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, March 07, 2017
VPE demo vote, teacher layoffs and OUSD updates
ORANGE Unified Schools INSIDE
Independent
insight into OUSD
a news service of
Orange
Net News
/O/N/N/
OUSD trustees to vote to demolished historic Villa Park Elementary buildings
On
Thursday March 9, 2017 the Orange Unified School Board will vote on
a resolution to move forward with demolishing the two historic buildings
located on the campus of Villa
Park Elementary School .
The
buildings were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2003 and
are the oldest buildings in Villa Park .
Villa Park Elementary sits on the site of the original Mountain View School that
began in 1881. Mountain View was
the original name of the area now the City of Villa Park . The current historic buildings
date back to around 1919 and 1924.
The
March 9th Action Item 12 C (Agenda page 5) states:
Resolution No. 23-16-17: Approval to
Remove Two Original Buildings from the Villa Park Elementary
School Campus
At
the February 15, 2017 Orange Unified Board of Trustees received information on
the two Villa Park Elementary School historic
buildings. Numerous parents with students attending Villa Park Elementary have
been gathering community support to demolish the fenced off historic buildings
at the center of Villa Park Elementary School .
The
current parent-led efforts to demolish the two buildings come as the neglected
buildings have in the parents view turned into a safety hazard.
In
1999, Orange Unified agreed to let a community group called the Villa Park
Elementary School Restoration Corporation pursue fundraising plans to restore
the buildings. The fundraising efforts failed.
In
2006, OUSD began making plans to demolish the buildings. When completed in
2008, those plans were met with intense community resistance. Then Orange
County Supervisor Bill Campbell offered county matching funds of $100,000
towards saving the buildings. The district backed down from the plans to
demolish the buildings and eventually offered to sell the historic
buildings for $1. There were no takers.
Restoration estimates in 2008
were $3.5 million.
The estimated cost to
demolish the two buildings in the March 9 Agenda is $250,000.
OUSD prepares to layoff teachers
OUSD
will change its health class credit requirements by half beginning the next school
year by following the California
state standard in health credits. This change will lead to an online health
class. Orange Unified School Board Agenda
Item 12 F deals with teachers who currently teach OUSD health courses.
The
agenda item in part states:
Staffing at the state standard in the
subject of health for 2017-18 will require the layoff or reassignment of
approximately 4 single subject health teachers in order to prevent the District
from being overstaffed for the 2017 -18 school year.
The
agenda item allows the layoff or reassignment of the health teachers, A reassignment would depending
on what type of teaching credentials the teacher has and the open positions.
The Thursday March 9, 2017 Agenda reports that OUSD Trustee John Ortega will be teleconferencing from the small lobby of the Holiday Inn Express in
In October 2016, it was announced
that Ortega would be teleconferencing from a secure Homeland Security Center
facility in Alabama
which could have been a Brown Act violation if he had participated in the
meeting. On the night of the meeting it was announced that due to "limited
service" on his cellphone, Ortega wold not be participating.
Lobby seating area in lobby across from front desk in the Turlock Holiday Inn Express |
The
Brown Act has been interpreted to require all telephones used for
teleconferencing have a functioning speaker to enable public access, even if
there are no members of the public present at a particular location. The
meeting must be conducted so that participants by audio alone are clearly identified.
OUSD
has had numerous past problems with the Brown Act. In March of 2014 the OUSD
Agenda announced that Trustee Kathy Moffat was suppose to teleconference from a
private residence in Maryland .
After Brown Act watchdogs Californians Aware was notified, the
teleconference never took place. In 2010, OUSD re-voted on items that were
originally approved during teleconference meetings that did not vote be the
Brown Act required roll-call votes. In 2003 OUSD was under court order to
record all of its Closed Session meetings for potential judicial review because
of Brown Act violations of Closed Sessions in 2001. In another
court case in 2006, OUSD prevailed in a Brown Act case brought by Californians
Aware on behalf of then Trustee Steve Rocco over a censure resolution.
Californians Aware has in recent years stepped up
their monitoring of teleconferencing that has been brought to their attention. Calls to teleconferencing locations to confirm
public access, proper agenda locations and calls to locations during the meeting
to confirm speaker phone use have all been used to confirm Brown Act compliance.
For more information Click on:
INSIDE the OUSD March 9, 2017 Agenda
Other items in the March 9th Orange Unified Board Agenda:
· Action Item A: Measure S Architectural Firms
· Action Item B: Measure S Construction Firms
· Action Item D: Declaring the Killerfer Annex site
surplus
- Information
Item A: El Rancho Charter Construction Project Update
Closed Session 4 B Lawsuit discussion from parents of
a Palmyra student:
Andrew Ashline v. Orange Unified School District ,
et al.
for more information on the case click on:
·
KNBC
NEXT OUSD BOARD MEETING March 9, 2017
Next OUSD
Board Meeting -OUSD BOARD ROOM
CLOSED
SESSION- 5:30 pm
OUSD
Regular Session: 7:00 pm
For more
information call the OUSD Superintendent’s office at 714-628-4040
ARCHIVAL
Information and direct news can be found at:
ORANGE Unified Schools INSIDE
and the
Greater Orange News
Service
are
independent news services of /O/N/N/
Orange
Net News