Foothills Sentry August 2023

Foothills Sentry Page 4 August 2023 JOHNSON MOTORCARS 34 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 Not on board Dear Editor: For the June 20 Orange Unified school board meeting, I prepared a public comment regarding the proposed parent/guardian bill of rights. All speakers are told that they have 3 minutes to speak, so I planned accordingly. As the meet- ing started, however, Board Presi- dent Ledesma decided to reduce the time to one minute, without any prior discussion or notifica- tion. When my turn came to speak, I was interrupted by loud commo- tion in the back of the room. By the time Mr. Ledesma quieted the disruption, I had 17 seconds left. Since I wasn’t able to say what I wanted to say in the meeting, I’m sharing it here: I’m here to talk about the proposed Parent's Bill of Rights. I’m a parent of two OUSD students. I’ve been a parent in this district for 15 years. I’ve had the privilege to volunteer in my kids’ classrooms, chaperone field trips, get to know teachers and classmates, review curriculum, help my kids with their studies, and look at what they’re reading and what they’ve been assigned. Whenever I have reached out with an issue, teachers took my concerns seriously and made time to talk with me. All of this is to say that I have had ample opportunity to witness first-hand what goes on in our schools as a parent. My initial reaction to reading the Parent's Bill of Rights was that it is redundant. These are rights we already have (e.g., access the curriculum, information on how to participate in parent-teacher associations, and to speak at board meetings). These are all rights I have experienced as a parent for 15 years in the district. That said, I have three main concerns with the so-called “Parent's Bill of Rights.” First, the folks advocating for parents’ rights are spreading misinformation. For example, earlier this year, we saw how a misplaced book in the online library Sora was twisted and manufactured into a story that our library has books with pornographic content for young readers. Spreading lies and manufacturing false narratives results in less real protection for kids and sows anxiety, fear, and mistrust in teachers and schools. Second, the so-called “parents’ rights movement” pits parents and teachers against each other, as if we are adversaries instead of partners. It creates distrust and undermines the experience and expertise of teachers, librarians, and other highly qualified education professionals. We’ve seen this first hand at school board meetings with the proliferation of demeaning comments directed at teachers, including one calling teachers “animals.” We should be working together as parents, teachers, and community to inspire and educate our kids, rather than being pitted against each other. Teachers are not out to harm or groom or indoctrinate kids. I encourage concerned parents to talk to their child’s teacher directly, or ask to volunteer in the classroom to see for yourself. My last concern is that while “parent's rights” sounds like a good thing, it’s misleading and serves as a cover for book bans, censorship, and erasing accurate, but difficult, truths about history. Kids like mine won’t see themselves reflected in the books they read or the history they are taught. All kids have the right to feel seen and valued, to develop critical thinking skills, and to question and examine what they see happening around them so that they can make our world a better place for everyone. S Chopra Orange Dear Editor: At last month’s OUSD board meeting Trustees Madison Miner and Rick Ledesma agendized two items with their names at- tached to them. For those readers who don’t regularly attend board meetings, as I have for the past decade, this is unheard of. Typi- cally, even if an agenda item is at the request of a trustee, agenda items are submitted by the depart- ment overseeing the item. Both items, presented as groundbreaking and “important,” were nothing more than political theatrics and grandstanding. Not one item presented in the Par- ent’s Bill of Rights is something that Orange Unified doesn’t offer to parents; more so, most are al- ready codified in education laws. The acting-superintendent con- firmed there was nothing new in the Parent’s Bill of Rights when asked. When Trustee Kris Erickson attempted to add rights to the bill, such as parents having the right to meetings in their native language, Ledesma flat out said "no." Why would a man who speaks Spanish, and has family members who speak Spanish, not support that? Because he needed his and Miner’s names to be the only ones on the proposal because they are the two currently facing a recall. He chose to deny rights to parents for his own political gain. Rick Ledesma has been on the board for over 20 years and had to list things he was going to do, such as write a Parent’s Bill of Rights, instead of things he had actually done, on his anti-recall statement. Twenty years of being in the voting majority, and he had to resort to political stunts. When you pass a “new” rule mandating something, it infers that something else had been going on. All OUSD schools fly the American flag and the California state flag. The only other flag that has been occasionally flown in addition is a California Distinguished School flag on campuses that have recently earned the distinction. The flag proposal changed nothing. Miner invited outside agitators who clearly had no idea what was going on in our schools and repeatedly referred to us as Orange County School District. They don’t even know our name, but show up demanding we do things we already do. Probably a good time to remind stakeholders, agenda items are reviewed by legal counsel at an hourly rate. These proposals were both reviewed by counsel. Meetings are attended by counsel at an hourly rate. Once again, these two trustees, who don’t even send their own kids to our schools, put their political agenda ahead of our OUSD students and let taxpayers foot the bill. Actually students foot the bill, paid with money taken out of their classrooms. While a Parent's Bill of Rights is a valid endeavor, Ledesma and Miner put their name on someone else’s homework. I give them both an F-. Darshan Bryant Smaaladen Orange Unified