Laguna Beach has some of the best public schools in California.
That is worth protecting.
Over the past eighteen months, the way our school board governs has raised serious concerns from the parents, teachers, and staff who are closest to our students. If you have heard there is tension around the board but have not had time to follow it, this page is for you.
Here is what happened, in plain terms, drawn from district records, so you can understand it and decide for yourself.
A QUICK ORIENTATION BEFORE THE STORY
How our school board works
Laguna Beach Unified is governed by a school board of five elected trustees. They hire and oversee the superintendent, who runs the district day to day, and they set policy and approve the budget in public meetings.
Most decisions need three of the five votes. Right now, three trustees frequently vote together as a majority. You will see the phrase "the board majority" and vote counts like 3 to 2 throughout this page. That three-vote bloc is why those votes, and the decisions behind them, matter so much.
Two terms come up often. Closed session is the private part of a meeting, allowed only for specific legal reasons like personnel or litigation, and the law requires the board to report out afterward what was decided.
The Brown Act is California's open-meetings law, meant to keep the public's business in public view. Much of what follows comes down to whether those rules were honored.
If you read nothing else,
here is the heart of it.
01
Our district has had three superintendents in eighteen months. That kind of turnover is rare for a high-performing district, and it is hard on students and staff.
02
Again and again, major decisions have been made with little public explanation. Parents, teachers, and staff have had to file formal records requests just to understand choices the board already made.
03
When staff and community peacefully spoke up, including an unprecedented march of more than 400 people, the board responded by authorizing an investigation into the rally rather than addressing the concerns behind it.
The same board hired two superintendents.
The two processes could not have looked more different.
In the span of eighteen months, the Laguna Beach Unified board selected two permanent superintendents. One was chosen through a months-long search, with a professional firm, community input, and a public vote. The other was named and approved behind closed doors, the public learning his name only after the decision was effectively made.
This is not a question of which leader is better. It is a question of how decisions get made, and whether the community has a seat at the table. Here are the two timelines, side by side.
READ THE FULL STORY 🔗
The chapters below tell the full story, in order.
THE LAST EIGHTEEN MONTHS IN LBUSD
Eighteen months of governance,
told in six chapters.
A documented account of board decisions and FUEL's response, anchored to district records. Open any chapter to read the overview and the concern it raised.
-
A newly elected board majority took office, the district separated from its superintendent, and an internal leader stepped in to steady things. A group of Laguna Beach parents founded FUEL.
FUEL's concern:
Decisions affecting students and staff were being made with little transparency. FUEL formed to give families an organized, fact-based voice.
-
The board unanimously hired Dr. Jason Glass. The district resolved a healthcare overpayment and advanced facilities planning, while the majority began reshaping governance policy.
FUEL's concern:
A capable new superintendent deserved stability. Early bylaw and policy changes began shifting authority away from the superintendent and the full board.
-
The majority passed Bylaw 9322 giving the president final agenda authority, held an off-cycle superintendent evaluation, and returned an employee discipline item to closed session meeting after meeting with no report out.
Under the board majority (President Perry, then President Morgan), public comment was regularly moved to the end of meetings that often ran past five hours, making it difficult for working parents, families, and staff to stay and be heard.
FUEL's concern:
Closed session is a legal protection, not a management tool. A recurring pattern of decisions made out of public view raised serious transparency questions.
-
Across this period, the relationship between the board majority and district staff frayed. Comments from the dais sowed distrust and spread claims that staff and community members repeatedly had to correct. In the board's own staff listening sessions, employees named governance dysfunction as the single greatest barrier to their work and described a fear of speaking openly.
FUEL's concern:
Our children spend their days with these educators and staff. They are our community. When the people who serve our students report fear and disrespect in the district's own sessions, that is not a personnel matter to manage quietly. It is something the board owes the community a real answer for.
-
For the first time in over 40 years, LBUSD staff marched. More than 400 teachers, classified staff, retired educators, students, and families walked together in support of the district, with no financial demands, only a call for unity and respect. Within 48 hours, the board separated from Dr. Glass and appointed Dr. Don Austin, the third superintendent in 18 months, without a public search.
FUEL's concern:
The community showed up in an unprecedented show of unity. Days later, the board acted behind closed doors anyway. Cycling through three superintendents in 18 months, without a transparent search, is not how a high-performing district treats its people or its public.
-
Rather than address what staff and families raised, the board authorized an outside investigation into the peaceful May rally, its scope read in open session. Residents filed records requests, cure-and-correct demands, and Brown Act complaints. The Orange County District Attorney asked the board to respond.
FUEL's concern:
Peaceful civic engagement is not something to investigate. When the response to a community standing up is to examine the people who showed up, while families must file formal demands just to understand decisions already made, trust erodes further. FUEL continues to follow the facts toward November.
AS OF JUNE 2026
01
Leadership
Dr. Don Austin became superintendent on July 1, appointed without a public search under Board Policy 2120. He is the district's third superintendent in 18 months.
02
Oversight
The Orange County District Attorney's Office has received Brown Act complaints about the transition and asked the board to confirm its course of action.
03
Ahead
Three board seats are up for election in November 2026. FUEL Forward, an affiliated PAC, has launched to support student-centered candidates.
LBUSD FACTS
What the record
actually shows.
Before the timeline, the context. Every figure below is sourced from district documents.
.25¢
of every property-tax dollar stays with LBUSD
As a Basic Aid district, LBUSD is funded primarily by local property taxes rather than per-student state funding. This is the key to understanding the budget.
How our schools are funded 🔗
$1.04M
NET HEALTHCARE CORRECTION, NOT $1.77M
An independent review found a compliance and controls problem, not fraud. The reconciled figure the board acted on was $1.04 million across multiple years.
The math behind the outrage 🔗
$0
new taxpayer cost for the pool, per district plans
The $23 million pool modernization is structured to be funded without new cost to taxpayers. Here is the full history and the CEQA process behind it.
Pool & facilities timeline 🔗
#1
unified district in orange county, ela + math
LBUSD is among the highest-performing districts in California. Rankings that suggest otherwise often misread how small districts are scored.
School rankings can mislead 🔗
THE COMPLETE TIMELINE
EVERY DOCUMENTED EVENT
Board actions and FUEL's published advocacy, each anchored to a date and a source. A sketch of the newest several is shown here; the full grid carries all of them.