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  • Tuesday, August 15, 2017

     

    Last minute additions to OUSD Agenda

    ORANGE Unified Schools INSIDE
    Independent insight into OUSD      
    a news service of
     Orange Net News /O/N/N/
    Last minute additions to OUSD Agenda
    OUSD adds Interim Superintendent consideration and dumping executive search consultant
    In a late  agenda "Addendum" added to the public posting of the OUSD Board of Education's regular agenda for the August 17, 2017 meeting this Thursday,  the OUSD Trustees will consider the appointment of an Interim Superintendent and dumping the controversial executive search firm of McPearson & Jacobson.   

    After posting the original August 17th  Meeting Agenda early Monday August 14th (with nothing related to the search for a superintendent) late that same day an agenda Addendum was added that included items related to the ongoing superintendent search.

    The agenda Addendum changes the time of the Closed Session from 6:30 pm to 5:30 pm and adds two items. First it adds Closed Session Agenda Item 4. C- "Consideration of Appointment of Interim Superintendent".   Under Action Items, it adds Item 12 G- Consultant Agreement that states:
    "The Board will consider to abandon the work under the Consultant agreement for Superintendent Search Services at its sole discretion".

    This newest twist to the current OUSD Superintendent search comes after last week's Special Board Meeting was to appoint an Interim Superintendent and outline steps to McPearson & Jacobson on finding a new superintendent.  The August 10th Special Meeting was called to order by the Board Clerk Trustee Kathy Moffat with Board President Rick Ledsma, Board Vice President John Ortega and Timothy Surridge all absent after they had attended the earlier Closed Session.  

    Item 10 A on the Special Meeting Agenda  was to be a discussion with, and direction given to, Dr. Jacobson (the owner of the consultant firm McPearson & Jacobson) chosen to help find the new OUSD Superintendent. Trustee Moffat however started the agenda item by stating that discussions had taken place about the Interim Superintendent appointment (Closed Session Agenda Item 4 B) and that she was now putting into the meeting record that she requests that the renewed contract that the OUSD Board had negotiated with Superintendent  Michael Christensen in February be placed on the Regular Session meeting on August 17th. 

    With the Addendum agenda item going back to appointing an interim superintendent and based on the surprising Special Meeting of August 10th, many Greater Orange stakeholders on social media are hoping that the August 17th meeting could bring Michael Christensen back as that "Interim Superintendent" to provide stability  while the Board Leadership regroups to move forward on  recruiting a replacement.  The OUSD Board might also consider under the agenda one of the four names given to them by McPearson & Jacobson  at the July 27th OUSD Board Meeting, although it is unclear whether any of those candidates have been interviewed.

    The rapid  developments over the search for an OUSD Superintendent since the official departure of Superintendent Christensen on August 2, 2017 (after he gave a two month notice of his retirement) has plunged the OUSD District Office into disarray with three major administrative positions empty.  

    An Acting Superintendent was named in a departing email from Christensen as the Board Leadership has now twice blundered in moving to fill the Superintendent post.  First in a compressed internal search and now with a controversial consultant firm that the Trustees appear ready to fire (click on ONN on McPearson & Jacobson).

    Adding to OUSD's current administrative disarray are two currently open Measure S building critical positions -Assistant Superintendent for Business Services and Executive Director for Secondary Education, plus a recently hired Assistant Superintendent for Facilities and Planning Ronald Lebs. (A new Executive Director of Secondary Education is due to be appointed Thursday).

    Panorama  Heights files a second petition to leave OUSD for Tustin Unified
    Panorama Heights has filed a second petition to leave Orange Unified and join Tustin Unified. 

    Fifteen months ago in April of 2016 the area petitioned to leave Orange Unified. In May of 2016 the petition was turned down by the  Orange County Committee on School Organization (OCCSO) after holding two Public Hearings.

