* * * * HBUSD Votes YES! to Act on Senior Voting! * * * *

In a bold move Tuesday night July 24, the Huntington Beach Union High School District voted 3 to 2 to approve John Briscoe’s SENIOR VOTING RESOLUTION for action at the next HBUSD board meeting. This is the first school board to act affirmatively on this important issue. All other school districts have voted AGAINST senior citizens. Local teacher unions called the senior voting resolution "...frivolous and a distraction...”

Trustee John Briscoe shouts back, "NO!" Senior voting is neither frivolous nor distracting. The facts lay bare the problem. For every 100 voters that enter the voting booth, only 50% to 60% cast a ballot for school boards. The vast majority of these self-denied voters are seniors. Many decline to vote because they feel they should leave school voting to those with kids.

This is wrong. Everybody should exercise his or her right to vote in every election. Local school districts spend millions of dollars paid to the OC Registrar of Voters to pay for ballot space. The six local school districts spend over a HALF BILLION DOLLARS every year. Failure to vote deprives the community of a fully representational board. And most amazing, many senior voters have grandchildren in the local schools.

In addition to passage of the Senior Voter Encouragement Resolution, Huntington Beach Union High School District can encourage senior voting with active involvement in Senior Centers including board meetings held at the centers. School newsletters and District information can be made available at the Senior Center and retirement homes. Mobile home parks and senior retirement homes can also be repositories of school news and information. Retired seniors can be encouraged to volunteer at local schools.

The HBUSD Board has just taken the first step. A positive vote must be cast next month to approve the resolution as an action item. They are to be commended for taking the first step towards repatriation of the senior vote.

Submitted and Approved by John Briscoe, Elected Trustee Board Member of the Ocean View School District. Education Alliance Board Member.

One last chance for the Fleming Trustees to do the right thing.

When James Fleming asked the district to reimburse him for legal costs, I read many comments along the lines of how outrageous it is that he expects the school district to fund his defense, particularly when what he is being accused of is misusing school funds. The district should be suing him to get their money back, not paying for his defense!

Not that I am justifying his request, but I can certainly understand him giving it a try. He is looking at felonies and jail time, and a lot of money to defend himself.

The real fault here will lie with the trustees if they grant his request. I am certain we can count on the new trustees (Anna Bryson, Ellen Addonizio, and Larry Christensen) to deny it. The trustees that were in office during Mr. Fleming’s reign (Sheila Benecke, Mike Darnold, Marlene Draper and Duane Stiff) should recuse themselves due to their personal involvement in this matter. The DA has indicated that an investigation of the involvement of the trustees is ongoing. It is a clear conflict of interest for them to be voting to provide funds to Fleming when there is a possibility they could become co-defendants.

Let’s hope they do the right thing. If not, it will just give more fuel for the recall.

Mark Bucher
Chairman, Education Alliance

* * * * Ocean View School District Rental Housing Trends* * *

The Ocean View School District (OVSD) serving Huntington Beach Westminster, Fountain Valley and Midway City commissioned Davis Demographics & Planning, Inc. of 11850 Pierce Street, #200, Riverside, CA 92505 (951.270.5211) in May 2007 to prepare the "Fall 2006- Fall 2013 Report of Student Population Projections by Residence." This official report has provided critical insight into the nature of current and projected OVSD student trends.

Davis Demographics Findings
On page 12, Davis Demographics noted, "...the median housing value of owner occupied units has increased from $275,000 in the year 2000 to approximately $759,840 in 2006. This represents a 276% percent (sic) increase...It is possible the district has seen the migration of young families away from expensive housing in the area over the last few years, although we do not have ... data to ... support this conclusion ... There are also significant non-owner occupied units within the district. Typically rental rates will mirror increases in housing cost. According to the first quarter 2007 RealFacts reports, the average monthly rent in Orange County area rose 6% ... compared to 2006. The City of Huntington Beach was among California’s 50 top high-rent cities and communities."

Furthermore, Davis Demographics Study page 22 provides a K-8 Density map that reveals the highest student densities are in some of the highest apartment rental areas of the OVSD. Prior Davis Demographic reports have informed us the OVSD is over 45% rental housing.

Conclusions
The overarching conclusions for the OVSD are:
1). Almost half of the district is rental housing.
2). K-8 enrolled students come mostly from apartment and condo rental housing neighborhoods. 3). Rental housing costs rose approximately 6% per year versus 46% for owner occupied homes.
4). The vast majority of private and home school families live in owner occupied homes.

Discussion
Believe it or not, our district is almost 50% rental housing, with well over fifty percent coming from homes NOT owner occupied. Rental housing families are more often divorced with a female head-of-household. The school service needs of these families are different from stay-at-home mother homes:
a). Child care: Extended daycare for working mothers fill the gap between work and child retrieval.
b). Tutoring: Homework supervision and special subject tutoring are often needed to support classroom teaching.
c). Physical Exercise Program: An aggressive program of intense physical activity can help release pent-up energy from sitting all day in class and allow for more focused homework study in after school child care.
d). Afternoon Feeding Program: Children may need a nutrition boost in the late afternoon to tide them over until dinner. Healthy snacks of fruits and vegetables could be the start of good eating habits.

WE CAN DO BETTER!
The point here is simple. OVSD must provide the services rental housing parents need if they are to retain these students in district enrollment. It appears we have already lost the battle with wealthy parents that have the financial wherewithal to enroll their children in private schools or embark on a home school program. We must work to satisfy the remaining families with school programs parents want:
1. Open School Choice -Any child can attend any school in the OVSD the parent's desire
2. Open Teacher Request - All parents are encouraged to share their request for following year teacher assignment (subject to Principal class assignment based on child needs and school capacity).
3. Open Class Lesson Plan Access - Easy access to all instructor lesson plans on the Internet.
4. Open SmartBoard Lecture Notes - Full and immediate teacher publication of class lecture notes from SmartBoards already installed in most classrooms (teachers already share SmartBoard notes among themselves).

In this modern day of education Parents are the customers and students are the consumers. We must work to please BOTH if we are to retain and grow enrollment.

Opinions expressed herein are the sole responsibility of John Briscoe and do not reflect the views of any school board. Submitted and Approved by John Briscoe, Elected Trustee Board Member of the Ocean View School District, and associate member of HHRWF with wife Debbie Briscoe. John Briscoe is an active community volunteer with the Boy Scouts of America, Grace Lutheran Church, Alliance for Education, and Marina High School Site Council, and member of Rotary International, LA5 El Rodeo. Go to http://www.vote4briscoe.com/ for more information.
John Briscoe has earned two undergraduate degrees from CSULB (BA Psychology and BA Speech Communication), his M.P.A. from CSULB (Masters in Public Administration, and his M.B.A. from Claremont Graduate University, Peter Drucker School of Business. John has performed senior management roles with major consumer package goods firms including Kraft/General Foods Inc, Mars/MasterFoods Inc, Kellogg/Keebler Inc, and The Hain Celestial Group Inc. John Briscoe can be contacted by email: John@Crestwave, or phone: 714.903.8774, or SnailMail: 6812 Glen Drive, Huntington Beach, CA 92647.

Flemming Four - Served with Recall Papers Yesterday...See Jubal's post at the Red County/OC Blog - "Four CUSD Trustees Served with Recall Notices This Afternoon." Join in the discussion!

Read the news articles from LA Times and OC Reg here and here.

Also, check the CUSD Recall site for up to date information.