Be the first to know: SUBSCRIBE HERE
↑ To add this ANIMATOR CLICK HERE
Greater Orange HEADLINES in the News
Follow Greater Orange on TWITTER
Saturday, May 27, 2017
Sorrera leaving OUSD
COMMUNITY UPDATE
Orange Unified Assistant Superintendent Joe Sorrera to leave Orange Unified for new position at Dublin Unified School District
Orange Unified Assistant Superintendent Joe Sorrera to leave Orange Unified for new position at Dublin Unified School District
Orange Net News has confirmed that Orange Unified School
District Assistant Superintendent of Business Services Claudio "Joe"
Sorrera has accepted a new position as the Assistant Superintendent of Business Services with the Dublin Unified
School District
Dublin Unified is an 8,000 student district in Alameda County
in the East Bay
area of Northern California .
For more information click on DUBLIN
Sorrera's departure,
which has not been announced by Orange Unified yet, comes less than a month
after Orange Unified Superintendent Michael Christensen announced his
departure. The departure of both Christensen and Sorrera leaves a major financial leadership vacuum for Orange
Unified which under the financial leadership of both Christensen and Sorrera
had become a model of financial stability across the state, even through the Great
Recession.
In addition to the financial aspect, Sorrera was instrumental in the organizing and
financing planning of the failed Measure
K and successful Measure S. Much of the financial and architectural groundwork for Measure S was completed as planning for
Measure K.
Sorrera's departure also comes amid growing
unconfirmed community speculation on the
reasons for Christensen's retirement. Much of those whispered conversations at the
OUSD District Office focus on the OUSD Trustees majority.
Last week, that OUSD Majority rejected legal counsel advice
and approved a version of the El Rancho Charter that could, according to the
district's legal experts, place OUSD in financial risk and not provided required protections to students and staff. Sources close to the El Rancho Charter
administration, which is currently a "dependent" charter with a defined attendance area, report that
long-term plans are to eventually make the school a completely independent
charter-thus leaving the Anaheim Hills area with no public middle school.
Sorrera began his career as a private Certified Public
Accountant. At OUSD he served as an account supervisor and for
the last six years as the OUSD Assistant Superintendent of Business Services
and Chief Business Officer.
Sorrera is also a member of the OUSD Bargaining Team that is currently in negotiations with its employee bargining units.
Sorrera is also a member of the OUSD Bargaining Team that is currently in negotiations with its employee bargining units.
Thursday, May 25, 2017
OUSD Trustees ignore legal advice
SPECIAL REPORT
OUSD Board majority ignores legal advice
and approves legally
questionable
El Rancho Charter
The
Orange Unified School Board Trustees voted 4-3 to approve a version of the El Rancho Charter that the
district's legal counsel warned against.
Led
by Trustee Timothy Surridge who cited the threat of legal action from the El
Rancho Charter School, Trustees John Ortega, Dr. Alexia Deligianni-Brydges and Board
President Rick Ledesma voted to approve the El Rancho Charter submitted on
March 29th. Trustees Kathy Moffat,
Andrea Yamasaki and Brenda Lebsack voted against the motion after voting to re-approve
the original charter the school currently operates under.
The
Orange Unified Administration and legal counsel had tried to negotiate an addendum
called a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to clear-up areas that legal counsel had concerns over.
Legal
counsel addressed the OUSD Board and warned them that by approving the March
29th version (Option B on the Board Agenda) would give all the leverage to the
Charter Board which had refused for the last two weeks to consider modifying
their charter in ongoing negotiations.
Board
President Rick Ledesma had at one point suggested that the two Boards get
together and negotiate the legal terms of a MOU without lawyers.
The
three trustees who voted against Option B which gave the El Rancho Charter
Board no incentive to further negotiate with OUSD, had favored Option A which
would have re-approved the current charter and allowed further negotiations on future changes.
The
El Rancho Charter Board had put out numerous community alerts claiming that
OUSD was not going to approve a charter renewal. That however was never the case. While OUSD tried to negotiate, the Charter
Board refused to consider any changes using numerous legal maneuvers and threatening
legal action.
