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What Can Be Done About Newhart? I am a long-term resident of the city of Mission Viejo, having the privilege to live in Canyon Crest. My purpose in writing to each of you separately and collectively as the City Council is regarding the alarming state of affairs at Newhart Middle School. Attached is a copy of the recent report issued by the Newhart PTA Campus Modernization Oversight Committee which details the shocking, deplorable conditions that exist at Newhart, and which have been present for years. As both a resident of Mission Viejo and a parent of a daughter who is set to graduate from Newhart this school year and a son who is set to commence attending Newhart the next school year, I have a very keen interest in Newhart. To say I am outraged at the current state of Newhart would be a gross understatement. My daughter who attends Newhart has confirmed what the report reveals. Newhart is a cesspool and an embarrassment to its students, parents and teachers, and to the city of Mission Viejo. Based on information I have gathered, it is my understanding that Capistrano Unified School District has and/or is using Mission Viejo redevelopment funds to pay off a $35-million Certificate of Participation that was used to finance the new CUSD administration building that will cost approximately $52 million. The redevelopment funds were supposed to fund a reconstruction of Newhart per Resolution 0102-72 dated March 18, 2002. To the credit of each of you, the City Council voted unanimously to have an audit conducted of CUSD. In doing so the City Council pointedly noted there is something terribly wrong with CUSD. The City Council was 100 percent correct; something is terribly, terribly wrong with CUSD, from the shabby and inexcusable manner in which it maintains its schools (such as Newhart), to its shady financial dealings (the new $52 million administration building and $133+ million new high school, San Juan Hills HS, immediately come to mind). In light of the foregoing, please advise what the city of Mission Viejo, specifically, the City Council, is going to do to help and protect some of the city's most precious resources and some of its most vulnerable residents, the children currently trapped at Newhart and those who will be attending Newhart in the near future. Whatever the City can do, it must. If that means conducting health inspections at Newhart, the City should do so immediately. If filing suit is an option, that should be undertaken with undue haste. If withholding moneys and funds from CUSD is viable, that should be done forthwith. I and many other concerned parents at Newhart, who are residents of Mission Viejo, want to see the City and its City Council act promptly and forcefully. Please let me know what steps and actions the City and its City Council will undertake at your earliest opportunity. I thank each of you for your time, efforts and service. Wayne P. Tate, Esq. |
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