School board candidate has special interests

Acorn Staff Writer


Bob Charney

Bob Charney

Bob Charney, a candidate for the Las Virgenes Unified School District (LVUSD) Board of Education, speaks from experience when it comes to special education.


Charney’s 5-year-old son is a special needs child at Willow Elementary School in Agoura Hills. The boy has autism. His child and others would be much better off if the school district had more funds to pay for special education programs, Charney said.


Annual special ed costs statewide are $628 per student, according to LVUSD reports, but district officials said their district must spend $867 per student because of big demands on the program.


"There’s never enough money to throw at this," said Charney, a 48-year-old advertising executive who lives in Agoura Hills. "It’s expensive to get the right training and it’s expensive to get the properly educated educators to work with these special needs kids."


LVUSD reportedly spent $192,000 in legal fees last year, a 300 percent increase in three years due mainly to the rise in special education litigation. Charney thinks the expenses are wasteful.


"I think there are significantly unnecessary legal costs that are being incurred," Charney said. "Instead of investing the money in the legal service to fight these people, why not augment services and make the programs better in the first place? And we haven’t spent an additional nickel at all. All we’ve done is re-allocate it to something that is productive as opposed to nonproductive.


"The district has done a good job with this program," Charney said, "but I think the bigger issue for me is not the allocation of resources in terms of how much money it’s costing, it’s the management of those resources. I see tremendous waste going on … I think the program needs substantial oversight and I think that’s one of the things I would be able to do, if I’m elected to the board. I’m the person who can ask the hard questions because I know what questions to ask."


In addition to his 5-year-old, Charney has two sons and a daughter in the LVUSD system. Charney is a seven-year resident of Agoura Hills.


"I’m not just a special needs candidate," he reminds the public. "I’m very sensitive about the diversion of funds from non-special needs kids and how it affects other programs in the school district."


Charney advocates more after-school programs and suggests teachers and administrators tap into fundraisers to help meet costs. He also believes campus security must be tightened.


Charney calls himself a "doer not just a thinker." As a past president of the Morrison Ranch Homeowners’ Association, Charney helped rectify an erroneously drawn flood plain map that costs homeowners thousands of dollars in unnecessary insurance bills. He also reached a settlement with developers concerning frequent landslides in the neighborhood, and when Falcon Cable sought a franchise renewal with the city of Agoura Hills, Charney made sure the cable service was upgraded first. He also convinced Falcon to make a $10,000 donation to local schools as compensation for past difficulties.


"I saw problems in the development and I fixed them," Charney said. "I’m not a complainer. I’m just a guy who sees problems and believes I have a civic responsibility to get in there and fix it."


To make the school district run smoothly, Charney advocates better communication among parents, teachers and administrators.


"We’ve got people who are passionate about education, but they are at odds with each other," he said. "We’ve got great potential, but none of these groups are working collaboratively."


Charney is one of five candidates for the Las Virgenes school board. The election is Tues., Nov. 6. The League of Women Voters is sponsoring a candidates’ forum at 7 p.m. Thurs., Oct. 18 at Agoura High School.




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