The Santa Ana Council of the PTA is hosting a Santa Ana Unified School District Board of Education Candidate Forum on Monday, October 20, 2014, from 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm.
This forum will be held in the Training Room of the Santa Ana Unified School District, located at 1601 E. Chestnut Avenue, in Santa Ana. Continue reading
City of Santa Ana
(Santa Ana)— The City of Santa Ana and the Santa Ana Partnership—a collaboration of Santa Ana College, Santa Ana Unified School District, California State University, Fullerton; University of California, Irvine; Chapman University; and numerous community organizations—are planning for the launch of the Higher Education Center at the Santa Ana Public Library. The public is invited to the Center’s grand opening on Saturday, May 17 at 1:00 p.m. at the Main Library, located at 26 Civic Center Plaza. Continue reading
The SAUSD Becomes a Provision 2 District Providing Meals at No Charge to All Students
The Santa Ana Unified School District has become eligible to provide at no charge breakfast and lunch meals to students.
Based on their high percentage of students who qualify for free and reduced meals, they are eligible under the National School Lunch Program and the School Breakfast Program. Letters were sent to parents earlier this week. Continue reading
The Registrar of Voters announced today that the nomination period has been extended until August 15, 2012, 5:00 p.m. for the Santa Ana offices listed below because the incumbent failed to file Nomination Papers by the August 10, 2012 deadline.
Any qualified person, other than the incumbent, can now file the Nomination Papers until August 15, 2012, 5:00 p.m., in the office of the Registrar of Voters, 1300 South Grand Avenue, Building C, Santa Ana, California. Business hours are: 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. For further information, call the Registrar of Voters office at 714-567-7600, hit option “0″ and ask for the “Candidate and Voters Services” division. Continue reading
Art Pedroza for the Orange County Board of Education, Area One
PRESS RELEASE, FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 22, 2012
Contact: Art Pedroza, 714-606-7622, Website: www.votepedroza.com
The 2012 O.C. Dept. of Education, Area One, Social Media Report Card
SANTA ANA – Public school officials often talk about the need to connect with parents, but do our local public school districts really walk the walk, when it comes to communicating with parents?
Art Pedroza, a candidate for the Orange County Board of Education, Area One, noticed in 2010 that the Santa Ana Unified School District’s website did not include a common, and popular, tool for instantly translating their site to other languages. The district corrected that oversight once Pedroza brought up the issue during his campaign in 2010 for the SAUSD School Board. Continue reading
The Santa Ana Unified School District (SAUSD) is one of nine Orange County school districts that “have filed preliminary spending plans indicating they might not be able to meet their financial obligations over the next two years, part of a group of 137 districts statewide that the state considers to be in “financial jeopardy,”” according to the O.C. Register.
Although many districts have plans in place to absorb this worst-case scenario, nine of the county’s 28 districts don’t know yet where they’ll achieve the necessary savings, and thus filed interim budget plans in December with a “qualified” certification. The state Department of Education characterized these districts Thursday as being in “financial jeopardy.” Continue reading
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Mr. Michael Bishop, (714) 558-5523
The Santa Ana Board of Education Appoints
Thelma Meléndez de Santa Ana as New Superintendent
SANTA ANA, CA – July 15, 2011 – The Santa Ana Board of Education has announced the appointment of Dr. Thelma Meléndez de Santa Ana as the next superintendent to lead the Santa Ana Unified School District (SAUSD). Dr. Meléndez will assume the duties of Superintendent on August 8, 2011. This item will be agendized for open session ratification on July 26, 2011, as required by Government Code. Continue reading
The Santa Ana Unified School District (SAUSD) is set to announce the selection of Thelma Meléndez de Santa Ana, the Assistant Secretary for Elementary and Secondary Education at the U.S. Department of Education, this Friday, July 15, at the SAUSD’s headquarters, at 3 pm, according to an insider at the district.
If true, this looks like a fantastic replacement for retired SAUSD Superintendent Jane Russo, whose tenure was marred by corruption, questionable expenditures and results that left many kids out in the cold. Continue reading
The Santa Ana Unified School District’s is once again facing budget cuts, as the State of California continues to suffer during our economic crisis. It is unlikely that voters will vote to raise their taxes again, if the State Legislature is able to put another tax increase on the ballot. The SAUSD will have to make more cuts – again.
Remember that SAUSD Superintendent Jane Russo is on the way out. It is going to be a tough year as the overmatched SAUSD School Board tries to work out a new budget without their Superintendent.
