What Local governments and Taxpayers learned from the November election, is that we all need to pay much closer attention to the actions of CUSD and its Board of Trustees. The people resoundingly said no to Measure M, CUSD's $889 million dollar school facilities bond. But, we were unable to replace a single incumbent Trustee on the Board due to the financial influence of both, the local Teachers Union (CUEA's Hope Foundation Political Pac) and the State CTA who also wrote checks to influence CUSD Trustee elections. Together they spent over $170,000.00 to ensure sitting Trustees will continue to make the economic interest of CUSD employees a priority within the District.
We need to ensure that their actions are transparent and that our elected Board members are held accountable for the decisions they make. I feel strongly that no school district should be allowed to give out $120 million in across the Board compensation increases while our students attend school in facilities that have not been fixed or maintained for the last 15 years. We need to come together as a Community and ensure that our students are receiving the best education possible, and that our facilities are fixed and maintained. That will require greater awareness of the needs of our schools, and the actions of our Board so that we can ensure that students are getting their fair share of District money.
I wanted to provide taxpayers, businesses and our local elected leaders with a fast - easy way to follow the CUSD Board of Trustees, and the Districts Actions. I have been following CUSD since I was a PTA Legislative Rep in 2010. I attend most Board of Trustee meetings and often speak on behalf of students and taxpayers.
This is going to be a paid service beginning January 2017, because it takes hours of work (even with the historical knowledge I have accumulated the past ten years) to make a 500 page Board Agenda easy to read and understand so that interested community members have an opportunity to participate in decisions affecting CUSD students and taxpayers.
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