Erin Kutnick’s Blog

A press release was issued from the school district today that the Board of Trustees will hold a public hearing at their next meeting on September 15th. The subject of the hearing will be whether they apply to the state for an election waiver.  Here is the text:

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the Governing Board of the Capistrano Unified School District, at its regular board meeting to be held at 7:00 p.m. on September 15, 2009, at the District Administration Center located at 33122 Valle Road, San Juan Capistrano, California 92675-4706, will consider seeking a waiver from the California Department of Education of the requirement set forth in the Education Code of placing before voters the question of a transition to a by-trustee area election process pursuant to a petition pending before the Orange County Committee on School District Organization.  As a means of saving up to $500,000, the cost of holding an election on this matter, the Board intends to seek a waiver of the election requirement.  The Board invites public testimony regarding this matter.

The waiver is a great idea and the best way to save the money that it will cost for the election should the issue be put on the June primary ballot.  No special election is required.  But there are still questions about why the board is proceeding with the waiver request when they passed a resolution to put it on the November 2010 ballot.

Our supporters and those who signed the petition want to see the issue addressed prior to the November election so we are all fully in support of this public hearing and the waiver request. Saving money AND making the change before the November 2010 election is absolutely the right way to go.

Please mark your calendars for both the September 15 public hearing on the waiver request and the September 30 public hearing which is when the voting issue will be presented to the county committee.

So our school board spent quite a bit of time on Monday night discussing the issue of voting by trustee areas instead of at large which we have been working on for several months now.  The good news is that they finally decided to take a position on this very important issue and I think they support it.  Although in their typical style, their methods, conversations, and outcomes are more than just a little confusing.

On one item, they voted to apply to the state for an election waiver.  An election waiver, if granted, would allow this change to come about without it having to go to voters thereby saving a great deal of money.  So it’s good they want to do that.

But then the very next item they voted to support the change and recommend that the county committee put it on the November 2010 ballot.  Now if they are going to apply for a waiver, why does it need to go to the ballot?  It doesn’t.  The waiver is to “waive” the election requirement.

I’m confused and so is everyone I’ve spoke to on this issue.

The question of whether to change our voting method will still go before the County Committee of School Board Organization in September and how our board will play into it is yet to be seen.  We have more questions than answers at this point.

The one thing we all know is that we want the change to take place befeor the November 2010 election and we remain committed to making it happen.  Change is coming.