Prove Me Wrong

Laguna Beach Unified does not need more suspicion, more spin, or more public undermining. It needs responsible governance before the damage lasts for years.

I want the board to prove me wrong.

I want to look back on this week and feel like I was being too alarmist. I want to believe I had a pit in my stomach for no reason, that the concern I am hearing from parents, staff, and community members is misplaced. I want to believe this board understands the seriousness of the moment and will choose stability, professionalism, transparency, and the long-term health of the district over individual narratives, personal agendas, or the need to be right.

But right now, I do not feel that way.

Right now, this feels like a make-or-break week for LBUSD.

Not because of one person. Not because of one rumor. Not because of one agenda item. This is bigger than that. This is about whether the board will continue pulling the district into conflict, or finally recognize that its choices have consequences beyond the dais.

This week matters because the public issues facing the district are serious. The healthcare audit matters. The budget matters. The LCAP review matters. Legal costs matter. Staff morale matters. Public trust matters. And the way board members choose to talk about these issues matters just as much as the decisions themselves.

There are decisions a school board can make that do not simply pass with the meeting. They linger. They change who wants to work here, who wants to lead here, who wants to support the district, and how the community sees its schools. A district can spend years building a reputation for strong teachers, strong programs, strong community connections, and student-centered decision-making, only to see that reputation unravel quickly when the adults in charge cannot govern with restraint.

This is what I am afraid of.

I chose this district for its schools and teachers. I chose it because I believe in the quality of education here, the staff, the programs, the community, the arts, the opportunities, and the idea that LBUSD is a place where students come first. But what I am watching now does not feel student-centered. It feels like interference. It feels like overreach. It feels like a board increasingly willing to disregard professional judgment, twist public narratives, and consolidate power in ways that are deeply damaging to the district.

We cannot pretend this just started.

At least for me, I cannot forget the board bylaw change and the way it consolidated more power at the board level. I cannot forget the decision to choose the graduation location, where professional recommendations from district and site leadership were pushed aside on an issue that should never have become a board-level political fight. I cannot forget the way teachers and employees are now being pulled into the fallout of the healthcare audit. I cannot forget the way LCAP results and district performance conversations have been framed in ways that feel less like a good-faith effort to understand the full picture and more like an attempt to build a negative narrative around the district.

And I especially cannot forget the public conduct of an individual trustee who has repeatedly used his position, title, and platform to push one-sided narratives that have made this district less stable, not more transparent.

That needs to be said clearly.

Trustees have the right to ask hard questions. They have the right to disagree. They have the right to speak as individuals. But there is a difference between oversight and public undermining. There is a difference between transparency and narrative control. There is a difference between accountability and using a trustee position to inflame suspicion around staff, district leadership, parent groups, and community partners.

That conduct has consequences.

When a trustee uses a paid advertisement styled like a “School Board Update,” even with a disclaimer, it blurs lines for the public. When the same trustee frames long-standing district partners as part of some problem, it damages trust. When a trustee pushes a version of the healthcare audit that leaves employees feeling blamed or attacked, it does not help the district solve the issue — it makes the district more divided.

And the rest of the board cannot pretend that silence is neutral.

The healthcare audit should be handled with accuracy, care, and responsibility. If mistakes were made, they need to be corrected. If systems failed, they need to be fixed. If public money is involved, the public deserves clarity. But that is not the same thing as allowing the issue to be twisted into a weapon against employees, unions, or district leadership. Staff should not be treated like suspects because a benefits issue was uncovered. Teachers and employees should not have to absorb public blame for something that was clearly systemic.

This board must rebuild trust with staff NOW. Instead, the question is whether board members will allow suspicion to keep spreading.

The same is true with parent and community groups. SchoolPower has been part of this district’s fabric for decades. It was created to support students, teachers, and schools. It has helped fund programs and opportunities that families value. So how did we get to a place where a long-standing parent-supported education foundation can be framed as a problem, or even treated as an enemy of the community?

That should bother people.

It is not normal for a school district to start turning its own support systems into targets. It is not normal for parent groups, staff, district leadership, and community partners to feel like they are being sorted into sides. It is not normal for public service to feel like a constant battle over who controls the narrative.

And that is the issue: control.

The budget and LCAP review should be opportunities for serious, responsible governance. There should be moments when the board honestly assesses student outcomes, district priorities, staffing needs, legal spending, fiscal responsibility, and whether resources align with what students and staff actually need. But those conversations have to be grounded in the full picture, not cherry-picked data, political framing, or an effort to make the district look broken so that more board control feels justified.

There is a responsible way to ask hard questions about the budget, review the LCAP, and examine legal costs, healthcare costs, staffing, benefits, and student outcomes.

But responsible governance requires honesty, context, and respect for professional expertise. It cannot be driven by a desire to win an argument, punish opponents, or make every district issue fit into a predetermined narrative.

This board has enormous power right now. It has the power to calm the district down or inflame it further. It has the power to restore trust or deepen mistrust. It has the power to respect professional expertise or keep overriding it. It has the power to show staff they are valued, or make them wonder whether this is still a district where they want to stay.

That is why this week matters.

The board needs to put the district’s needs above its own. Above individual egos, personal grievances, political factions, and the need to win a narrative. Above the temptation to turn every issue into another referendum on who has control.

Because if the board gets this wrong, the consequences will not be small.

This is how districts get pulled into years of chaos. This is how staff morale breaks down, good people leave, and families lose confidence. This is how future leaders look at a district and decide it is not worth the risk. This is how legal costs rise, public trust collapses, and a district that should be focused on students becomes consumed by adult dysfunction.

And the most frustrating part is that this is still avoidable.

The board can still prove me wrong.

It can prove that the healthcare audit will be handled responsibly, not used as a political weapon. It can prove that teachers and staff will not be scapegoats. It can prove that parent groups and community partners will not be disparaged because they are inconvenient to someone’s narrative. It can prove that the budget and LCAP review will be serious, fair, and grounded in the full picture. It can prove that professional recommendations matter. It can prove that governance does not mean interference.

But it actually has to do that — not with vague statements about student success, polished language about transparency, or carefully framed explanations that ignore the community’s real concerns. The board must demonstrate, through its actions, that it understands how close this district feels to a breaking point.

Because I do not want to be right about this.

I do not want to look back and say the warning signs were all there. I do not want to watch LBUSD become another district that people talk about as a cautionary tale. I do not want teachers, staff, families, and students to pay the price for board behavior that should have been corrected before the damage became permanent.

I want the board to prove that this district is still bigger than the people sitting on the dais.

I want the board to prove it can listen to professionals, respect staff, protect community trust, and make decisions that strengthen the district rather than pull it apart.

I want the board to prove that I am being irrational.

Please, prove me wrong.

Because if this board tears apart the trust, stability, and professional culture that make LBUSD what it is, the district will not simply recover at the next meeting.

The damage could last for years, and the people who will feel it most will not be the trustees.

It will be the teachers.

It will be the staff.

It will be the families.

And it will be the students who deserve better.