OPEN LETTER TO CUSD BOARD OF TRUSTEE's

Dear City Leaders-

I know that all of you are painfully aware of parking issues at CUSD High Schools. That is going to get substantially worse for 2017-18 due to construction. Tesoro is loosing the Sophomore parking lot and the spots that go up the road will no longer be available without a permit.

San Clemente High School is loosing 37 permanent parking spots as well.

Now CUSD is mandating that Parents and Students must attend a PTSA sponsored workshop or their child will not be eligible to apply for a permit.

Stop this abuse of our children and hard working parents and local taxpayers.

Every elected leaders should read the posts on Facebook - there is no parking for students who are mandated to attend their Public Schools.

I have heard the Capo Valley High School students are paying $5 a day to park at Saddleback and then walk.

This needs to be corrected. CUSD is 8,555 students over capacity and 5,355 are High School students. No new schools are being built and the Ranch alone will be a new community of 50,000 - 70,000 people.

OPEN LETTER TO CUSD BOARD OF TRUSTEE's Re: PTSA's Mandatory Attendance for Parking Spot/Lottery 2017-18 School Year

Open Letter to the Capistrano Unified School District Board of Trustees:

I wanted to bring the following to your attention to ensure that the CUSD Board approved Staff's actions. To the best of my knowledge, I have never seen this item come before the CUSD Board.

Staff has given the PTSA the approval to sponsor a MANDATORY Impact Teen Drivers Workshop.

I wanted to express my concern about the following verbiage:

The PTA has no authority to mandate that a parent attend a PTSA event. The PTSA has no authority to scan student ID cards, and then share a students personally identifiable information with Impact Teen Driving.

Please note that the flyer does not indicate that this "workshop" is being done by Impact Teen Driving. I found that information out from parents on Facebook.

The Impact Team Driving web site is: http://impactteendrivers.org/about/our-efforts/train-the-trainers

Impact Team Driving is a 501(c)(3) organization founded by the California Highway Patrol, the California Teachers Association and California Casualty. California Casualty provides insurance to unionized employees such as Figherfighters & EMS, Educators, Peace Officers, NPs & RNs.

PARENT-TEEN WORKSHOPS

"A parent-teen workshop was created to be attended by parents and their teens together after school in the afternoon or evening. It shares the “What Do You Consider Lethal?” campaign and includes information on graduated driver licensing laws. Schools can choose to hold a school assembly during school hours and a parent-teen workshop after school on the same day for maximum impact in the community. Some schools choose to raffle campus parking permits off or make attendance by a parent with their teen mandatory for the teen to be able to drive to school."

The PTSA has no authority to hold a Lottery for parking spaces on PUBLIC SCHOOL PROPERTY, or to determine the criteria by which PUBLIC school parking permits are to be issued.

In addition to my concern about allowing the PTSA to be used in this manner, I am deeply troubled by the fact that Impact Teen Drivers is engaged in research, research that gives Impact Teen Drivers the right to view student driving records years into the future. By mandating that a Parent attend, you are forcing parents to consent to a research study that is not being disclosed to parents. There is not an "OPT IN" to sharing a students personally identifiable information. Information that this organization will be able to access years into the future.

Having served as a PTA Legislative Rep- I am concerned if PTSA money is being used for the purpose of putting on this event. Each school site is asked to make a $500 donation to sponsor a school site event. PTSA money must be used for school wide purposes - not events that impact only Juniors and Seniors.

I would further like to notify Trustees that this is the work of ACSA. ACSA is ex- Trustee Hatton-Hodsons partner in Systems Leadership Collaborative.

Look at who is represented on this Board:

The Insurance Industry- Free Research

ACSA, and

Jack O'Connell, Retired State Superintendent of Public Education who endorsed Lynn Hatton for Trustee, now has contracts with CUSD through his company Capital Advisors.

1) Don't let CUSD collect personally identifiable data on students without families expressly opting in.

2) Charging a fee for students to park on PUBLIC PROPERTY is against the law if you do not charge staff and the public as well. I presented this issue to the Board in January 2014. That work is attached below.

