Press Enterprise January 26, 2012 story by: Laurie Lucas reporter
No voter-elected mayor soon
Despite overwhelming voter support for a directly elected mayor, the Moreno Valley City Council said no, citing a $1 million burden to the taxpayers.
In a 3-2 decision at Tuesday’s meeting, the council voted against having voters decide Nov.6 if they want to directly elect their mayor and add a sixth council district.
Councilman William Batey said the community’s endorsement of this change was “loud and clear” from two advisory ballot in November 2010. Councilwomen Robin Hastings agreed with him.
More then 80 percent of registered voters said they approved switching to an at-large mayor and approved a binding election to let them decide this change.
“Give the folks that opportunity.” Batey said.
Mayor Richard Stewart, who was appointed by the board, and council members Marcelo Co and Jessie Molina, all said they favored a voter-elected mayor, but not until the economy turns around in at least another two years.
“My biggest concern is the cost to taxpayers, “Molina said.
The $30,000 consultant’s fee; $40,000 for the ballot initiatives; $150,000 office conversion for the mayor and another council member; and $710,000 in new staff salaries and benefits, add up to nearly $1 million, he said.
Molina said that siphoning $1 million from the general fund would jeopardize the fire and police departments and city improvements.
The notion that Moreno Valley residents, 10,000 of them unemployed would want to finance more top level bureaucrats is ludicrous, Co said. “Give me a break,” he scoffed.
Co pointed out that registered voters wouldn’t approve increasing the city’s hotel tax , which isn’t even theirs to pay, but levied on visitors.
“We shouldn’t be following the extremely poor examples of Sacramento and Washington, D.C. of spending money we don’t have.” Co said.
Stewart said he found the 1 million cost estimate shocking, especially in light of the budget deficit and rumblings of more cuts in the police department.
Before the vote, Mike Rios, a board member with the Moreno Valley Unified School District spoke in favor of a citywide elected mayor.
“What about trusting the people?” he said.
He declared his intention to run for City Council in November, either by launching a recall against Stewart or by moving to Molina’s district.
Press Enterprise October 27,2011 story by: Laurie Lucas reporter
Moreno Valley: Council approves new boundaries map
Council members approved a Moreno Valley redistricting map that left a school board member accusing them of playing politics.
After two hours of discussion Tuesday, the City Council voted 3-2 to adopt a slightly revised version of a plan, known as No. 9, which a group of residents submitted. Robin Hastings and Bill Batey dissented.
Mike Rios who the voters elected to the Moreno Valley Unified School Board a year ago, cried foul. He asked the council to eliminate plan No. 9 and support either of the other two proposals. Rios lives in District 3 and wants to run for mayor in November 2012 when hasting’s seat is up for re-election.
However, the council adopted a redistricting plan that reassigns Rios’ home at Ironwood Avenue and Tuscola Street to District 2, represented by Mayor Richard Stewart. That seat won’t be on the ballot for another two years.
A group of residents, including Victoria Baca, one of the incumbents Rios beat in the at-large school board election, prepared proposal No. 9. Rios claims that they deliberately removed him from District 3 to delay his council run.
At the public hearing, Baca’s bother brother, Chris Baca, denied that Rios’ address was a factor in his group’s boundary changes.
Victoria Baca lives in District 5, where Batey’s seat will be up for election next November. Baca said she’s undecided about running for council. She called Rios’s claims of gerrymandering “ludicrous,” saying she thought he lived on the other side of Redlands Boulevard. ” He was not taken into consideration.”
Rios said he’d been waiting four years for the chance to run for City Council. ” To make me wait another two years is unfair.”
Two weeks ago at a council meeting Stewart initially raised the issue of Rios’ removal from District 3 in plan No. 9 as ” the elephant in the room.” Even so, he voted for the modified version of the proposal that still placed Rios in District 2.
In a phone interview Wednesday, Stewart said that the location of political aspirants’ homes was a “non-issue.”
Press Enterprise August 26,2011 story by: Laurie Lucas reporter
Warehouse zone change delayed
at a meeting that stretched until midnight, the Moreno Valley City Council decided Tuesday to delay voting on a zoning change that would open the way for a 1-million-square-foot warehouse on 55 acres in the city’s east end.
The proposed WestRidge Commerce Center site is south of Highway 60, on the north side of Fir Avenue (the future Eucalyptus Avenue), 650 feet west of Redlands Boulevard. The land is now zoned for a business park, which limits warehouses to 50,000 square feet.
Three months ago, the Planning Commission rejected the zone change. Ridge Property Trust, the developer of the proposed distribution center, appealed the decision and presented its case at the public hearing Tuesday.
