Comments on: OUSD Braces For Mid-year Cuts

By: whatever

whatever — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 22:58:13 +0000

CALIFORNIA CONSTITUTION
ARTICLE 9 EDUCATION

SEC. 2. A Superintendent of Public Instruction shall be elected by
the qualified electors of the State at each gubernatorial election.
The Superintendent of Public Instruction shall enter upon the duties
of the office on the first Monday after the first day of January next
succeeding each gubernatorial election. No Superintendent of Public
Instruction may serve more than 2 terms.

CALIFORNIA CONSTITUTION
ARTICLE 9 EDUCATION

SEC. 2.1. The State Board of Education, on nomination of the
Superintendent of Public Instruction, shall appoint one Deputy
Superintendent of Public Instruction and three Associate
Superintendents of Public Instruction who shall be exempt from state
civil service and whose terms of office shall be four years.
This section shall not be construed as prohibiting the
appointment, in accordance with law, of additional Associate
Superintendents of Public Instruction subject to state civil service.

CALIFORNIA CONSTITUTION
ARTICLE 9 EDUCATION

SEC. 3. A Superintendent of Schools for each county may be elected
by the qualified electors thereof at each gubernatorial election or
may be appointed by the county board of education, and the manner of
the selection shall be determined by a majority vote of the electors
of the county voting on the question; provided, that two or more
counties may, by an election conducted pursuant to Section 3.2 of
this article, unite for the purpose of electing or appointing one
joint superintendent for the counties so uniting.

CALIFORNIA CONSTITUTION
ARTICLE 9 EDUCATION

SEC. 3.1. (a) Notwithstanding any provision of this Constitution to
the contrary, the Legislature shall prescribe the qualifications
required of county superintendents of schools, and for these purposes
shall classify the several counties in the State.
(b) Notwithstanding any provision of this Constitution to the
contrary, the county board of education or joint county board of
education, as the case may be, shall fix the salary of the county
superintendent of schools or the joint county superintendent of
schools, respectively.

CALIFORNIA CONSTITUTION
ARTICLE 9 EDUCATION

SEC. 3.2. Notwithstanding any provision of this Constitution to the
contrary, any two or more chartered counties, or nonchartered
counties, or any combination thereof, may, by a majority vote of the
electors of each such county voting on the proposition at an election
called for that purpose in each such county, establish one joint
board of education and one joint county superintendent of schools for
the counties so uniting. A joint county board of education and a
joint county superintendent of schools shall be governed by the
general statutes and shall not be governed by the provisions of any
county charter.

By: Anon Me

Anon Me — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 22:25:58 +0000

Helen sounds bitter. Perhaps an ex OUSD employee who was held accountable by Ms. Pusatere for not doing her job well? Hmmmmm…

By: Helen

Helen — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 03:27:57 +0000

The Superintendent’s past, present and future Superintendent will not go to a meeting without D. Pusatere – Asst. Superintendent by his side because she runs the district. They keep her because the Superintendents don’t know squat about budgets and need her to answer the school board and public’s questions. Her position is overpaid, and her management skills with personnel are nil. Her style is too bully, and to pit employees against each other. The turnover over the years in the Business Office is exceptionally high. The employees either quit and look for jobs elsewhere or apply for other jobs out at the school sites. They should of eliminated D. Pusatere’s – Asst. Superintendent title years ago and reclassified it back to an accountant position just as it was when she first began working for the district. Unfortunately, the Administration has never consisted of the most talented people hence the need to being top heavy to try and make up for their deficiencies. The school board will never catch on because they don’t work there on a day to day basis so they’ll never really have the full picture – only what’s spoon fed to them by D. Pusatere.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 04:20:51 +0000

Maybe because she wears the pants at the district.

By: anonymous

anonymous — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 14:55:57 +0000

Does not matter who is to blame for the problems of the OUSD. The question is do we now have the right people to fix the problem and move forward. As an aside has anyone noticed that the new supt. does not go to any meetings without D. Pustere right next to him?

By: Parent

Parent — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 02:02:49 +0000

Of course Bush is responsible for the sad state of the country today.

By: JUSTICE

JUSTICE — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 20:52:40 +0000

Oh yeah, Parent,

And you probably still blame George Bush for the economy!!

By: anonymous

anonymous — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 20:07:37 +0000

Unfortunatley I fear Bangser is now part of the problem.

By: Parent

Parent — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 19:09:30 +0000

What a stupid remark about the new superintendent. He inherited this problem.

By: JUSTICE

JUSTICE — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 04:01:23 +0000

We should hold a lynch mob over the budget cuts and burn effigies of Bangor for screwing it all up already. How can he already be behind budget cuts? Oh, I get it, he wants his salary while everyone suffers. School sucks. Nobody should go anyway. It never did nobody no good.

By: Brother Michael

Brother Michael — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 17:11:50 +0000

Ojai is “friendly.” I get it. “Top-notch,” and “New York
Times?” I heard the editor of the OVN is from the Big
Apple. Maybe he’s just a ghost writer sitting in downtown Manhattan telling us what it be like? I heard
Bangster was a gangster from back east too. As far as I
know Bredigan and Banger never grew up here or attended
a local school. But they sure do seem to have a lot of
fun telling all the local yokels what it be like (“good
food and conversation”).

By: anonymous

anonymous — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 14:54:37 +0000

“blame and complain” hyperbole gets you no where. We know the limitation of the OVN and the writers are adequate and the news is friendly. “Top-notch” is reserved for the New York Times.

By: Anon.5

Anon.5 — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 23:45:52 +0000

I blame my parents for the mess that I am in.

