School Corruption Sparks Citizen Revolt

Los Angeles, CA. - Leaders of a California citizens revolt in South Orange County are featured in a nine minute FULL DISCLOSURE" video blog, describing the school corruption which has sparked their campaign to recall all seven members of the Capistrano Unified School District. The video will be launched on the Internet 24/7, world-wide starting Monday, December 5, 2005.

Citizens from the communities of Aliso Viejo, Coto De Caza, Dana Point, Ladera Ranch, Laguna Niguel, Las Flores, Mission Viejo, Rancho Santa Margarita, San Clemente and San Juan Capistrano gathered 140,000 signatures in their communities. Their primary complaints about the District Trustees and the Superintendent is, they say, the arrogance, deceit and deliberate concealment of public documents and financial agreements while spending public monies lavishly on themselves. The final straw was when the District proceeded to build a new $35 million Administration building while the children are being taught in decrepit and run down portable classrooms.

Featured in the video blog are leaders from the citizens group called CAPO for Better Representation, comprised of the parents of children attending school in the District, as follows: Chairman Kevin Murphy, a financial services executive, Tom Russell, corporate transactional attorney, Mark Neilsen, software executive, Jennifer Beall, interior designer.

The following actions of the CUSD Trustees and Superintendent were cited by the group as motivating factors for the recall campaign:

Failure to provide transparency in financial transactions
Failure to comply with state laws governing school construction and the environment
Failure to disclose conflict of interests on contracts, bidding and school site selection
Failure to conduct the public's business in open meetings and with public input
Failure to give public notice of Trustee actions creating millions in public debt

Hosted by Leslie Dutton, the Full Disclosure Network" public affairs television programs are featured on 40 cable systems and the worldwide Internet website www.fulldisclosure.net. In 2002 the program was presented with a public affairs Emmy Award from the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences entitled "L.A.'s War Against Terrorism" which was presented by the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. Channels and airtimes can be found on the website.

Monday, May 09, 2005
Recall For Capistrano Unified School District Board?

It seems that a lot of people in South County are not happy about the CUSD's decision to bus high school kids to the soon-to-be-complete San Juan Hills High School site. In fact, a group of current and future parents are seeking to recall the Trustees. Their website is here.

As it stands, starting in about 2011, nearly all high school age kids in Talega will not attend San Clemente High School just a few miles down Pico, but will be bussed 15 miles north to attend the new school.

The way I look at it, I pay enough flippin' taxes to be able to choose where my kids go to high school. The thought of them leaving many of their friends behind and riding on a school bus two hours a day for no valid reason really chaps my hide. Thoughts?

The CUSD Trustees are Recklessly Spending $52 Million Taxpayer Dollars (and counting) on a New Administration Building......While They Force Children and Teachers Into Unsafe and Unsanitary School Facilities.

Why Recall the Trustees?

Their gross mismanagement of School District finances. Their reckless spending of tens of millions of dollars on an administration building and over $130 million for a single high school next to a dump -- while our schools are in dire need of repair and our students are crammed into substandard portable classrooms with non-functioning restrooms. Their reckless deficit spending has created a self-inflicted, multi-million dollar budget crisis that puts our children at risk and has resulted in massive program cutbacks -- severely diminishing the quality of education.

They have failed to effectively plan for the future, looking to the parents to bail the schools out through fundraising. They have not been an advocate for our students, teachers or for better classrooms.

They have demonstrated an arrogant disregard of the public by repeatedly ignoring school overcrowding, traffic and safety issues until they become a crisis.

They have improperly drawn boundaries that segregate minorities and divide communities, and misled our families by callously changing these boundaries despite prior promises.

They have sanctioned repeated violations of environmental and other laws to the detriment of our schools, families and communities. They have breached the public trust and misspent our tax dollars.

Cost of CUSD administration building balloons to $52 million!
Increased costs to be paid with local Mello Roos taxes

A blockbuster article by the Orange County Register confirms that this extravagant project ultimately will cost $52 million, more than twice the amount originally announced by CUSD. That's right, the CUSD Trustees chose to spend 52 million taxpayer dollars to house approximately 300 administrators in San Juan Capistrano while thousands of children languish in decrepit portable classrooms.

