Foothills Sentry March 2023

Foothills Sentry Page 4 March 2023 JOHNSON MOTORCARS 31 Years of Specializing in the Service and Repair of Mercedes-Benz Gary Johnson 714-997-2567 982 N. Batavia # B13, Orange, CA 92867 gary@johnsonmotorcars.com @ ramblingroseoc COLOR Guest Commentaries By Kathy Moffat As a former trustee of Orange Unified School District, I’m heartbroken over the chaos forced upon our school district in a mere six weeks by the new board ma- jority Rick Ledesma, John Orte- ga, Angie Rumsey and Madison Miner. A major victory of my years of service was continual improve- ment in our district, thanks to out- standing teachers, support staff, and leadership and, of course, thanks to the fine students and families of our community. Under the leadership of award-winning Superintendent Dr. Gunn Marie Hansen, OUSD became a “Dis- trict of Excellence,” as dubbed by her predecessor, award-win- ning Superintendent Mike Chris- tensen. It has lived up to that des- ignation in so many ways. OUSD Education Services, led by Assistant Superintendent Cathleen Corella, drew praise from the Orange County Depart- ment of Education (OCDE) for our exemplary Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP), our district’s state-mandated template for student instruction. Our LCAP was held up as a model for other Orange County districts to follow. Orange Unified’s sound finan- cial management of retiree ben- efits, district reserves, Measure S, and power usage has saved mil- lions of dollars yearly for class- rooms and taxpayers. OUSD’s credit rating has been extremely high for two decades and was re- cently upgraded by Standard & Poor’s to AA -- a credit rating few school districts can match. Pre-COVID, when state aca- demic testing was ongoing, OUSD schools won more than 30 California Distinguished School Awards, 23 California Gold Rib- bon Awards, many state and na- tional Model School Awards and three prestigious National Blue Ribbon School Awards. When the pandemic hit and in-person learning was not per- mitted, OUSD immediately re- sponded by providing digital de- vices for all students and online lessons for children as young as kindergarten. As soon as in-class learning was allowed, OUSD implement- ed simultaneous distance and in- person learning, in the same class, taught by the same teacher. Parent choice determined which learn- ing environment best suited their child and family. No other school district was able to offer that. It was a huge benefit to students and a Herculean task for teachers, but it was the best thing for our kids, so we did it. When COVID suspended state testing, the California De- partment of Education (CDE) recognized outstanding efforts with California Pivotal Practice OUSD wasn’t broken -- but now it is Awards. OUSD, as a district, earned the new award, as did sev- en of our schools: California In- spire Academy, Santiago Charter Middle School, Anaheim Hills, Fairhaven, West Orange and Nohl Canyon Elementary Schools. All were honored for unique learning opportunities and strategies dur- ing and after distance learning. “This accolade serves to vali- date the extraordinary steps our schools took to connect with and engage students during one of the most challenging years imagin- able,” said Orange County Su- perintendent Al Mijares. It was another testament to the creativity and dedication of our educators. OUSD’s comprehensive high schools appear on U.S. News and World Report’s Best High Schools list and can offer even more rigor now with our new, state-of-the-art Science Technol- ogy Engineering and Mathemat- ics (STEM) centers completed through Measure S, OUSD’s school improvement bond. Our creative educators pres- ent a variety of Career Techni- cal Education (CTE) classes for high schoolers, offering more career pathways than any other district in Orange County. These courses give students, who may or may not be college-bound, real-life educational experiences in a range of careers -- from con- struction trades to medicine and aviation. The most recent CDE dash- board shows OUSD students reaching improved levels of per- formance year over year on every measure tracked. These honors and successes are not achieved by accident, but through the hard work of talented students and educators, unde- terred by the global pandemic, and led by Superintendent Dr. Gunn Marie Hansen, who has been honored by fellow adminis- trators, universities and national education organizations and was named 2022 Superintendent of the Year by the Orange County PTA . Now, instead of an energetic, inspired, and determined cadre of educators marching together to continuous excellence, we have a school district thrust into chaos. We have a leaderless district. We have a school board majority so enthralled by its own imperious- ness, and yet so clueless as to the actual impact of its actions, that it creates problems, rather than solving them. We have an inept board major- ity whose knee-jerk response to a miscategorized online book was to shut down the whole online library, throwing students who relied on that resource into panic, together with their families who were powerless to fill the gap and teachers whose lessons were now in jeopardy. Our talented employees, once enthusiastic and positive, are now stifled and fearful -- not sure what outrageous edict will be next. Our excellent teachers and lead- ers, with creative genius enough to develop educational programs to meet the needs of thousands of students, are now fearful for their jobs. Our business department is faced with the task of develop- ing a budget that shifts hundreds of thousands in education dollars to the buyout of broken employee contracts. We are witnessing the rapid, shameful, and wasteful destruc- tion of a successful, living and breathing environment of excel- lence that OUSD worked so hard to establish. As a member of the commu- nity