Cost Overruns
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More CUSD excuses - new SJHHS principal offers more pap to gloss over planning failures and serious safety issues

Aug 30, 2007
Tony Ferruzo
Tony Ferruzzo, The Orange County Register “Whether you are building a new house or a new school, you have to be flexible. There are delays you can predict and those that you can’t predict, and the ones you can’t predict are the most difficult...It will be slow going in, but once they are on campus it will be very exciting.”

Sure, Tony. Just keep up the excuses and happy talk to cover-up another long-term facilities planning disaster from the folks at CUSD. And keep pointing fingers at the roadway as the culprit behind the delays. Be sure to ignore the fact that even now much of the campus looks more like a construction zone that a school. And good luck getting CUSD to take responsibility for the delays for which they clearly were responsible. Ferruzzo is the principal (and spokeshole) of CUSD's newest high school, the controversial, $140 million (and counting) San Juan Hills High School, that has experienced numerous cost overruns, delays and continues to raise serious safety, financing, contracting, facilities equity, environmental and other important issues, yet to be explained by the CUSD trustees or administration.

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Draper reveals yet another excuse for not discussing the peoples' business in public

Jul 08, 2007
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Seema Mehta, The Los Angeles Times "During the meeting, the board agreed to settle a potential lawsuit with the general contractor for the district's new $35-million headquarters. The district paid the firm an extra $3.8 million and signed the settlement during a closed-session meeting in August. Although potential litigation legally can be discussed during closed session, prosecutors questioned why once the matter was settled it was not made public. Lubinski asked why the district was trying to "hide" the cost overrun and deemed the superintendent evaluation meeting "a secret board meeting.” Draper said the board discussed in closed session that the payment should not be made public because it could make it easier for other district contractors to drive up prices."

Thanks for the explanation, Marlene. At least now we can all rest easy knowing that the improper concealment of the district’s financial affairs wasn’t your only purpose in violating the state’s open meetings law.

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Cost of CUSD administration building balloons to $52 million! True sources of funding finally revealed.

Nov 14, 2005
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Increased costs to be paid with local Mello Roos taxes
A blockbuster article by the Orange County Register confirms that this extravagant project ultimately will cost $52 million, more than twice the amount originally announced by CUSD. That's right, the CUSD Trustees chose to spend 52 million taxpayer dollars to house approximately 300 administrators in San Juan Capistrano while thousands of children languish in decrepit portable classrooms.
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New CUSD Administration Building to Cost $35 Million

Jun 13, 2005
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Cost estimate increases 75%
In a new Information Bulletin published by Superintendent Fleming on June 16th, the total cost of the new District Administration Building is now estimated at $35 million! On April 26th the Superintendent published a in which he stated that the new District Administration Building "is built with some $20 million." That is an additional $15 million (75% increase) that is being spent on the administrators, instead of improving the schools for our kids. How much more money will be taken away from the kids before the building is actually completed? Read More...

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The Truth About Portables

Jun 12, 2005
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We've all been told by the district that the state requires 30% of all classrooms to be portables. The truth is, this requirement was eliminated seven years ago!

For a long time, the CUSD Trustees and Superintendent have defended their excessive reliance on portable classrooms on their representation that up to one third of all classrooms are required to be portables by law.  Since other local school districts had chosen to go a different direction, making permanent structures their priority, something about CUSD's representation didn't seem right. Since facts matter, we researched the issue and it didn't take long to confirm that the Trustees and Superintendent have misinformed us once again. Read More...

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The $133 Million Lie

Jun 11, 2005
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In the recall notices, we accused the Trustees of "...recklessly spending over $100 million for a single high school." Their rebuttal was published by the Superintendent on the district web site on April 26th, the day after the recall notices were served. The rebuttal was, "CUSD is by no means out of the average with a $100 million-plus total expenditure for a state-of-the-art facility. San Diego Unified is building a middle school for almost $133 million." This is a bald faced lie - and we'll prove it. Read More...

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