High School’s Growing Pains Infect Spirits

Expectations were high when parents and students celebrated the September opening of Aliso Niguel High School, a $50-million high-tech showpiece that educators said marked the “debut of a new era.”

While some parents and students remain optimistic, others have seen their hopes turn to bitter frustration and complain that the Capistrano Unified School District rushed to open the school before it was ready.

Because of torrential rainstorms last winter, only about half the campus--including classrooms, science labs, administrative offices and the library--had been built by the school’s opening day, according to district officials.

Meanwhile, continuing construction on the rest of the campus over the past six months has taken a toll on school spirit, leaving many students and parents feeling let down.

“It’s been a disappointing year,” said one freshman, who asked that her name not be used. “We came in expecting we’d have more than other high schools, but we have less.”

The main gym, swimming pool and classroom building for electives and vocational education, including the culinary arts academy, opened recently. But the student center, food court, theater, fine arts classrooms, stadium, auxiliary gym and playing fields still aren’t ready. The remaining construction could be complete by mid-May, school officials said.

Most of the school’s much-vaunted high-tech equipment has been operating since December, including a television production studio used to telecast the student bulletin each morning. The school is the first in the state to feature a fiber optics-based Dynacom information network, which links classroom video monitors and computers via remote control to a library nerve center filled with laser disc machines and other high-tech gadgets.

But while the school features cutting-edge technology, it was only recently that students could borrow books from the library because of a computer glitch that crippled the checkout procedure, critics say.

Without athletic facilities, teachers had to run physical education classes out of the library on most days during the first semester. It was only recently, when the gym finally opened, that the Wolverines could hold activities such as pep rallies for a large number of students.

Making things more challenging, the school opened Sept. 9 with about 1,600 students in grades 9-11, about 400 more than expected, causing temporary shortages in everything from books to teachers.

“There’s not enough space,” said Darin Wachs, a junior. “There’s only a couple areas where you can eat lunch. All this construction is going on. It interrupts the school atmosphere. It’s more like a construction site.”

Principal Denise Danne admits “growing pains” have been worse than anticipated, but believes that with patience, the school will live up to its promise.

“Because of all the technology, which has been borne out, I think the expectations were higher,” Danne said. “The higher you go, so to speak, the harder you fall.”

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Despite complaints, many more students have requested transfers into the school than out for the coming year, according to a district survey.

“We have a good group of kids,” Danne said. “They have done well in sports and academics.

“I feel the most important thing we do here is have an outstanding instructional program,” she continued. “I think we have that.”

Some students, like junior student body officer Maria Nguyen, believe the school will be great someday, but are afraid it will be too late for them.

Meanwhile, mounting frustration has made even the most routine challenges of starting a new school, such as picking letterman’s jackets and building school spirit, more difficult.

Some students recently formed underground newspapers to criticize everything from the lunch menu to the price of letterman’s jackets. (Some parents are also challenging the letterman’s jacket selected by a student committee, saying its all-black color will be attractive to gang members and put their children at risk.)

One profanity-filled paper circulated on campus earlier this month, the Unauthorized Media, said its purpose was to “force the administration to notice us.”

“For the entire year, I have heard nothing but criticism towards our school, well . . . keep up the good work, people!” wrote one student, using the name Cap’n. “I’m sick of hearing the dates for the school to be finished being pushed back further and further. The school shouldn’t have even been opened this year. Personally, I would rather be at a fully built school than this one, regardless that this is supposedly a ‘high-tech’ school.”

However, district officials say complaints would have been even louder had they waited to open the campus.

Without the new school, Capistrano Valley and Dana Hills high schools would have each grown to about 3,000 students, far beyond maximum capacities, said Tom Anthony, the district’s director of secondary education. Those two campuses already have at least 20 portable classrooms.

But parents and students say crowding has also been a problem at Aliso Niguel because parts of the campus are still under construction. Some say they would have rather waited at their old schools, even if they were overcrowded, until the campus was complete.

Grace Yokoi, whose son, Stephan, is a junior, said she didn’t expect the campus to be perfect on opening day, but she certainly expected it to be complete by midyear.

“We, the parents, are the taxpayers,” she said. School officials “have to know they’re working for us. We don’t expect them to do everything we want, but I want to make sure our kids get the education we expect.”

Parent Steven Rizzuto said his sophomore daughter is enjoying her teachers and classes, although he has become increasingly disappointed with the school. He resigned as booster foundation president this month, partly because of his waning enthusiasm.

“You expect a certain amount of issues and that’s OK,” he said. “But if I had to do it over again, I would have asked my daughter not to transfer. . . . I think the school was opened too prematurely. Too many kids are squeezed into too-little space.”

Others are more optimistic and believe growing pains will be forgotten once the campus is complete.

“I feel bad for people who are disenchanted, but I think, on the whole, opening that school has been successful,” Capistrano School Board President Paul B. Haseman said.

“I know next year when those juniors are seniors,” he said, “they’re going to have a beautiful facility and they will have a wonderful graduation and be very proud of their school.”

Junior Sun Hwang, a student body officer, said he believes the majority are winning what he described as a “battle of patience.”

“Things have gotten a lot better since the beginning of the year,” he said. “We’ve taken some big steps.”