CUSD update – Chapter 3
Sad facts about Mission Viejo School Facilities

Why does the Capistrano Unified School District think our Mission Viejo students don’t deserve proper facilities? Mission Viejo pays the bill while all the other cities get facility improvements. Schools are a reflection of our city. Where is our money, and why are Mission Viejo CUSD schools neglected?  

Did you know …

Newhart (built in 1980), the largest middle school in CUSD, has1,800 students.
When it rains, our children are left to eat in the rain or on the floor of the locker rooms and showers. The administrators said the kids like to eat in the rain, and no child gets wet who doesn’t want to be wet. Children have parents because they like to do a lot of things they shouldn’t, and we hope the adults on campus are watching out for them. (On April 20, it was pouring rain and the multipurpose room was CLOSED during lunch.) Mission Viejo’s Mello-Roos helped fund a private shower in the district superintendent’s office while our children are eating on the floor of the Newhart showers. The multipurpose room has a capacity of only 390.

Arroyo Vista (in Rancho Santa Margarita) is getting a second 2,900-square-foot, $3.5-million multipurpose room in addition to its current multipurpose room with a 600-student capacity. Arroyo Vista’s new building is 10,000 square feet, which includes the 2,900-square-foot multipurpose room. The rest of the building is comprised of practice rooms, etc. The student enrollment maximum capacity of Arroyo Vista is 1,050 students.

Newhart has 52 portables, most of them more than 15 years old and many that are more than 20 years old.

Capo Valley High School (built in 1977) is the only high school in South Orange County with no performing arts building. Aliso Niguel students left CVHS for their full-amenity high school in 1993. Tesoro students left CVHS for their full-amenity high school in 2000. San Juan Hills High School students will leave CVHS for their full-amenity, state-of-the-art high school in 2007

What do you do in a performing arts building at a high school? EVERYTHING!
Plays, musical performances, award ceremonies, parent and student programs, air guitar, talent shows, teacher in-service, club events and meetings. Bathgate students held their school plays at CVHS.

CUSD’s elementary schools in Mission Viejo are getting old and are not well maintained: Barcelona Hills (built in 1977), Bathgate (built in 1994), Castille (built in 1975), Hankey (built in 1977 and now in the process of converting to a K-8 with inadequate funding), Reilly (built in1991) and Viejo (built in 1971).