Afterward in a 3-2 vote, the council postponed taking action on the zoning change until Sept. 6. Council members William Batey and Jessie Molina opposed putting off the decision and wanted to make a motion to immediately deny the change.
” I thought we didn’t want to turn into Mira Loma,” Molina said. He criticized WestRidge’s standareds as inferior to those of the soon-to-open 1.8 million-square-foot Skechers USA building, about 1,500 feet away.
“Will (WestRidge) it be as good as Skechers or better?” he asked.
Dennis Rice, president of Ridge Property Trust, responded: ” It will be right up there with Skechers.’
Both properties are in District 3, represented by Councilwomen Robin Hastings, who said the bottom line is bringing jobs – whether it is 200, 500, or 1,000 – to a city with 17 percent unemployment. She praised WestRidge as “an absolutely gorgeous building” that exceeds the city’s design standards. Hastings also pointed out that the developer agreed to lower the sight line of the building below Highway 60 to preserve the view of the mountains and said WestRidge is nearly half the size of the Skechers’ building.
Hastings also disputed a remark made in the public hearing by school board trustee Mike Rios, who claimed she had promised not to support any more industrial buildings in her district.
” That would have been hypocritical, an outright lie on my part.” Hastings said. “My job is to give everything a fair hearing.”
During the public hearing, almost every resident spoke against the project because of it’s eastside location, possible noise and pollution, and lack of tenant.
Pete Bleckert objected to more traffic clogging Redlands Boulevard, saying it is already so congested that “some days you could ride a bicycle faster than them cars are going.”
Resident Daryl Terrell said if WestRidge is constructed, the city would benefit from jobs and revenues from fees, sale taxes and property taxes.
City Manager Henry Garcia said WestRidge fits into the city’s vision of building warehouse distribution centers and a medical corridor/wellness campus on the eastside part of a two-year economic development he helped create.
Rice said he doesn’t think it will be difficult to attract a tenant once the City Council approves the zoning change, plot plan, tentative parcel map and other conditions of the planning process.
Press Enterprise August 16, 2011 story by: Laurie Lucas reporter
Dropout rate spurs calls to action
Alarmed by high dropout and low graduation rates for the Class of 2010, some Moreno Valley educators are scrambling to work out a strategy to reverse those trends.
At the school board’s Sept. 13 meeting, administrators will discuss possible causes for the problem and how to fix it, said Superintendent Judy D. White.
The principles of the district’s four comprehensive high schools did not return calls Monday seeking comment.
Moreno Valley Unified fared the worst among the districts in western and southern Riverside County, according to data released last week by the state education department.
Moreno Valley had the highest dropout rate, 24.1 percent and the lowest graduation rate, 64.8 percent. With 35,000 students, the district is the third largest in Riverside County.
Moreno Valley’s dropout rate dipped slightly from 26.7 percent for the Class of 2009, but so did it’s graduation rate, down from 67.7 percent that same year.
“This is just awful,” said school board member Tracey Vacker of the most recent statistics. “We have to hold ourselves accountable. We’re failing our kids.”
POSSIBLE DOUBLE COUNT
She also blames housing foreclosures for creating a huge transient student population and a new district coding system that might be inflating the dropout rate by double counting students who move away.
Board President Rick Sayre said he favors catching at-risk kids in elementary school and encouraging more parental involvement.
“It’s not all the district’s fault,” trustee Mike Rios said, calling the dropout and graduate rates “unacceptable. But if anyone can turn things around, it’s our new superintendent.”
In her first five months on the job, White has conducted town hall meetings and reached out to every family with back-to school automated phone calls.
Among her goals, she wants to provide students the chance to make up credits through more independent study, virtual classes and daytime enrollment in the adult school.
White plans to analyze the reasons for every dropout, increase career and technology courses, forge business and school partnerships and engage tutors and mentors through church and community volunteers.
Press Enterprise May 26, 2011 story by: Laurie Lucas reporter
High school site quest starts over
The school board has rejected two sites for a fifth high school in Moreno Valley and will start looking for a less expensive alternative.
One popular idea is to explore converting a vacant Home Base building into a school at The Festival shopping center on Hemlock Avenue.
Among the other possibilities are a virtual high school with more online learning in a partnership with Riverside Unified, moving sixth-graders back to elementary schools to free a middle school for 1,200 high school students, finding smaller sites for magnet schools devoted to the arts or sciences or changing boundaries.
The trustees voted 4-1 Tuesday night to scuttle both proposed sites north of highway 60, each of which would have cost at least $100 million or more.