Here are links to budget info provided by the SAUSD:
Budget Reduction Suggestion Form
Budget Reduction Suggestion Form (Spanish)
School Services of CA Budget Video – 03/09/10
Excerpt – OCDE Assessment of SAUSD’s $93 million Ending Fund Balance – 10/27/09
General Fund Unaudited Actuals 08-09
School Services of CA Budget video – 10/13/09
OCDE Press Conference – 4/29/09 – English / Spanish
OCDE Federal Stimulus Funding & State Budget Fact Sheet
Jane Russo, the Superintendent of the Santa Ana Unified School District (SAUSD) is retiring at the end of this school year, according to a district announcement regarding Russo’s pending retirement:
Angela Burrell, 714-558-5555
SAUSD Superintendent Announces Retirement
SANTA ANA, CA – January 25, 2011– Santa Ana Unified School District Superintendent, Jane Russo, has announced that she will be retiring at the end of this school year. Superintendent Russo’s last official day will be June 30, 2011, ending a 38-year career in education.
Ms. Russo began her career in Santa Ana Unified in 1980 and other than a brief four year absence to serve as the assistant superintendent for the Mountain View School District, Ms. Russo has served Santa Ana Unified as a classroom teacher, assistant principal, principal, area administrator, deputy superintendent, interim superintendent and superintendent. “Santa Ana is my home. It has been a pleasure and an honor to serve this community, the families and the children of Santa Ana,” said Ms. Russo, who is a resident of Santa Ana and has served as superintendent of Santa Ana Unified since January 2007.
During Ms. Russo’s tenure as superintendent under the watchwords of “Success is the Standard,” Santa Ana Unified has experienced dramatic academic gains. Guided by her leadership and renewed focus on instruction, SAUSD has made gains in overall district Academic Performance Index (API) of 66 points, going from an API of 657 in 2006 to 723 in 2010. All 36 elementary schools have an API score that is now over 700. In addition, Santa Ana Unified now boasts of 28 California Distinguished Schools, five National Blue Ribbon Schools, and although named as persistently low achieving, Saddleback, Valley and Santa Ana High Schools were named as three of the most improved high schools in Orange County for students passing the California High School Exit Exam.
Superintendent Russo is also to be credited with the leadership and support of the Board of Education to go forward with the Measure G bond election in June of 2008. When they said it couldn’t be done, Ms. Russo knew with confidence that the community of Santa Ana is supportive of their schools and their students. With the successful passage of Measure G, a $200 million bond measure, Santa Ana Unified has been able to remove unsightly portable classrooms from the campuses, improve and modernize the schools, build new classroom facilities, and upgrade play areas. With Ms. Russo’s direction, SAUSD put its confidence in the community of Santa Ana and community responded by having confidence in the school district.
As superintendent, Jane Russo has reviewed, revised and updated every operational aspect of the Santa Ana Unified School District. Throughout the district, from the delivery of the instructional program, attendance, data analysis, financials, contracts, purchasing, human services and staff development, to name a few, every area has been affected and improved under Ms. Russo’s leadership.
Board President, José Alfredo Hernández, J.D., had this to say regarding Ms. Russo, “Jane Russo has without question dedicated herself to the improvement of the educational opportunities for the children of Santa Ana. Our School District has made significant progress in student achievement, school facilities and the overall morale of the employees of our District. While Ms. Russo’s retirement is a loss for our District, it is an opportunity for her personally to continue on to the next chapter in her life. I am personally grateful for the opportunity to have worked with her and am confident that she leaves our District in a position where the next Superintendent can simply continue where she left off with the stewardship of this District.”
The Santa Ana Unified School District has been fortunate to have the leadership that Ms. Russo has provided. In the coming weeks, the Santa Ana Unified School District’s Board of Education will meet to discuss the next steps and the process for selecting a new superintendent.
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While the district has had a tough time through much of her tenure, things appear to be looking up of late.
Harvey Elementary School received a gold rating and ranked ninth on the OC Register’s Top 10 elementary public schools listing released on January 16, 2011. The list ranks 383 public schools Countywide.
Of the 146 public schools which received a medal, nine are within SAUSD:
But the district is still plagued by a high drop-out rate and low graduation rates. And the fundamental and charter schools vastly outperform the neighborhood schools.
Russo was hired in 2007, by the SAUSD School Board after a visibly bogus national search. She had been an assistant to her immediate predecessor, Al Mijares. Click here to read Russo’s official bio.
I guess now we will get to see the SAUSD School Board conduct another fraudulent national search for Russo’s replacement.
Russo no doubt will have a very nice public pension to enjoy in her golden years.
Two years ago, when there were nine candidates running for three seats on the Santa Ana Unified School District’s (SAUSD) School Board, there were numerous debates all over town. I attended several of them.
This year, there are only four candidates and zero debates. What happened?
I have never before seen this happen before in the SAUSD. There have always been at least a few candidates debates. Not this time. Even the PTA took a pass!
