Erin Kutnick’s Blog

One of the most important things that a school board does is to hire (and keep) a good qualified Superintendent.  Great school districts need great leaders.

Last night the school board held a special meeting to set a time line to recruit a new permanent superintendent for CUSD.  The plan to hire a new superintendent is a good one and it is definitely something that needs to be a priority in our district however there are going to be issues that were not addressed last night.

The search firm that has been retained gave an in-depth presentation and worked with trustees to establish the time line.  They appear to be qualified and know what they are doing however, we all must question do they know what is going on in CUSD?  From conversations last night, it doesn’t look like it.

The search firm is not located in Orange County (which is fine) but that means they are not in touch with the climate and issues our district is facing.  For instance, how can you possibly attract the type of candidate that we need and deserve with a strike looming and a recall effort underway?  Not to mention a huge lawsuit pending from the former superintendent.

I can’t imagine that too many top-notch superintendent’s would leave their jobs to come here while all this is going on.  The trustees faced similar issues last year when trying to hire a new superintendent and that is how we ended up with Dr. Mahler.

I commend the trustees for realizing that this needs to be done however I don’t think that we have a snowball’s chance in h*ll of getting the right person on board this year.  I think we are going to have to work with another interim until some of these other issues are resolved.

In a not too surprising but really desperate attempt to intimidate and thwart local citizens from actively participating in government and exercising their rights under the constitution of the state, Trustees Winsten and Maddox sent a very threatening letter earlier this week to the ten proponents who signed the recall petition.

The letter demands that they immediately abandon their efforts or face civil and criminal charges.  Pretty intense.  One of the claims as to why they must cease is because the two claim they were not personally served the recall notices.  Now of course, I along with about 300 other people watched frank try to hand the notices to the trustees but he was intercepted and told to hand it to the board secretary instead.  Of course we know that they were properly served because they each filed 200 word responses within the 7 days that they were required to specifically answering those charges.

How can you in one letter answer to the charges against you and then in another say that you were not served?  Doesn’t quite add up to me.

Bottom line of course is that it’s not about whether they were served, it’s about them trying to scare people into backing down.  It’s all political for them and since they obviously don’t have a good track record to stand on, they resort to intimidation and bullying.

i think it’s a gross abuse of power to try to prevent citizens from exercising their rights.  It only confirms why these two need to be removed from office.

We attended the meeting last night where the County Committee reviewed our request to move the election date to decide how we elect trustees from June to November.

I think it’s important to clarify the stand that the petitioners took last week when we made this request.

When we first advocated for the June election, it was because we firmly believed that the change should be in effect prior to the November election.  We still believe that!  Based on the public hearing that was held in our district on September 15 though, we had every hope that the trustees would pursue the waiver and allow that change to happen (due to the overwhelming support) without the costs of the election.

Never in our wildest dreams did we expect this board to initiate litigation using classroom dollars to protect their seats.  But we should have.  After 4 long months of trying to convince the trustees to do the right thing, we had to accept that it was not going to happen.  The deadline to apply for an election waiver at the state was this month and when the agenda was posted for January 12 meeting and the waiver item was not listed for action, we knew it was not going to happen.

At that point, we needed to make a decision.  The lawsuit had no merit and was clearly filed in an attempt to hold the issue up in the courts until after the March 12 filing deadline had passed.  If only we had known that the county and the school board had agreed to resolve the issue prior to that.  But we found that out the day after the county committee meeting.

So we decided to take the high road.  We went to the committee to offer them the chance to change the election.  We didn’t want to delay it but we could not bear to have more of our limited resources wasted on attorney’s fees.  Unfortunately it didn’t work out quite as well as we had hoped.

The committee wanting to be responsive to the public, has called another hearing for February 10 in our district to hear again from the public on this issue prior to making any decision.  We hope that you can attend.

The most important thing to understand is this:  We have not changed our mind about the election.  We still believe that June is the best time so that we can have the change in place by November but not at the cost of our children’s education. 

Someone has to put education above politics and since it’s clearly not our school board, it has to be us!

