School Trustees Take Stance Against Airport

A resolution opposing the development of a commercial airport at the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station won approval this week from trustees of the Capistrano Unified School District, making it the first kindergarten-through-high school district in the county to take an official stance on the issue.

Citing concerns about noise, safety and pollution, the seven-member panel voted unanimously for the resolution.

According to the environmental impact report approved by the Orange County Board of Supervisors, commercial aircraft would fly over schools in Aliso Viejo and Laguna Niguel as often as 20 times an hour, officials said.

The resolution states that the effects on the health and learning of the district’s 38,000 students, especially the 6,357 who attend schools in the flight pattern, “have not fully been disclosed or analyzed in the EIR.”

Trustee Crystal Kochendorfer, who brought up the airport issue last month, said Monday: “We don’t know what the impact will be from the flight corridor. The studies from the EIR do not give us specific information.”

Several parents and other residents spoke in favor of the resolution, including Steven J. Frogue, board president for the South Orange County Community College District. He said his board passed a similar resolution in December.

“That document we paid $2.8 million for is a fraud,” Frogue said of the EIR report.

Capistrano Unified officials said they will send the resolution and a letter supporting it to local state and federal representatives, county supervisors, South County city officials and the Saddleback Valley, Tustin, Laguna Beach and Irvine unified school districts.