HUNTINGTON BEACH : Trustee to Repay $110 to District

Ocean View School District Trustee Sheila Marcus this week agreed to refund $110 to the district after it was found that she had voted to approve the board’s purchase of subscriptions to a newsletter she publishes.

Marcus, however, did not improperly vote on other issues on which she had been accused of having conflicts of interest, according to a legal opinion issued by Orange County Department of Education attorneys.

The opinion, which the district released Tuesday, stemmed from allegations by a former school board member and four district parents that Marcus had used her board position to advance the interests of her newsletter and its contributors. The district was required by law to call for the investigation because the group had filed a complaint.

Marcus last October began publishing From the Classroom, a countywide newsletter focusing on educational issues. In November, she joined a unanimous board vote to approve a list of purchase orders that included two one-year subscriptions to the publication.

The legal ruling concluded that Marcus should not have approved the expenditure and should reimburse the district for both of the $55 subscriptions. She said she plans to repay the money to the district by the end of this week.

The ruling, however, supported Marcus’ assertion that her vote on the issue was merely “an oversight.”

“There does not appear to be any purposeful intent to violate the conflict of interest laws by Trustee Sheila Marcus, but rather a failure to thoroughly scrutinize the purchase order listing,” county Department of Education attorneys Ronald D. Wenkart and Val R. Fadely wrote in the opinion.

The attorneys dismissed two other conflict-of-interest accusations made against Marcus by former trustee Charles Osterlund and the parents, all longtime rivals of Marcus.

They had charged that, because Oak View School Principal Joan Buffehr and two of the school’s teachers are managing partners of the publication, Marcus should not vote on any issues concerning district employees’ salaries, benefits, promotions or placements. But the attorneys’ opinion said Marcus “is not financially interested in these employees’ employment contracts.”

The attorneys also rejected the group’s argument that the newsletter improperly printed lesson plans developed by the two Oak View teachers during working hours. “There does not appear to be any wrongful intent on the part of any district employees to use district materials for financial gain,” the opinion stated.

Marcus on Wednesday said she “wasn’t surprised” by the attorneys’ finding and called upon her accusers to apologize for the charges made against Buffehr and the teachers.