in the press" was the eventually recalled Reactionary
Jacobson Board of the late 1990's and early 2000's. That Board had an in-house publicity director
( "Information Officer" ) named Judy Frutig. As members of the OUSD Board tried to
manipulate the "message" of politically motivated lawsuits and the
community recall against them, the moves of the Trustees continued to be
national news. In response, the community organized their own communication
structure- then called the Citizen's News Network (predecessor of Orange Net News).
Unable
to contain and drive the narrative against an upstart citizen's community news
organization and unwilling to do what a micromanaging school board ordered her
to, Frutig was unceremoniously fired. Frutig then joined the community
opposition to the Jacobson Majority and provided game-changing information to the opposition working on
recalling four trustees. Frutig also
joined a lawsuit against the Board's "political" firings. Those
lawsuits were eventually settled out of court after the recall was
successful.
OUSD Board Meetings go on
the Road
Also
at the January 23 2014 Board
Meeting, the OUSD Board voted 7-0 to approve President John Ortgea's plan to
hold OUSD Board meetings at the district's four comprehensive high schools to
discuss and review the Facilities Master plans for the school hosting the
meeting.
The first of the 2014 On the Road OUSD Board
meetings will be held at Orange
High School
Ortega's proposal to hold the meetings at the
high schools was widely applauded throughout the Greater Orange Communities.
OUSD February 13th Agenda
has a resolution to sell property
At
the January 23 meeting two community members spoke during the Pubic Comment
sections about the possibility of selling the Peralta site to developers.
Long-time
OUSD resident Jan Meyers spoke during Pubic Comments section before the Closed
Session opposing the selling of the Peralta Site. That session included a
discussion on selling "surplus property".
Later
in the Public Comment section of the Open Session, Jason Schubert addressed the
Board again opposing the sale of the Peralta site and acknowledging the growing
coalition across the community of Open Space advocates.
Once
again, selling the OUSD surplus property will again be on the OUSD Agenda on
February 13, 2014 meeting. Again in the Closed Session, the Trustees will be
discussing the Killerfer Sites, the Peralta site, the Riverdale site and the
Walnut site. The Open Session Action
Item 13 A also includes a Resolution again authorizing the sale of the Killerfer
site.
INSIDE the February 13 Board Agenda
Closed Session 4
B- ( Agenda page 1) More discussions
on selling Peralta and other properties
Action Item 12 A-
(Agenda page 4) Facilities Master Plan
Update for Orange
High School
Action Item 13 B-
(Agenda page 23-24) Board Policy against
electronic cigarettes
NEXT OUSD BOARD MEETING February
13, 2014
Next OUSD Board Meeting -Orange High School Multi-purpose
Room
CLOSED SESSION- 5:00 pm
OUSD Regular Session: 6:00 pm
For AGENDA-CLICK ON
For more information call the OUSD
Superintendent’s office at 714-628-4040
For budgeting questions call Business Services at
714-628-4015
ARCHIVAL Information and direct news can be found
at:
the Greater Orange News Service
http://greaterorange.blogspot.com/
ORANGE
Unified Schools INSIDE
and the
Greater Orange News Service
are independent news services of /O/N/N/
Orange
Net News
“Greater Orange
