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Monday, February 10, 2014
OUSD votes $50,000 in educational tax money for PR
ORANGE Unified Schools INSIDE
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"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
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