San Juan Hills HS
Recall Committee files third complaint re Old Guard Brown Act violations in less than a month
Feb 10, 2008
Complaint #3 re Brown Act Violations; Improper February 11, 2008 Meeting Agenda
Tom Russell, CUSD Recall Committee Spokesperson
Dear Trustees Benecke, Draper, Darnold and Stiff:
The purpose of this letter is to demand that you postpone and remove from the February 11, 2008 Board Agenda Items No. 37 – 41 relating to the construction of several multi-million dollar construction projects at the $150,000,000 San Juan Hills High School. For the reasons set forth below, taking action on these items would constitute a knowing and intentional violation of the California Public Records Act, the Brown Act and other applicable laws requiring competitive bidding. Read More...
Comments
Stiff does turnabout on SJHHS stadium bid; joins other Fleming trustees in proceeding before facilities assessment is completed
Dec 11, 2007
CUSD Board sends San Juan Hills High School projects
out to bid
The Capistrano Dispatch
The
Capistrano Unified School District Board of
Trustees voted 4-3 to elicit bids for several large projects at San Juan Hills High School including the campus aquatic facility and the football stadium. Trustees at the previous board meeting tabled the item after concerns that other district campuses needed more essential improvements. The item returned to consideration last night and was passed on yes votes by Mike Darnold, Duane Stiff, Sheila Benecke and Marlene Draper after the wording was changed so that the projects would only go out to bid. Like the vote earlier on the board presidency, Addonizio, Bryson and Christensen banded together for the no vote. Once the bids return the board will discuss whether or not to proceed with the projects based on the costs and an assessment of other facility needs.
Trustees voted 4-3 to elicit bids for several large projects at San Juan Hills High School including the campus aquatic facility and the football stadium. Trustees at the previous board meeting tabled the item after concerns that other district campuses needed more essential improvements. The item returned to consideration last night and was passed on yes votes by Mike Darnold, Duane Stiff, Sheila Benecke and Marlene Draper after the wording was changed so that the projects would only go out to bid. Like the vote earlier on the board presidency, Addonizio, Bryson and Christensen banded together for the no vote. Once the bids return the board will discuss whether or not to proceed with the projects based on the costs and an assessment of other facility needs.
SJHHS stadium...it's baaaaack!
Dec 07, 2007
Just when you thought it was safe to expect some rare, but welcome financial responsibility from CUSD, some of those persistent Fleming-era trustees and staff members bring back the controversial SJHHS stadium proposal, eager to spend meager district resources before the long-awaited, district-wide facilities needs assessment and master plan are even finished. Fiscal responsibility? Facilities equity? They continue to prove that they don't have a clue what those terms mean, as they undertake to cherry pick expensive pet projects, making a mockery of the district's master plan, driving the district into deeper financial peril, and setting the stage to pit parent against parent, again, at next Monday night's Board meeting.
Another turf war brewing in CUSD
Oct 17, 2007
Marlene Draper and CUSD staff are playing special
interest politics again, and setting the stage for
more community dissention
By Tom Russell, Spokesperson
CUSD Recall Committee
Last Monday night’s
board meeting (October 15) was an unfortunate
reminder of the days when former Superintendent
Fleming played politics by pandering to local
community interests, usually at the expense of
other communities within the district. If things
didn’t go smoothly, Fleming cleverly diverted
the attention of angry parents away from him and
his staff, to other parents in the district,
causing some of the nastiest turf wars in South
Orange County history. Fleming, in his own
demented way, even bragged about some of the
despicable tactics he used to divide communities
in an article he submitted to the American
Association of School Administrators.
This time, however, the seeds of dissention were being sewn by Fleming-protégé Marlene Draper, who pandered to the interests of parents at the district’s new “gold-plated” San Juan Hills High School. Read More...
By Tom Russell, Spokesperson
CUSD Recall Committee
This time, however, the seeds of dissention were being sewn by Fleming-protégé Marlene Draper, who pandered to the interests of parents at the district’s new “gold-plated” San Juan Hills High School. Read More...
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...
More CUSD excuses - new SJHHS principal offers more pap to gloss over planning failures and serious safety issues
Aug 30, 2007
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.
Superintendent Fleming “Resigns” In Disgrace
Jul 19, 2006
Rancho Santa Margarita, CA. CUSD Superintendent James Fleming has “resigned” in disgrace. “This moves us one step closer to restoring honesty, integrity and accountability into our public school system,” said Thomas Russell, spokesperson for the CUSD Recall Committee.
In announcing his resignation, Fleming posted three self-serving, self-aggrandizing and misleading statements on the CUSD official website. In summary, those statements provided: Read More...
Parents Declare War on School Board
Mar 25, 2006
The $133 Million Lie
Jun 11, 2005
