Capistrano Unified District

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.

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.

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.

The stereotypical image of the school truant officer is like something out of an old movie--a big ferocious "hooky cop" grabbing an absent-without-leave waif by the scruff of the neck and dragging the student into the principal's office. But like all stereotypes, that image is inaccurate, particularly for the Capistrano Unified School District's only truant officer.

The eighth-grade boy held out his wrists for teacher Carlos Polanco to see. He had just explained to Polanco and his history classmates at Virgil Middle School in Koreatown why he had been absent: He had been in the hospital after an attempt at suicide. Polanco looked at the cuts and said they "were weak," according to witness accounts in documents filed with the state. "Carve deeper next time," he was said to have told the boy. "Look," Polanco allegedly said, "you can't even kill yourself."

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.

Kimberly Anderson has just written her first short story, complete with nonstop action, suspense and danger. It doesn't matter that the story has only 56 words and that 10 of them are misspelled. Spelling and punctuation will come later. In the meantime Kimberly, 6, will keep writing. And so will all the other kindergarten and first-grade pupils in the Capistrano Unified School District.

Seven candidates vying to replace Brian R. Demsey on the Capistrano Unified School District Board of Trustees will be questioned by the board Monday and a successor is expected to be named later this month. The trustees will meet at 6:30 p.m. at district headquarters, 32972 Calle Perfecto. They are expected to name a replacement at their May 20 meeting. The board decided last month to appoint a successor rather than spend $100,000 for a special election.

Ruth Deadmon, a near mute, waits outside the office of Dr. Daniel Truong, desperately hoping her voice can be restored. Deadmon is typical of Truong's patients: She awoke one day with what she thought was laryngitis. It has lasted seven years. Deadmon's condition has become so severe she sometimes cannot eat. She no longer answers her phone.

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.