Rumor Has it... Rancho Mission Viejo is Offering to Build San Clemente New High School

The Facts Residents Need to Know

Source: Capistrano Unified School Facilities Projects Update April 22, 2015 http://capousd.ca.schoolloop.com/file/1229223560406/1218998864154/7155577286909854313.pdf

Capistrano Unified is 8,555 students over capacity (5,235 are High School students). The Ranch is projected to generate 900 new students, not included in the existing over capacity of 8,555 students.

The Ranch will build a new High School in Rancho Mission Viejo irrespective of which alignment the Toll Road finally chooses. There is no existing capacity within CUSD for their students.

Tesoro High School is NOT getting any new capacity, and in fact, is loosing classrooms despite the fact that CUSD is spending $15 million to build a new 2-story modular classroom.

San Clemente High is NOT getting any new capacity, and in fact, is loosing classrooms despite the fact that CUSD is spending $15 million to build a new 2-story modular classroom.

San Juan Hills is the only campus that IS getting 628 new seats. That is not enough seats for the projected 900 students within the new Ranch Development.

The BETTER option for San Clemente

Since CUSD has decided to "unify" San Clemente High School's upper and lower campus, they intend to destroy all the campus buildings and put "fields" on the upper campus. A better use for that "residential property" is to sell it for residential development, and use the profits to remodel the existing San Clemente High School.

Rancho Mission Viejo is selling the Esencia school site to CUSD for $33.86 million dollars claiming dirt with -0- entitlements is worth $2.4 million per acre. Based on that, what would be the value of 14 acres of ocean view property?

San Clemente- JUST SAY NO to any Toll Road through San Clemente.

Under the State's new "Local Control", it is time to break CUSD into smaller pieces. This corrupt District should NOT be allowed to grow bigger. It cannot serve the students it currently has. We can do better as a Community.

Stop the Collusion between the Ranch and CUSD to systematically destroy the quality of life in South Orange County.

Stop the Fraud- Waste and Abuse of taxpayer dollars.

Protect our students from a District that has not served them well-

Our children attend class in facilities that have not been maintained for 20 years. Our class sizes are the largest in the State of California and the Nation. We have no Art, Music, or Science unless parents fundraise for it. Our children are stacked up like chords of wood in old facilities with failing HVAC systems and leaky roofs while CUSD Staff sits in a state of the art Administrative building and has chosen to give 4 consecutive years of across the Board compensation increases totaling over $120 million dollars.

Protect our Children. Protect the City of San Clemente. Take back our schools, and say no to a Toll Road that will divide our community in half.

Regarding Fraud- Waste - Abuse...

• Gifting $23 million in taxpayer dollars by paying $2.4 million per acre for a school site.
• Paying $45 million for 3 modular classroom buildings that only add 628 new seats when Trustees were told it would be three building that would add 628 seats each. These buildings are cheaply built and will not last. Look at CUSD's newest High School - San Juan Hills High - already needs millions in work. Also- please note that CUSD hired an in-house inspector to over see these projects which is NOT ALLOWED by the DSA (conflict of interest because the Inspector is suppose to report to the DSA- not a corrupt school district). District Staff; to save money, already reduced the wind load factor on these buildings from 100 mph down to 70 mph. Just image the corners that will be cut to get Esencia completed by June 30, 2018. CUSD is putting the health and safety of our kids at risk.
• Bait and Switch- CUSD is allowing the Ranch to advertise that the schools that Esencia and Sendero students will attend is Las Flores K-8 and Tesoro for High School. As soon as these two areas are sold out. CUSD is going to re-zone the boundary areas and force the Esencia and Sendero students to Esencia K-8 and San Juan Hills HighSchool. That is why CUSD is denying Talega Mello Roos taxpayers seats at San Juan Hills and forcing them to attend San Clemente High School despite the completion of La Patato Talega Mello Roos taxpayers are legally entitled to 602 seats at San Juan Hills . Because the Ranch currently pays CUSD to bus its students to Tesoro, CUSD is denying Ladera Ranch Mello Roos taxpayers seats at Tesoro and forcing LaderaRanch taxpayers to attend San Juan Hills while new Ranch developments north of Sendero and Esencia will be zoned for Tesoro until a new High School is built.

