The Lowdown on the OC Board of Education

[Majority members Williams & Sparks, superimposed on LGBTQ protest against Board.]

Adapted with permission from Kathleen Heard, a member of the County Committee of School Organization within the Orange County Department of Education. Edited by Greg.

What does the Orange County Board of Education, or “OCBOE,” do?

Individual school districts control their own budgets, which are approved and monitored by the Orange County Department of Education, or “OCDE.” Essentially, the OCDE is a county agency providing oversight for school district fiscal accountability and solvency. The OCDE approves school district’s Local Control Accountability Plans (LCAP), provides professional development programs and assists with academic performance initiatives. The OC Board of Education, or “OCBOE,” also approves Charter School applications and the OCDE Superintendent’s budget and administration concerns.

The current OCBOE trustees are:

• 1st District: Rebecca Gomez**
• 2nd District: Mari Barke (Board President)
• 3rd District: Ken Williams
• 4th District: Tim Shaw*
• 5th District: Lisa Sparks

*Tim Shaw resigned due to conflict of interest as he was also on the La Habra City Council. He was reappointed after he resigned from the La Habra City Council, but legal issues remain regarding his reappointment.’

**Rebecca Gomez may have to resign as she is on the Tustin City Council

The majority of the politicians on the current OC Board of Education are far-right conservatives and charter school supporters — at least one of whom is on the Board of a charter school! — who have instituted multiple lawsuits against the county and the state. These unusual actions include:

• Suing the OCDE’s own superintendent over his budget
• Suing the OCDE’s general counsel
• Suing a school district for rejecting a charter school
• Suing the Governor and the California Public Health Officer
• Instituting several lawsuits/injunctions against the County Committee regarding its duties and responsibilities in approving the map and boundaries for the trustee areas of the OCDE.

The arrogance of these politicians, and their use of the public forum of OCBOE board meetings to advance their political agenda, is of concern to all citizens of Orange County.

The OCDE includes the legislatively created County Committee of School Organization, or the “County Committee,” which is separate from and not controlled by the politicians on the OCBOE. This committee is made up of 11 members, one at-large and two from each OCBOE district. The committee oversees the approval of school districts moving from at-large trustees of school boards to district elected school boards and approves updating school district and county boundaries for district elections due to population changes exposed by the Census every 10 years.

I [meaning Ms. Heard] was recommended and elected to the OCDE County Committee in 2020 when a position became vacant in the 1st Supervisorial District. The election was held by the Nominating Committee made up of representatives from the 31 school and community college boards in Orange County. We usually have 1-3 meetings per year; because of the Census and its effect on school district boundaries and the OCDE district boundaries, however, we have had many more meetings than that this school year.

I do not get paid to be on this committee. I and my fellow colleagues do this because of the opportunity to support the citizens of Orange County and the civic duty of every citizen to support the democratic process of our government. We are required by state and federal law to approve and/or make changes to any or all election maps within our jurisdiction before they are sent to the state. The legislature did not want politicians to choose their own boundaries.

The pandemic shortened the timeline to update the OCDE districts to about 7 months. That timeline would have worked if the OCBOE had exhibited direction and common purpose. But the hubris and lack of follow-through by the Trustees destroyed the timeline and ruined the possibility of success.

The redistricting of the trustee districts for the OCDE has been marked by a shocking lack of due process. The public was denied access to a public forum to present alternative maps to be reviewed and discussed in a timely manner. The public was denied equal access to the map data and revisions.

If the County Committee had been notified of the maps in a timely manner, so that we could review the maps and the data, there is a high probability that we would have been able to finish this process on time. But that was not what happened. We were notified at our Nov. 11^th meeting that we would need to approve a map on Dec.10^th. The County Committee was denied its rightful role. The County Committee was unfairly and unnecessarily hobbled by not being presented with a timeline to adequately review the maps by the public or any map presented to the Trustees along with the data necessary to approve a map for the public good until 48 hours before the due date of December 15^th was presented to this committee.

The politicians in the OCBOE majority may have thought that their waiting until the last minute to fulfill their responsibilities would prevent the County Committee from fulfilling its role. If so, the tactic failed. The County Committee requested the Orange County Voter Registrar’s Office provide it with the “drop dead date” for submitting an approved map for the OCDE Trustee elections. We were notified that date was February 1st. On Jan. 27 the OCDE Redistricting Committee approved Map 9B Version 2 to be sent to the Registrar of Voters. The vote was 8 to 2.

[The Final Approved OCBOE Trustee District Map 9B v. 2, superimposed over OC cities and towns]

We were only able to accomplish our task on time through the help of OCDE Superintendent Al Mijares. Not coincidentally, Superintendent Mijares is facing a pro-charter school challenger, Stefan Bean, who serves on a charter school board that’s chaired by Jeff Barke, a vice chair of the county Republican Party! Jeff Barke is also married to Mari Barke, a pro-charter school Republican on the OC Board of Education.

I hope that everyone will take this information back to their organizations and inform their members of the importance of voting in the June election — and taking into account who is running in their district for the Orange County Board of Education. The current Trustees are using their position to promote a political agenda through lawsuits and the public forum of the district meetings. They are using huge sums of OCDE funds for pursue legal disputes against their own department, public schools and the Governor of California instead of governing the county education system. We need Trustees that are more interested in providing support to our school districts than pursuing their ideological crusades.

I provide below a copy of a fact sheet on the OCBOE Board elections, also referred to as the “OCDE elections.” [Ed. Note: I’ve edited this fact sheet to match the Registrar of Voters’s nomenclature for this election as “OCBOE.]

10-Point Fact Sheet for OCDE/OCBOE elections

1. Do Not Discard Your Primary Ballot! The June election will determine the Orange County Department of Education “OCBOE” Trustees and Superintendent. This will determine the majority on the OCDE Trustee board. It is critical you vote in this election.
2. The majority of the OCBOE board are far right conservatives and charter school supporters who have instituted multiple lawsuits against the county and the state. These unusual actions include:
   – Suing the OCDE’s own superintendent over his budget
   – Suing the OCDE’s general counsel
   – Suing school districts rejecting charter schools
   – Suing the Governor and the California Public Health Officer
   – Instituting several lawsuits/injunctions against the County Committee regarding its duties and responsibilities in approving the map and boundaries for the trustee areas of the OCBOE.
3. All the funding for the lawsuits and legal counsel are taken directly from the funds provided by the county and state. They are not using these funds to provide for our students education.
4. Their arrogance and use of the public forum of OCBOE board meetings to advance their political agenda is of concern to all citizens of Orange County. We need trustees that are more interested in providing support to our school districts.
5. The OCBOE trustees have used their power to endorse charter schools regardless of their quality and ability to meet state standards. If the charter school fails they are not required to return funds or property to the school district affected and are ignored by the OCBOE trustees.
6. The OCDE includes the County Committee of School Organization. The committee oversees the approval of school districts moving from at-large trustees of school boards to district elected school boards and approves updating school district and county boundaries for district elections due to population changes exposed by the Census every 10 years.
7. The County Committee is required by state and federal law to approve and/or make changes to any or all election maps within our jurisdiction before they are sent to the state. The OCBOE objects to these facts and substitutes their own reality.
8. The candidates running in this election for OCBOE Trustee offices are:
   • County Superintendent: Al Mijares
   • Trustee Area 2: Martha Fluor
   • Trustee Area 4: Paulette Chaffee
   • Trustee Area 5: Sherine Smith
9. OCDE superintendent Al Mijares is well-liked by school boards and considered fair and impartial.
10. The three candidates running for trustee districts are supported by labor and school employees. They are endorsed by CSEA.