I seriously doubt that this is happening in any other school district in Orange County. The voters deserve to see their candidates, and to hear from them in candidates forums.
Click here to read the rest of this post.
OLIVE CREST’S NOVA ACADEMY, RECENTLY NAMED ONE OF THE BEST HIGH SCHOOLS IN CALIFORNIA BY U.S. NEWS AND WORLD REPORT, NOW REGISTERING STUDENTS FOR FALL SEMESTER
With small classes, personalized attention and the opportunity to take college courses, NOVA helps all students—including at-risk teens—excel in high school
Parents and students invited to learn more about the benefits of NOVA and tour the campus during an Open House on Monday evening, August 9th at 6:30pm
Olive Crest’s NOVA Academy, recently awarded a 2010 Bronze Medal by U.S. News and World Report in their rankings of the Best High Schools in California, is currently registering students for the Fall 2010 semester. Students ages 14– 20 can register to enter grades 9 through 12; school begins on August 30, 2010. Families are invited to:
NOVA Academy is an Early College High School that offers unique opportunities to teens who are not only committed to succeeding in their high school careers, but also want a chance to take college courses as well. These include teens from low-income families, those who will be the first in their families to graduate from high school or college, and at-risk kids. NOVA Academy is the first early college high school (ECHS) model in the country—and currently the only one in Orange County—to address the unique learning, emotional and financial issues of these students The school provides individualized support to assist the students through the complicated college application process. NOVA ECHS serves students in grades 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th.
With 206 students total (2009-10), NOVA is able to offer small classes, personalized attention, extensive teacher involvement, a bilingual English-Spanish environment, and complete financial support to help kids excel in school. NOVA students can begin taking college classes as early as the second semester of their 9th grade year, and also have the opportunity to begin vocational courses. The costs of college tuition and books are completely covered by NOVA.
Founded by Dr. Donald Verleur, a leader in education for at-risk youth and the founder of acclaimed nonprofit Olive Crest, NOVA is funded in part with a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation through the Foundation for California Community Colleges.
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Media Contact @ CurrentPR
Alison Hill 714.444.9731, ext. 201, alison@currentpr.com
“Orange County public schools will receive $1.7 million in federal stimulus funds, via the Enhancing Education Through Technology grant, this month to improve technology in the classroom, the latest round of grant money to flow to local schools under President Barack Obama’s $787 billion stimulus package,” according to the O.C. Register.
Here is a rundown of the local schools benefiting from these contributions:
What a nice way to end the week!
Fellow Orange Juice blogger Art Pedroza recently wrote a post regarding Mayoral candidate Alfredo Amezcua’s misplaced criticism of our Mayor Miguel Pulido not helping the youth of Santa Ana. As Pedroza correctly pointed out under the leadership of Mayor Pulido and councilmembers Claudia Alvarez, Sal Tinajero, Vince Sarmiento and Michele Martinez the city has put in place a number of programs to serve our youth.
According to a posting on Mr. Amezcua’s Facebook page he said the following:
We are exchanging ideas wit voters concerned that the current mayor isn’t working with the school district to create greater opportunity for our youth.
In reading this it gives the impression that there is only one school district in Santa Ana and that Mr. Amezcua is only concerned about working with them. The reality is that there are four school districts that service the residents of Santa Ana: Santa Ana Unified, Garden Grove Unified, Orange Unified and Tustin Unified.
Clearly the school district that Amezcua is referring to would be the Santa Ana Unified School District. My question to Mr. Amezcua and his campaign would be, are you aware that we have other districts serving our city and are you interested in fostering relationships with them as well? Or do you only want to concern yourself with the SAUSD?
As a resident of Santa Ana and the Garden Grove Unified School District I want to be sure that those of us living outside the SAUSD boundries are not disenfranchised and that our tax dollars are not going only to the SAUSD. Mayor Pulido has built relationships with all these districts over his years in office and I would like to see those relationships grow and prosper.
First and foremost though I want a mayor that is focused on city issues and not one that is overly concerned with school district issues. We elect a school board to do that. Perhaps Mr. Amezcua can focus his energies on electing a stronger school board and ridding us of those members that continue to do a poor job.
However if Mr. Amezcua is determined to stay in the race for Mayor of Santa Ana he should start sharing with us his goals to help with the budget issues we are facing and important topics like that and leave the issues of our schools to the elected officials that are supposed to oversee them.
Godinez High has quickly become one of Santa Ana’s best schools
Ouch. The O.C. Register slammed the Santa Ana Unified School District in this year’s “Orange County’s Best Public Schools: High Schools” report,” which was published on Sunday.
In the report, Santa Ana Unified has the bottom four ranked schools, Century High, Valley High, Santa Ana High, and Saddleback High.
