I am eager to write this month’s editorial. I visited four Schools in Ladera Ranch; Chaparral Elementary, Ladera Ranch Elementary, Oso Grande Elementary, and Ladera Ranch Middle School, meeting with Principals Dr. Kevin Rafferty, and Karen Gerhard. I was escorted by Julie Hatchel, Chief Communication officer of Capistrano Unified School District (CUSD). I sincerely thank her for spending time with me.

We all in Ladera Ranch should be proud of our four schools. These schools are led by dedicated educators who are geared up to improve student learning.

In California the schools are recognized by the Advanced Performance Index (AP score). Schools with above 800 AP score are considered as the most exemplary schools, above the bar of excellence.

The maximum possible score is 1000. All of our four schools’ AP scores are in high 800s, with Chaparral’s AP score of 924 the highest in CUSD. That’s why we are seeing student population growth as, at times, two families are living together so that their children can attend Ladera Ranch schools. Those who are moving out of Ladera due to economic hard times, are keeping their students in Ladera schools.

Talking about student population growth: Oso Grande is adding six portable class rooms for housing students. I toured one portable class room and I found it to be not bad. But I will still say that class rooms with mortar and brick gives us the best "bang for the buck".

I am told Todd Beebe, Executive Director of LARMAC, is assisting CUSD personnel in this project, and that the CUSD personnel are high in praise of LARMAC. The new class rooms will be operational by early November, 2008.

Brown Act Violation: As I suspected in my last month’s column, the new majority may not be following the Brown Act (open meeting law) to the letter of the law. The OC District Attorney’s office has confirmed that the trustees who were backed by the "CUSD Recall Committee" have violated the Act.

This year this is the fifth time, if I remember correctly, the CUSD Trustees has violated the Act! However, the DA’s office has refused to take any action due to District’s financial distress.

The Teacher’s Union has sued the CUSD citing numerous violations. The October 20 Board meeting was called for a "Resolution For Cure and Correct" of the violation.

In the open Board meeting, Trustee Dr. Duane Stiff made a motion but it died for lack of a second! Hence, most probably the lawsuit will be continued.

It is alleged one of the violation occurred in the Facilities Sub committee meeting. Now I find that all sub committee meetings are canceled. I thought CUSD Superintendent Woodrow Carter’s idea of slicing the major district functions into small pieces was a perfect solution to manage a big district, but it is gone!

The Board meetings are rescheduled to one meeting a month. I guess the new majority thinks that all problems are resolved and once a month meeting will not go into wee hours of night.

On November 4, the CUSD will elect four trustees for a three-year term.

The Recall Group has fielded four of their candidates. If all four are elected, the Board will have all seven members supported by CUSD Recall group.

I have two observations for our readers:

l Community activists are good in actions, such as conducting a recall, but they are not essentially great for education reform and improvement.

l We need a balance in any elected body, which is what our country’s founders wanted. Look at all elected bodies, from Washington DC to the State or local levels. I request the readers to seriously analyze the candidates, compare the two recently elected candidates’ performance, and vote your conscience.