Uh-oh. Looks like the Santa Ana Unified School District is in trouble again. The Times is reporting that, “Audits of Santa Ana Unified School District’s troubled class-size reduction program have found that problems with overcrowded classes exceeding state caps were not limited to elementary schools but affected ninth-graders as well, independent auditor Christy White said at a school board meeting Tuesday.”
“In district high schools, special education students taught in mainstream classes were not included on class rosters, making it appear that the classes met state size requirements when they were actually too large to be eligible for class-size reduction funding, White said.”
The Times reported that SAUSD could face another half million in losses of state funds, after losing $2 million earlier this year. Call it the “Rob Richardson” effect.
So what is SAUSD Superintendent Jane Russo doing about this? “Supt. Jane Russo named Assistant Supt. Helen Stainer to oversee K-3 class-size reduction, and Assistant Supt. Lewis Bratcher to oversee the ninth-grade program. Top administrators and the school board will be apprised monthly of class sizes, she added.”
Isn’t Bratcher the guy who fell asleep at an SAUSD School Board meeting last year? Not good!
Here is my favorite excerpt from the Times article, “Board member Audrey Yamagata-Noji questioned whether something in the district’s culture allowed the problems to go unrecognized for months until teachers spoke out publicly in March. “Along the way, there were too many individuals who knew,” she said.”
You think!?! Give me a break! Noji has contributed to this mess by keeping the Mijares corruption intact after hiring his lieutenant Russo to replace him. After former Superintendent Al Mijares quit, we should have cleaned house!
SAUSD Trustee John Palacio nailed it, as usual, “Board member John Palacio urged the board to order audits of the prior school year, saying that teachers have told him the irregularities were not limited to the 2006-07 school year. “We’ve been doing class-size reduction for a decade
I don’t believe anyone should be shocked at this latest revelation. I am only amazed that the amount isn’t even more than what is being reported.
Russo must have a pair of brass ones to appoint Bratcher and Stainer to oversee further potential violations. This is letting the fox into the chicken coup. She would have been more honest if she stated that Bratcher and Stainer have been appointed to better conceal any further violations.
Since John Palacio has had his “coming to Jesus” rebirth after the Nativo recall, at least he is saying what we all already knew. I’m sure this illegal activity has been going on for years.
“No one was in charge. No one was monitoring,” Palacio said.
He’s on the school board (maybe too long), he should have been looking at this.
Maybe this is another fabricated scandal like the one on special ed students which the Register reported on today.
The CSR issues plaguing SAUSD are systemic. It’s very difficult to explain away that District admins were not aware of these problems. When did Business Services usurp the duties of overseeing CSR and why was this responsibility shifted to Business Services?
By his own admission, Don Trigg is on the record as stating students are the only revenue producing stream for SAUSD.
Kudos to Ms. Mehta for her continued coverage of SAUSD. I have come to rely on her reporting because she is the only Orange County reporter that has demonstrated she is committed to informing the public. Gladly she is not a SAUSD puppet like her counterpart at the other newspaper.
#2
Me thinks you intentionally took Mr. Palacio’s comment out of context.
His comment pierced the heart of the matter … why weren’t there processess or personnel in place to monitor this matter; particularly after the Remington scandal a few years ago.
The district heralded the news that SAUSD will receive $77 million dollars over the next seven years to assist some of the worst performing schools.
If SAUSD administrators cannot adequately oversee CSR, I can only imagine the problems involved with overseeing and monitoring a $77 million gift from the taxpayers.
The problem rests directly with Supt. Russo and her cabinet.
It’s distressing to learn that she continues to sink her confidence in Stainer and Bratcher, two administrators who should exit SAUSD. Nonetheless, it tells the voters that Russo is not interested in serving
her customers – the students, parents and community – she is merely in place to continue the cronyism game.
It’s unfortunate that Russo continues to punish the teachers for coming forward on the CSR matter. Russo’s procrastination in dealing with the teacher’s CSR issues is a scandal that she personally brought on herself.
Supt. Russo is a big part of the problem. SAUSD cannot afford to let another incompetent Supt. to linger for a decade. One generation of SAUSD students have suffered, how many more?
Prediction: SAUSD will begin the year at all non-fundamental schools with primary class sizes over CSR limits. They will say they are waiting for “final numbers” for four weeks into the school year. Then they will ignore the situation for another few months. Nothing will change until the issue gets the attention of the media again and they are threatened with possible loss of millions more.
The common thread in all of the district woe’s (either on or off the record) is that “it’s not my fault.” Everyone is so busy covering their behind that the real loser in all of this isn’t even so much as an afterthought – the children.
