The Vanguard News
is dedicated to maintaining quality rural living and
local control. A brief note from the editor. Acton and Agua Dulce are still
great communities filled mostly with excellent people working their hardest to
raise a family, live in harmony with nature, and their neighbors. We all care so
much for our communities that we attack the small wrongs and injustices with a
vengeance. People reading this site should understand we love our community but
will fight those business and pro urban elements to keep it rural. See our
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Here is a new local Acton weather site
and traffic. 5-8-09
Please note that we are back to a more active status. We will be happy to post any
information for free about community groups. We are going to start posting a lot
of data concerning secret operations of the corrupt and mismanaged Acton - Agua
Dulce School District. We have started with six months of
Board minutes posted in searchable and
quotable format.
Los Angeles County (and the so called Agua Dulce Town Council) again claims
resident's protected speech sign illegal
6-30-09 See the original story from 5-18-06
Since the original complaint over three years ago, the County
and the Town Council are again violating the resident's right to free
speech guaranteed in the Constitution and upheld unanimously by the
Supreme Court.
The County has attempted to modify the published County
code
22.52.940 (C) which specifies the sign set back from the road line to
be the property line. The County to date has not provided their legal
authority to change the publicly published code.
The County has claimed they have received "dozens" of letters from
members of the community protesting the sign is illegal and unacceptable. It is reported one of the letters is from the Agua Dulce
Town Council but they refused to provide a copy of the letter.
Mr. Wayne Crathorne asked me to
assist him as I did the original work on finding the Supreme Court case in
2006. My letter to the county is here.
Here are the photos of the illegal pro-airport signs which the Town
Council and County seems to be unconcerned about.
The Town Council members should be forced to stand in a corner and
repeat that they will observe the Constitution of the United States and
follow the Supreme Court's decision. They apparently think they are so
important the laws do not apply to them.
The 2008 API scores are out.
5-21-09 Congratulations to Meadowlark for staying above the 800 level (819).
All the rest failed to achieve state-mandated API scores for 2008..Agua Dulce
(765 verses 770) and High Desert (752 verses 757).
Vasquez is a total failure, as usual, by not testing enough students to publish their
APIs. But we obtained the API score from the state data files, showing
it to be 689, which is dismal. It ranks below most LA Unified High Schools, well below Santa Clarita High schools,
and most Antelope
Valley High Schools (nearly 75 points below Highland and Quartz Hill),
So along with ignoring bullying and not being able to keep a single principal for more than a year
or two, Vasquez is a total failure as a high school and is a continuing embarrassment to the community.
Please note there are excellent High School students in the district.
Of course,
most of these are in private or home schooling, but a few that remain at Vasquez
are doing an excellent job even with the incompetent principal, teachers
and staff. The only thing the district claims to do well is spending tons of money on competitive sports
for a few kids and over 1 million dollars for a scrap and illegal gym.
Let's select some school board members to fix the teaching
and poor staff at Vasquez and make it the quality that our kids are capable of and
deserve.
The Corrupt and Dishonest Acton-Agua Dulce School
5-16-09 It's interesting to note that the corrupt and dishonest Acton-Agua
Dulce School District still has not posted any minutes of its board
meetings since March 26, 2009. That's about four meetings that are being kept
from the public by keeping their minutes secret. Besides condoning
bullying and other lies, I wonder what they're hiding in the minutes for
these four meetings and why they don't want the public to know what
they have done? It's interesting that their agendas contain almost no
information and all the so-called consent items are not even listed as to what
they voted on or reported in their minutes. They apparently can't
read the Brown Act and refuse
to follow the required public disclosure requirements.
Anything that Distaso's crew wants to do in
secret, they just do it and screw you.
We need at least two candidates to run for school board in November
to dump the Distaso jerks off the school board.
We have just made a written demand by e-mail on the district to
produce all of the agendas, minutes and all correspondence sent to a
majority of board members since January 1, 2009.
This e-mail was sent to the Superintendent. It's our intention to publish this
information online so the community can know what's gone on in secret at
the school.
