Beyond the Blackboard

This Sounds Like a Bad Idea All Around ...

A couple of emails are floating around pushing the idea of keeping kids out of a school on a specific day to send a message to Capistrano Unified School District trustees about the stalled contract negotiations with teachers.

Vicki Soderberg, head of the Capistrano Unified Educators Association, says her group is not behind the effort, and while she doesn't rule out that it might be a teacher gone rogue, she suspects it's more likely a parent.

With all the pressure on performing well on test scores and other indicators, teachers need the kids in class, and the district does, too, financially.

Bottom line: It's just a bad idea. CUSD, like most districts, receives state funding based on the number of students in school on each  day -- not an average or through spot checks, but day-by-day.

So, keeping your student home a day costs CUSD $43.

While I frown on using kids as political pawns anytime, now is an especially bad time as the district needs all the money it can get. Starting with the 2007-08 budget year, CUSD has cut $66.2 million from its budget -- which back then was around $500 million.

Specifically:

The 2007-08 budget year saw $10.5 million cut;

The 2008-09 budget year saw $20.5 cut;

The 2009-10 budget year saw $35.2 million cut in three rounds of reductions.

Schools, remember, are in a crazy situation of setting their budgets before really knowing what the state is going to do. Right now, for example, CUSD is expecting it will need to make as much as $34 million in cuts in the coming budget cycle. That's up from the expected $21 million, which was down from an anticipated $25 million.

Stay tuned ... and keep those kids in class.

It's a Small World, After All ... It's a Small, Small World ...

Just for fun. Trustee Anna Bryson works for OC Treasurer Chriss Street. Chriss Street hired attorney Phillip Greer to defend him in court. CUSD Trustees hired Phillip Greer to challenge the county decision to set a June election ...

From the OC Register today:

LOS ANGELES – Under Chriss Street's direction, a bankrupt trust transferred millions of dollars from its one money-making business into two failing companies that he acquired, ex-employees testified Wednesday.

Their testimony came in the first day of the Orange County treasurer-tax collector's trial on civil fraud allegations...

But in a development that appeared to catch both sides off-guard, ex-employee Abel Wenning testified that at Street's direction a Mexican company he controlled deliberately falsified its books to disguise the value of materials it was shipping to Mexico. Wenning said these so-called "transfer payments" are "a very sensitive issue in Mexico."

The trust for the bankrupt Fruehauf Trailer Corp. is seeking $7 million from Street, its court-appointed trustee from 1998 through July 2005, for fraud and breach of fiduciary duty. The trial before U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Richard M. Neiter in Los Angeles is expected to conclude Friday.

Street will take the stand today.

The trust claims he siphoned money into two money-losing businesses with the intent of forming a truck-trailer manufacturer that he could eventually buy and run.

Street's attorney, Philip Greer, said Street made millions for the same creditors who now are criticizing his methods.

The whole story is here.

Trustees: Recall Effort 'Misguided' Effort by 'Anti-Reform' Movement

Capistrano Unified School District Trustees Ken Lopez Maddox and Mike Winsten issued a news release earlier this week in response to the first recall effort against them being set aside by proponents.

The highlights:

"It was clear that only the force of law of would compel the irresponsible leaders of this political stunt to stop lying to about the actions of the current CUSD Board of Trustees. These anti-reform recall leaders clearly lack the ability to engage in responsible debate and behavior", said Trustee Lopez-Maddox.

and

Trustee Winsten noted, "This misguided attempted recall as we have barely begun our second year in office is a blatant abuse of our democratic electoral system by enemies of democracy and voters rights. We strongly expect there will be further attempts made by those who feel threatened by the campaign to reform CUSD to interfere again with the will of the pro-education reform voters."

Here's the entire release: Download Trustees' Press Release 2-1-10(2)1

Capistrano Unified Recall Proponents Take a Do-Over

Without admitting they did anything wrong in the first place, the group supporting a recall of Capistrano Unified School District Trustees Ken Lopez-Maddox and Mike Winsten today launched a new effort they say is bullet-proof against any potential legal challenge.

Parents for Local Control first served the trustees with an "Intent to Recall" notice at the last board meeting. But the trustees fired back with an attorney's letter saying the notices hadn't been properly delivered and contained factual errors.

In a single-page news release issued late today, Parents for Local Control denied any substantial errors but said they abandoned the first notices and sent by certified mail -- an acceptable manner of service, according to the Registrar of Voters -- new notices of Intent to Recall.

The new notices make it clear some of the items are personal opinions, which are allowable, and then stress what recall proponents say are broken campaign promises. Unlike the first petition, this one was reviewed by a pretty high-powered election attorney, Fred Woocher.