It’s appalling, shameful, etc. And the beat goes on and nothing changes!
School board appointee Hernandez continues to disappoint. He’s more concerned about the cleanliness of the school sites than the incompetent administrators who are frittering away millions of dollars. We need someone to occupy his seat who is willing to address, upfront, the problems plaguing the district.
Now it’s clear why Noji positioned Hernandez to replace Tinajero.
#2
I don’t think the special ed situation was a fabricated scandal at all. I think it was just well manipulated. I’ve been hearing for years from special ed teachers about the problems they faced, especially at Valley High. The only difference is the district got a heads up and was able to cook the books to get out of it this time. Too bad the teachers didn’t go straight to the Times first as the teachers at Washington did.
By the way did anyone else notice how the OC Register played down the revelation of additional violations among the 9th grade students attendance? Somehow the reporter forgot the part about the district possibly losing another half million dollars.
He sure was quick to jump on the special ed story claiming the district was vindicated. I don’t know who that OC Register reporter is sleeping with but maybe he should be covering flower shows or something where he can’t color the story to minimize the truth.
Regarding number 5: Prediction: All of the non-fundamental junior high schools will begin the school year with massively crowded classes. The problem will be “studied” for about a month to a month-and-a-half, at which point the Principals will be allowed to increase staff by two or three FTE to alleviate the strain. Personnel will drag its heals, interviews will be held, favors will be called in and then one Monday morning, probably the first day of the second quarter, somewhere between one in five to one in ten students will have their schedules adjusted to incorporate the “new” teachers (occasionally someone might be plucked from their hiding-place desk job at the district office). On-site guidance counselors will spend feverous energy on the adjustment instead of other parts of their job descriptions, which will weaken administration support for classroom discipline at a time when the new-school-year “honeymoon” period is over and the adolescents begin to show increasing signs of needing support, monitoring, student-teacher-parent-administration communication and, let’s admit it, effective lower-the-boom administrative disciplinary action.
This is not much of a prediction. It happens every year.
I don’t believe for a moment that there are not irregularities regarding SAUSD special ed students. And here’s one reason.
Seema Mehta’s reports in her article today … “In district high schools, special education students taught in mainstream classes were not included on class rosters, making it appear that the classes met state size requirements when they were actually too large to be eligible for class-size reduction funding, White said.”
If school administrators failed to comply with CSR guidelines, as they pertain to special ed students, why should I have any confidence that district admins have been compliant regarding any special program in the district?
Russo is asking the public to believe that there’s selective compliance when it comes to the competency of her administrators.
Uh?
Ya know Jane, you’re beginning to sound like Commissioner Stern. He wants us to believe that referee Tim Donaghy acted alone in the alleged betting scandal that has devastated the NBA’s credibility. His plea “I feel Betrayed” is grade-A crap and so are the reports you spoon-feed the public.
Russo failed to handle the CSR issue when the teachers approached her months ago. When this story broke she publicly scolded the LA Times for doing its job and went on to issue a threatening letter to teachers warning them about speaking to the press. Russo, in her brief tenure, has shown that she is not ready for prime time and should be relieved of her duties immediately.
Russo’s mishaps have been very public. It is the duty and obligation of the BoE to hold Supt. Russo accountable. If they fail to do so, they are only an enabler of this incompetent administrator.
Hopefully the voters will hold Rob Richardson, Rosie Avila and Jose Hernandez accountable in ’08 and vote them out of office!
#9 is so right on!!! Same thing every year.
The army is growing and the war chest is getting larger.
Rob Richardson WILL be removed from office by the voters in 08.
#12
Add Rosie Avila and Jose Hernandez to that list of school board members that must be retired by the voters.
The current Register writer has been giving SAUSD a pass for sometime. His articles read like a rework of the district’s press releases.
I’ve been told that Supt. Russo singled out the Register reporter at last night’s board meeting as well as Rob Richardson. This cozy relationship isn’t good for the readers because the stories filed by the reporter are filtered by the district.
#14
The cozy relationship you allude to could be toxic to a community. The trust a community has in its local newspaper is fragile.
How much business is done between SAUSD and the OC Register? What are the numbers if they can be teased out of the district’s budget? The money path has to be there for this kind of garbage “coverage” to be let out again and again.
Fermin Leal is no friend of the community when he continues to gloss over the deliberate missteps of SA administrators to the detriment of citizens and especially the students. Shame, Shame on Him.
OCRegister is nothing but a prostitute for wrong doing. It will print anything for a buck as its circulation numbers continue to spiral downwards.