Be the first to know: SUBSCRIBE HERE
↑ To add this ANIMATOR CLICK HERE
Greater Orange HEADLINES in the News
Follow Greater Orange on TWITTER
Tuesday, October 14, 2014
OUSD 5-2 against Super Sports lease
ORANGE Unified Schools INSIDE
Independent
insight into OUSD
a news service of Orange
Net News
/O/N/N/
OUSD Board votes 5-2 against
Super Sports lease at Peralta
At
their last regularly scheduled meeting on September 11, 2014 the Orange Unified
Board of Trustees voted 5-2 against an 18 month lease extension for the Super
Sports complex at the Peralta site. The current lease expires in March 2015.
Opposition
to the proposed lease extension (which included a clause that OUSD could not
offer to sell the land during the lease period) drew fire from both Trustee
Rick Ledesma and Trustee Timothy Surridge. Both stated that they were against
the clause preventing the Peralta site from being sold as well as belief that
the district was in an enhanced position to dictate other terms-or find another
operator if the property was not sold. The two Trustees are running for
re-election and have had their opponents endorsed by the Peralta neighborhood
group and other Greater Orange open space advocates
Trustee
Kathy Moffat who made the motion to approve the contract extension (with
Surridge seconding the motion-then voting against it) cited numerous reasons
for approving the lease extension- including her opposition to selling the land
for development. Moffat has long maintained that the land (which is zoned by
the City of Orange
Trustee
Diane Singer also voted to deny the lease stating she wanted district staff to
come back at a future meeting as an informational item (which cannot legally be
acted upon) with more information on possible leasing options.
Male OUSD Trustees
vote to exclude 17 word reference to prohibit "unlawful activity such as rebates, kickbacks or other unlawful
considerations"
A
routine Board Policy vote became a protracted battle of the sexes parliamentary
struggle over deleting anti-corruption wording from a Board Policy at the
September 11, 2014 OUSD Board meeting. At that meeting the four OUSD male
trustees majority again voted to trump the three female trustees ongoing concerns
for assurances for an open and transparent OUSD polices and procedures. In the
resulting discussion the integrity of the Measure K process was specifically
cited, but other wide-raging ethical concerns on the deleted anti-corruption wording have been raised.
(
For more information on MEASURE K CLICK ON: MEASURE K).
The
Board Policies facilities section on "Architectural
and Engineering Services" (9-11-14 Agenda pages 33-38) had new wording
that specifically deleted six areas that the then current Board Policy required
the Superintendent to ensure. Number two
on that deleted list specifically stated the Superintendent was to ensure:
"Practices which
might result in unlawful activity such as rebates, kickbacks, or other unlawful
considerations are prohibited (Government Code 4526)."
Included
at the end of the Board Policy is the note:
"(Legal
Reference next page)"
Government
Code 4526 is then referenced on the next page.
When
the deletion was brought to the attention of the Board during Public Comments
from Surridge's election opponent Attorney
Florice Hoffman, Trustees Dr. Alexia Deligianni, Kathy Moffat and Diane Singer
tried unsuccessfully to have the 17 deleted words in the original Board Policy
that specifically listed unlawful
activity such as rebates, kickbacks, or other unlawful considerations are
prohibited reinserted into the new
policy or delay adoption until district staff could investigate why the words
were recommended to be deleted.
Trustee
Rick Ledesma argued that the deleted wording was not needed because if Measure
K passed it would have "lot's of oversight". Ledesma also questioned why it was brought
forward by a community member running for the school board.
Trustee
Timothy Surridge stated that it was wasteful for the district staff and
attorney to re-look at the Board Policy.
Trustee
Mark Wayland stated that he just read the item and that he understood it and that
it was time to move forward because he did not agree to putting things off.
President
John Ortega appeared to revert to his pre-presidential and less statesman-like
frustration declaring "Welcome to
the political season" as he
declared the deleted words were brought up in the "9th hour" of the
Board Policy adoption.
In
the end, the vote to reconsider the Board Policy that would eventually lead to
the reinserting of the wording spelling out the illegal activity the
Superintendent was to make sure were prohibited was defeated with the three
women trustees Kathy Moffat, Diane Singer and Dr. Alexia Deligianni voting to
move toward re-inserting the language into the Board Policy and the four male
trustees- Rick Ledesma, Timothy Surridge, Mark Wayland and John Ortega voted
against reconsidering reinserting "rebates,
kickbacks, or other unlawful considerations are prohibited" back into
the Board Policy.
That
however was not the end of the controversy. Fast forward to October 16th.
On
the October 16, 2014 Agenda, Board President Ortega and Trustees Rick Ledesma
and Timothy Surridge have added Item 12B (Agenda pages 6-8) a resolution on
Measure K.
The
Agenda states that:
"The
Resolution provides assurance to the community that Measure K projects will be
awarded on transparent open and competitive bidding practices..."
The
watchdog group the Greater Orange Community Organization* reacted to the
resolution when it was published in the Agenda on Monday October 13 with a
released statement ( CLICK ON
The
next day, Trustee Mark Wayland responded in the comment section of the post
which was reposted here: (CLICK
ON
Four Plans to
reinstate elementary music program reviewed
Also
at the September 11, 2014 Board meeting, the OUSD Trustees heard details of
four plans to reinstate the Elementary Music Program that was ended in 2008 due
to the budget crunch of the Great Recession.
Four
models based on a year-long study process that the OUSD Administration has
conducted were outlined. District-wide start-up costs ranged from $754,000 to
$2.5 million depending on the plan make-up.
Further
study and work on the models and development of an Action Plan are planned for
two Strategic Planning days over the next two months for the committee and a
wider group of invited stakeholders.
INSIDE the October
16, 2014 OUSD Board Meeting
OUSD
Board President John Ortega will be teleconferencing from a hotel in Sacramento California
Other Board Agenda items include:
CLOSED SESSION
4B 1&2 Selling of Riverdale and Killerfer properties
4D Superintendent Review-Discussion of Evaluation Instrument
ACTION ITEMS
12 A
Sale of Riverdale property
12B Measure K Resolution (see
above)
12 D Community Foundation of Orange Presentation $4,000
donation to OUSD High School
CONSENT ITEMS
Page 19- $17,050 for architectural drawings for upgrades to 3
portable classrooms at Richland H.S.
Page 21-20- $429,170 in needed urgent repairs to 6 OUSD Schools
Page 56-Resignation of Lori Davis, Director of Support
Services
NEXT OUSD BOARD MEETING Thursday,
October 16, 2014
CLOSED SESSION NOTE Time change 5:30 pm
OUSD Regular Session: 7:00
pm
For the AGENDA-
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