Dissenter Rick Sayre, president of the Moreno Valley Unified School District board, supported a site at the northeast corner of Ironwood Avenue and Nason Street. Many residents who live there have objected to a school that would be close to their homes and disturb wildlife.
Sayre said the beauty of the campus design would entice families to the community. He said the Home Base site is unattractive.
The favored site among residents has been site 2, one mile to the west of the one at Ironwood and Nason. The flat, former agricultural tract would require no blasting work and doesn’t encroach on neighboring properties.
But four board members objected to building costs that would range from $90 million to $130 million.
The district spent several years and $ 2 million investigating six pieces of property, narrowing the choices down to those two site recommendations.
” I wasn’t on the board at that time,” said Mike Rios, who was elected in November. Last year, he spoke to the board as a resident in favor of the first site.
” But with the condition the economy is in now, it would have been a bad decision,” he said.
With either site, the district would pay $50 million for the new high school and the state would fund the remainder. The new school would open in four or five years with fewer than 1,500 students, but with a capacity for 3,000. The district now uses 150 aging portable buildings to serve 3,056 students.
C.J. Johnson, also a new board member, feared that negotiations for either site could be a problem-especially when he learned that the owner of the second site had no interest in selling.
Trustee Jesus Holguin liked the idea of less-expensive, smaller-capacity magnet schools built at one of the two sites to attract students district-wide.
“Both (sites) have a tremendous number of issues,” said Trustee Tracey Vacker. ” The need for the traditional high school is not the strongest need anymore.”
Press Enterprise May 13, 2011 story by: Laurie Lucas reporter
Trustees may restart high school search
School officials might scrap two sites proposed for a fifth high school in Moreno Valley and start the search over.
“I’m against both sites,” Tracey Vacker, vice president of the Moreno Valley Unified School Board, said after a public hearing and rehash of the pros and cons of both locations.
At the next meeting on May 24, school board trustees are expected to vote for either site 1, at the northeast corner of Ironwood Avenue and Nason Street; or site 2, which borders the northeast corner of Ironwood Avenue and Quincy Street; and an as-yet unidentified third option.
Because of the state’s budget crisis and the unlikelihood of getting funding and the city’s new economic plan for east side industrial, rather then housing development, several board members are eager to explore smaller, less expensive alternatives for the future high school.
Trustee Mike Rios supports a new search. He wants to look into turning the former Home Base building at The Festival at Moreno Valley Shopping Center into a school.
Other possibilities the board may brainstorm could include starting a virtual high school with more online learning in a partnership with Riverside Unified, moving six-graders back to elementary schools to free up a middle school for 1,200 high school students, changing boundaries, finding smaller sites for a magnet school devoted to the arts or sciences.
Vacker said she doubts that schools of the future will be clones of the four high schools in the community, especially with the growing emphasis on allied health sciences and technology.
School board president Rick Sayre said the challenge is incorporating contemporary teaching tools into traditional high school models that still offer all kinds of sports.
At Tuesday night’s public hearing, site 2 was still the more popular among residents, but there was a growing number of supporters for site 1 or a new location.
Site No.1 is 78 acres of land of rolling hills, rock outcrops and natural landscape. Only 56 acres would be developed. This is the more contested spot because it’s less than a mile from Valley View High School. It also contains Native American artifacts and construction blasting could damage habitats and the foundation of hillside homes and pools.
The favored site has been No. 2, a mile to the west of site 1, The 56 acres are flat and was used for agriculture. Residents say this land would be cheaper because there’s no blasting work. Both sites would need drainage and sewers.
At the hearing, former city planning commissioner Michael Geller, an attorney, nixed both sites as wrong for the wave of upcoming industrial development recently approved by the council.
” No houses are being built,” he said. ” There’s no infrastructure. Sewer lines will cost $1 million.”
Sergio San Martin, director of facilities, said the district has spent $600,000 since it launched its search in 2004.
The district would pay $50 million for the new high school and the state would fund the remainder of the project, estimated at $90 to $130 million. The new school would open in four or five years with fewer than 1,500 students, but with a capacity for 3,000. Right now, 25-year-old portable buildings serve 3,056 students.
Press Enterprise March 28th, 2011 story by: Laurie Lucas reporter
Moreno Valley joins school districts grasping tax deferral loans
The Moreno Valley Unified School District trustees has agreed to borrow up to $29 million from a financing company to meet its payroll, despite the objections of one board member.
The trustees voted 4-1 to get a short term cash loan that would enable them to pay the district’s 3,000 employees while the state defers $50 million it owes the district.
Moreno Valley Unified joins a rising number of school districts in 2011-12 taking out loans to be repaid in one year, called tax revenue anticipation notes.