Agenda Item #7 Award Bid No. 1617-15, Modular Building Services at Tesoro High School - Class Leasing LLC page 254

Board Meeting Agenda at 254: http://capousd-ca.schoolloop.com/file/1218998819331/1455438848279/1474344529390663222.pdf

Board meeting Audio at 38:44 http://cusd.capousd.org/cusdweb/audio2016-17/CUSDBoardMeeting.Jan.25.2017.mp3

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Agenda Item #7 Is a contract to lease (16) 24' X 40' Portable Classrooms + (2) 12 X 40 Restrooms for Tesoro

Agenda Item #15 Is a contract to remove 22 existing Portable Classrooms and replace them with a new 24 classroom building.

The discussion at the January 25, 2017 Board meeting revealed that Tesoro would actually loose classrooms for 2017-18 (removing 22 old portables and leasing 16) and then gaining a new 24 classroom building when construction is complete.

Tesoro High School serves the Cities of Rancho Santa Margarita, Las Flores, Ladera Ranch, Coto de Caza and Mission Viejo.

Tesoro High School, San Juan Hills High School and San Clemente High School are all impacted, with enrollment numbers that exceed normal high school capacity of 2,400 students.

According to the latest data from CDE enrollment at these three schools was (latest data 2015-16)

• Tesoro: 2,451
• San Juan Hills: 2,392
• San Clemente: 3,024

It is becoming more and more evident that the number of students actually at the sites are greater than stated here due to the impact of the new Rancho Mission Viejo Development which is projected to add:

• 1,118 K-8 students
• 266 HS students

just for the build out of Area 1 Esencia, and Area 2, Sendero.

The total build out for The Ranch will produce 14,000 homes (8000 that will produce students), and the original IRC projected the need for 5 elementary schools, one middle school and a possible high school.

Due to a lack of funding, the Esencia K-8 school that was projected to open in 2017-18 will now not open until 2018-19.

The Ranch is currently paying for busses to take residents to Las Flores K-8 and Tesoro High School. Both schools are now severely impacted.

Re: Mello Roos

Ladera Ranch has paid into facilities at both, San Juan Hills and Tesoro, yet CUSD is crafting a School of Choice policy that will deny them seats at Tesoro if the school is impacted.

Talega has paid into the facilities at both San Juan Hills and San Clemente High and again, CUSD's School of Choice policy denies Talega seats at San Juan Hills if the school is impacted.

What mitigation is the Ranch offering to give its students priority over Ladera Ranch and Talega taxpayers?

In the original EIR the County Board of Supervisors included a requirement that the Ranch was responsible for ensuring that adequate school facilities and services would be available at the time of CUSD's need.

That is not the case.

CUSD has begun the process of expanding High School capacity with a $45 million dollar expansion project that does very little to actually increase capacity.

The Negative Declaration for San Clemente campus improvements shows:

The proposed classroom building: 24 standard classrooms 2 men’s restrooms, 2 women’s restrooms, and 4 staff restrooms.

CUSD is going to vacate the classrooms on the upper campus leaving those facilities vacant, and move those students to the lower campus.

San Clemente High will loose 37 parking places which will not be replaced.

There will be no change in student or staff numbers on this campus.

The Negative Declaration for San Juan Hills campus improvements shows:

PHASE ONE- New Parking Area - Removal of 146 parking spots, build 157 new parking spots - Net gain 11 parking spots.

PHASE TWO- Construction of two story classroom building and 5 basketball courts.

The proposed classroom building: 24 standard classrooms, 2 men’s restrooms, 2 women’s restrooms, and 4 staff restrooms.

Current student population is 2,391. The 24 classrooms would allow for an increase of 648 students making the campus population 3,039. The current staff population on campus would remain as is- "No increase in staff would occur under the proposed project.

So they plan to add 648 additional students but not hire any additional staff?

The Negative Declaration for Tesoro can not be found.

In conclusion CUSD is spending $45 million dollars and not really getting a lot of new capacity.

Supporting Documentation can be found at:

Agenda Item #15 Filing a Notice of Exemption for the Tesoro High School Classroom Addition Project page 506

Board Meeting Agenda at 254: http://capousd-ca.schoolloop.com/file/1218998819331/1455438848279/1474344529390663222.pdf

Board meeting Audio - This Item Was Not Discussed

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BLUE CARD Dawn Urbanek This Item is linked to Agenda Item #7 Award Bid No. 1617-15, Modular Building Services at Tesoro High School - Class Leasing LLC and Agenda Item #19 Board Policy 5119 School of Choice

Tesoro High School serves the Cities of Rancho Santa Margarita, Las Flores, Ladera Ranch, Coto de Caza and Mission Viejo.

