Capistrano Unified to Discuss School of Choice and Boundary Issues at Tonights Board Meeting

Capistrano Unified School District Board of Trustees are meeting tonight, Wednesday February 11, 2015, to discuss potential changes to Board Policy #5119 “School of Choice” and Board Policy 5116 School Attendance Boundaries.

The District seeks to outline the purpose, intent, priority criteria, and process used for school of choice and how capacity issues may potentially effect attendance boundaries.

There are a lot of interested parties that will be affected by any changes in School of Choice policy and/or School Boundary Adjustments. Tonights meeting allows public in-put on these issues. This is for information and discussion only and no vote is to be taken

Source:
http://capousd.ca.schoolloop.com/file/1229223560406/1218998864154/690562...
Agenda Item #3 at pages pages 9 - 17 and Agenda Item #4 at pages 15 - 17

Capacity Issues:

Capacity issues at San Juan High School were identified last year at the January 8, 2014 Board meeting, Agenda Item #4:
In A Nut Shell
Capacity constraints at San Juan Hills will require the District to make boundary adjustments. Residents of Ladera Ranch and Talega (because they live in Community Facilities Districts that paid to build San Juan Hills High School) will have priority over residents of San Juan, Capo Beach and students in the 2-way language immersion program. Because of capacity issues, residents of San Juan (who do not live in a CFD), will be sent to San Clemente High and/or Capistrano Valley High. Capo Beach residents, who were promised priority for coming to San Juan Hills High School when it was a brand new school will be forced out of San Juan Hills High to attend San Clemente High. Students in Capistrano’s 2- Way Language Immersion Programs are currently given priority at San Juan Hills High School to continue their 2-Way education; capacity issues at San Juan Hills will force the District to find other options for the 2-way program at the High School level.

See: January 8, 2014 Board Meeting Agenda Item #4 at page 39, Board Audio at 1 hour 5 minutes
http://capousd.ca.schoolloop.com/file/1229223560406/1218998864154/483168...

Community Facilities Districts - Priority for Ladera Ranch Students

Students residing in Ladera Ranch are suppose to have priority access to San Juan Hills because the community facilities districts in their areas [also known as Mello-Roos districts] contributed to the acquisition and construction of San Juan Hills High School. At the January 2014 meeting, SJH was projecting 800 High School Students from the new Ranch Development.


Community Facilities Districts - Priority for San Clemente Talega Students

Students residing in Talega are suppose to have priority access to San Juan Hills because the community facilities districts in their areas [also known as Mello-Roos districts] contributed the acquisition and construction of San Juan Hills High School.


San Juan Residents -

Current San Juan City residents who do not have priority access (that would be San Juan residents who do not live in a Community Facilities District), specifically, students residing in the city of San Juan, will be reassigned to other public high schools, including but not limited to Capistrano Valley High School and San Clemente High School because of capacity issues.


Capo Beach Residents -

Capo Beach residents were promised priority at San Juan Hills High School as a condition of going the the school when it was new. Because of Capacity issues, residents of Capo Beach will also be pushed out of San Juan to San Clemente High School


Two Way Language Immersion Program -

A Two-Way Language Immersion Program in Spanish is offered at Las Palmas Elementary School, San Juan Elementary School, Viejo Elementary School, Marco Forster Middle School, Bernice Ayer Middle School, San Clemente, and San Juan Hills High School. In this program, English Language learners and native English speakers receive instruction in English and Spanish. The District also offers a Mandarin Immersion Program at Bergeson Elementary School. Students from these programs develop bi-literacy in reading, writing, and speaking English and Spanish or Mandarin.

For additional information about the schools that offer this program, please visit their web sites:

Bergeson Elementary School: http://bgnes.capousd.ca.schoolloop.com/
San Juan Elementary School: http://sjes.capousd.ca.schoolloop.com/
Las Palmas Elementary School: http://lpes.capousd.ca.schoolloop.com/
Viejo Elementary School: http://vjes.capousd.ca.schoolloop.com/
Bernice Ayer Middle School: http://bams.schoolloop.com/
Marco Forster Middle School: http://mfms.schoolloop.com/
San Juan Hills High School: http://www.sjhhs.org/

Source: http://capousd.ca.schoolloop.com/cms/page_view?d=x&piid=&vpid=1232963744951

Priorities

Capistrano Unified’s current School of Choice Priorities are as follows:

Source: http://capousd.ca.schoolloop.com/file/1346926734449/1218998864154/145316...
The proposed changes to School of Choice are as follows:


Source: http://capousd.ca.schoolloop.com/file/1229223560406/1218998864154/690562... at page 10

2- way Meeting Last Night

Last night, District staff met with about 200 parents from the Two Way Program to discuss information about the effect the capacity issues at San Juan Hills will have on the Districts 2-Way program at the High School Level.



A full video of that meeting can be seen at http://youtu.be/feQiRznFp9I

Some of the concerns expressed by parents at the meeting:

The District is proposing to offer a TWI program at both SCHS and SJHHS. The District does not currently offer the same pathway at both schools. The goal is to offer Grade 9 TWI history course in Spanish and the College level course through Saddleback in Grades 11 & 12 to bring the two pathways to equivalency.

Parents are concerned that the District will not have enough spots for all the 2-way students to attend San Juan and San Clemente- there are currently 35 spots available for 2 way students at each school. Principal Tom Ressler specifically said at the Stallion Showcase (in the TWI meeting there) that there is only one section/class of World History planned for next year. 35 students is the max in a classroom. That means only 70 spots for the 108 8th graders expecting to enter TWI next year.

The District failed to address what will happen to all the “out of boundary” kids (ie Dana Point, Laguna Niguel, MV) These kids are not identified in the new “Open Enrollment” guidelines being discussed at the Board Meeting.

Underlying all of the facilities issues is the continued lack of adequate funding needed to provide facilities for a growing number of new students and to hire additional teachers and create enough classes for all students enrolled in the TWL program.

For more information on funding issues see the following articles:

http://disclosurecusd.blogspot.com/2014/11/re-research-brief-toward-gran...

http://disclosurecusd.blogspot.com/2015/02/governor-brown-is-passing-bur...

http://disclosurecusd.blogspot.com/2015/02/rop-board-to-meet-tonight-to-...