Board
President Rick Ledesma seemed not to
understand the complicated legal issues involved insisting that by approving
Option B that the two parties could then go back to the negotiating table and
work out all the issues-ignoring legal counsels warning that by approving
Option B the district would have no further opportunity to negotiate if the El Rancho Charter Board
continued to refuse.
Wednesday, May 24, 2017
Peralta and El Rancho on OUSD Agenda
ORANGE Unified Schools INSIDE
Independent
insight into OUSD
a news service of
Orange
Net News
/O/N/N/
Selling the Peralta Site back on OUSD Agenda this week
The controversial sale of OUSD's Peralta Site is back on
the OUSD Agenda on May 25th. Closed Session starts at 5:00 pm with comments on the agenda taken before the Closed Session starts.
Closed Session Item
4 D has the OUSD Board discussing the price with district lawyers and "an unidentified number of potential
buyers for the property" . The
agenda item only identifies the site by its address, not by name.
In 2012 the OUSD Board voted not to lease the property to
developers who were planning a high density apartment complex.
OUSD Trustee Timothy Surridge then went on a community-wide
lobbying tour trying to drum-up support for selling the property. Surridge and his board allies stated that
voters would not pass a facilities bond if the district is not using all of its
resources.
Selling the Peralta Property, which currently is being used
mostly for recreation, has been a goal of Surridge and his Board allies for
years. Now with term limits, time is
running out for the members of the OUSD Board who want the property sold to
developers.
OUSD Board has two options for El Rancho Charter vote
on Thursday
A renewal of the El Rancho Charter by the OUSD Board of
Trustees is certain this Thursday May
25th. The question is- Which charter will the Board approve?
The OUSD Board Agenda Item 12 B ( Agenda pages 3-176)
includes two Options for the OUSD Trustees to vote on-both options would approve
a charter for El Rancho.
Which of the two options -and therefore charters-depend on
if the El Rancho Charter Board and the district have reached an agreement by
the OUSD Board meeting and have an approved Memorandum of Understanding (MOU2). The El Rancho Charter Board held a 9
am May 22nd Special Charter Board Meeting to discuss and possibly approve a
MOU2.
Option A for the OUSD Board vote is contingent on the El
Rancho Board not approving a MOU2.
Option A has the OUSD Board renewing the current El Rancho charter that
was originally approved in 2012.
Option B has the OUSD Board approving a new charter with an
agreed upon MOU2 that the OUSD Administration finds meets all of their
concerns.
As of the posting of this story, the El Rancho Charter
website is still urging parents to show up on Thursday wearing red to support
the charter. The website alert states
that the "El Rancho Charter
School
For more information click on : EL RANCHO ALERT
The growing problems between OUSD's second charter middle
school started with a letter from El Rancho Principal Michele Walker to OUSD
insisting that one of the versions of the El Rancho Charter application
submitted this year was automatically renewed when the legally required 60 day
time period elapsed without OUSD taking action on the charter application.
OUSD has taken the position that the numerous El Rancho charter
applications it received all were drafts, and therefore not subject to the
legal timelines.
The April letter from Walker
Another point that OUSD is insisting on clarification is
language in the charter about the OUSD loan to the charter school for a
construction of a new science center.
That science center is currently under construction.
OUSD has also cited that no evidence has been presented
that the changes in the Charter were voted on by 75% of the staff as required
by the original charter. Also among the other
numerous concerns outlined in the OUSD Agenda Item are deletion of required
insurance related items that OUSD insists are needed to protect staff and
students.
The posted November 2016 minutes from the El Rancho Charter
Board report that Principal Walker was at home recovering from a surgery. Item
19 states that Walker
The December 2016 El Rancho Board minutes show that the
Principal Walker participated by telephone.
Nothing from the posted agenda shows that the required Brown Act notification
requirements were followed in the December El Rancho Charter related to the
principal teleconferencing. The only item voted on by a roll call ( another
Brown Act requirement) was the Charter approval in Agenda Item 15.
The only votes by staff reported in the agenda was a 56-3
to change the special education SELPA.
The January 2017 El Rancho Board Minutes do not report any
staff votes. Item 15 reports that the
Principal was present at the January meeting and was meeting with the district
to arrange a presentation on the El
Rancho Charter to the OUSD Board in February.