Parent Dear Editor: At the Orange Unified School District Board meeting on June 20, Trustees Angie Rumsey and Rick Ledesma both stated they would be willing to violate any laws that they do not agree with. While one might consider this a noble gesture, this cavalier atti- tude toward legislative authority will expose the district to mil- lions of dollars in liability. Look no further than Temecula Valley Unified School District whose board faced a $1.5 million fine for ignoring California’s minimum standards for history curriculum. Or look in our own backyard to the Orange County Board of Edu- cation who has spent, to date, over $10 million on lawsuits in pursuit of its own political agenda – an agenda of trying to change laws from the dais of a board of education. Ledesma and Rumsey showed their cards – they want taxpayers, students, schools, and homeown- ers to pay the bill to fight their unwinnable fight just because they don’t know any other way around the legislative process. During her campaign, Trustee Madison Miner made clear that she wouldn’t hesitate to violate state educational mandates once elected. The school board isn’t the fo- rum to change laws – if one wants to change laws, run for the Cali- fornia Senate or Assembly. As trustees, Ledesma and Rumsey are in their seats to serve taxpay- ers and homeowners, students and schools – not their own per- sonal ideology. Ledesma’s board majority – that includes Angie Rumsey, John Ortega and Madison Miner – has already shown they have no interest in the fiscal well-being of the District – they paid $500,000 to buyout the contract of a well- respected superintendent; they paid for the weekly flight, hotel, and rental car for a business- associate of Ortega to fly from Idaho to act as interim- superintendent; they attempted to approve $750,000 in payments to the District’s legal counsel; and now they are telling us that they intend to violate state law in the face of fines and litigation. We must not let Ledesma’s majority continue to waste our money and threaten to expose us to serious financial liability. Sign the petition to place the recall of Trustees Rick Ledesma and Madison Miner on the March 5, 2024 primary ballot. Tell all of your friends and family to sign the recall petition, and volunteer to knock on doors. Scott Resnick OUSD Parent Dear Editor: Public schools are for every child in America. We educate everyone because an educated populace benefits our community. You don’t need to be a student, or the parent of a student, to benefit from public education. Every day of our lives, we benefit from public education in the form of the people that we engage with as we go about our daily business. Everyone in America has the right to free speech. That doesn’t mean that every speaker knows what they are talking about. Most people don’t want random people with no educational background or experience determining which books children can read, what curriculum they can learn, and which clubs they can join. Just because you can get up at a school board meeting and rant and rave on topics not based in reality does not give you authority over children’s education. Our schools are not to be used for personal political agendas or religious indoctrination. We have no obligation to appease extremists, no matter how loud they shout, even if they sit right here on our board. We should not be entertaining unsubstantiated conspiracy theories that are putting our staff in danger. We need to focus on retaining staff, having a safe and welcoming learning space for all students, and providing a well-rounded public education for every student within our district, especially concerning difficult topics. Our tax dollars are being used to further an agenda that is not in line with the purpose of public education. OUSD School Board members Rick Ledesma, Madison Miner, John Ortega, and Angie Rumsey are currently tearing apart OUSD’s public schools with their unchecked power and massive conflicts of interest. If we want OUSD to remain a district that works to educate ALL of its students, and not just the chosen ones, we must recall Ledesma and Miner now, and we must fight to prevent the reelection of Ortega and Rumsey next November. Michelle Weisenberg Orange Benefit bust Dear Editor: Not only is the new retiree health plan SISC (Self-Insured Schools of California) being championed by the new dysfunc- tional OUSD school board, but it is being agreed to and promoted by the Orange Unified Education Association (OUEA), which has tried to convince retirees with lifetime health benefits that the new plan will be just as attractive as the current CalPERS Plan. Veteran educators, however, know it is impossible to replicate our current plan with reduced spending. Many retirees are worried about having to change carriers and pharmaceutical plans at this stage of their lives. Even more distasteful, is the fact that the OUEA is promoting the plan before it even knows its key elements. Retirees are distrusting of a district that has historically provided inferior plans that include higher out-of-pocket expenses than other districts. This is one of the reasons that retirees have been so happy with the CalPERS plan that has been in place for over 10 years. The new school board, with two members subject to a re- call, is very similar to the board that was replaced by the first re- call over 20 years ago. Both of those boards went after employee health benefits, and the OUEA leadership has been duplicitous in this endeavor. Prior to the first recall, the board encouraged teachers to take the buyout of their lifetime benefits for an amount that represented about 30% of the value. Presently, OUEA is doing nothing to obstruct the school board from promoting this plan that lacks a proven track record. It is unfortunate that active teachers are also going to be saddled with the same plan that is being explained as a way to provide them with more competitive salaries. While the district had been successful in retaining quality teachers over the last 10 years by providing competitive salaries and the highly-rated CalPERS health plan, the school board that took over leadership last winter will chase away quality teachers with the SISC health plan and its unprofessional behavior.