Despite repeated CUSD denials, the Recall Team has proven that the $20 million in redevelopment funds CUSD is spending on its new administration building could have been spent on schools for the children.

CUSD has now been forced to admit they will pay for this massive cost increase by taking $32 million in Mello Roos taxes collected from homeowners living in a number of South Orange County communities, including Aliso Viejo, Ladera Ranch, Rancho Santa Margarita, Talega, Rancho Madrina, Marblehead Coastal, Pacific San Juan and Whispering Hills, and applying them to the new administration building in San Juan Capistrano. As with the redevelopment funds, these Mello Roos tax dollars could, and should have been spent on school facilities for the children. Once again, the Trustees put their own interests ahead of the children.

When you bought your house, did you expect that your local Mello Roos taxes would be used to pay for a luxurious $52 million office building in San Juan Capistrano? The bottom line - CUSD has misrepresented and concealed the truth about every dollar being used to pay for this $52 million project!

Click to learn the details

In a new Information Bulletin published by Superintendent Fleming on June 16th, the total cost of the new District Administration Building is now estimated at $35 million! On April 26th the Superintendent published a Special Statement Relating Facts About the District in which he stated that the new District Administration Building "is built with some $20 million". That is an additional $15 million (75% increase) that is being spent on the administrators instead of improving the schools for our kids. How much more money will be taken away from the kids before the building is actually completed?

We've all been told by the district that the state requires that 30% of all classrooms must be portables. The truth is that this requirement was eliminated 7 years ago!

For a long time, the CUSD Trustees and Superintendent have defended their excessive reliance on portable classrooms on their representation that up to one third of all classrooms are required to be portables by law. Since other local school districts had chosen to go a different direction, making permanent structures their priority, something about CUSD's representation didn't seem right. Since facts matter, we researched the issue and it didn't take long to confirm that the Trustees and Superintendent have misinformed us once again. The TRUTH can be found in a study titled, "Report to the California Legislature - Environmental Health Conditions in California's Portable Classrooms," dated November 2004. This report is authored by the California Air Resources Board and the California Department of Health Services, and says, "Until 1998, the State required school districts requesting funding to design new schools with a least 30% of portable classrooms. This requirement was imposed as a cost-saving measure. With the Leroy F. Green School Facilities Act of 1998 and passage of Proposition 1A, this restriction was lifted, and school districts were given greater local control in the design of their schools, along with a revised formula for financing, based on per-pupil grants." As additional verification we spoke with Gary Longholm in the California State Legislative Office in Sacramento and he confirmed that "there is no existing law requiring portables".(continued)

Learn the truth, see the proof

Based on everything we have heard from school district officials, one would think CUSD had $20 million sitting in an account earmarked to pay for its new Administration Building.

Instead, the money has been borrowed. CUSD is hoping enough funds come in to pay back these loans.

The San Juan redevelopment fund that CUSD continually refers to is actually tax revenue that the City of San Juan Capistrano hopes to collect from certain parts of San Juan (the redevelopment zone) over the next 20 years. If it is successful in doing so, the City has agreed to share these funds with CUSD. If they are not successful, our children have just been burdened with decades of debt.

Keep in mind that redevelopment funds can be extremely volatile. In fact, there have been years in San Juan Capistrano when no redevelopment funds have been available at all. As long as real estate prices rise, these funds should remain stable. However, if the real estate market were to soften, these funds could dry up quickly (continued)

Learn the truth, see the proof

We have accused the Trustees of recklessly spending over $100 million for a single high school. Their rebuttal was published by the Trustee's agent, the Superintendent, on the district web site and it is a bold face lie - and we'll prove it.

$133 Million Lie

At some point you've probably heard from a district official that available redevelopment funds can only be used for new construction in San Juan Capistrano. In fact, the Superintendent repeated this claim in a PTA meeting as recently as May 16, 2005. Want to know the real truth? We'll show you along with proof.

Redevelopment Funds

Capistrano Unified School District

In the California Capistrano Unified School District a Petition to Recall the Entire School Board is in the Works

NAACP Complaint

Recall Committee Statement

CUSD Recall Newsroom

May 25, 2005
Letter to San Juan Capistrano City Council