Tuesday evening (6/11) I attended my first LB School Board meeting since perhaps the closing of Aliso School. It’s been awhile. But I’ve been quite concerned with the stories in the local papers and online about the targeting of Dee Perry for various “infringements” of Board rules and I wanted to see for myself what this was all about. There seems to be so little transparency about what is actually going on with the school board, that it makes it difficult to understand the problems. What I do know is that one of the school board members is being singled out, not allowed the normal transition to lead the board as president, criticized for all sorts of things I haven’t been able to figure out, and now, basically censured in that they have formed a special committee excluding only her. I can’t follow the accusations or timeline because it seems like you had to actually be at each of the meetings to grasp what it’s all about, and I’m not quite sure if that is even enough. It all feels like a secret society rather than a school board supported by our tax dollars. And as a taxpayer who happened to vote for Dee Perry, I resent that her voice has been removed from the policy making, at any level. This is an awful way to run any board and a terrible example to the students in the Laguna Beach Unified School District as to how to handle challenging issues when all are not in lockstep. Come on board members—you certainly can do better than this and set a much better example of how to play fair. This decision is not acceptable.
Trudy Josephson, Laguna Beach
I heartily agree with the comment above.
“It all feels like a secret society rather than a school board supported by our tax dollars.”
I would certainly value training by the Aspen group above any training by school attorneys. Most boards blindly follow the school attorney when they are supposed to guide the school attorney.
Why is a legal opinion for a public entity classified as confidential, attorney Mark Bresee? Equally importantly, why are school board discussions being concealed from a school board member? It sounds like all but one of the Laguna Beach school board members are sheep blindly following their attorney.
Wolff and Vickers clearly need training from the Aspen Group. It’s worth untold quantities of money to have a school board that governs properly.