whose best interests are not served by what is happening, and as a former trustee whose love and devotion to these wonderful students, families and schools will not fade, I say with all my might, this must not continue. I will support every effort to end this educational tyranny and to restore OUSD to the status it’s earned so well -- a District of Ex- cellence. Kathy Moffat served on the OUSD Board of Education from 2001-2022. Not so unified Dear Editor: Thank you to the Foothills Sen- try for providing a much-needed forum for our community. I have two children – 6th and 10th grad- ers – that have been in OUSD schools since the 1st grade. The most recent issue raises numer- ous concerns about the OUSD Board’s disregard of established procedures. For example, the OUSD Board has not provided any reason for its swift actions. One aspect that concerned me the most was that the board majority received campaign funds from a special interest group. Could there have been some type of an agreement that the special interest group wanted to oust Superinten- dent Hansen? It seems that Rick Ledesma had a sudden change of heart after the most recent elec- tion. There were no concerns raised by Ledesma about Dr. Hansen’s stewardship of OUSD over the last few years. In the Sept. 19, 2017, OUSD newslet- ter, Ledesma said, “Dr. Hansen is extremely knowledgeable and has demonstrated great leadership as the Deputy Superintendent. Dur- ing the process of identifying a superintendent search firm and interim superintendent, she has led the district and provided a valuable service to our commu- nity. The 2017-18 school year has started smoothly, and the conti- nuity of her leadership as the In- terim Superintendent will provide stability to the district students, staff and parents.” The board is supposed to be transparent about its decision- making process and should be following an ethical code of con- duct. This OUSD Board’s ears have been poisoned by special interest groups, and that is sabo- taging the system that has worked so well for my children, other OUSD students, and OUSD staff over the last 10 years. Nilay Patel Orange Dear Editor: Every one of us has a story about a teacher whose caring made our child feel valuable, feel seen. Our stories could fill vol- umes. Now I have another story to tell about teachers, and this one is about courage. The new narrowly elected majority on the Orange Unified School District board is doing its best to provide OUSD’s kids with a 19th century education in 2023. Their tactics and policies aim to not only erase educational best practices, but bring back the “might means right” bullying cul- ture of harsher times. Parents, community members and teachers have all spoken out at school board meetings, decry- ing their shady back room tactics. But it’s the teachers who take my breath away with their cour- age. They know that these board members have already exhibited capricious and retaliatory behav- ior, so they know they are risk- ing their jobs to speak up. They aren’t asking for more pay or shorter hours. They are only ask- ing that their students don’t lose access to the education they need to become well-rounded citizens and compete in our future global marketplace. Upton Sinclair famously said, “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not under- standing it.” It’s probably even more difficult to speak up for what’s right, when your salary probably depends on not speak- ing up. But that’s what these teachers are doing. Thank you to the teachers of OUSD who are putting their live- lihoods on the line to protect chil- dren. They are the true heroes of this story. Ronna Sarvas Weltman North Tustin Dear Editor: As reported by the Sentry in December, on Nov. 17, Orange Unified School District Trustees Rick Ledesma, John Ortega and Angie Rumsey voted against the "good behavior" policy designed to ensure norms of “civil behav- ior” on district grounds. Their behavior since becoming the board majority--with the elec- tion of Madison Miner--begs the question, “What norms do they value?” They most assuredly do not value teaching and learning. Without cause or reasonable notice, they fired the superinten- dent and assistant superintendent of educational services, under cir- cumstances that remain suspect. They hired, on a 4-2 vote, a re- tiree from Idaho to take the helm; suspended an online library used by both students and teachers; and ordered an as-yet-undefined academic audit. To top it off, the Idaho retiree decided to go home after only 42 days. It seems Edward Velasquez couldn't stand the chaos either. How can teachers teach and students learn in this climate of uncertainty and distrust? As a retired teacher, grand- parent and neighbor of OUSD students, I have an obligation to speak up. So does every OUSD resident. Keni Brayton Cox Anaheim Hills Dear Editor: At the Feb. 2 Orange Unified School District board meeting, the issue of building a new pool at Villa Park High School was on the agenda and discussed. The VPHS pool is a half-century old. It has been regularly and diligent- ly maintained for 55 years. Naturally, with time and sheer amount of use, there is a shelf life. Inner and underground workings have simply eroded to the point of being very nearly unfixable. De- cisions about next steps, ideally made in advance of it becoming unusable, are facing the district. It’s a shame Trustee John Orte- ga inserted himself into the situa- tion, making it political by prom- ising a new pool in exchange for votes for Rick Ledesma, Madison Miner and Tim Surridge during their slate’s campaign for school board. He simply cannot go about business ethically and avoid plac- ing a stink of corruption on every- thing he touches, including, now, the pool. The VPHS aquatics program is the most successful in the district, and, at one point, themost success- ful athletics program at VPHS.