Copy of E-mail
Please provide a full copy of the agendas and a copy of documents provided to
a majority of board members. Send them electronically or mail them the same day
the board members receive theirs. I will also accept them in electronic form and
prefer the electronic form to this e-mail address: acton@WGN.net.
If sent by mail, address them as follows: Charles Brink,
The Vanguard News, P.O. Box 9333, Van Nuys, CA 91409 as required by the
Brown Act section 54954.1. And I also request, as required under 54957.5.
section B of the code, any documents that are distributed before the board
meeting or at the board meeting, be sent to the same address or provided
electronically to: acton@WGN.net.
54954.1. Any person may request that a copy of the agenda, or a copy of all
the documents constituting the agenda packet, of any meeting of a
legislative body be
mailed to that person. If requested, the >agenda and documents in the agenda packet shall
be made available in appropriate alternative formats to persons with a
disability, as required by Section 202 of the Americans with Disabilities
Act of 1990 (42 U.S.C. Sec. 12132), and the federal rules and regulations
adopted in implementation thereof. Upon receipt of the written request, the
legislative body or its designee shall cause the requested materials to be
mailed at the time the agenda is posted pursuant to Section 54954.2 and
54956 or upon distribution to all, or a majority of all, of the members of a
legislative body, whichever occurs first.
54957.5. (b) Writings that are public records under subdivision (a) and that
are distributed during a public meeting shall be made available for public
inspection at the meeting if prepared by the local agency or a member of its
legislative body, or after the meeting if prepared by some other person.
These writings shall be made available inappropriate alternative formats
upon request by a person with a disability, as required by Section 202 of
the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (42 U.S.C. Sec. 12132), and the
federal rules and regulations adopted in implementation thereof.
In addition, I'm requesting copies of all correspondence sent by
mail or electronically to three or more of the board members since January 1,
2009 and want this request to be kept in place to January 1, 2010. I would prefer
it to be sent electronically simultaneous to sending them to at least three of
the board members, to my e-mail address: acton@WGN.net. Charles Brink
800-773-5228
End of copy of e-mail
The father of
Jeremiah Lasater has filed a wrongful death claim against the
District
5-6-09 The claim is the first step before a lawsuit can be
filed. The claim is for an unspecified amount, based on the fact that
the school had knowledge of the bullying and was responsible for the death of
his child.
The claim was denied in a 4 to 1 vote at the 4-23-09 board meeting. This
newspaper has requested a copy of the claim because we believe the
community should be aware of the claimed
failure of the staff in
handling the bullying issue. With the amount of public comments by
parents in the district about the bullying and refusal of the school to act
against the bullies, this should be a slam dunk against the district. As
soon as the suit becomes public record, we will publish and report on
the claims against the district which will be public. As usual, the board
will operate in secret with no disclosure to the community.
Here is the item from the 4-23-09 agenda
8.6 It is
recommended that the Board approves the rejection of a claim filed
by Mr. Jeffery Lasater for the
wrongful death of his son, Jeremiah Lasater, received from Mark
Saltzman, Esq, Law Offices of Mark Saltzman and Howard Getz, Esq., John D.
Laurie, Esq., Getz & Laurie.
The School Board in virtual secret has sold school bonds at an
unprecedented high rate of 5.99% for double tax-free bonds.
5-6-09 This is even
higher than the current quote for 30 year home financing which is at
5.3% today. There are no plans. There is no architect. All that is
happening is the money is sitting in the bank account costing you the
taxpayers this outrageous interest rate and providing absolutely no
benefit to the students of the district.
We must remove the school board members who voted for this and put
people in control of the district who care about the kids.
It's also interesting to note that the fire marshal and DSA have
totally rejected the existing Vasquez site and are in the process of
demanding it be closed. What part of failed high school don't you
understand?
Manny Fernandez and Careylee Moisan, were sentenced as convicted Felons
3-20-08
PRESS RELAPSE Agua Dulce/Lancaster
Bringing an end to an extraordinarily long process, two former directors of the SPV Water Company of Agua Dulce, Manny Fernandez and Careylee Moisan, were sentenced today by Judge Carlos Chung on Seven (7) felony counts arising from their conduct as directors of the company between 2002 - 2004. The two were charged with several counts of grand theft and conspiracy arising from their alleged embezzlement of over $50,000.00 in cash and development of a self dealing scheme which cost the community more than a hundred thousand dollars.
