O.C. Pool’s Refunds to School Districts

Send the money back to our schools! It’s clear from county schools Supt. John F. Dean’s commentary (“County Schools Can’t Afford to ‘Take a Hit’ on Bankruptcy,” Jan. 15) that Orange County school districts had no choice, by law, but to use the county treasury as their checking account; it seems only right that our Board of Supervisors returns every cent.

As our county pulls out of bankruptcy, all of us--residents, businesses and service agencies--must share in the grief. But let’s look far ahead as we plan priorities: Are ghost-town schools, crowded classrooms, mediocre graduates and abysmal property values really the scars Orange County wants to wear for the next few decades? Send the money back to our schools!

DEBI WATSON

Westminster

* The demands of the chairman of the Santa Unified School District Board of Education and the Orange County superintendent of schools in the Jan. 15 edition of The Times seem to me to be nothing more than job-protecting demagoguery.

The financial shortfalls facing 187 agencies in the bond fund are of almost unimaginable enormity. To stand as a petulant child and say “I want all of mine” is hollow rhetoric. To offer even tentative solutions, such as a voter-supported sales tax increase or reallocation of Proposition M funds, would increase their stature far more in my eyes. This is a time when we must all stand together.

SHIRLEY E. ROTH

Fountain Valley

* The county’s first priority should be to restore 100% of funds entrusted with the county to each school district. Our schools must not bear the financial burdens created through the negligence of irresponsible county employees and elected officials. The school districts are required to place funds with the county; they have no choice in the matter.

By example, Laguna Beach Unified School District is especially hard hit. The reduction in property tax values due to the fires and now the floods have already impaired the district’s ability to operate. (About 10% of the homes in Laguna burned down in 1993.) LBUSD had more than $6.8 million frozen as a result of the investment pool bankruptcy; $1.5 million of those “frozen” dollars are fire insurance proceeds designated to rebuild Thurston Middle School. Nearly $1 million of the funds “frozen” by the bankruptcy action, money raised and contributed by students and their parents, are also at risk.

The education of our children must remain our No. 1 priority.

STEVEN R. RABAGO

Newport Beach