Vanguard News This is to announce that I am running for school board of the Acton-Agua Dulce School District.
There are many in our communities that recognize that our school district has dropped from “distinguished district” to disgusting district. It is now time to act before it becomes a deceased district.
Over one-half of the students have been removed from the district by their parents for a better education. The communities have formally supported education and have now rejected the district in three bond elections with the majority voting NO.
The superintendent and, until recently, the board members have adopted a bunker mentality and hidden everything from the community by operating in secret and refusing to provide public documents to the public as required by law. Many people, including me, have fought these actions from the audience at board meetings. Their continuing efforts have prodded the board to listen and act and in some cases, rejecting the superintendent's plans for our schools.
The watershed of the more independent board began at the resignation of Marty Barofsky, who had been on the board through all the disasters, where the board voted 5 to zero for whatever action the superintendents proposed. His appointed replacement, Max Duran, brought independence and his knowledge of school facilities to the board. His questions, along my questions and community input, have stopped the unanimous votes for whatever the superintendent demanded.
Now lets look forward. Here is some of my platform. I am a long-term community resident and a graduate of Acton Elementary School in 1953. I was one of the original proponents for unification to keep our high school kids in our community. I have published the Vanguard News, an adjudicated newspaper, since 1993, in hard copy from 1993 to 1997 and continuing on-line to the present, with special editions being printed.
I fought for and won developer funding (not property taxes) for the high school, which funding was cancelled by the Duzick board's actions. Duzick instead issued $400,000 in non-voter approved debt to build the temporary high school at Vasquez. This is still negatively impacting the district.
I have made hundreds of written proposals of which many are posted on line over the last 10 years. These show millions of dollars of waste and miscalculations, exposed that the district has violated the Field Act, which protects the students from earthquake unsafe buildings by failing to apply to the Department of State Architecture (DSA) for approval of the entire Vasquez campus, including the gym, and the modulars at Meadowlark School.
I have railed against the hiring of out-of-town “consultants” and a Palmdale superintendent telling us what type of schools we want for our community. I think our community should plan our local schools.
I served on the school Surplus Property Committee, whose final report opposed the closing of the Acton School. I am now serving on the current Facilities Committee and the new Facilities Master Plan Committee. These committees' actions and minutes have been posted on-line for all the community to see. I am an acknowledged expert on “The Brown Act” and if you search for “The Brown Act” on Google you will see that my site is number 1 in the world.
These are some of the actions I am working toward.
These changes should bring back the students who have left the district. If these changes do not work, then establish a charter school within the district that would more closely meet the parent's requirements. A charter school would be totally isolated from the existing school staff, educational policies and even the school board. This may be necessary to lure back the parents and their trust, which have been so severely harmed over the last 10 years.
Charles Brink 800-773-5228