Foothills Sentry May 2023

Foothills Sentry Page 2 May 2023 NEVER BE SURPRISED! We protect your home and business from burglary, fire and medical emergencies. 714 282 0828 | jadtec.com aco 4202 By Tina Richards Board of Education meetings for the Orange Unified School District have become marathon events testing the patience, perse- verance and circadian thresholds of the public and trustees alike. The April 13 meeting began at 5:30 p.m. with public com- ments directed at the closed ses- sion agenda. The board then went into its closed session conference until 7:22 p.m., when the public portion of the meeting resumed. It didn’t end until 2:34 a.m. The first portion of every monthly meeting is given over to general comments and updates from individual trustees and stu- dent board members, recognition of an OUSD employee of the month, a highlight report from a district school, and various proc- lamations. It was almost 9 p.m. before the “business” items, e.g., public hearings, board actions and information discussions com- menced. Speaking up Several of those items were addressed by public speakers when they finally came up on the agenda. These days, constituents tend to voice their opinions more than ever before, even on con- sent items. “Public comments are made to hold you accountable,” one parent stressed to the board. But, at three minutes per speaker, comment time adds up. As of the last board meeting, constituents wishing to speak on non-agendized items must Marathon board meeting tests everyone’s mettle wait until the end of the meet- ing. Those comments used to be heard early on, but President Rick Ledesma moved them from the first half of the meeting until the very last. That timing change is buried in the published agenda. Public comments are listed as Item 6, but that now refers only to agenda items. Speakers unfamiliar with school board meetings could con- ceivably assume that they would be heard at a reasonable hour. The board didn’t reach that point in the April 13 agenda until 1:15 a.m. It was remarkable how many people – 22 -- stayed in the room that long. The strong survived Several toughed out the lengthy meeting to criticize the district for “grooming” kids and intro- ducing them to drag queens. A student countered that perceived permissiveness by noting that her club was threatened and a meet- ing postponed because it invited Planned Parenthood to give a pre- sentation. A parent, a teacher and a group of students who acknowledged “staying up past their bedtime” challenged the board for allow- ing a student board member to be harassed by a videographer at the last meeting. Ruby Hewett had publicly asked the cameraman to stop taking pictures of her and her colleagues; he refused, and no board member intervened. Her father, Mike Hewett, wait- ed until almost 2 a.m. to protest a “strange man filming my daugh- ter with unknown intent.” “What is going on here?” he asked. “Why shouldn’t my daughter feel safe here? Where is your leader- ship?” Others spoke of gun violence and the district’s delays in pro- viding active shooter training for teachers. “Our two charter schools have had it,” Greg Good- lander, president of the teachers union, reported. “I’ve talked to three superintendents about it. We must take steps to prepare.” “We have earthquake and fire drills,” teacher Patty Walker said. “Why don’t we have active shoot- er training?” “Can we please get this done?” another parent pleaded. A waiting game A hearty handful of moms stayed into the wee hours to in- quire about rumors they’d heard about Esplanade Elementary School being closed. “We’re here to defend our school,” one said. “Please tell us what is going on,” another asked, “are these rumors or not?” Other comments related to the board. “Making staff stay here until after midnight is bad em- ployment,” a constituent advised. “Keeping this meeting going until after 2 a.m. is bad management. Why don’t you have two meet- ings a month?” When the last speaker finished, it was almost 2:30 a.m. Despite the hour, John Ortega weighed in on active shooter training, claim- ing he has been advocating for it since last year. “I pushed hard on it,” he said. “It was supposed to start at the beginning of the school year. If you have ques- tions, you can ask Ms. Yamasaki, who was board president at that time.” “This is not on the agenda,” Andrea Yamasaki pointed out, “so I can’t speak on it. But I will be prepared to at the next meet- ing.” “Let’s get this on the agenda,” Ledesma said. He adjourned the meeting at 2:34 a.m., nine hours after it began. "OUSD" continued from page 1 school year would soon be over, qualified candidates would not likely be looking to change jobs or look for one until the fall. Ana Page said she also had concerns about rushing into the process. Ledesma expressed concern about hiring a firm now, spend- ing the money for it to conduct a search, and then deciding to pro- long the process down the road. “We have a lot of issues with this decision,” he said, noting that “candidates can do a lot of research on this board. There is no secret that this is a split board. Superintendents may take a long look and not want to join that situation.” “It would be difficult for any- one to take a job in the middle of that [divided board],” Kris Erick- son agreed. “Politics is not allow- ing us to get good candidates.” Page suggested that because hiring the right superintendent is important to the community, the district could itself start collect- ing data about what people want. The board voted, 7-0, to take no action, but to start the process internally. Interim Superintendent Ernie Gonzalez was asked to con- tinue in that position for now. "Truck" continued from page 1 Under the radar Because the Prologis project is in a primarily industrial area of the city, it has not generated a lot of public interest. The only non-agency parties to review the MND were two property own- ers on adjacent Parker Street and an attorney for Mary’s Kitchen. Mary’s Kitchen was still located at the end of Struck Avenue when the MND was released in Sep- tember 2021. It was noted at the time that the Kitchen’s presence was largely ignored in the docu- ment. The replacement operation for Mary’s Kitchen, HUB, is located on the site, and considered tem- porary. It, too, is barely men- tioned in the DEIR. Concerns raised previously about impacts to air quality, noise and traffic were dismissed as not significant in the document. The DEIR reports that pollutants and greenhouse gases expected to be emitted by the facility fall within state guidelines. Noise created by construction and subsequent operations will generally remain within acceptable decibel levels. Traffic conditions, too, will not be overly impacted by the addition of 176 tractor-trailers and 220 car trips per day. There is no refer- ence to damage to city streets wrought by the influx of four-axle vehicles. One of the Parker Street prop- erty owners, whose business will be impacted by the truck termi- nal, noted during a scoping meet- ing that independent truck drivers may not follow the prescribed route and spill into other parts of the city. He also pointed out that the industrial enterprise will bring little revenue to the city, as it will not generate any recurring sales tax, and property taxes won’t make a big difference.