SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO : Trustees Approve Blueprint for Future

Only minutes after adopting a plan that will guide the Capistrano Unified School District into the 21st Century, trustees started putting specific goals outlined in the plan into action.

In a series of votes, the Board of Trustees this week approved a fee-based preschool pilot program and tentatively adopted an anti-gang dress code and a board policy recognizing human diversity, three of several hundred goals included in “Capistrano 2000--A Blueprint for Excellence.”

“We have a lot to do and we have no time to waste,” district spokeswoman Jacqueline Price said. “We got started immediately.”

First on the agenda was initial consideration of a board policy on human diversity that reads in part: “No one, regardless of his or her personal beliefs, has the right to discriminate against, harass, abuse or inflict harm upon any other human being based on race, religion, national origin, ethnicity, politics, age, gender, sexual orientation, or physical or mental ability.”

Four members of the audience, however, criticized the policy, saying they believed that the school district was trying to undermine their ability to teach values to their children.

But in sometimes emotional responses, trustees said policy is intended only to promote a philosophy of common decency and human dignity.

“We will not tolerate any kind of discrimination in our school district during school time,” Trustee Annette Gude said.

Trustee Sheila Benecke likened the policy to the Golden Rule.

“We need to appreciate each other with respect,” she said.

Supt. James A. Fleming stressed that the policy is only a general philosophical statement, not a specific lesson plan.

Later in the meeting, the school board also tentatively adopted a dress code that includes regulations banning gang-related clothing as part of the Capistrano 2000 strategy to provide safe campuses and approved a pilot preschool program that will be funded entirely through fees.

The preschool program will be offered to 4-year-olds starting in September at Barcelona Hills Elementary School in Mission Viejo and Moulton Elementary School in Laguna Niguel.

The program will accommodate up to 48 children for three hours a day, at a tuition of $211.50 per month and a one-time registration fee of $35. Officials said the preschool program is part of a larger Capistrano 2000 plan to work with parents in better preparing children for learning at crucial early ages.

At the core of the 128-page Capistrano 2000 plan are goals to ensure that the 30,000 students in the district “demonstrate competency in challenging subject matter, including English language arts, mathematics, science, social science and the arts.”

Specific strategies for achieving such broad-based goals are increasing parent involvement, emphasizing career education, offering more school choice and finding alternative sources of money to bolster school programs.

Another important part of the plan involves giving educators at individual schools who are closest to the students the authority to make more decisions.

More than 400 parents, community leaders, students, teachers, administrators and school district employees have been involved since January, 1992, in developing the specific action plans in the document.