It turns out that this morning’s 7:30 a.m. SAUSD budget crisis meeting was supposed to be some sort of lame community meeting – as if anyone in the community could show up at that time! Most likely it was convenient for SAUSD Board President Jose Hernandez’ schedule – but not for anyone else.
So the SAUSD is having another budget crisis meeting tonight. Here is their official notice (which unlike their morning meeting is actually listed on their website): “A Special Board Meeting/Study Session of the Santa Ana Unified School District Board of Education will convene in the Board Room of the District Administration Building at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, December 11, 2008.
Here is a good question to pose to the SAUSD School Board,”Why did Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources Juan C. Lopez (pictured above) get promoted to “Associate Superintendent,” which comes with a big raise, when we are in a “budget crisis?” This is the guy who fired the SAUSD classified workers! Is he now going to fire more of them so he can free up more money for himself? Talk about the Grinch who stole Christmas!
And why isn’t Lopez’ email address listed on the SAUSD website – even though all of his assistants have their email addresses listed?
One of our readers has also noticed that construction has started again at the SAUSD District Headquarters, where Joe “Taj Mahal” Dixon, the Assistant Superintendent of Facilities, is at it again – making things nice for District managers while school construction and remodeling is at a standstill. Who knows how many secret “Carona closets” he is installing for the SAUSD bigwigs?
Click here to learn more about Dixon, who has NO education in construction! But he DOES know how to blow through taxpayer’s money!
I have to work tonight, but I hope some of our readers will show up to the budget crisis meeting. And don’t forget to ask SAUSD School Board Members Audrey Noji and Rob Richardson how they spent the millions of dollars the SAUSD received in the El Toro settlement!
UPDATE:
I finally heard back from the SAUSD PIO regarding my question to her as to why this morning’s meeting was not referenced on the SAUSD website – and why the website is not offered in Spanish:
Santa Ana Unified continues to gather information about the State’s fiscal crisis and assess the possible impact to our school district. The District is conducting a series of meetings to inform our particular publics. One meeting was held this morning at 7:30 a.m. primarily targeted for elected officials, community partners, parent leadership and key business stakeholders. However, this and every meeting is open to the general public.
In addition, this evening beginning at 7 p.m. we will host a special study session to review programs that may be impacted by impending State budget cuts. This meeting is listed on our website.
The Santa Ana Board of Education first held a Special Study Budget Session on November 20, 2008, to review the Governor’s mid-year proposal for cuts, and we will continue to keep the community and public informed of the impact on SAUSD once the legislature takes action. We do anticipate that the State’s lack of revenue will reduce State payments to SAUSD for the rest of the year, thereby impacting our budget.
For ongoing updates, the public is invited to attend every regular Board meeting (generally held the second and fourth Tuesday of the month at District headquarters). The first meeting in January will be held on the 13th, with the second being held on Monday, January 26, 2009.
Per our Board policies, we generally post information in English both at District offices and on the website.
Regards,
Angela
Angela Burrell
Public Information Officer
Santa Ana Unified School District
714-558-5555/558-5812 fx
www.sausd.us
Art,
You need to make up flyers and pass them out at these meetings. Put something like: Join the discussions at The Orange Juice Blog (give the web address).
The only way you will change this school district is to get the masses informed. Take a stand and get aggressive for your childrens’ education.
Art, here is the email address for Juan Lopez:
juan.lopez@sausd.us
HEY, ART
DID YOU ALL KNOW???
Why is it that school police is expanding again(DIXON)? It has taken over the old electrical shop(complete remodel),has new walls, and four brand new offices that had been done in the first phase by outside contractors including ac for the old electrical shop.The new training room for the officers is in the center of this room. If you walk in new school police you will come to a bank style counter(wall with glass and a slit at the bottom and a door chime that rings as you go in). The old school police just had newly remodeled tile floors,new carpet, walls and paint. If we are in a budget crunch, why are we spending money on school police head quarters? If we are looking to save money, what about the School Police Chief? He gets to take a tax payer’s bike home somewhere out in Riverside (he makes enough to pay his own fast track) and parks it in the back parking lot by his office and covers it up daily like it was his. I take it the district pays for his gas and extra maintenace on that bike. As a Chief,wouldn’t we want one with a minimum of a B.A.?
Cuts need to hit the Police station. We had a child porn offender (same guy that got a female officer pregnant under his watch) and a police officer that beats his girl friend up and tells her not to say anything to the police. The list goes on and on. Only SAUSD(Russo) would fund this mini Police Dept. that has nothing but rejects for PR. SAUSD is a district that is VERY TOP HEAVY and a there is a lot of mismanagement. Good job in your promotion JUAN LOPEZ — another 20 thousand a year! Perfect timing! Will you be part of helping lay off Classified??!!
Juan is a hack.
Will he use this “hush money” to join Weight Watchers…
NOT
obesity may be an ally.
I jump off and on this site and am not too familiar with the politics of the school district, but I have one glaring question:
Where is the parent organization? Why aren’t they storming the district offices demanding to know why one employee gets a $20,000 pay increase why services for their children are being slashed?