In summary
The long-running feud between Orange County's elected superintendent and the school board illustrates how public education has become a prime site for culture war clashes.
After California became a state in 1850, the first two laws of the newly formed state legislature were to create a framework for public schools.
Among other things, Congress created the offices of a state superintendent and a superintendent for each county, with the assumption that counties would operate schools within their boundaries.
Eventually, however, school districts were formed as the state's population grew. With the exception of a few small counties, each of these counties became the governing body, with its own elected school board and appointed superintendent.
However, the separately elected county superintendents continued, and their duties evolved from direct school administration to oversight of local districts, especially their finances, along with some specialized educational services.
In the 1950s, Congress added further complexity by decreeing that counties also elect school boards. They would have some independent functions and others shared with the elected superintendent, but the superintendent also retained sole authority in some respects.
However, their turf lines were a bit fuzzy. Essentially, both sides were supposed to work together with the best interests of public school students in mind.
Over the years, that assumption has proven true in most cases and in most counties, but public education has unfortunately evolved into a front line in the culture wars among adults. I did. The longstanding feud between Orange County's elected superintendent and the school board is a case in point.
Al Mijares was appointed Orange County Superintendent in 2012, briefly elected to a term in 2014, and re-elected in 2018.
But in 2020, Mijares went public after the Republican-dominated school board supported reopening schools closed due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) without a mask mandate. There was a collision. It was a local version of the statewide debate over school closures that continued in California long after other states reopened schools.
Mijares won reelection in the 2022 election, but had to defeat a challenger supported by school board members. Meanwhile, he appointed a committee with a majority of pro-union members to draw new boundaries for the county school board's districts.
The board rejected the school board's own proposal and adopted one that would make it more difficult for Mr. Mijares' rivals on the school board to be re-elected. His critics denounced it as a power grab by the superintendent. Nevertheless, conservatives continue to control the board, although they gained three of the five seats in this week's primaries.
School closures are not the only point of contention. Second, the board has signaled its intention to approve new charter schools, drawing fierce opposition from school unions that generally side with Mr. Mijares.
At one point, the board threatened to cut Mr. Mijares' salary, which amounted to nearly $500,000 a year, including additional benefits. Since the 2022 election, Mijares has refused to attend a single board meeting and has sent a substitute in his place.
This year, a new wrinkle in the feud emerged when state Sen. Josh Newman, a Democrat whose district straddles the Orange and Los Angeles county lines, introduced Senate Bill 907.
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State Senate, District 29 (Fullerton)
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The bill, which is scheduled for its first committee hearing later this month, would expand the Orange County School Board from five members, bypassing state law that requires voter approval to change the size of county school boards. The number of participants will be expanded to seven. SB 907 would also require school board elections to be consolidated with biennial statewide elections.
If passed, it would give pro-Mijares groups another avenue to change the board's ideological makeup. Newman says he wants the board to be more reflective of the county's population in what opponents see as another power grab.
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