Some of the signators have changed, too -- initial recall leader Kevin Murphy is no longer among the 10 initial signers, although he says he still is disappointed with the current board.

New on the list: Truman Bendict of San Clemente, who has a school named after him, and some other parents active in the district. Also there is Peter H. Ditto, a Professor of Social Psychology at UC Irvine. Former CUSD Trustee Peter Espinosa remains on the list.

The release says Parents for Local Control will begin the signature-gathering in a few weeks -- other legal requirements are ahead first -- and has some 3,000 volunteers ready to help.

Here's the release:  Download PLC Relaunches Recall

Here's the Lopez-Maddox petition: Download Notice of Intention-Maddox Redacted

Here's the Winsten petition:  Download Notice of Intention-Winsten Redacted

About a Parcel Tax ...

While no one has come out and said Capistrano Unified School District should explore the idea of a parcel tax as it grapples with a $25 million shortfall -- and Trustee Ken Lopez Maddox has already come out against one -- I dug up a Web site that has some statistics on such taxes.

A parcel tax, of course, is a flat-rate tax put on property owners after a two-thirds approval. According to Ballotpedia, California is the only state in the nation to allow the parcel taxes to support public schools.

Of 1,042 public school district districts in California, about 245 have adopted a parcel tax since 1983. In 132 parcel-tax elections between 2001 and 2009, 83 passed.

A couple of personal thoughts -- Orange County, of course, is pretty conservative, so the no new taxes pledge is pretty standard. That said, my city, Capistrano, has passed two open-space bonds since 1990, including one in November, so folks aren't against taxing themselves for some things.

Of course, many of the cities in CUSD are newer communities, and residents there are already paying additional taxes to the schools in the form of Mello-Roos, or Community Facilities Districts, so that might weigh into a voter's decision.

Here's the Ballotpedia page -- and yes, I know some people don't like those wikipedia/anypedia pages and I do see that there's two stats for how many school districts are in the state.

Trustees Threaten Recall Proponents With Lawsuit *Updated

*Update at bottom

An attorney representing Capistrano Unified School District Trustees Ken Lopez Maddox and Mike Winsten on Monday threatened to sue the residents who launched the recall against them.

In an 10-page letter from Irvine attorney Steven D. Baric -- identified on the Internet as Secretary for the California Republican Party and President of the California Republican Lawyers Association -- the 10 residents who signed the recall petition are told they will be sued if they don't drop their effort.

In a chilling final sentence, underlined in the letter, Baric advises "Please be advised that if you force us to bring this lawsuit, you will be liable for the payment of all attorneys' fees and costs we reasonably occur..."

The letter contends the recall proponents made false and misleading statements in their 200-word statements about why Lopez Maddox and Winsten should be recalled, and failed to serve them properly.

Here is the 200-word statement in support of Lopez-Maddox's recall

Here is the 200-word statement supporting Winsten's recall

The letter goes on to parse details of the 200-word statements -- questioning even whether former Superintendent A. Woodrow Carter was "popular" and debating whether trustees have lived up to their campaign promises. The letter also cites CUSD's increase in test scores as proof trustees are doing their job well.

As for service, the attorney's letter says resident Frank Thomas Larkin never personally handed the "Intent to Recall Notices" to either trustee, thereby invalidating the attempt. In fact, Larkin tried to hand them to the trustees on the dais, but was directed by the trustees to give them to Jane Boos, who acts as the board's recording secretary.

The letter demands a response -- from all 10 people who signed the initial Intent to Recall -- by Wednesday.  When former Trustees Marlene Draper and Shelia Benecke were facing a recall, Jennifer Beall and others sued them over their ballot statements in a similar move. In a court settlement, they went without ballot statements rather than face the possibility of paying attorney's fees.

In this case, my understanding the recall is moving ahead as planned.

I sent an email to Winsten, Maddox and Baric, asking whether their letter would chill recall attempts, but didn't get a response.

This all comes after trustees, using CUSD money, sued three county agencies over a June election to determine how trustees are elected in Capo Unified. Parents in that case have asked that election to be moved to November to save the legal fees. Trustees said that was a financial issue because the June election would have cost up to $500,000, while the November question will be about $20,000, but parents argued it was just the trustees trying to protect their seats.

Here's the letter.

Download CUSD Recall Letter

Update:

As pointed out by a commenter; Baric late last year announced intention to run for a seat on the Rancho Santa Margarita City Council. In a post on Red County, a fund-raiser for him is hosted by RSM Councilman Tony Beall, RSM Planning Commissioner Tom Russell (both leaders in the effort that brought all seven current CUSD trustees to office) and State Board of Equalization Member Michelle Steel, who is CUSD Trustee Ken Maddox's boss.

Here's a link to the Red County post.