    The original petition did not include the neighborhood section called "Lower Panorama Heights" and affected about 54 students costing OUSD just over $400,000 in  state average daily attendance funding (ADA).  The new July petition includes Lower Panorama Heights and now includes over 90 ADA students costing OUSD almost $800,000 in funding.  The original Panorama Heights petitioners ignored the negative financial impact on OUSD by arguing that the term negative impact means that the transfer did not affect the state finances.

    There are nine Education Code criteria that must be met for the transfer to take place.  Last year OUSD argued that the proposed transfer failed five of the nine mandated criteria:
    Criteria 8 does not allow the petition to be made primarily to increase property values.  In the 2016 petition, one of the three petitioners was a realtor who does business in the area-Jennifer Lampman.  In the original hearings the fact that Lampman was a realtor was not brought forward and the OCCSO determined that property values were not a factor. In the initial paperwork included in the 40 pages of paper work in the August 17th Agenda that is associated with the transfer, Criteria 8 is again listed (Agenda page 13) with OUSD contending "This is a motivating factor in the proposed transfer".  
    For more information click on Panorama Heights


    After 16 years, Orange Unified looks at bringing back the controversial Public Information Officer position
    Item 13 B (page 94) is an informational item looking at the possibility of bringing back a Public Information Officer position in Orange Unified.  Since discontinuing the position in 2001, the OUSD Superintendent has served as the spokesperson for the district.

    The last Orange Unified  Public Information Officer was Judy Frutig who was hired by the then Reactionary Board controlled by Education Alliance Trustee Marty Jacobson's anti-public education majority (that Board was eventually recalled in the 2001 Orange Recall Election).

    Frutig's position became the mouthpiece for the reactionary policies for a board majority out-of-control with policies growing more and more unpopular.  The information disseminated by Frutig was directly dictated by Board President Marty Jacobson. Frutig quickly became a lightning rod for uniting the Greater Orange Community against the Jacobson Majority and the beginning of uniting local social media communication under the Orange Citizens News Network-predecessor to Orange Net News

    Anthony Colin  at a Board meeting (OC Weekly)
    As the Recall pressure on the Board intensified, Frutig was unable to meet the overwhelming challenge of the growing community communication network and the state and national news scrutiny brought on by outrageous Board actions and by the landmark gay student rights case Colin vs Orange Unified. The under fire Board majority, now facing a recall election, abruptly fired Frutig. 

    For more information click on the landmark case click on Colin v OUSD
    For information about El Modena student Anthony Colin's suicide click on  
    Anthony  Colin  Made  El  Modena  High  School  a  Safer  Place




    Frutig, now the ex-OUSD PIO, sued Orange Unified for wrongful termination and joined the Orange Recall leadership. Frutig used her expertise to help the fledgling Orange Citizens News Network to upgrade into a modern 21st Century watchdog alert organization- controlled by the tight-knit invitation only local leaders known as the Roundtable Committee of the Greater Orange Community Group (now the Greater Orange Community Organization and its semi-autonomous arm, the Orange Communication System).

    After the successful 2001 Recall, Frutig settled her lawsuit with the new OUSD attorneys and was instrumental in helping the former OUSD Superintendent Dr. Robert French (forced out by the Jacobson Majority) returning to OUSD as the Superintendent replacing his replacement-Barbara Van Otterloo . Frutig then went on to host a local radio show and eventually teaching journalism at CSULB.

    Now sixteen years later, OUSD is again looking at a hiring a Public Information  Officer.  Like in 2001, the question is-Who will control the information that the position disseminates in the present-and in the future?

    Inside the August 17 Board Meeting

    Action Item 12 E.-One-year contract extensions for three top OUSD Administrators- the Deputy Superintendent and the Assistant Superintendents of Human  Resources and Facilities and Planning.

    Information Item 13 B. - Measure S Update

    NEXT OUSD BOARD MEETING Thursday August 17, 2017
    CLOSED SESSION NOTE Time change 5:30 pm
    OUSD Regular Session: 7:00 pm
    For the AGENDA-CLICK ON: 
    AGENDA 
    ADDENDUM


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