HUNTINGTON BEACH : High Schools Form Community Panel

Trustees from the Huntington Beach Union High School District this week established an advisory group to serve as a liaison between the school board and the community.

The 12 members of the Community Action Panel, which the board hopes will include business, political and community leaders, will be asked to communicate the school district’s fiscal and program needs to the segments of the community in which they work.

The panel members will also be asked to tap their groups for financial assistance and advice in forging new approaches to education. Trustees say they hope that some members of the group will lobby in Sacramento, while others will work within the business community and other areas.

Board President Charmayne Bohman said she hopes that the panel will be “a rather sophisticated group” of top business executives and leading community representatives.

“I envision this as a high-profile group that brings a lot of skills and abilities to help the district,” she said. “Picking this group may be the most important aspect of this.”

The district will accept applications through Nov. 1, after which the five trustees and Supt. David Hagen each will appoint two members. The panel is scheduled to hold its organizational meeting Nov. 19.

Bohman originally proposed the group in the wake of the board’s nullification of a property fee that would have raised money to help maintain and repair school facilities and grounds. Angry opponents had decried the fee as an unwarranted tax, accusing trustees of not heeding their calls to reject the assessment at the outset.

Trustee Jerry Sullivan said the new community panel is good public relations. “That’s very important,” he said.

If the district is considering proposing a bond measure, for example, “it’s better if we have people in the community as our spokespeople,” he said. “They have more credibility.”

Bohman said she hopes that the new panel will help foster communication between school officials and representatives from community groups, businesses and other government agencies.

Although she said fund raising will not be the group’s main objective, “that’s certainly one of the things that needs to be addressed.”

Three of the high school district’s elementary feeder districts also backed away from the property assessment, and have since moved to set up advisory groups to study ways to renovate decaying school facilities. The high school district may set up a group to participate in that effort, but trustees said the Community Action Panel will have a broader charge.

“I see this as an ongoing advisory panel, a small group that we can work very closely with,” Bohman said. “This will be our way to network out into the community. . . . The high school district has some unique concerns, and they need to be addressed in a unique way.”