(1 votes, average: 5 out of 5)

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(5 votes, average: 4 out of 5)

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Gloria Alvarado (pictured above) is running for the Santa Ana Unified School District’s Board of Education.  But you would not know that if you searched for her name on Google.com.  The only relevant return you will get is two articles I wrote here at the Orange Juice blog.

However Alvarado does have a campaign website.  You just cannot find it by searching for it.  I found that to be the case with her fellow candidate Valerie Amezcua’s website as well.  Apparently their webmasters leave much to be desired.  And the parallels don’t end there.  Both Alvarado and Amezcua fail to list their education.  But Amezcua does have an “About Me” page.  Alvarado does not. Read more…

(2 votes, average: 5 out of 5)

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The Santa Ana Unified School District (SAUSD) Trustees voted last night to fire almost 400 classified instructional aids.  The President of the School Board, Jose Hernandez, told the huge audience at the School Board meeting that one of the workers being fired was his Aunt, who raised him.  But he turned into Donald Trump and fired her anyway.

School Board Trustee John Palacio told his fellow Trustees that there were $17 million dollars available in various district accounts but the other Trustees, with the exception of Rosie Avila, voted to fire the workers anyway.  Read more…

(4 votes, average: 4.5 out of 5)

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(Picture courtesy of the O.C. Register).

Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido, who receives $600 a month from the City of Santa Ana as a car allowance, and who often drives a hybrid car provided for free by the South Coast Air Quality Management District (AQMD) told the O.C. Register that the high gas prices that are brutally hurting the working poor of Santa Ana are “absolutely good, just a painful way to do it.”

Pulido also said that, “I think ultimately it’s the only way to do it. Wall Street won’t finance a product unless it gets a good rate of return. High energy prices, I think, create an environment where courageous politicians can survive and create better policy.”

The O.C. Register interview with Pulido also disclosed that he is now driving a BMW Hydrogen 7 car that has been provided to him for free by BMW. Read more…

(4 votes, average: 4.75 out of 5)

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“Santa Ana Unified trustees voted late Tuesday to cut $13.5 million from the district’s budget as part of an effort to erase a projected deficit next school year,”  according to the O.C. Register.

Parents and teachers said that “the cuts would lead to more lawsuits and inadequate service to special education students.”

I am not aware of any other Orange County school districts that are balancing their budgets on the backs of their special education students.  Only in Santa Ana can a school board get away with this because parents are not well informed and are not vocal enough. Read more…

(3 votes, average: 4 out of 5)

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This just in from the Santa Ana Unified School District (SAUSD) employees:

A CALL TO ACTION

SANTA ANA UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT EMPLOYEES NEED YOUR HELP!

Don’t Let the Santa Ana Unified School District Board Members Eliminate Needed Services to Your Children at your K - 12 School Sites.

What: The Santa Ana Unified School District Board members are proposing reducing work hours of needed classified employees at the school sites. The targeted jobs are: classroom assistants, secretarial staff, health clerks, custodians, securities, library clerks, attendance and computer techs among others. Hundreds of positions will be converted from full-time to part-time. The proposal does not apply to the District Administration offices. Read more…

(8 votes, average: 3.5 out of 5)

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The O.C. Register and the L.A. Times did a poor job covering the recent firing of hundreds of instructional aides by the Santa Ana Unified School District.  Now the O.C. Weekly has done a great job of recapping the issue, providing coverage of a recent protest by the laid off workers and thorough analysis of the implication of the firings.

Here are a few excerpts from the OC Weekly’s article:

“They tried to be slick,” Palacio says of district officials. “It’s insulting, from a board point of view, when staff give you deliberately one-sided information. The report doesn’t tell you how many positions were collapsed into one, the fiscal impact this will have or about the subsequent laying off of people. It doesn’t tell you that they will go from full-time to part-time salaries, that there are no health benefits and that there are less hours. It doesn’t tell you that if a person takes the job, they will lose their retirement. All of that had to be in there. How can I make an informed choice if it’s not?” Read more…

(1 votes, average: 1 out of 5)

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Laid off Santa Ana Unified School District instructional aides protested yesterday at SAUSD headquarters, over on Chestnut and Grand in Santa Ana.  One of the protesters ended his hunger strike that had begun on Monday, as we previously reported.

The O.C. Register also reported yesterday that the SAUSD has rescinded most of their teacher layoffs.  They originally laid off over 500 teachers.  Now only 13 will be laid off (talk about an unlucky number!). Read more…

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It looks like the Santa Ana Unified School District administrators have bungled big time once again.  My readers are reporting that hundreds of students have been turned away from summer school, which started last week.

Here is a typical comment about this stunning fiasco:

The district did not hire most of the teachers that applied for summer school. Only certain students who are far below grade level were allowed to attend. Even those who scored “basic” rather than proficient on standardized tests were turned down after initially being invited. Students in middle school who scored “below basic” or “far below basic” on reading and math tests were the only ones admitted. In the past my school had it’s own summer school, now it is combined with two other schools. I’m not sure how high school is working this year but I’m sure that a student would have to be repeating a failed class to qualify. There is no opportunity to get ahead this year. We literally could have had summer school for hundreds more students but apparently the budget only allowed those significantly below grade level (or credits) to attend. Read more…

(No Ratings Yet)

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The Santa Ana Unified School District (SAUSD) administrators didn’t wait very long after their fraudulent tax increase, Measure G, passed to fire the people who worked hard to pass the bond measure.  “School board member John Palacio said many of the district employees who have been laid off live in Santa Ana and worked on behalf of that bond. “The way they say thank you is to cut their positions,” said Palacio, who voted against the job cuts and visited the protesters on Thursday,” according to the O.C. Register.

Now one of the fired employees is fighting back - by going on a hunger strike.  Ramon Quintanilla used to be an instructional assistant who worked with special-education students at Walker Elementary School. Until the SAUSD fired him this week.  He will be on a hunger strike until tomorrow.

Well, we warned you folks about the SAUSD’s poor record and bad intentions.  But you didn’t listen.  Now that you are finally waking up, don’t forget that most of the SAUSD school board candidates that will be on the ballot in November actively worked to pass Measure G.  I doubt any of them have been speaking out now about the mass firings of instructional assistants. Read more…