Board Member Mike Rios, who was elected in November, voted against the loan, saying he refused to heap another bill upon taxpayers. He wanted the district to cover expenses with two cash reserves totaling $31 million, but the district’s legal counsel advised against it.
Attorney Alex Bowie urged the district to hold on to its assets as insurance, rather than depleting them. If the state continues to defer its funding, the district would be stranded without collateral and perhaps unable to get a future loan, he said.
Rios was the lone voice in favor of using an $8 million cafeteria fund, much of it from the federal lunch program, and $23 million building fund, to maintain the district’s cash flow.
That way, the district could avoid sticking taxpayers with $300,000 in interest and fee payments, he said.
” I have a serious problem when we have money and have to borrow, ” Rios said. ” The taxpayers foot the bill.”
Board President Rick Sayre argued that it made sense to follow staff’s recommendation not to burn through existing funds.
” None of us like the fact we have to borrow the money, ” he said.
Using the district’s funds would take seven months to arrange and by then, it would be too late to get a short-term loan, if needed, Sayre said. ” If we use all our money up, we wouldn’t have anything to leverage and we would have to issue IOUs.”
The last time Moreno Valley Unified took out a short-term loan to cover its cash flow was in 2003, according to Estuardo Santillan, the district’s business manager.
Eleven of the 23 districts in Riverside County took out the loans this fiscal year. County education offices expect those numbers to rise for 2011-12.
Press Enterprise February 2nd, 2011 story by: Laurie Lucas reporter
School district has new leader
The Moreno Valley Unified School Board on Tuesday approved a new superintendent with a $185,000 annual salary.
Judy D. White, who has been deputy superintendent of the San Bernardino City Unified School District for seven years, will take office Feb. 14, replacing interim superintendent Nicolas Ferguson.
The board voted 4-1 to approve her contract, with new board member Mike Rios dissenting.
Rios said his colleagues initially wanted to award White a three-year contract but compromised with a two-year contract. Rios said he thought “tough economic times” called for more frequent evaluations and negotiations of highly paid administrators.
The district hired Ferguson last July. He succeeded Rowena Lagrosa, the superintendent who replaced him when he retired in August 2005. Initially, Lagrosa had a three-year contract. In 2009 the board approved a one-year contract for Lagrosa, who stepped down last June.
The district spent seven months searching for a permanent superintendent. Ferguson received a daily rate that matched Lagrosa’s annual salary of $185,400.
White, 55, will also receive a $1,500 stipend because she has her doctorate, a $520 monthly car allowance and a $50 monthly cell phone allowance.
Board member Tracey B. Vacker said White’s compensation is comparable to that of superintendents in similar-sized districts. Moreno Valley Unified, which serves 36,000 students, is the third largest school district in Riverside County.
White, who has had a 31-year career in education, said: “I have a track record of excellence on purpose, not by accident. Actions speak louder then words and that’s exactly what you’ll see.”
Before she rose to deputy superintendent, she served in a number of positions in the San Bernardino district, including assistant superintendent, staff assistant to the principal at San Bernardino High School, teacher, mentor teacher and vice principal.
White, who lives in San Bernardino, said she’s considering moving to Moreno Valley. “I want to see how the commute goes.”
Press Enterprise December 8th, 2010 story by: Laurie Lucas reporter
School board swears in two
Two new members officially joined the Moreno Valley Unified School Board on Tuesday.
About 100 family members and friends watched and applauded as Cleveland Johnson Jr. and Mike Rios took their seats for the first time.
Johnson’s wife, Barbara Johnson, swore him into office. Then he kissed her.
Riverside County Supervisor Marion Ashley administered the oath of office to Rios and re-elected board member Jesus Holguin.
Johnson and Rios defeated incumbents Victoria Baca and Jackie Ashe in the Nov. 2 election.
After a brief swearing-in ceremony, board members Rick Sayre and Tracy B. Vacker were elected president and vice president, respectively. Holguin was elected clerk.
In a mostly routine meeting, the board voted to recognize the week of Jan 24-28 as safe schools/violence prevention week.
In other business, Paul Messner, from the firm of Messner & Hadley, discussed the results of the district’s 2009-10 annual audit report.
Among the findings:
For the current year total expenses are projected to exceed total revenue by $8.3 million
The district maintains a sufficient financial cushion. It exceeds the state-required minimum reserve of 2 percent of general fund expenditures and other uses. As of June 30, the district had available reserves of $29 million in the general fund, which represents a reserve of 10.5 percent.
During the 2009-10 year, the district’s total net assets decreased by 2.22 percent.
