Erin Kutnick’s Blog

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!

Capistrano Unified Children First will hold a news conference tonight, November 18, 2009 at 5:00 at the Orange County Department of Education in Costa Mesa.  They will announce the new spokesperson for the group in addition to addressing the recent board decision to hire an attorney to delay the June 2010 election to decide how we elect our trustees. 

Please attend and show your support for the students, parents, and constituents of our district who are not being represented by the Board of trustees.

At 6:30, the Orange County committee on School District Organization will hold a special meeting to discuss the impending threat of a lawsuit that is coming from this attorney on behalf of the Trustees.  I say on behalf of the Trustees because this attorney is not working in the best interest of the district.

The meeting and news conference will be at:

The Orange County Department of Education
200 Kalmus Ave.
Costa Mesa, CA

At last night’s board meeting, several people again addressed the school board regarding their position on the voting change, the waiver, and wasting money on attorney’s fees.

1.  One parent wanted to know where was the vote to authorize the attorney to prepare a paper in opposition to the board resolution on the petition.  NO ANSWER!

2.  Several parents wanted to know why the school board has already spent $50,000 and is now spending another $25,000 more to fight something that they allege to support.  NO ANSWER!

3.  An attorney said that the proposal submitted by the new attorney was incomplete and should not be approved until it is.  NO ANSWER!

4.  Several parents asked that the board save the $500,000 and apply to the state for an election waiver.  NO ANSWER!

The trustees basically ignored every person who spoke last night asking them to consider their constituents and what is in the best interest of the students and the future of CUSD.  So if they aren’t listening to us, who are they listening to?  Who are they serving?  Who are they helping?

The LA Times had a great op-ed piece today about how our state is failing our students and by doing so hurting the future of California.  The author, Jeff Bleich, makes excellent points about the systemic problems and the lack of awareness that people throughout the state have.  He calls for us to all wake up and start fighting back.

“The solution is simple, but hard. It is what I’m doing now. Tell what is happening to every person who can hear it. Beat this drum until it can’t be ignored. Shame your neighbors who think the government needs to be starved and who are happy to see Sacramento paralyzed. We have to wake up this state and get it to rediscover its greatness. Because if we don’t, we will be the generation that let the promise for a great California die.”

click here to read the whole article.

This very same call to action applies to us here in CUSD.  Please tell everyone you know what is happening down at the district office.  “Beat this drum until it can’t be ignored”.  We need to fight for better representation in CUSD so that we can take the politics out of our local schools and start working together on the bigger problems at the state level where the bureaucracy threatens the very thing that makes our country and state so great–public education.

The Orange County Register on Saturday confirmed the name of the attorney hired by the Board of Trustees to fight the parent-led initiative to change the way we elect trustees.  The contract and the amount that we will have to pay for the trustee’s latest mismanagement is still unknown.

What is known is that the attorney has a questionable past and has been disciplined by the State Bar twice for ethics violations.  Great!  Perhaps the most amazing thing in all this is that our board has already squandered $50,000 on unnecessary legal fees just to block and delay this change and now they want to waste more of our money?

They ran on a platform of change and have not lived up to their promises.  Now they have a chance to do something positive and they are pulling out all the stops to prevent this from happening.  This is not representative government.  This petition was signed by people who want change and it is their fiduciary responsibility to support it.  They have no mandate from anyone asking them to delay and fight this EXCEPT for their financial backers and political friends in the recall committee.

It’s all a game to them.  A game where students and tax-payers lose.