The following is what we presented to the county committee on Wednesday night.  We are still awaiting the outcome of this request and another meeting will be held on Wednesday, January 20.  I must stress that this request coming 24 hours after the initiation of a recall effort is unrelated.  The CUSD board had a meeting set for Tuesday and the county committee for Wednesday.  Each of these actions were independent of each other and addressed to separate agencies who set the meetings.  The timing is purely coincidental.

———————–

“A year ago, we went to our school board and asked them to discuss and initiate this process to change the way we elect trustees. This was an issue that many of them are on record as supporting. After several months of delays and inaction, we exercised our right to initiate the petition process to get the issue in front of you for consideration. During that time, we were pleasantly surprised by the overwhelming support for this change by the citizens in our district. People understand that this change will give more political power to the average person who is interested in serving the students in our district as a school board trustee.

At the September 30^th public hearing, we worked very hard to convey the importance of this change and our desire to make it happen as soon as possible. We were also encouraged by the fact that our interim superintendent informed us that an election waiver was available from the State Department of Education. The waiver would allow this much-needed change to occur with no cost to the district. We sincerely hoped that our school board would do the right thing and apply for that waiver. Each of them ran on the promise of being fiscally responsible to the taxpayers in CUSD and this was the fiscally responsible thing for them to do.

In the past four months though, that has not happened. We have asked repeatedly at every board meeting and even had the item on the agenda again last night but each time, our requests have been ignored. Even at the original public hearing on September 15, our board did not mention that the teachers, classified, management and PTA had submitted support positions for the waiver. They simply don’t care.

But perhaps what has been most upsetting is the fact that not only has our board of trustees been unwilling to apply for the waiver; they have actually initiated a lawsuit against you, the county department of ed, and the registrar of voters. We pleaded with them on multiple occasions not to waste our district’s limited resources on such a frivolous lawsuit but again, we were ignored. The fact that our taxpayer money will be used to both prosecute and defend this suit is most egregious! Contempt for this committee, for this process and for the California State Department of Education apparently prevails over fiscal responsibility.

We, quite frankly, are still amazed that our district has pursued this as we know that we complied with every requirement as did you in this process. The lawsuit has no merit. However, this is very costly, time-intensive and in no way benefits children or education. It is precious money and time wasted for political purposes which goes against everything that we believe in and support. And the use of public funds for this political purpose truly raises the question about ethics and the legality of this expenditure.

To that end, we are respectfully requesting that you rescind your earlier decision and re-set the election on this matter to November 2, 2010. This was not our first choice, but considering all of the circumstances, we strongly believe that someone must take the high road and put children first. We are very proud to have achieved our goal - to begin the process to change the way trustees are elected in CUSD to the by-trustee area method.

Regardless of what you decide, we want you to know that we support you and respect both you as a committee and this process. Thank you for your consideration in this matter.”

Never a dull moment at the CUSD board meetings.  Last night was a full crowd again with lots of interesting events.  We had finally been successful in getting the election waiver back on the agenda last night (although it was at the very end of the meeting when most people had left).

But after I made my one last plea, we were treated to several speakers who are the board’s paid political supporters.  Most notably Jennifer Beall who got up and told the audience that she hasn’t attended board meetings in a while.  She must have a very short memory because she was there last month when the trustees gave both her and her husband a full 3 minutes to ramble on about how “great” the school board is.  Hard to have a lot of credibility when the first thing out of your mouth is a lie.  Anyway, she then spoke about Bill O’Reilly and his “patriots and pinheads” segment.  She told the trustees that they are the patriots and I am the pinhead. 

Of course, this made me laugh but almost everyone else in the audience was offended.  Not that she called me a silly name, but that she does it in an inappropriate forum.  Standing at the podium to address trustees is for exactly that purpose.  To question, comment, or tell them something.  It’s not a forum to express your views of people in the community.  Apparently she is too afraid to speak to me face to face.

But what is most egregious is the fact that President Bryson did nothing about it.  She allowed her to continue on rambling.  And of course, Beall did the same thing last month speaking about another parent and the trustees again did nothing.  Now of course last month, they were all over me to stay on my agenda topic and had I dared to say something negative about one of their “people” I’m sure I would have been reprimanded but there is a clear double standard.  They even allowed their latest recruit to speak on in 3 separate agenda items, two of which she was completely off topic and her comments made no sense.

