School Board Candidates Discuss the Issues

Last night the Saddleback Valley Council of PTAs and the League of Women Voters of Orange Coast held a voter forum for the three candidates who are running for two seats on the Saddleback Valley Unified School District (SVUSD) Board, that controls Lake Forest.

SVUSD encompasses 23 elementary schools, four intermediate schools and four comprehensive high schools located in Lake Forest, Laguna Hills, Mission Viejo, and Rancho Santa Margarita.

Nearly 200,000 people live in the area served by SVUSD, and more than 30,000 students attend their schools. Yet there were only a handful of people in attendance at the forum. Even more surprising, none of the incumbents from the City Council were in attendance, despite their frequent comments about their concern for our schools and children.

Incumbents Dolores Winchell and Dennis Walsh are both campaigning for a second term in office. Challenger Charles “CJ” Brower is seeking his first term.

Winchell is a human resources manager. Walsh, who worked in computer and network support, is retired. Brower is the manager of a fast food restaurant in Foothill Ranch. All three are residents of Lake Forest.

The forum was low-key and lack luster, with each candidate taking one-minute to respond to a series of questions. Generally speaking it was hard to distinguish one from the other. They all think

• · there should be more art and music,
• · there should be more local control,
• · their staff do a great job,
• · the Superintendent is going a great job
• · etc. etc.

But there were a few comments that stood out, many of them from Walsh. Walsh argued that the school system had to transform into a “21st Century learning” environment. He wants to include more modern technology (hand held devices, video conferencing) and to take advantage of online courses. He also said that his reason for wanting the position was a “passion for education”, and it was one of the few times in the evening that there was any spark at all from the three of them.

Incumbent Dolores Winchell made an excellent point that the system was geared too much for the college track and more attention needed to be paid for students with different vocational aspirations. But she failed to say where the money would come from to achieve this. Establishing varied vocational pathways in the school system would be an enormous cost, especially at a time when schools are already struggling with their finances.

Brower had little new to add to the comments and often agreed with the incumbents. His claim that “Irvine and Laguna Beach are trouncing us” in academic achievement scores shows that he’s not a faithful reader of my columns, because if he was he’d know that the differences in scores can be attributed to the demographic differences between the populations, not to some inherent weakness in the school system itself. Click here if you want to review that discussion.

When asked about the role of “special interests” Brower said that he would only focus on what is good for the students. That was a curious remark from a Planning Commissioner who has notoriously catered to special interests while putting the quality of life for people in Lake Forest on hold. Brower argued strongly for the Brookfield and Trumark projects that were opposed by the staff and virtually every resident in Lake Forest. The Brookfield part of the deal had a special provision between SVUSD and the developer giving the Brookfield kids special treatment not afforded to any other child in Lake Forest, yet Brower enthusiastically backed the proposal. More recently, Brower voted to allow more beer and wine to be sold in an area severely over-saturated with stores selling beer and wine. Once more, “special interests” triumphed over the quality of life for people in Lake Forest.

In contrast, when asked about “special interests”, Walsh said he had to deal with 30,000 special interests, referring to the children enrolled in SVUSD.

What happens in our schools impacts our lives. While the members of the SVUSD Board do not have direct influence on what happens in the classrooms, their policy setting function and their oversight does exert an enormous influence. As citizens we should look at their qualifications, their experience, and their character.

About Jim Gardner

Dr. Jim Gardner is the editor of CITY WATCH on The Patch and a contributing editor to OC Politics and Voice of OC. He is running for City Council in Lake Forest. You can check him out on LinkedIn and/or Facebook.