Tesoro High School, San Juan Hills High School and San Clemente High School are all impacted, with enrollment numbers that exceed normal high school capacity of 2,400 students.

According to the latest data from CDE enrollment at these three schools was (latest data 2015-16)

• Tesoro: 2,451
• San Juan Hills: 2,392
• San Clemente: 3,024

It is becoming more and more evident that the number of students actually at the sites are greater than stated here due to the impact of the new Rancho Mission Viejo Development which is projected to add:

• 1,118 K-8 students
• 266 HS students

just for the build out of Area 1 Esencia, and Area 2, Sendero.

The total build out for The Ranch will produce 14,000 homes (8000 that will produce students), and the original IRC projected the need for 5 elementary schools, one middle school and a possible high school.

Due to a lack of funding, the Esencia K-8 school that was projected to open in 2017-18 will now not open until 2018-19.

The Ranch is currently paying for busses to take residents to Las Flores K-8 and Tesoro High School. Both schools are now severely impacted.

Re: Mello Roos

Ladera Ranch has paid into facilities at both, San Juan Hills and Tesoro, yet CUSD is crafting a School of Choice policy that will deny them seats at Tesoro if the school is impacted.

Talega has paid into the facilities at both San Juan Hills and San Clemente High and again, CUSD's School of Choice policy denies Talega seats at San Juan Hills if the school is impacted.

What mitigation is the Ranch offering to give its students priority over Ladera Ranch and Talega taxpayers?

In the original EIR the County Board of Supervisors included a requirement that the Ranch was responsible for ensuring that adequate school facilities and services would be available at the time of CUSD's need.

That is not the case.

CUSD has begun the process of expanding High School capacity with a $45 million dollar expansion project that does very little to actually increase capacity.

The Negative Declaration for San Clemente campus improvements shows:

The proposed classroom building: 24 standard classrooms 2 men’s restrooms, 2 women’s restrooms, and 4 staff restrooms.

CUSD is going to vacate the classrooms on the upper campus leaving those facilities vacant, and move those students to the lower campus.

San Clemente High will loose 37 parking places which will not be replaced.

There will be no change in student or staff numbers on this campus.

The Negative Declaration for San Juan Hills campus improvements shows:

PHASE ONE- New Parking Area - Removal of 146 parking spots, build 157 new parking spots - Net gain 11 parking spots.

PHASE TWO- Construction of two story classroom building and 5 basketball courts.

The proposed classroom building: 24 standard classrooms, 2 men’s restrooms, 2 women’s restrooms, and 4 staff restrooms.

Current student population is 2,391. The 24 classrooms would allow for an increase of 648 students making the campus population 3,039. The current staff population on campus would remain as is- "No increase in staff would occur under the proposed project.

So they plan to add 648 additional students but not hire any additional staff?

The Negative Declaration for Tesoro can not be found.

Agenda Item #7 Is a contract to lease (16) 24' X 40' Portable Classrooms + (2) 12 X 40 Restrooms for Tesoro

Agenda Item #15 Is a contract to remove 22 existing Portable Classrooms and replace them with a new 24 classroom building.

The discussion at the January 25, 2017 Board meeting revealed that Tesoro would actually loose classrooms for 2017-18 (removing 22 old portables and leasing 16) and then gaining a new 24 classroom building when construction is complete.

In conclusion CUSD is spending $45 million dollars and not really getting a lot of new capacity.

Supporting Documentation can be found at:

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AGENDA ITEM #19 FIRST READING BOARD POLICY 5119 School of Choice page 526

STAFF PULLED THIS ITEM AT THE LAST MEETING STATING THAT THE FOUR CHANGES THAT NEEDED TO BE MADE WERE ADMINISTRATIVE OR TECHNICAL ONLY - NO POLICY CHANGES.

