Leaders of a group formed to initiate a recall of the entire Capistrano Unified School District Board of Trustees criticized Superintendent James Fleming and the board's decision to post a sign on the bell tower of their new $35-million administration building that the group says misleads the public into thinking the building is for the Orange County Teachers Federal Credit Union (OCTFCU) and not CUSD.

Having no CUSD sign on the building "is a transparent attempt to deflect attention away from the fact that this will be the largest and most expensive school district office in all of Orange County," said Kevin Murphy of Capo for Better Representation, the grass-roots pro-recall group. The recall group points to the sign as the district's acknowledgment that they have done the wrong thing in spending money on themselves rather than on the schools, says the recall group. "Fleming and the board know that people -- especially parents -- are ticked off about the money being wasted on this building. We have kids crammed into poorly maintained 25-year-old portables that should have been replaced years ago,” Murphy said.

The controversial sign, which was placed on the building by the school district, comes at a time when parents are angry about what they view as a waste of tens of millions of dollars on a district office -- money that could have been used to fix up schools they say are badly in need of repair. "For the district to borrow and spend $35 million on an office building instead of on schools is a real slap in the face,” said CUSD parent Stephanie Zoch, while signing one of the recall petitions recently. "If they are so proud of that building and they really think spending that much money on a building for themselves instead of fixing up old, crumbling schools is such a good idea, why don't they have their sign on it?"  Zoch asked. Murphy said many parents have posed the same question to him, and more than 20,000 residents have demonstrated their anger over this and other spending issues by signing the recall petitions.

According to VP of Marketing Bruce Hart, OCTFCU hasn't signed a lease, only a letter of intent to lease approximately 3,000 square feet of space in the   128,000 square foot building. The San Juan Capistrano City Planning Department stated the district did not obtain a permit to hang the sign and, per city code, the sign is well outside the limit of time a temporary  sign can hang on a building. Temporary signs may be posted for only 30 days.