New Santa Ana | Tag Archives: Tustin Unified School District

What happened to Santa Ana Unified’s science camps?

Posted on March 23, 2015 by Art Pedroza Posted in Education, Santa Ana, SAUSD, Tustin 3 Comments

Columbus Tustin Magnet School Science Camp

My son Jacob switched last year from the Santa Ana Unified School District (SAUSD) to the Tustin Unified School District, when he was accepted into the Tustin Columbus Magnet School. He had completed his elementary education at one of Santa Ana’s last fundamental schools, the award-winning John Muir Fundamental Elementary.

A few years ago the PTA at Muir Fundamental used to sponsor their annual Science Camp. Well their PTA became a hot mess over the last few years as selfish parents wasted money on one stupid idea after another, such as paying a DJ to be at their school fair – and losing money on that event instead of making money. Today Muir Fundamental no longer sponsors an annual Science Camp. Continue reading→

The 2012 O.C. Dept. of Education, Area One, Social Media Report Card

Posted on April 23, 2012 by Art Pedroza Posted in 2012 Elections, Art Pedroza, Education, Fountain Valley, Garden Grove, Huntington Beach, Orange County, Santa Ana, SAUSD Leave a comment

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→

Forty-one year old Irvine mom charged with sexually assaulting 14-year old

Posted on March 1, 2012 by Art Pedroza Posted in Courts, Crime, Education, irvine, Orange County, Public Safety, Santa Ana, Tustin, Women, Youth Activities Leave a comment

This has been a bad week in Orange County, with two Santa Ana public school teachers arrested and facing sex charges with high school students at Godinez High and the Orange County High School for the Arts (OCHSA). Now a 41-year old mother in Irvine, who “during the time of these incidents worked part time with kindergarten-age children at Peter’s Canyon Elementary School and also with the Tustin Unified School District as a behavioral interventionist” has been charged with sexually assaulted a 14-year old boy who came over to play with her son. Here is the O.C. District Attorney’s Press Release:

41-YEAR-OLD MOTHER CHARGED WITH SEXUALLY ASSAULTING 14-YEAR-OLD BOY WHO CAME OVER TO HER HOUSE TO PLAY WITH HER SON Continue reading→

Does Mayoral candidate Amezcua realize there is more than one school district in Santa Ana?

Posted on July 19, 2010 by Art Pedroza Posted in Civic Affairs, Education, Elections, Santa Ana, SAUSD, Youth Activities Leave a comment

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.