The district’s average daily attendance increased from 33,220 students in fiscal year 2008-09 to 34,134 in 2009-10. Student enrollment and attendance are primary factors in how much money public schools receive from the state. Enrollment is expected to remain steady in 2010-2011.
Press Enterprise December 7th, 2010 story by: Laurie Lucas reporter
Moreno Valley school board swears in 3 members today
Three Moreno Valley Unified school Board members will be sworn in at 7 p.m today at the district offices, 25480 Alessandro Blvd.
Riverside County Supervisor Marion Ashley will administer the oath of office to re-elected board member Jesus Holguin and to new board member Mike Rios.
The other newly elected board member, Cleveland Johnson Jr., will be sworn in by his wife, Barbara Johnson.
Rios, the top vote-getter, said he intends to dedicate his victory to the memory of 17-year old Norma Lopez. The girl was abducted from a Moreno Valley field when she was walking home from summer school classes July 15. Her body was found five days later. Police have made no arrests in the case.
Johnson and Rios said the most pressing concern for Riverside County’s third- largest school district is hiring a permanent superintendent.
Nick Ferguson came aboard as interim superintendent July 1 after Rowena Largrosa resigned. Initially, she had a three-year contract. A year ago, the board approved a one-year contract for Lagrosa. She stepped down June 30.
Johnson said the previous school board ” had the wisdom ” to suspend its search for candidates until after the Nov. 2 election.
Rios said he wants to review all applicants, not just the frontrunners.
Press Enterprise November 29th, 2010, story by: Laurie Lucas reporter
Top vote-getter hopes to shake up board
On the back of his bright yellow 2004 Hummer, Mike Rios proudly displays a sign that says “We did it, Moreno Valley!”
Rios who calls himself “the people’s candidate” was the top vote-getter in an eight-way race for three at-large seats on the Moreno Valley Unified School District board of trustees.
The voters elected Rios, incumbent Jesus Holguin, and newcomer Cleveland “CJ” Johnson Jr.
Rios easily edged out incumbents Victoria Baca and Jackie Ashe.
Rios 40, a Moreno Valley resident since 2003, said anyone who thinks he’s Victoria Baca’s alter ego is mistaken.
He said he is not a Mexican American activist as she is, and that he strongly supports the traffic sobriety checkpoints.
Baca, 51 who was convicted of obstructing a sobriety checkpoint in 2009, recently was sentenced to a year of probation and ordered not to interfere with police.
“I’m not Baca’s replacement, ” Rios said. “We’re only alike in the color of our skin.”
Baca also served as an educational consultant to developer Iddo Benzeevi, who’s building the 1.8 million-square-foot Skechers distribution center in eastern Moreno Valley. Rios said he’s beholden to no one but the people who elected him.
No stranger to politics, two years ago Rios lost the City Council race in District 3 to Robin Hastings. At the time, Rios opposed building Skechers.
He’s since had a change of heart after meetings with Benzeevi. The Skechers developer gave Rios a $2,500 campaign contribution but Rios said: ” It’s perfectly clear I don’t answer to him or any developer, unions or special interest groups. No strings attached. I only answer to the children of Moreno Valley and their parents.”
During the campaign, Rios said he stumped 12 hours a day and lost 40 pounds. ” I was sure I was going to win, ” he said. ” The school board forgot the people.”
He contends that politics had become more important than education, and “the fact that the board has been unwilling or unable to hire a qualified permanent superintendent is indicative of the current board’s complete dysfunction.”
One of his supporters, Isabel Muniz, said ” I have faith in him. ” He cares about the community.”
CONVERTS COME AROUND
Even some teachers who initially found Rios off-putting say they’re converts. Debra Craig, a math teacher at Badger Springs Middle School, said she didn’t vote for Rios, thinking him brusque and divisive. But after getting to know him, his honesty, bluntness and passion have impressed her. ” He seems sincere about wanting to improve our district, ” she said.
Rios said he is eager to address key challenges facing the district: its high dropout rate, buget shortfall, prolonged search for a superintendent, stalled decision on a new high school site and whether the district should repay $500,000 to Benzeevi.
Benzeevi said he wants the money back that he paid the district in 2008 to offset some of its costs to study three school sites across from the Skechers property. The repayment issue has not yet come to a vote in open session.
Rios, an independent loss prevention and theft investigator, is married and the father of four. He said he is so concerned about wasteful spending that he supplied his own photograph to hang in the district office to save the board the cost of taking his picture.
Another goal is to be the school board’s liaison with the City Council. ” I’m ready to work as a team with city officials, ” he said. ” Their game plan affects ours. I will not keep my mouth shut.”
