SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO : District Wants Input on Long-Term Goals

The Capistrano Unified School District will seek input next year from parents, students and teachers as officials try to set a future direction for the 28,000-student district.

The district’s trustees last week gave initial approval to Capistrano 2000, a strategic planning program designed to identify and implement the district’s long-term goals.

Supt. James. A. Fleming, who introduced a similar program in Dade County, Fla., said input from the community is crucial to the planning program’s success.

“The key thing is to get all of the stake holders in the district involved,” Fleming said. “The people closest to the scene may have the best idea on how programs should be organized and delivered in order to meet needs. For instance, the needs at San Juan Elementary School are going to be far different from those at Barcelona Hills Elementary School.”

The input for the three- to five-year strategic planning program will come from a 49-member committee that will examine data such as historical information, trends, student population patterns and district finances, Fleming said.

“It’s a way of really shaping the future so you can have happen what you want to happen instead of having things happen to you,” Fleming said.

The committee will begin work in January during a two-day retreat in which they will lay the groundwork for the plan, which must be approved by December, 1992, in order to be implemented in early 1993.

Before the retreat, the district will host three town hall forums to give members of the community an opportunity to voice their opinions to the committee.

The forums, all at 7 p.m., will be at Capistrano Valley High School on Jan. 8, Dana Hills High School on Jan. 9, and San Clemente High School on Jan. 14.