Their people can act inappropriately and say whatever they want, but the rest of us (the majority) must follow the rules.  A true double standard and just one more reason why this board does not have the respect and support of the community.

Tomorrow night will be the first school board meeting of the new year.  We were finally successful in getting the “waiver” item back on the agenda but of course, not the way we wanted it.  I had specifically requested that the item be for “discussion/action” and I had also submitted the accompanying data for that to happen.

But of course, it’s just stuck at the end of the agenda as a citizen request for informational purposes.  This is no surprise since the Trustees have made it perfectly clear that they do not care what their constituents say.  They do not care that they did not hold the public hearing properly and the clearly do not care about saving the $500,000.  In fact, they chose to spend more by hiring Greer to file a lawsuit!

I encourage all concerned tax-payers to attend the meeting, watch what is going on, and let the board know you don’t appreciate their out-of-control spending and fiscal mismanagement.

The documentation for the lawsuit filed by CUSD in order to stop/delay the June election was just released.

The attorney gets many of the “facts” wrong including at one point the name of the district he represents calling it the Capistrano VALLEY Unified School District.  He also has clearly not read the Ed Code that defines how this process works as he talks about the board having already set the election.  The board does not have the power to set the election.  He states in item 17 that the committee exceeded its authority by calling the special election but that was the job of the committee per ED CODE to set the election.

Of course, the board could have controlled the entire process had they just worked with us from the beginning.  When we went to them in March and asked that they put the issue on the agenda, we got nothing but excuses for three months.  That was when we took matters into our own hands.  Had the board initiated the request to the OC Committee, they could have specified the date but they (as usual) couldn’t make a decision and were so sure that ignoring us would be to their advantage that they gave up their control of the situation.

So now they want to un-do a process that followed the letter of the law completely just because things aren’t going their way.  And they are wasting our tax dollars to do it–not just on the complaint side but the defense side as well.  Just one more grievance to add to the long long list against this board of trustees!

Well the trustees have truly topped themselves on this one.  Just when you think that they can’t be more “egregious”!  Last night after dozens of speakers got up and urged them to apply for the waiver, stop wasting money on unnecessary lawyers and consultants, be fiscally responsible and listen to the constituents, they did the EXACT opposite.

After almost everyone was gone, they announced that they will initiate a lawsuit against the Orange County Committee on School District Organization, the Orange County Department of Education AND the Registrar of Voters. 

Of course by suing other public agencies, they will be wasting our tax dollars not once but twice incurring fees on both sides that will ultimately take money away from far more important areas.

And all to delay the vote on a change they used to support just so that they can hold onto their seats and continue to destroy our school district for another 3 years.

In the worse budget crisis in the history of the district, the trustees refuse to consider the “waiver” option that would save up to $700,000 next year.  Several requests including hundreds of postcards have been made to trustees to agendize the “request for waiver” on the December 15 meeting.  All have been denied or ignored.  Why?  Trustees claim they are worried about the expense of the election and even went so far as to spend more money we don’t have to try to delay it. 

But the simple solution lies in the waiver.  Several other school distrticts state-wide have already applied for an election waiver and all have been granted.  The precedence has been set and the solution is easy.

Please contact trustees and encourage them to reconsider.  Our kids are depending on us.

After two tense hours in closed session, the County Committee on School District Organization announced Wednesday night that no action had been taken on the issue to possiby change their decision regarding the June 2010 election.  No action means that their original decision for the June election stands.

This was a huge relief to the many parents that had signed the petition and are counting on that change to be in place for the November 2010 election of three CUSD trustees.

We must now await the next move from the Trustees who appear woefully out of touch with the will and desire of their constituents.  After over-whelming support for a waiver that would save ALL of the election costs and the many people who signed the petition, they are still hell-bent on delaying this change.

Siting every excuse they can come up with, the bottom line remains that they ran on a platform of change and reform, supported “by trustee” elections and promised to make the district better.  The over-whelming support for this change only solidifies that and gives them more than enough authority to apply for the waiver, hire the demographer, and have it all nicely taken care of long before the November 2010 election.

Now trustees, do the right thing!