New Group to Tackle School Board Issues

PTAs and fund-raising groups may be adequate for most school districts, but some parents in the Orange Unified School District believe the controversies swirling around the school board call for a more activist advocacy group.

Hence, the recent birth of Community Network for Education, a group that has signed up nearly 60 parents and community members since forming two months ago.

The written goals of the new group are to prevent special-interest groups from influencing district policies, promoting family involvement and resolving the adversarial relationship between trustees, teachers and employees.

“We believe that members of the school board should demonstrate by their actions that they support public schools,” the CNE mission statement declares.

Meetings are set for Tuesday and May 28 at 7:30 p.m. in Conference Room C of the Orange Civic Center Plaza, 300 E. Chapman Ave.

Co-founders Gisela Meiers and Kathy Moffat said the group will be more than a watchdog organization. “We’ll do things the PTAs can’t,” Moffat said.

Controversy is nothing new to the seven trustees who sit on the school board. In April, about 400 parents, teachers and others spoke against a proposed policy forbidding the district’s 37 schools from accepting grants not strictly linked to academics.

Trustees retreated on a districtwide ban, but said they would review each grant as it came up for renewal.