Racial Gerrymandering
Attendance boundaries at issue again? Say it isn't so.
Dec 07, 2007
Thanks to the incompetence of the planning geniuses at CUSD, parents are in an uproar over attendance boundary change proposals...again. About 200 parents crowded CUSD HQ Thursday night to protest two proposed revisions to school attendance boundaries that would force some children to attend elementary and middle schools up to five miles from their neighborhood campuses. At least with parent committees "responsible" for the proposals, the old-guard Fleming trustees and their trusty staff can do some of their traditional finger-pointing.
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OC Weekly reports on San Juan Hills High - and cuts through the CUSD "happy talk"
Sep 13, 2007
Surreal Estate
A
short, strange trip up the winding road to the
brand-new, landfill-adjacent San Juan Hills High
BY DAFFODIL J. ALTAN
Daffodil Altan, OC Weekly The new San Juan Hills High School in San Juan Capistrano has all the makings of a state-of-the-art facility—tennis courts; an expansive performing-arts center; track, baseball and soccer fields. But a young freshman could find her trip to the new school’s pristine, as-yet-unfinished campus to be, well, a trip.
She might or might not know about the controversy surrounding the school—from the vote by residents in 2002 to not build the school there to the Capistrano Unified School District’s decision to go ahead anyway; from how much it has cost (a whopping $140 million) to the lawsuits over the use of race during the drawing of district boundaries. As it stands today, it is nearly complete and has its first signs of wide-eyed freshman life pouring in (fewer students than the district expected enrolled as sophomores, so the school opened with only the freshman class of 600 students). It is, after all, the first school built since 1964 in a district with crowded high schools. Read More...
BY DAFFODIL J. ALTAN
Daffodil Altan, OC Weekly The new San Juan Hills High School in San Juan Capistrano has all the makings of a state-of-the-art facility—tennis courts; an expansive performing-arts center; track, baseball and soccer fields. But a young freshman could find her trip to the new school’s pristine, as-yet-unfinished campus to be, well, a trip.
She might or might not know about the controversy surrounding the school—from the vote by residents in 2002 to not build the school there to the Capistrano Unified School District’s decision to go ahead anyway; from how much it has cost (a whopping $140 million) to the lawsuits over the use of race during the drawing of district boundaries. As it stands today, it is nearly complete and has its first signs of wide-eyed freshman life pouring in (fewer students than the district expected enrolled as sophomores, so the school opened with only the freshman class of 600 students). It is, after all, the first school built since 1964 in a district with crowded high schools. Read More...
Signs that CUSD has learned its lessons
Dec 03, 2006
New leadership of Capistrano district admits
mistakes, changes controversial
policy
Editorial, The Orange County
Register Finally, Orange County
residents are getting some good news from the
Capistrano Unified School District, the massive
south county district that has been plagued by
scandal for several months and controversy for
several years. The new administration, headed by
interim Superintendent Charles McCully, is
settling outstanding legal disputes and admitting
mistakes that the district’s administration had
made, which sends signals that, perhaps, badly
needed reform is in the air. Read
More...
Capo crossed a line
Sep 04, 2006
Court says school district’s racial gerrymander
violated
Proposition 209
Editorial, The Orange County
Register Capistrano Unified
School District Superintendent James Fleming
retired under a cloud of controversy, Orange
County Superior Court Judge Gail Andler issued a
ruling Aug. 25 that is the equivalent of the door
hitting Mr. Fleming on the backside as he left the
building. The judge ruled that Capo Unified’s
racially gerrymandered school attendance
boundaries violate Proposition 209, which bans
state and local governments from discriminating on
the basis of race or ethnicity. Read
More...
Proposition 209
CUSD Lawsuit Set For Hearing
Aug 09, 2006
Talega resident, attorney and all-around great guy Mike Winsten is getting his day in court.
On behalf of all Talega residents, he sued the Capistrano Unified School District claiming that their plan to bus high school age Talega residents to SJC (rather than allow them to attend San Clemente High School) is in violation of Prop 209. Read More...
Good riddance to Fleming
Jul 24, 2006
Capistrano Unified Superintendent James Fleming epitomized the arrogance that comes with excessive power. He stepped down after the Register reported that the district had compiled an enemies list of those who supported a school board recall. Fleming denied such a thing, then later admitted that he had a list, but claimed -- one of the most unbelievable claims I've heard in a long time -- that he compiled the data on parents and their children out of concern that they might be hacking into district computers. Talk about paranoia and deception. Read More...
CUSD Trustees and Superintendent engage in improper coercion, intimidation and fear
Jul 10, 2006
• Superintendent Fleming Has Created a Mafia-like
Organization and Infrastructure
• Specific Examples of Coercion, Intimidation and Fear
• We call upon the District Attorney to conduct a full and complete investigation
Superintendent James
A. Fleming and the seven CUSD Trustees have
institutionalized a district-wide atmosphere
where parents, teachers and administrators are
afraid to speak out for fear of retaliation.
They improperly use their official
office/capacity to intentionally create an
environment within the district that makes it
virtually impossible for any one to express
disagreement with the district without being
subjected to retribution or the threat thereof.
The CUSD leadership routinely punishes (or
threatens to punish) parents and their children,
teachers and administrators who dare to speak
out against them or their agenda. Conversely,
the CUSD leadership rewards those who are loyal
and willing to carry out their “dirty
work.” Read
More...
• Specific Examples of Coercion, Intimidation and Fear
• We call upon the District Attorney to conduct a full and complete investigation
PLF Fights To Stop School District From Color-Coding Kids
Aug 01, 2005
The following op-ed was co-written by Harold Johnson, a PLF attorney, and Arthur B. Mark III, a former PLF attorney.
Like Rip Van Winkle, administrators at Capistrano Unified School District apparently missed some big news. They’re acting as if Proposition 209, the 1996 initiative that forbids race-based policies in California schools, was never put on the books. The district recently redrew attendance boundaries in a disruptive way that uses students’ skin color, in part, to determine where they will go to school. Read More...
Parents Sue Capistrano Unified School District Over Racially Based High School Boundaries That Violate Prop. 209
Jun 16, 2005