The minutes continue to explain "Possibly approval in April".
There are no minutes posted for any other El Rancho Board
meetings in 2017 (February, March, April, May) and therefore no public records
of the required staff vote on the charter changes.
In August 2016, El Rancho Charter was on a list of 250
charters from the ACLU that were allegedly in violation of state law. The ACLU
report accused El Rancho of not following the state law mandating that charters accept all students. The ACLU report alleged that El Rancho
Charter limited enrollment based on a student's academic performance.
In February 2017, OUSD paid a $10 million dollar settlement
to families of El Rancho students
injured in a 2014 bus crash.
New OUSD Assistant Superintendent
of Facilities and Planning to be named
replacing Executive Director position
OUSD will add a third Assistant Superintendent when they
name a new Assistant Superintendent of
Facilities and Planning on Thursday night. The new position will replace the current
Director of Facilities and Planning.
Agenda Item 12 F approves a new contract for the new
Assistant Superintendent "consistent
with the contracts of the other two Assistant
Superintendents".
The most current public information on salaries for 2015
from Transparent California shows the
two OUSD Assistant Superintendents with benefits two years ago were between $215,000 and
$219,000.
By comparison, Transparent California reports that same
year the salary for Matthew Strother, the current Executive Director of
Facilities and Planning, was $100,000.
For a list of OUSD 2015 salaries click on:
The new $200,000 plus Assistant Superintendent position comes as talks between the
district and its employee unions have stalled.
 |
| Executive Director Matthew Strother |
The May 24th Agenda, Consent Agenda Item 14 I (pg 288) eliminates
the current OUSD position of Executive Director of Facilities and Planning.
INSIDE the May 25th OUSD Agenda
Other items on the May 25th Agenda:
- Action Item 12 A:
- Action Item 12 C: Selling of Killefer Annex Site
NEXT OUSD BOARD MEETING Thursday May
25, 2017
Next OUSD Board Meeting -OUSD BOARD ROOM
CLOSED SESSION: 5:00 pm
OUSD Regular Session: 7:00 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/
Monday, May 08, 2017
OUSD Trustees meet Thursday
ORANGE Unified Schools INSIDE
Independent
insight into OUSD
a news service of
Orange
Net News
/O/N/N/
OUSD Board to meet Thursday May 8th
The Orange Unified School
Board will hold a regular scheduled meeting
on Thursday May 8, 2017 Closed
Session begins at 5:00 pm and Open session begins at 7:00 pm.
The
meeting agenda includes the Trustees discussing in Closed Session about the announced
retirement of Superintendent Michael Christensen effective 8/1/17.
Other
items include voting on Action Items for Approval of the El Modena Measure S
Science Center Project and a Public Hearing on the Renewal of the El Rancho
Charter School's charter.
Information
on organizing new Boys and Girls Lacrosse teams at Canyon and El Modena High
Schools will also be presented.
Information on the legalities of exchanges of public surplus real
property will also be discussed.
The
OUSD Trustees will also vote as part of the Consent Agenda on a $15,000 contract
to provide on-site training for the newly approved 4 x 4 Block Schedule for El Modena High
School.
For
more information Click on OUSD May Agenda
Wednesday, May 03, 2017
EMHS coach charged in sex crimes
El Modena HS walk-on coach in Sunday's suicide standoff now charged with underage sex crimes
The Orange County District Attorney announced
today that Michael J. Snitzler, the 26 year-old El Modena H.S. walk-on (part
time) football who was initially charged with weapons charges following a
10-hour suicide-related stand-off with police last Sunday April 23rd at the high school, is now facing additional
charges allegedly involving a sexual relationship with an under-aged 17 year
old El Modena student.
In addition to the possession of a felony firearm and
ammunition on a campus charge, Snitzer has now been charged with misdemeanor unlawful
sexual intercourse and child annoyance. According to the D.A., Snitzler and the
El Modena student met in February of this year.
After allegedly communicating by text messages, Snitzler allegedly began a sexual relationship with
the student in March of this year.
The felony weapons charges alone could result
in up to 10 years and 6 months in prison.
