I had a lot of choices in California; that was the problem. Combing through the news reports, it seemed like every school district in the Golden State was hurting in this tough economy.
So when it was time to pick which one to visit and profile for our April package on money matters, I decided on two: Capistrano Unified, a large district forced to take drastic measures to avoid insolvency and Laguna Beach Unified, a wealthy district that, at least for now, has been untouched by the financial meltdown. The pair operate side by side, their schools neighboring each other in sunny southern Orange County.
Space limitations prevented me from delving heavily into Laguna Beach Unified, a tony little district that encompasses some of the most gorgeous real estate I’ve ever seen. Good schools. Great staff. Even better bottomline. To be honest, there wasn’t much to say beyond that, even if I did have the space.
Capistrano Unified on the other hand had a whopping tale, half of which I didn’t even know before I arrived. My introduction started at the school board meeting, where I had to press my way past the throngs of people crowded into the room, spilling out into the courtyard.
Next indicator something was amiss? The level of hostility in the room. People were angry. Yelling. Heckling. Name calling. Hoisting picket signs.
It was difficult to determine who the anger was directed toward but the source of the frustration seemed to stem from the board’s recent decision to place the superintendent, A. Woodrow Carter, on administrative leave— it’s fifth schools chief in three years.
Carter was eventually fired last week and the local press obtained a copy of the termination report, putting the district once again in the headlines. It’s hard to say who is on the right side of wrong.
It was clear when I was there, however, that most of the community is tired of the petty politics that seemed to have infiltrated the district’s governance and marred their image. And it was clear to me that more than a bottomline separated Capistrano and neighboring Laguna Beach.
Naomi Dillon, Senior Editor
Granted, controversy makes for a juicy story, but I disagree with the approach here.
It seems the intended focus was the strain on school districts caused by money problems and how even neighboring districts can have vastly different circumstances; fine. For the low wealth district, one imploding with governance strife was chosen–illustrating what? Didn’t last month’s journal focus on school boards behaving badly?
Far more useful and illustrative of the hard work diligent governance teams do across CA and the country would have been cases where goodwill, despite wealth or lack, is a constant.
Kevin,
Thanks for the feedback and for reading our blog! As I stated in this blog entry and in previous ones, I did not choose Capistrano Unified because of it’s political drama. Indeed, I had no idea about this backstory until I arrived at the district. I chose Capistrano, as I told it’s communication officer, because of the magnitude of its financial problems, the efforts of the district to inform and involve the public (they held a series of financial workshops) and the committment on the public’s part to help (parents raised more than $1 million to help teachers keep their jobs.) I was annoyed, frankly, to find all of this controversy in Capistrano but came to appreciate, once again, that very few issues are black and white and that politics, as it has done at the state level, had impeded progress in many areas and threatened its financial outlook. It did not seek a “juicy” story, I merely wrote what was before me and it was a much more difficult story to write because of it. Keep reading and keep the comments coming. And don’t forget to visit our Facebook page.