Firing the former superintendent of Orange Unified and immediately hiring an interim superintendent to replace her at the same meeting in January may have violated the state’s open meeting law.
Both actions were rammed through by a newly empowered conservative school board majority in the 27,000 student district that includes the city of Orange and parts of Anaheim, Garden Grove and Santa Ana. They may have violated the Ralph M. Brown Act, which requires that elected bodies take action only at public meetings, without prior private discussions, open meeting advocates said.
On Feb. 3, Gregory Pleasants, a parent of a child enrolled in the district, filed a 24-page Brown Act complaint known as a “cure and correct” motion that threatens to sue the school board unless it nullifies actions taken at an illegal meeting. The district has 30 days to respond.
“Whether to fire a superintendent and hire a new one — a decision of immense consequence to the district, the public and the education of students — should be done as thoughtfully and deliberately as possible with as much civic engagement as possible,” said David Loy, legal director of the First Amendment Coalition, a nonprofit and nonpartisan organization that promotes a free press and the people’s right to know.
A battleground district
Orange Unified has become the latest education battleground, particularly intense in politically “purple” areas of California, like Orange County, over “parental rights,” school choice, COVID school closures and classroom instruction about race and gender.
In last November’s election, conservatives assumed control of the school board by…
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