Board Meeting Agenda at 526: http://capousd-ca.schoolloop.com/file/1218998819331/1455438848279/1474344529390663222.pdf

Board meeting Audio at 47:47 http://cusd.capousd.org/cusdweb/audio2016-17/CUSDBoardMeeting.Jan.25.2017.mp3

MUST listen to full Board Audio- giving the Ranch priority over Mello Roos Taxpayers.

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BLUE CARD - Kim Spraug - very impassioned Ladera Ranch mom that has one student at Tesoro but second child is being told to go to San Juan Hills.

BLUE CARD DAWN URBANEK

Change #1

In the event that a school is closed the Board of Trustees will give direction to which assigned school the displaced students will attend.

Change #2

"After all School of Residence students have been placed, all children of employees will be given priority placement for the 2016-2017 school year at the employees’ work site if there is room in the grade level."

This gives children of employees permanent priority over everyone except School of Residence.

Change #3 (CFD) They eliminated the following language which was on the December 14, 2016 Agenda, but is not part of the current policy.

"For the 2017-2018 school year, the students who reside in the Ladera Ranch CFD portion of Study Area 209 can enroll in either Tesoro High School or San Juan Hills High School. In addition, the students who reside in the Talega CFD portion of Study Area 1500 can enroll in either San Juan Hills High School or San Clemente High School. A School of Choice application must be submitted within the School of Choice application window indicating which site is preferred. If no application is submitted students will be referred to the school they are zoned to attend."

Change #4

From: "If a student has continuously attended their School of Residence and moves anytime during the year, the student may apply for School of Choice upon moving. The student may remain at their approved School of Choice until he/she matriculates to the next level.

To: If a student has continuously attended their School of Residence and moves anytime during the year, the student may apply for School of Choice upon moving to stay at the current school. The student may remain at their approved School of Choice until he/she matriculates to the next
level unless the school is significantly impacted and the student is displacing a student living in that boundary.

Change #5

Any student enrolled in a District school that has been identified on the State’s Open Enrollment List or receiving Title I funds that have been identified for program improvement (PI), corrective action, or restructuring. participating in Title 1 Public School Choice.

Change #6

From: "A student requesting a transfer to his/her School of Residence, after having been accepted into another school through the School of Choice process, will not be guaranteed a place in his/her School of Residence, until after the next School of Choice cycle, unless space is available."

To: "Once approved on School of Choice the approved school becomes the student’s School of Record. In order to return to the original School of Residence, a School of Choice application must be submitted during the School of Choice window. A student requesting a transfer back to his/her School of Residence will not be guaranteed a place in his/her School of Residence, unless space is available."

BLUE CARD Diana Eubanks - another impassioned Ladera Ranch Parent regarding school of Choice changes that negatively effect children and families.

EVERYONE IN TALEGA SHOULD HAVE GUARANTEED ACCESS TO ATTEND SAN JUAN HILLS HIGH SCHOOL OR SAN CLEMENTE HIGH SCHOOL WITHOUT THE SCHOOL OF CHOICE LOTTERY A Letter from Talega Residents for Fair Taxation Laura Ferguson and Debbie Flowers CUSD has a dark history of lying. The Mello-Roos Act stipulates clearly what the district should be doing, but it chooses to ignore the law. Mello-Roos taxes from Community Facilities District areas (CFDs) generate special taxes paid by the homeowners that are earmarked for a special purpose, not a general fund.

The only reason for multiple readings of the district’s School of Choice policy is because CUSD wants to dictate where Talega kids attend high school and is attempting to deny their legal right for choice to attend schools that their Formation & Mitigation Agreements required them to fund facilities that would mitigate for their children’s impact on existing district facilities. The Agreement never said the district could take advantage of Mello-Roos taxpayers and force them to subsidize the expansion of facilities for neighboring communities beyond their impact. This represents unjust enrichment and economic discrimination. Remember a total of $20M in Mello-Roos was spent on each high school (San Juan Hills High School and San Clemente High School) above the basic taxes we all pay.

Talega Residents for Fair Taxation thought this School of Choice policy was concluded in early 2015 when members of our group addressed the board at that time. Then, the board had agreed on a district policy – in accordance with the Mello-Roos Act (Govt. Code Section 53312.7) –that gave Mello-Roos taxpayers priority attendance access because of their contribution of Mello-Roos taxes to the two high schools. It appears they’ve changed their mind.