By: blame and complain

blame and complain — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 23:01:15 +0000

the OVN is a fantastic small town paper with mature and objective journalism, and sondra is a top-notch writer. if you can do better, send a letter to the editor and SIGN YOUR NAME.

By: anonymous

anonymous — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 20:05:19 +0000

Sondra, although tempting, please do not respond to comments about your article from the bloggers, it makes you look like an amateur instead of a professional.

By: Phil n Don

Phil n Don — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 19:19:55 +0000

Sondra, things are very boring in Ojai right now. Could
you please spice up your story a little bit? We would
like to know what OUSD administrators are doing with all
that money their making? Golfing? Drinking? Hanging out
with the rich and famous on the weekends. Our schools
are broke and it is very interesting to see what the
OUSD administrators are doing with the hundreds of
thousands of dollars they make every month. Have you
seen them at the Inn or chamber of commerce meeting.
Please check out the North County Times (San Diego) to
see what ex-sup. Tim Baird is doing with his OUSD money.

By: Sondra Murphy

Sondra Murphy — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 17:39:16 +0000

Please cite the lack of objectivity or maturity in the story.
Obviously, blog comments require neither, as anonymous criticism is rather inane.

By: anonymous

anonymous — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 18:16:57 +0000

we really do need a better paper with more mature and objective journalism

By: Sondra Murphy

Sondra Murphy — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 17:09:53 +0000

I wrote it because I was available to cover the meeting.
Glowing review? Puff piece?
You caught me: I love OUSD and want to marry it.

By: anonymous

anonymous — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 23:22:23 +0000

Why does the OVN continue to let Ms. Murphy write puff pieces about the OUSD? Would it be to much to ask for some tough journalism, and not a glowing review from a former OUSD employee?

By: red shirt

red shirt — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 22:35:35 +0000

Generally, I feel like a moron in a town where the
editor of the newspaper and the school superintendent
run everything.

By: anonymous

anonymous — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 21:21:44 +0000

Thank you Sondra for the Wiki information. Clearly from this information the Superintendent is not qualify for the position the board hired him for.

By: Uncle Ernie

Uncle Ernie — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 21:04:14 +0000

So I guess the school superintendent is just a
businessman?

By: Sondra Murphy

Sondra Murphy — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 18:58:28 +0000

From Wikipedia:
“Generally, public school district superintendents are selected by a school board of a local school district. As chief executive officer of the public school, the superintendent has oversight for what is often one of the larger businesses within the community the district serves. They are typically given overall responsibility for personnel selection and appointment, preparation of operating budgets, and implementation of school policies and regulations. Ideally, the school superintendent will be knowledgeable in areas of school law, school finance and investment strategies, school construction, technology, curriculum and teaching and learning styles and methods, team-building, and skill at seeing “the big picture”, able to pull many smaller elements to a cohesive and productive whole.”
With all the legal and curricular concerns a superintendent oversees, one could view having an Asst. Sup. keeping track of the financial complexities as a benefit instead of a straw-grasping “example” of corruption.
But who needs superintendents when there are so many brilliant minds here who could step into the job? And at a reduced rate!
If the people commenting here were truly interested in how public school finance works, they would already know that school district funds aren’t all dumped into one big pot to be spent at the whims of the board. There are laws about how funds shall be spent.
Are teachers underpaid? Absolutely. Did OUSD create this inequity? Hardly.
None of you generic board bashers will ever take the initiative to recall anyone and you all know it. Blah blah blog.
Yes, Anon. 5:21, it’s just you. The comment was humor, something some people find helpful to employ when encountering undesirable information.

By: anonymous

anonymous — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 01:07:25 +0000

The buck stops with the School Board. It has taken you people a long time to figure it out. So recall the current board and start anew.

By: Down with wasteful spending

Down with wasteful spending — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 21:42:26 +0000

Who votes on those superintendent and assistant superintendent salaries? Everywhere I’ve ever lived, it was the school board.
I say, kick ‘em all out, and get back to spending that money on instruction.

By: Anonymous 2

Anonymous 2 — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 05:39:34 +0000

Ojai absolutely does not need that overpriced assistant superintendent and the school board has shamelessly been spending 10s of thousands of dollars for YEARS hiring ‘head hunters’ to find even more high-priced superintendents. Headhunters are in the ‘turn over’ business; they need to keep their stable of executives on the move. That’s how they stay in business. The latest superintendent gets a whopping 170k while teachers (who are all over worked) had to take a pay cut. And, how is it that a federally funding reading intervention was cut? Get rid of the whole lot of ‘em, I say.

By: anonymous

anonymous — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 00:21:19 +0000

Maybe it is just me, but does the new supt. have a clue. “Zero is really low”, is the quote from Mr. Bangser regarding the budget cuts. Did the board forget to tell him during the interview process what kind of mess OUSD is in?

By: Ojai Bored

Ojai Bored — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 22:11:19 +0000

What is it exactly (specifically) that the Superintendent does anyway, and after disclosing that, the what exactly does he need a extremely high paid assistant for (that a mid level staff person could not do)?

By: Nicolaus Sommer

Nicolaus Sommer — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 20:18:56 +0000

Why does the relatively small Ojai School District needs an Assistant Superintendent with a salary close to the Superintendent? (By not mistaken, 3 Administrative Assistant under the Superintendent would do the job for the same ‘price’ and bring 2 more jobs back to town).

According to public records, the Assistant Superintendent does not meet the academic qualifications for this position.

Is there a better example of corruption within a School Board possible? … just curious …