Editorial comment: CUSD trustees appear at council meeting

It probably wasn't a coincidence for CUSD Trustees Marlene Draper and Mike Darnold to show up at the Nov. 7 council meeting when recall organizers on the same night were counting signatures on petitions to remove them from office.

Backers of the recall effort recently turned in 177,210 signatures to the Registrar of Voters to recall the entire Capistrano Unified School District Board of Trustees. The required number of qualified signatures is 140,000 -- 20,000 per trustee.

Despite their presence on Nov. 7, CUSD trustees had no compelling reason to attend the council meeting. The trustees had already missed the opportunity to influence the council's proposed funding of the city’s portion of a joint-use gym at Newhart Middle School. The 3-2 decision against funding the joint venture was made Oct. 17 when Deputy Supt. David Doomey was in attendance touting the district’s financial wizardry at containing costs. He didn’t mention the district’s administration center, where costs have soared – rising from $25 million to $34 million in six months – and the building is still under construction.

Councilmen John Paul Ledesma and Frank Ury posed questions to Draper at the Nov. 7 meeting. Why had the district not already built a gym at Newhart, particularly with Measure A funds it received in 1999? In keeping with CUSD’s tradition of providing information that’s plausible but misleading, Draper stated that the district wanted to go after matching funds from the state, which required that a school had to be at least 25 years old. She concluded by stating Newhart wasn’t old enough to qualify for modernization.

Ledesma countered with State Education Code, reading from Section 17070.1. He said the funds for Measure A were not in any way restricted by the age of a school, and building a gymnasium would be an addition, not modernization. Draper then explained that it was the district’s choice to focus on building new schools and modernizing those older than 25 years.

Bottom line, age of the building was irrelevant in the district’s decision to spend only $720.00 of Measure A funds at Newhart. The trustees made a deliberate decision not to add any new facilities at Newhart, and the gym wasn’t a priority because parents, administrators and the community hadn’t mentioned a gym, according to Draper.

If Draper’s words could be translated into a concise message, she seemed to say: you didn’t get a gymnasium at Newhart with Measure A money because nobody asked for one.

According to public outcry at the Nov. 7 council meeting, Newhart needs a gymnasium. CUSD taxpayers want and expect their tax dollars to be spent in a responsible manner on education, teachers, classroom supplies and classroom facilities, which would include a gymnasium. After so much money has been wasted on overpriced land next to a dump for the $130 million high school in San Juan Capistrano and a $35-million office building for administrators, it should come as no surprise the district has no money for a gymnasium at Newhart.

Parents, children, teachers and PTA members should next go to a CUSD board of trustees meeting and demand a gymnasium at Newhart Middle School. Saddleback Valley USD is in the process of building gymnasiums with bond money instead of asking the city to dig into its reserves to fund school facilities.