CUSD Call to Action – Attend the Board Meeting
by a CUSD parent

Instead of fixing the Mission Viejo schools in the Capistrano Unified School District, $15.3 million in funds are being used to add a pool, stadium and additional classrooms to San Juan Hills High School. Let the CUSD Board of Trustees know that you are sick and tired of your schools being ignored and neglected and you’re not going to take it any more!

What you can do:

• Attend the CUSD board meeting on Mon., Nov. 5, at 7 p.m. to state your opposition to this unfair allocation of funds (wear black and gold to show your support of CVHS).
• Email your opposition to Superintendent Carter at
   superintintendent@capousd.org
   and to
   HWHEELER@capousd.org
   requesting copies of your email be sent to the board members.
• Pass this message along to everyone you know.

Details:

The Board will vote on allocating the last of the Measure A funds to build a pool and football stadium and more new classrooms at San Juan Hills High School. Measure A was approved in 1999 to modernize schools. Measure A and Mission Viejo Mello-Roos funds collected in Mission Viejo have been spent outside Mission Viejo. The city of Mission Viejo conducted an audit that showed 30 percent of CUSD funds were raised in Mission Viejo and only 10 percent was spent in our city. This proposed action is stunning, and the CUSD board needs to hear from and see Mission Viejo residents at the meeting.

Interim Superintendent Chuck McCully put in place a "needs assessment process" to address the facility equity issues district-wide in response to the anger generated within CUSD about unequal facility spending and desperate facility conditions at schools throughout the district. Mr. McCully forced Dave Doomey to admit that he had lied about how facility funds were spent. San Juan Hills High School's projects have now been separated from the "needs assessment process" as a last-ditch effort by Marlene Draper to ensure that her "crowning achievement" (San Juan Hills High School) is completed before she leaves office. This cannot be allowed to occur when there remain great facility needs throughout the district.

The needs-assessment committee at Capistrano Valley High recommends the following for CVHS:

1) Site enhancements including:

• A Performing Arts Theater. CVHS is the only high school in the district without this facility and has had plans since 2004. The building would be used by all members of the campus and community and would also provide additional classrooms for choir, band, drama and dance – freeing up space in the main building.
• A completely renovated Physical Education Center (lockers, weight room, coaches' offices and wrestling room) with safety upgrades.
• An enlarged and reconfigured food service and eating area that would enable the student population to actually sit down at table to eat.
• Full stadium upgrades to meet district standards.

2) Upgrades in areas of educational impact including full technology improvements that have not been addressed in 10 years.

3) Uniform renovations throughout campus to remove aged materials and update all necessary flooring, wall coverings, etc.

4) Immediate attention to health and safety issues including:

• Inadequate ventilation systems throughout the school
• Aged portable classrooms
• Restroom facilities that meet state minimum requirements for the student population
• Safe drinking water in numerous locations
• Upgraded, campus-wide security cameras

The successful renovation of the CVHS campus is necessary to bring our 30-year-old campus up to the high school standards of our school district, and it should be considered an immediate priority in the master plan. You can view the CVHS PTSA modernization report at www.capoptsa.org.

The San Juan Hills High School amenities, when conceptional-planned, were to be funded by the developer if Measure CC passed. When Measure CC failed, Mello-Roos generated in Whispering Hills development was slated to fund the amenities. Grave facility needs remain unmet throughout the district, and citizens from all over should be outraged that Measure A funds would be committed to fund amenities at a new high school, which currently has only a freshmen class. With all the aging schools in CUSD, it is shocking that a pool and stadium at SJHHS would be considered the highest facility priority.