Capistrano School District

Schools in the Capistrano Unified School District opened Thursday with fewer students in classrooms, scores of unfamiliar substitutes and disordered schedules, as hundreds of striking teachers took to picket lines in a labor dispute. Attendance in the 51,000-pupil district was down substantially, with about 39% of students in class, according to preliminary estimates. About 220 regular classroom teachers — 12% of the teaching force —- crossed picket lines and 600 substitutes were hired to provide additional classroom supervision, said Julie Hatchel, a district spokeswoman.

When teachers strike Re "Hundreds of Capistrano district teachers strike," April 23 I am a student at one of the Capistrano Unified School District high schools. I have been asked to wear various colors this week to support either the school district or the teachers. But after thinking about it, I have decided that I support neither. This is the third strike I have been affected by in the last seven years: the grocery strike, the SAG strike and now the CUSD teacher strike.

A southern Orange County school district has settled a lawsuit that alleged its trustees violated the state's open-meetings law by gathering behind closed doors to discuss ways to silence a critic.

For years, Capistrano Unified was the picture of a quiet, upper-middle-class, high-performing school district. Students in the south Orange County district still do well academically, but the adults have waged a loud political war for more than half a decade. And they show no signs of stopping. Last week, the teachers went on strike over a 10% pay cut. The school board wants to make at least part of that cut permanent; the teachers union has accepted the cut for this contract year but contends any extension should be open to negotiation.

Attorneys for the Capistrano Unified School District argued Monday that biology teacher John Peloza is creating "curriculum anarchy" in his efforts to add creationist theory to lessons on the origin of life in his science class. In the first court hearing in a controversial lawsuit Peloza has filed against the school district, U.S. District Judge David W.

For six months, a 13-year-old San Juan Capistrano girl said she put up with increasing abuse from seventh-grade classmates. The other girls pushed her, she says, and left death threats on her answering machine. One time, they threw a dissected frog down her dress in science class. Now the girl is fighting back in court, and has filed a lawsuit against Capistrano Unified School District alleging she was sexually harassed and assaulted by 11 girls.

Parents who feared their children would be transferred to other schools in the Capistrano Unified School District to ease overcrowding can relax for a while. A committee formed to study the issue has recommended that the district wait until a new elementary school opens next year to make any changes.

A Dana Hills High School teacher charged with sexually assaulting a 17-year-old female student during a field trip was placed Monday on a compulsory leave without pay, a district spokeswoman said. The Capistrano Unified School District Board of Trustees, meeting in a closed-door session Monday night, placed Michael W. Gaskins on mandatory leave pending the outcome of his criminal case, which was filed in Inyo Superior Court on Nov. 16, district spokeswoman Jacqueline Cerra said.

Local and federal investigators continued their efforts on Thursday to trace how a Capistrano school district worker managed to accumulate an arsenal of more than 80 assault rifles and handguns. Deputies raided Jerry Peacock's duplex Wednesday morning following a tip that he had stolen maintenance equipment from the Capistrano Unified School District, where he worked for six years.

Responding to the nearly fatal beating of a 55-year-old man in Laguna Beach, Capistrano Unified School District Supt. James A. Fleming is calling for a greater effort to "sensitize our young people to the richness of diversity." Police say the attack earlier this month against Loc Minh Truong near three gay bars occurred because his assailants believed that he was a homosexual. Three suspects have been arrested in connection with the alleged hate crime.

Schools in the Capistrano Unified School District opened Thursday with fewer students in classrooms, scores of unfamiliar substitutes and disordered schedules, as hundreds of striking teachers took to picket lines in a labor dispute. Attendance in the 51,000-pupil district was down substantially, with about 39% of students in class, according to preliminary estimates. About 220 regular classroom teachers — 12% of the teaching force —- crossed picket lines and 600 substitutes were hired to provide additional classroom supervision, said Julie Hatchel, a district spokeswoman.

Richard K. Overton, the subject of one of Orange County's most riveting trials who was convicted of murdering his wife, a popular school board member, by slipping her poisons in 1988, has died, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has confirmed. He was 81.

Capistrano Unified School District trustees routinely violated the state's open-meetings law, discussing in secret topics such as construction contracts, how to silence a district critic and ways to prepare parents for bad news about schools, all of which should have been debated in public, according to a report released by the Orange County district attorney's office Tuesday.

A southern Orange County school district has settled a lawsuit that alleged its trustees violated the state's open-meetings law by gathering behind closed doors to discuss ways to silence a critic.

Orange County supervisors laid the groundwork Tuesday for an investigation into the registrar of voters' handling of petitions to recall the trustees of a South County school district, including his decision to allow school officials to review the names of those who signed the petitions. The investigation would be the first by an official agency into allegations that the registrar's office mishandled the effort to recall all seven board members of the Capistrano Unified School District.

Threats of campus violence have spread fast and furious since the Santana High School shootings and may spike again in the wake of Thursday's shootings at Granite Hills High, experts say. Spread by word of mouth or via e-mail, threats began shortly after the March 5 shootings in Santee, including one Internet message that a student would finish the job allegedly started by 15-year-old Charles Andrew "Andy" Williams. Each rumor, in turn, has prompted more rumors.

If you're home-schooling your children in the Capistrano Unified School District area, there's an upscale Orange County mall that wants to be your friend. Giving new meaning to the phrase "one-stop shopping," patrons of the Shops at Mission Viejo will soon be able to outfit themselves at a mega-chain clothing store, grab a gourmet snack, and attend a math workshop, all in one trip.