Ocean View School District

Supt. Donald Hodes, who has served in the Ocean View School District for 18 years, will retire July 1, school officials said Wednesday. Hodes, 66, was associate superintendent at the kindergarten through eighth-grade south Oxnard district for 14 years before taking over the top position in 1992. He is retiring after 44 years as an educator. "The last 18 years of my career were at Ocean View, and they were the best of my career," Hodes said.

Re "Tolerance Is Stressed, Educators Insist," March 13: Although Huntington Beach Mayor Debbie Cook insists schools need to do a better job of teaching respect for diversity, it's clear that it is the responsibility of parents to teach respect for diversity, and the responsibility of the schools and churches to support parents. In fact, schools are required to suspend students who commit hate crimes as defined by the California State Education Code. Cook states, "We don't teach [tolerance]

More than 200 parents, angered over stalled contract talks in the Ocean View School District, jammed a meeting of the district's board Tuesday night to voice concerns that their children are being ignored while negotiations drag on.

An Orange County jury Wednesday convicted a former teacher of molesting students in his classrooms in two county districts where he taught fourth grade. Jason Abhyankar, 28, was found guilty of nine felony child molestation counts involving three boys, two at Village View Elementary in the Ocean View School District and one at Portola Hills Elementary School in the Saddleback Valley Unified district.

With two incumbents stepping down and a group of political hopefuls demanding change, the Ocean View School District Board of Trustees race is likely to be among the county's liveliest contests in the Nov. 6 election. Eleven candidates are seeking four seats on a school board that has experienced one of its stormiest years in recent memory, including protests by angry parents over proposed school closures and demonstrations by teachers over stalled contract talks.

Seeking to solve problems of slumping enrollment and widening racial segregation, the board of the Ocean View School District on Tuesday unanimously approved a controversial redistricting plan that will close two elementary schools and convert four others to middle schools. The plan, expected to expand busing in the district fivefold, could mean that up to a quarter of the district's 8,600 students will be attending different schools in September, 1992.

Parents of children attending schools in the Ocean View School District are fed up with and fired up about the contract dispute between the district and its teachers' union--and that could spell trouble for the school board. Stalled contract talks between the district and the Ocean View Teachers Assn. have spurred activism among parents who say that their children are being ignored while the district and the union battle it out.

Ocean View School District trustees have given staff authorization to apply for $600,000 from the state's class-size reduction program for kindergarten through third-grade classes.

Parents of three children are suing the Ocean View School District in Huntington Beach, contending that school officials wrote a "glowing" recommendation for a teacher even though they suspected him of acting inappropriately around young boys. The 27-year-old teacher, Jason Abhyankar, went on to a position in the Saddleback Valley Unified School District and since has been charged with four criminal counts of molesting fourth-grade boys in both school districts. He has pleaded not guilty.

Parents of three children are suing the Ocean View School District in Huntington Beach, claiming that school officials wrote a "glowing" recommendation for a teacher even though they suspected him of acting inappropriately around young boys. The 27-year-old teacher, Jason Abhyankar, went on to a position in the Saddleback Valley Unified School District and since has been charged with four criminal counts of molesting fourth-grade boys in both school districts. He has pleaded not guilty.

Ocean View School District trustees are expected tonight to rescind their approval of plans to build a gymnasium at each of the district's four middle schools. Residents around the schools had complained that they were left out of the decision-making and cited concerns over traffic and parking if the gyms were built. The district will now wait until a community advisory committee submits recommendations to the board before making a final decision. The trustees meet at 7 p.m.

Residents of four Orange County neighborhoods--angered they were not aware of proposals to build huge gymnasiums in their communities--were temporarily relieved Tuesday after the Ocean View School District voted to create an advisory board and rethink the district's ambitious plan. "Nobody is against building a gym," resident Bob Devough told school trustees. "We are against this monstrosity that you want to build. Please don't destroy our neighborhoods."

A young baseball team on the road from Huntington Beach will be coming home to an uncertain future. The all-star team representing the Ocean View Little League tonight takes on a baseball club from Wyoming in the first of five Western Regional games. The winner of the series, played in San Bernardino, will represent the West in the upcoming Little League World Series Aug. 20-26 in Williamsport, Pa.