Erin Kutnick’s Blog

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.