By Linda Taaffe

Parents frustrated with what they call an unresponsive school board filed a recall petition notice against two Cupertino Union School District Board members Oct. 9. Board members Pearl Cheng and Gary McCue had one week to submit a written response to the Santa Clara County Registrar’s office. Their terms do not expire until 2005.

The recall does not include board members Josephine Lucey and Barry Chang whose terms end next November, or Ben Liao, who will remain on the board until 2005.

Those backing the recall effort claim that Liao and Chang are the only board members who have listened to the community. Parents did not include Lucey in the recall because an election to replace the potentially ousted board members could take place next June or during the November general election when her term expires, said Judy Wong, who helped form the parent group Voters For a Better CUSD that launched the recall effort.

The group will need to collect 9,000 signatures or support from 15 percent of the approximately 60,000 district residents.

The district serves more than 15,200 students in its 20 elementary schools and four middle schools located in Cupertino, Los Altos, San Jose, Santa Clara, Saratoga and Sunnyvale. Approximately 700 Los Altos children attend Cupertino schools.

“The recall proponents have the right to say what they want. It’s up to the voters to agree with them or not,” McCue said. “The board is always willing to talk to (residents). A decision on the boundaries hasn’t been made yet. I’m hopeful that we will come to an agreement and people will realize we need to start working together to make the (new) middle school the most successful in the district.”

Cheng did not respond to Town Crier phone calls by the paper’s press deadline.

Superintendent William Bragg said the recall could cost the district an estimated $425,000 if forced to hold a special election for new candidates.

“The Board of Education of the Cupertino Union School District functions as a collective body with five members involved in a decision-making process that requires a majority of the board to take action on agenda items … Only the board as a whole, by majority, has this authority,” Bragg said in reaction to the pending recall.

Proposed boundary changes and alleged teacher dissatisfaction are key issues behind the recall effort, said Melissa Hilton, who is helping Wong lead the campaign.

Hilton said board members allegedly ignored a teachers’ union survey conducted earlier this year in which 92 percent of district teachers gave Superintendent William Bragg a vote of “no confidence.” They also ignored pleas from 700 parents and teachers who demonstrated for change last May, she added.

Despite the survey results, the board disregarded the teachers’ grievances, she said. Teachers worked for nine months without a contract.

“The community was disappointed that these board members failed to intervene in a timely manner to address the root causes of teacher dissatisfaction,” Hilton said.

Bragg said the survey was conducted during the height of teacher labor negotiations. He has since initiated several programs to improve teacher relations including one-on-one meetings with each school’s staff, a consultant’s audit of teacher needs and the formation of a parent task force to better recruit and retain teachers.

Wong and others allege that the district misled voters during last year’s facilities bond measure, which has ultimately resulted in the proposed redistricting. Part of the bond money was earmarked for reopening Collins Elementary School as the district’s fifth middle school. This would move students enrolled at the alternative school to other campuses and redistrict current boundaries.

Wong said parents are concerned about their children having to cross major thoroughfares to get to school under the new boundaries. Parents launched a letter-writing campaign last month to urge the district to consider making Collins an open enrollment alternative school. In addition, Wong said the board will not disclose how the district will fund the operation of a fifth middle school.

Bragg said several committees and more than one school board have worked together over the past five years to reach the plan to open a fifth middle school. The class-size reduction program in 1998 resulted in overcrowded elementary schools. Opening a fifth middle school and moving the sixth-grade level into the middle schools would relieve the elementary campuses.

A community committee recommended opening a fifth neighborhood middle school in March 2001 after a district survey conducted on the Internet showed that 45 percent of the community preferred a neighborhood school based on boundaries. The district announced the decision to open a fifth middle school prior to the bond measure, Bragg said.

He said the district needs to move at least 500 students from Kennedy Middle School to relieve overcrowding at the campus. Committee studies showed that an alternative school with open enrollment would not attract enough students.

Bragg said the operating costs of the new middle school will be approximately $500,000. The district plans to fund the school with increased lease-revenues from various properties.

Parents said they want a board that will hire a new superintendent to lead the district; preserve the current middle school boundaries; and restore teacher and voter confidence in district management.