In a prosecution that has been ongoing since 2005, the two had entered pleas of no contest to these felony counts last September
In a plea bargain that could have seen them avoid the felony convictions upon payment of restitution.
However, last week, when restitution was due, the two failed to make payment.
Although remanded to custody, the two were later released for further sentencing on Friday 3/20. Despite eventual tardy payment of over $81,000.00 in restitution, the court today sentenced the two as felons. Both received credit for time served and three years formal probation.
Fernandez received 65 days of community service and Moisan received 30 days. A third conspirator had earlier reached a deal with prosecutors and was not involved in these proceedings.
Several members of the community were in attendance at the sentencing hearing and expressed general satisfaction with the ultimate results.
See our story when Fernandez was lying
about the fake water shortage.
These same
criminals as former directors of SPV Water Co objected to the CUP for
the winery. The community needs to go into the Agua Dulce Vineyards and see what the MacAdams have brought into the community, instead of the evil crimes perpetrated on
the community and the water district by Manuel Fernandez and Carey Lee Moisan.
The biggest bully in Acton is Mark Distaso
11-11-08 No wonder we have a bullying problem in Acton, when the head of the school board
is a bully against anyone who opposes his personal view. As we all know, Ron Bird
opposed the CF bond. Now that the vote
is so close on CF,
Distaso has produced a personal trumped up complaint against Ron Bird.
Without going to the board and receiving approval, he spent thousands of dollars
of the kids educational funds and he directed the school's attorney to draft a personal
vendetta against Ron Bird. Distaso
personally directed the
Superintendent to act
under Distaso's orders.
Distaso now thinks he runs the board, without his two Brighter Group lackeys
acting as a backup chorus. He even says in his tirade that "conduct the Board
considers to be inimical" as a fete' de accompli', without a board vote.
Exactly who, without any board approval, authorized Distaso to contact the
School's attorney and spend the schools tax funds to .take action against Ron
Bird. When Ron at the worst was simply exercising his First Amendment rights. We call on
Distaso to step down for what amounts to theft of tax funds for
Distaso's personal political gain.
He is such a bully that instead of bringing his complaints to a board meeting and discussing it, he spent thousands of dollars of the kids educational money to promote his personal
vendetta against Ron Bird.
The Jeremiah Lasater tragedy
5-6-09 The father of
Jeremiah Lasater has filed a wrongful death claim
10-26-08 The Administration is to blame
10-28-08 The sports groupies screwed the educational program again.
10-26-08 Get tough on bullies
- Daily News letter
10-24-08 Vasquez claims bullying is rare; some disagree
10-23-08
Bullied to death - Daily News Editorial
10-22-08 Quiet boy's hidden anguish has tragic outcome
- Daily News Story
10-22-08
Teen who killed himself at Acton high school was bullied - LA Times
10-22-08 Schools square off with bullies - Signal Story
10-22-08 RIP Jeremiah Lasater: 14-Year-Old Bullied to Death at Vasquez High
10-22-08
October 20, 2008 a tragedy occurred at Vasquez
High that never, never should have happened.
10-20-08
Boy shoots, kills himself at Vasquez High School
REMEMBER: Cell Phone Numbers Go Public on 10-1-08
REMINDER....all cell phone numbers were released to telemarketing companies
and you will start to receive sales calls. YOU WILL BE CHARGED FOR THESE CALLS .
You can go to
www.donotcall.gov to block the calls
or call from the cell phone number you want to
have blocked. It is the National DO NOT CALL list. It will only take a minute of
your time. It blocks your number for five (5) years.
The graffiti hotline number is (800) 675-4357. Residents can call 24 hours a
day, seven days a week to report graffiti to a live operator. Town Council
leaders are also asking residents to keep track of how long it takes the
contractors to clean up the graffiti once it has been reported to see if the
county is meeting its 48-hour goals
Up coming meetings
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