Santa Ana Unified School District trustees Tuesday disagreed about when to implement the provisions of the voter-approved English-only initiative.

The provisions of Proposition 227 go into effect on Monday. Trustees discussed whether to start implementing the law early or wait to see how other districts are reacting.

“Other districts are already jumping out there and they’re facing lawsuits,” Superintendent Al Mijares said. “We first need to have specific comprehensiveness of what needs to take place.”

Supporters of the law, however, said doubts about implementing it are out of the question.

“Is not presumption to try to implement a law, we’re just obeying the law,” Trustee Rosemarie Avila said. “We can’t just sit around and wait until everybody else follows the law except us. Is our job to implement the law as soon as we were told _ by Aug. 3.”

Trustee Nativo Lopez, who opposed Proposition 227, agreed with Mijares and said deliberate and careful action should be taken. He insisted that parents play the key role on the way this law should be followed.

“It’s very important that we clearly outline parental rights, they need to be aggressively engaged in the law’s implementation,” Lopez said. “After the policy is written, I would insist on not to just send them information by mail. We need to specifically engage parents into an explanatory conference and let them know their options.”

The board presented options regarding class instruction: English mainstream, structured English immersion, transitional bilingual, dual immersion and primary language maintenance.

Meanwhile, the estimated cost to buy new English textbooks is about $2.1 million, officials said.

In other business, trustees proposed establishing a formal agreement between the Police Department and the school district granting authority to the district to use and enforce the Santa Ana city codes to stop public drinking on school areas by groups that use school facilities after hours.

“We want the school police to be able to issue citations to these violators becasue the problem is just getting out of hands,” Mijares said.



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