Public Records Show Capistrano Unified School District Collects $500 Thousand Dollars Per Year in Illegal Parking Fees

This article is a follow-up to:

Know Your Rights: Free Public Education in California

http://disclosurecusd.blogspot.com/2014/12/know-your-rights-free-public-education.html

1-28-14 Up-date to reflect additional information from CUSD

California Law AB 1575 Prevents Public Schools From Charging Students Illegal Fees To Participate In What Is Suppose To Be A "FREE" Public Education

More information about the "Free School Guarantee" and the legality of specific type of fees see:

http://www.cde.ca.gov/re/lr/fm/

http://wwwstatic.kern.org/gems/fcmat/StudentfeesguidelinesTulareC.pdf

"Assembly Bill 1575 ensures the 'free schools' guarantee is applied equally to all children in our state and remains a meaningful protection in our Constitution." Author of the bill, Assemblyman Ricardo Lara of Bell Gardens

http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/11-12/bill/asm/ab_1551-1600/ab_1575_bill_20120929_chaptered.pdf

A Public Records Request shows that the Capistrano Unified School District collected $337,225 in illegal parking fees in 2013-14 and is on track to collect over half a million dollars in illegal parking fees in 2014-15.

Why School Districts Do Not Have The Legal Authority To Charge Students A Fee To Park On Campus:

1. California Education Code prohibits schools from charging students a fee unless the fee is specifically authorized by law.

California Code of Regulations, Article 3. Privileges of Pupils. § 350. Fees Not Permitted.

"A pupil enrolled in a school shall not be required to pay any fee, deposit, or other charge not specifically authorized by law."

Source:

https://law.resource.org/pub/us/ccr/gov.ca.oal.title05.html

Capistrano Unified School District sites California Vehicle Code § 2113 as the law that authorizes the District to charge students a fee to park on campus.

"(g) A public agency, including, but not limited to, the Regents of the University of California and the Trustees of the California State University, may adopt rules or regulations to restrict, or specify the conditions for, the use of bicycles, motorized bicycles, skateboards, and roller skates on public property under the jurisdiction of that agency."

Source:

http://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/dmv/detail/pubs/vctop/vc/d11/c1/a3/21113

California Vehicle Code § 2113 gives School Districts the authority to establish "rules and regulations" governing parking; it does not specifically give Districts the authority to "charge fees" for parking.

2. The Equal Protection Clause of the 14th amendment of the U.S. Constitution prohibits states from denying any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

The Equal Protection clause requires that the law (California Vehicle Code § 2113) be applied equally to everyone. The law is not being applied equally to everyone and therefore violates the Equal Protection Clause to the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution.

1. Only students at certain schools are required to pay a fee to park on campus. It should be noted that Adult students are not charged. Students at J.Serra are not charged. Visitors to campus are not charged. Employees are not charged.

2. The fees that are charged are different at each school.

3. The "Privilege" of parking on campus is based on a students academic performance. Under Capistrano Unified's current practice, students have to maintain a certain grade in order to receive the "privilege" of parking on campus.

3. California Education Code § 49011 (4) Prohibits School Districts from offering "privileges" to students in exchange for money.

49011. (a) A pupil enrolled in a public school shall not be required to pay a pupil fee for participation in an educational activity.

(4) A school district or school shall not offer course credit or privileges related to educational activities in exchange for money or donations of goods or services from a pupil or a pupil's parents or guardians, and a school district or school shall not remove course credit or privileges related to educational activities, or otherwise discriminate against a pupil, because the pupil or the pupil's parents or guardians did not or will not provide money or donations of goods or services to the school district or school.

Source:

http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/displaycode?section=edc&group=49001-50000&file=49010-49013

The District's current practice is to offer the "Privilege" of parking on campus for a fee which is a violation of California Education Code § 49011 (4).

4. Taxpayer Funded Facilities

School Property is paid for by taxpayers for the benefit of students. It is unconscionable that District employees, certain students and visitors are allowed to park on campus for free while certain students are not.

5. Punishing Students by revoking parking Privileges is morally and ethically wrong.

When a student looses the privilege of parking on campus because of poor academic performance it exposes that particular student as being "academically challenged". That brings up right to privacy issues. To add insult to injury, students who's permits are being revoked as a result of poor academic performance are charged an additional processing fee to revoke the permit.

The following Documentation was received from the District in response to a Public Records Request. Based on the legal arguments above, I will formally ask the Board to amend Board Policy to Prohibit Individual Schools in CUSD from charging students a fee to park on campus.

Capistrano Unified School District Board Policy 3260(a) Business and Non-Instructional Operations - STUDENT FEES