To the editor: The two members of the Orange Unified School District Board of Education were removed from office for fiscal mismanagement. (“Two Orange school board conservatives ousted by recalls with LGBTQ+ policies at center,” March 15)
Last year, the district spent a lot of money to buy out the remainder of the superintendent's compensation when the Board of Trustees fired her without cause. She paid for the acting superintendent's lodging and air travel while he traveled between Idaho and California.
Trustees allowed a private charter school to rent classrooms at half the rent it had charged in another operation. They gave another the option to mortgage the school district's property. These trustees pushed their school privatization agenda at the expense of the district's financial health.
I'm glad these foxes are no longer in charge of guarding the henhouse.
Carol LaBounty, Orange
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To the editor: In justifying his district's controversial parental notification policy, ousted Orange Unified school board member Rick Ledesma claimed that students who identify as a gender other than the one assigned at birth are asked to maintain a secret from his parents.
This is bad. The students ask their school to keep the secret, allowing them to direct their own lives.
If students want their parents to know, and this should largely be related to their expectations about their parents' reaction, they would tell them first.
So what is the intent of requiring the school to inform parents if it is not making a value judgment about the student's identity, possibly resulting in “corrective action” by the parents? Schools should not be expected to make, nor should they voluntarily assume, such value judgments.
Scott W. Hamre, Cherry Valley, California.
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To the editor: In sports it is said that the best players elevate those around them.
It is entirely fitting and appropriate that former school board members Ledesma and Madison Miner have been removed, as they sought to marginalize and disgrace LGBTQ+ students, rather than value and defend all students.
Bill Waxman, Simi Valley
