OC Political

Much has been made about the content of the robocalls from the Anaheim City School District (ACSD) to Palm Lane Elementary School parents regarding the effort to utilize the Parent Trigger Law (officially the Parent Empowerment Act) to convert Palm Lane into a charter school.

Oddly in all the controversy about whether ACSD was informing Palm Lane parents or lobbying Palm Lane parents, no one has provided the full audio nor the full text of any of the robocalls.  So for the first time for public consumption since the initial robocall was made, OC Political publishes the first robocall here.

From time to time, OC Political leaves it to our readers to read/listen to the original source rather than filtering it through our analysis.  This will be one of those cases, so other than noting below the differences between the recording and the original script, we leave it to you, our readers, to listen/read for yourselves what the first robocall from ACSD to Palm Lane parents said.

In response to a request from OC Political, ACSD provided a 97-second recording of their robocall to Palm Lane parents on December 9, 2014, when the petition process was heating up but before the petitions were submitted.

Here’s the audio of the robocall:

Here’s the transcript of the robocall:

Good evening parents,

This is Linda Wagner, Superintendent of the Anaheim City School District.

Providing the highest quality education possible for your students is our highest priority. Recently, it has been reported to us that there are people in our community who have been paid by an organization to gather parent signatures for a petition that could completely change the way some of our schools are run. What they may not be telling you is that signing the petition could change our schools in dramatic ways.

If they wish to do so, the law allows parents to sign petitions that cause one of several things to happen.  The petition could cause your child’s school to become a charter school; it could force the closure of a school; and it could result in a complete change in the faculty and the staff of the school. If you are truly interested in changing your school, including perhaps new teachers and staff, we do not want to discourage you from signing the petition. We would ask, however, that you read what you are signing and be careful about allowing aggressive petition gatherers to pressure you in to signing a document without all of the facts.

We have not and will not advocate on either side of this issue.

While we do not control communications from either side on this issue, we remain committed to offering a clear and fact-based presentation of all information to our parents, so that you can make the very best decision for your child.

We are proud of the well-rounded education we provide our students. Our programs integrating technology, engineering, robotics, mathematics and critical thinking are preparing our students for college and careers.

We are happy to answer any questions you may have. Please feel free to call us anytime at (714) 517-7510.

While any script will vary from the way a call is actually recorded (slight ad libs or minor differences from the speaker not reading the script word-for-word while recording), there is one odd, substantive deviation regarding Common Core. The original script had: “Anaheim City School District teachers are prepared and focused on teaching new national standards designed to help students think deeply, apply their learnings successfully, and be well prepared prepare for a bright and promising future.”  For whatever reason, Superintendent Wagner left this sentence from the script out when she recorded the call.

The only other noticeable changes were the swapping of two of the last three paragraphs (including the one that originally contained the omitted sentence), the longer introduction, and Wagner’s increased use of the first person (we) instead of the script’s original third person (the Anaheim City School District).  Wagner also corrected a few grammatical errors in the script.

Here is the original script for the December 9, 2014 robocall, as provided to OC Political by the Anaheim City School District:

Dear Parents,

Providing the highest quality education possible for your students is our highest priority. Recently, it has been reported to us that there are people in our community who have been paid by an organization to gather parent signatures for a petition that could completely change the way some of our schools are run. What they may not be telling you is that signing the petition could change our schools in dramatic ways.

If they wish to do so, the law allows parents to sign petitions that cause one of several things to happen.  The petition could cause your child’s school to become a charter school; it could force the closure of a school; and it could result in a complete change in the faculty and staff of the school. If you are truly interested in changing your school, including perhaps new teachers and staff, we do not want to discourage you from signing the petition. We would ask, however, that you read what you are signing and be careful about allowing aggressive petition gatherers to pressure you in to signing a document without all of the facts.

We have not and will not advocate on either side of this issue.

The Anaheim City School District is proud of the well-rounded education we provide our students. Our programs integrating technology, engineering, robotics, mathematics and critical thinking are preparing our students for college and careers. Anaheim City School District teachers are prepared and focused on teaching new national standards designed to help students think deeply, apply their learnings successfully, and be well prepared prepare for a bright and promising future.

While we do not control the communications from either side on this issue, we remain committed to offering a clear and fact based presentation of all of the information to our parents, so that you can make the best decision for their child.

We are happy to answer any questions you may have. Please feel free to call us anytime at (714) 517-7510.