Use, Abuse, Ignore, Neglect and Abandon

CUSD – Use, Abuse, Ignore, Neglect and Abandon
A parent’s letter forwarded to the blog

Dear Superintendent Carter:

To briefly introduce myself, I am a parent of two graduates of CVHS and a current CVHS senior. I have been a parent in CUSD since 1991. I have been a Mission Viejo resident since 1983. In short, I have witnessed the expansive growth of CUSD as it has accommodated the development within its boundaries. 

Following are some memories of the cycle of use, abuse, ignore, neglect and abandon that my family has witnessed these last 17 years. Forgive me if my dates are not completely accurate, as I am relying purely on memory.

  • 1992 - Newhart Elementary School was serving Mission Viejo and its surrounding communities proudly – losing and gaining populations until brand-new elementary schools were built. In 1992, the district started a “slam K-8” campaign to convince everyone of the evils of the K-8 education model. You see, the surrounding areas did not need an elementary school any longer – what they really needed was a middle school. Dr. Fleming seemingly relented to the parent outrage at this concept, so he delayed his decision, leaving a skeleton elementary school (it never even had a full-time principal until the year he closed it) that paled in comparison to the new fully staffed schools the surrounding communities were receiving. 
  • 1996 -After Dr. Fleming started a virtual neighborhood war to distract from the issue, Newhart Middle was born, and Newhart Elementary died. Newhart then became the middle-school home for all those students pouring out of all those brand-new surrounding elementary schools. That is until, let me see if my memory serves me correctly, oh yeah, until they built that gorgeous K-8 in Las Flores! I believe we have a few more K-8's to date, which is not such a bad concept after all. I am sure you have heard all the physical site complaints about Newhart, so I will not belabor those. They closed Newhart Elementary the same year some sitting school board members came to the dedication ceremony for the parent-funded kindergarten playground equipment. Use, abuse, ignore, neglect, and abandon.
  • 1999 -Boundary issues again start inner-city wars as everyone and their uncle want out of CVHS and into Tesoro. Why, do you ask?  The cycle of use, abuse, ignore, neglect and abandon ... never more severe than what I was about to learn about my children's future high school, CVHS.  Dr. Fleming and his board, for the sole reason of a grand successful opening of Tesoro, practically rape CVHS of its core students, split a city and Newhart in two, and continue to allow inter- and intra-district transfers of our best students out of CVHS to alleviate horrendous overcrowding.
  • 2000 - My eldest joins the water polo team at CVHS. The day after he graduated from 8th grade, his new coach calls to tell him to report to Saddleback College Pool for practice. "Why not at Capo?" I ask. Apparently, Capo does not have a pool. The school is 22 years old. Again, not to belabor, but it took a group of highly motivated parents to finally delve into the machination of funds since CVHS was built to see the rise and fall of pool construction offers. (Not to mention the large and small gym issues.)
  • Sept 10, 2001 - We are elated at the board meeting when Dr. Fleming and the board present their funding package for the pool. (The parents were the ones who led Mr. Doomey to the redevelopment funds.) We were perplexed at the simultaneous plan for the administration building, but thrilled nonetheless.
  • Fall 2001- Tesoro opens, Capo's population is decimated. Use, abuse, ignore, neglect and abandon. (This also happened when Aliso Niguel opened.)
  • Winter/Spring 2005- I served on the ABC committee for San Juan Hills High School. Dr. Fleming and the board's agenda was clear from the onset. They were not going to open that school with >40 percent Hispanic ratio. (A sitting board member said those exact words to me!) I was witnessing by far the most blatantly racist train wreck of my life, culminating with Dr. Fleming having an epiphany in the final hours of approval that CVHS needed the attendance, which only the poorest areas of San Juan could supply. Use, abuse, ignore, neglect, and abandon.
  • Winter 2007 - After three years of fundraising, a small group of parents and Varsity Song leaders purchase and INSTALL a dance floor in the old wood shop room at CVHS. Prior to that, the girls had been dancing on cement. CVHS is now 29 years old. The improvements to the school admittedly from 2000 to 2007 are vast. But I know they came only after highly vocal and unrelenting parents made it abundantly clear how fed up they were and are with USE, ABUSE, IGNORE, NEGLECT and ABANDON.
  • Fall 2007 - San Juan Hills opens. I will not get into the litany of how beautiful, how equipped, etc. We have seen it all before. But to sit here in my 17th year at CUSD and be bombarded by e-mails from parents in Mission Viejo still feeling the pain of USE, ABUSE, IGNORE, NEGLECT and ABANDON that has plagued my three children's path through CUSD is quite frankly depressing as hell. That we are having the same discussion about yet another new facility NEEDING TO BE FULLY EQUIPPED before the 30-year-old grandmother of all high school construction misappropriations is taken care of is beyond reason.

I hope you have a better sense of fair play, and you have had an opportunity to see where all the cards lay in this multi-city poker game. Mission Viejo residents cannot fold anymore, and we are calling on you to stop this inequality.  San Juan Hills is two months old. They have a few hundred FRESHMAN, for goodness sake! They can wait their turn.  We all have. 

Respectfully,

Linda Noda