Again we see CUSD attempting to manipulate the law and disenfranchise Talega taxpayers. Currently, CUSD is using $10 Million in Talega surplus taxes (illegally over-collected from the taxpayers over several years despite declaring in 2006 that Talega had constructed all facilities required to mitigate for our kids in our Agreements) to expand classroom facilities at SJHHS and SCHS, and it wants to control attendance access to SJHHS because it never required the 14,000 unit planned RMV community to build a high school. Yet Talega only generates about 600 high school students who attend CUSD. If you think about it, that’s only about 20 classrooms (30 students per room x 20 rooms) yet at this very time we are helping fund the construction of 48 more classrooms at two high schools.

CUSD should revisit the Mello-Roos Act, specifically Govt. Code Sect. 53312.7 (b): “The goals and policies adopted by any school district pursuant to subdivision (a) shall include, but not be limited to, a priority access policy that gives priority attendance access to students residing in a community facilities district whose residents have paid special taxes that have, in whole or in part, financed the construction of school district facilities…”  

Don’t’ lose sight of the fact that Talega students make up less than 5% of the TOTAL population of CUSD. Talega taxpayers are paying twice for the same thing through the use of their Mello-Roos and ad valorem property taxes they pay that are allocated to CUSD. Mello-Roos taxpayers are subsidizing the refurbishment/renovation of schools and school related facilities in favor of taxpayers who live in non-Mello-Roos areas.

BOTTOM LINE: EVERYONE IN TALEGA SHOULD HAVE GUARANTEED ACCESS TO ATTEND SJHHS OR SCHS WITHOUT THE SCHOOL OF CHOICE LOTTERY.

TAXPAYER ALERT

FRAUD & GIFTING OF TAXPAYER FUNDS

Agenda Item #22 Resolution No. 1617-56, Ratification of Agreement to Purchase the Esencia School Site and Delegation to Accept the Deed. page 225

Board Audio at 68:15

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THIS ITEM WAS MOVED TO THE BEGINNING OF THE MEETING BEFORE PULLED CONSENT ITEMS

Two complaints have been filed withe the District Attorney and have been assigned to Special Prosecutor Ray Armstrong.

One: For fraudulent purchase and sale of real estate (Gifting of taxpayer money to the Ranch),

and

Two: Mello Roos Taxpayers being denied seats at schools they paid for, to accommodate Ranch students.

District Staff is also being looked at for potential Brown Act Violations- Staff "cleaned up" signatures on the MOU which the public never saw until two days after the Board Meeting, and then amended the Agenda listing to make it look as though the MOU was part of the March 22, 2017 Board meeting.

BLUE CARD - Dawn Urbanek THIS ITEM WAS PULLED FROM CONSENT CALENDAR AT THE FEBRUARY 22, 2017 BOARD MEETING. THE ITEM WAS HEARD AT A SPECIAL BOARD MEETING MARCH 15, 2017 BUT NOT VOTED ON. IT WAS MOVED TO THE MARCH 22, 2017 BOARD MEETING TO BE DISCUSSED IN CLOSED SESSION AND TO BE VOTED ON AS AGENDA ITEM #22 In all previous documents disclosed to the Public, the price of the land for Escencia K-8 School Site was projected to be $21 million for 14 acres - $1.5 million per acre. The Board is being asked to approve a purchase price of $33.86 million for 14 acres - $2.42 million per acre. The CUSD Appraisal of this land was completed in October 2016 valuing the land at $33.86 million. Staff did not provide Trustees with an opportunity to review the proposal until the February 22, 2017 Board Meeting. The Item was placed on the CONSENT CALENDAR without a Price. Members of the asked Staff to amend the Item to reflect the sales price. The Item was amended to reflect a sales price of $33.86 million The agreement was signed by Clark Hampton on January 19, 2017 WITHOUT BOARD APPROVAL. The Attorney for CUSD signed the agreement with an X and is unidentifiable. Members of the Public have filed a Complaint with the District Attorney's Real Estate Fraud Division. This is 14 acres of dirt with NO Entitlements attachedto the land. The Appraisal valued the land at "Highest and best use" - as if it had 100 homes on it. If this agreement is approved - taxpayers will have been defrauded out of $23 million dollars. The fair market value of dirt without entitlements is believed to be $500 - $800 per acre - $11,000 million dollars.