CUSD Update

Constituents in the Capo school district may have been surprised to learn that two trustees were recently served with notice they’re being recalled. CUSD voters have overwhelmingly supported “reform” candidates who have replaced all seven old-regime trustees appointed by or otherwise loyal to ex-Supt. James Fleming. The two trustees being recalled won seats as reform candidates, and both had wide margins of victory.

On one side of the prolonged battle are parents and other constituents supporting reform, and on the other side are those who were loyal to Fleming and the prior board. That description doesn’t include all the factions that are now lining up against each other. The teachers union has continued to play a major role, particularly in encouraging its members to show up in large numbers at board meetings as a form of protest against board decisions.

The two trustees who were served with recall notice last week are Mike Winsten and Ken Lopez-Maddox. The recall action appears to stem from a group of people of which five (5) are on the CUSD payroll as employees or retirees, two (2) are/were members of other teacher unions and one (1) is the spokesperson for the group leading the effort to elect trustees by area, thereby reducing votes representation from seven (7) trustees to only one (1). Erin Kutnick, who lost her bid for a seat on the board of trustees in the November 2008 election is publicly supportive of the by-area elections and the recall.

In addition to supporting last week’s recall notice, Kutnick requested and got a county committee (the 11-member Orange County Committee on School District Organization) to approve a June election to determine if the current method of electing trustees should change. Voters now vote on all seven trustees, whereas Kutnick’s group favors a method whereby voters would vote only for the one trustee who represents their geographic area. CUSD trustees had passed a resolution seeking to have the choice placed on the November ballot, but Kutnick was among those asking for an election in June. She addressed the county committee at three separate meetings, stating that a November election would be too confusing for the voters and defending spending $496,000 on the June election as opposed to $8,000 on a November election.

Then, Kutnick reversed her stance. Was it because she learned that Winsten and Lopez-Maddox would have to be recalled at-large regardless of the outcome of the vote to elect trustees by area? On Jan. 12, she spoke at the CUSD board meeting, again pushing for a waiver (the waiver allows the district to change the CUSD voting method without voter approval) and the same meeting where Winsten and Lopez-Maddox were served with recall papers.

In case anyone can follow all of the above, Kutnick then spoke at the Jan. 13 meeting of the county committee and asked them to move the election to November. (Changing the boundaries would no longer serve a purpose of making a recall easy because of a smaller voting area since Winsten and Maddox would have to be recalled by voters in the entire district.) The county committee three times has insisted on the June election date and disregarded the CUSD trustees' request for a November election.  They are now going to hold a new hearing to consider the change in election dates because Kutnick has made the request.

On Jan. 14, a reform-minded CUSD parent reported to this blog that the waiver, redistricting, recall effort and the union objectives are lining up as the force against the reform effort.