But the article didn’t tell the whole story. For one thing, the SAUSD’s newest high school, Godinez Fundamental, is quickly turning into a real gem, on a par with Segerstrom High, which received a Bronze Award in the Register’s 2010 report. But Godinez isn’t ranked in the report, probably because they are too new.
Two other SAUSD schools also received awards. The Orange County High School for the Arts was one of five gold medal winners. OCSHA is a charter school. Few Santa Ana kids get into the school, but those that do generally excel.
And SAUSD’s Middle College High not only won a silver award, but earlier this month, twenty-seven Middle College High School (MCHS) seniors from the Class of 2010 graduated with both a high school diploma from Santa Ana Unified School District (SAUSD) and an associate of arts degree from Santa Ana College (SAC). The graduates receiveed their AA degree from Santa Ana College during a June 3 commencement ceremony at Santa Ana Stadium, followed by their high school diploma in a ceremony on June 17.
Middle College High School (MCHS) is a Santa Ana Unified School District school, located at Santa Ana College. A collaborative venture between the Santa Ana Unified School District (SAUSD) and Santa Ana College(SAC), opened its doors in 1997 with approximately 80 sophomores and a staff consisting of four teachers, a high school counselor, a principal and two classified employees. In 2000 Middle College High School graduated its first class with its valedictorian holding the distinguished rank of valedictorian of the high school and the college.
The bad news? Only 80 students will be accepted into the 9th grade next year. Slim pickings, but cream of the crop.
We also have another great charter school, the Nova Academy Early College High School, which recently won the PIMCO 2010 Excellence Award. They weren’t in the Register’s report either. I suspect their campus is also too knew to track yet.
Yes, there are a lot of kids struggling in SAUSD schools, but there are also a lot of kids doing very well. My three boys all go to SAUSD schools.
My son Joey just finished his junior year at Godinez, where he is the number two ranked student on campus. He is taking AP level courses. Joey has played on his high school baseball team for three years. He was the closer on his team this year. In that time he also taught himself how to play the guitar and drums. He is pretty good! He can play AC/DC and Led Zep songs, which is good enough for me.
My other boys are younger, but Jimmy did finish intermediate school this year and he is going to be attending Godinez also in the fall. He too received scholastic awards at the end of the year. It was telling that SAUSD Trustee Audrey Noji addressed Jimmy and his peers, at their graduation this month, in English, Spanish and Vietnamese. Santa Ana is changing and there are a lot of Vietnamese students now amongst their Latino peers.
My son Jacob, who is a first grader at John Muir Fundamental Elementary School, also received a slew of awards at the end of the year.
All of my boys received awards in English/Reading. Jimmy and I both read the same science fiction novels – and he has become a voracious reader.
My daughter graduated from Santa Ana High School, where she also excelled at water polo. She just finished a two year fashion degree at FIDM, which is a world-renowned art school in Los Angeles. She finished with a GPA higher than 3.0. She is now looking for an internship in her industry.
The difference for my kids? A house full of computers and parents dedicated to reading and to helping them with their studies. We have always been here for them.
Not all Santa Ana kids are as lucky. I for one won’t criticize their families. They are poor and struggling to survive. We live in a city with only one main library and one small external branch. The libraries are closed on Sunday. Many kids in town don’t have access to the Internet. Many live in cramped surroundings with no desk to do their homework on. And many live in single parent homes.
SAUSD has laid off teachers for several years now. That has really hurt younger teachers. That is a damn shame as they would have brought new energy to our schools. We have a lot of great veteran teachers but also a few that, quite frankly, could care less.
I still am not sold on the SAUSD administrators. Nor do I have much faith in our School Board. If we are to turn things around it will be up to us.
We need more partnerships with local industry leaders. We need better administrators with more experience in turning around troubled school districts. We need more public libraries. I wrote a position paper when I ran for the Santa Ana City Council, proposing micro libraries that would make use of our empty retail stores, providing computers with Internet access, and space to do homework. Plus the idea would have included a mobile service that would have delivered books, upon request, from the main library to the micro libraries.
But both the City of Santa Ana and the SAUSD are broke. So what to do?
I know what I won’t do. I won’t pull my kids out of SAUSD schools and put them in private schools, like most of our local politicians have done over the years. One of our Trustees, Audrey Noji, sent her son to high school in Irvine. And a candidate for our school board that has run twice, and lost, named Cecilia Aguinaga, took her kids out of public schools and put them in private schools.
We need school board members who will have faith in our schools and in our teachers, and who will be creative and inspired. We certainly don’t have that sort of vision on our School Board now.
But know this – despite all the problems we do have a lot of great kids who are doing well. We just need to work harder to help the rest of them too.