Capistrano Unified District

Eighteen schools in the Capistrano Unified district will share grants totaling more than $670,000 for innovative course development, trustees announced this week. "This is the first time we've been able to give schools what they've asked for," Board President Sheila Benecke said. The biggest share, $75,000, will go to Capistrano Valley High School to develop a computer network center.

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.

The aftereffects of the 1980s South County building boom were obvious this month with the opening of five new elementary schools in the Capistrano Unified School District. That was more new schools than any other district in the state opened this year. In the last four years, the district's enrollment from kindergarten through high school has increased more than 16%, the most in the county and well above the 6.4% rate statewide.

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.

Six students in two South County school districts have been expelled from their high schools for being involved in three recent gun-related incidents, officials announced this week. Five of the students attended schools in the Capistrano Unified district, and one was from the Saddleback Valley Unified district.

A lawsuit filed by a Capistrano Valley High School biology teacher charging that the school district violated his rights in forcing him to teach evolution will get its first court hearing on Monday. A federal judge in Los Angeles will determine if the suit filed by John Peloza against the Capistrano Unified School District suit should be dismissed.

Portable classrooms have changed dramatically from their tin-cannish, post-World War II predecessors, but the need for them has not. In school districts such as Santa Ana, Saddleback Valley, Irvine and Capistrano, where demand for classroom space has outstripped supply, these siding-clad boxes have provided crucial space--quickly. In the Capistrano Unified district, where 37% of classroom capacity is served by portable structures, entire campuses of ready-made classrooms, or "instant schools," have been built.

South County school officials will be crossing their fingers on Election Day for the passage of Proposition 146, an $800-million bond measure, which would fund the construction of new schools in quickly developing areas such as Rancho Santa Margarita and Trabuco Canyon.

The Nov. 3 election will decide four seats on the Capistrano Unified School District Board of Trustees. The open seats are in Districts 1, 2, 3 and 5. DISTRICT 1 Capistrano Beach, parts of San Clemente and San Juan Capistrano Peter J. Espinosa Age: 45. Occupation: Saddleback College professor and counselor. Background: South Orange County Community Service Council board member; involved with Las Palmas Model School PTA.

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.

Teachers in Orange County's second-largest school district are set to begin striking Thursday, after negotiations over pay and benefits with the Capistrano Unified School District collapsed. Representatives from both sides offered to meet Thursday to try to break the deadlock, even as teachers begin walking picket lines. The action by 2,200 teachers in Capistrano Unified threatens to disrupt classes, sports and other activities as administrators move to find substitute teachers and make contingency plans to keep schools open.

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.

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.

An effort to recall all seven members of the Capistrano Unified School District Board of Trustees failed to garner enough valid signatures to qualify for the ballot, election officials said. The campaign, begun earlier this year by parents and residents upset over board decisions on new construction and attendance boundaries, came several thousand signatures short, the Orange County registrar of voters said Thursday.

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.

School Supt. James A. Fleming announced Monday that he has decided to remain with the 30,000-student school district and will not seek a similar job in Kentucky. "As I told the Capistrano (Unified School District) board and many others in the community, I have no desire to leave this district or community," Fleming said in a statement. Fleming had interviewed with the Jefferson County Public Schools and said a position with the 93,000-student district was worth examining.

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.

Just before 8 a.m. today, a bell will ring on a hilltop in South County. Children will part reluctantly from parents, teachers will call roll for the first time, and a school will be born. September has always been back-to-school season elsewhere. But Coto de Caza never had a public school until now. So the opening of Wagon Wheel Elementary, just outside the south gate of this country-club enclave in the arid canyons east of Interstate 5, is a milestone.

Eighteen schools in the Capistrano Unified district will share grants totaling more than $670,000 for innovative course development, trustees announced this week. "This is the first time we've been able to give schools what they've asked for," Board President Sheila Benecke said. The biggest share, $75,000, will go to Capistrano Valley High School to develop a computer network center.