Opening the Coto de Caza Gates to a Public School

I am one of the minority of Coto de Caza residents who supported the recent proposal to build a public school in our community as a way of relieving the terrible overcrowding that now exists in our nearby elementary school (March 4).

I did so because I believe the well-being of our children should be our primary concern, and that receiving a $450,000 gift of new athletic fields from the developer was a good deal for our residents.

The majority, however, saw otherwise and voted the school down by a wide margin. What is more distressing to me than the vote itself was the hypocritical stance taken by many on the role of government in our community.

Among the major campaign themes of the leaders of the anti-school folks was that a public school was an unreasonable government intrusion or encroachment in our gated community. What is so troubling is that these same people do not consider police, fire, water and sewer services--all provided and/or required by the government--to be a problem, obviously because these residents have a personal need for such services. It does not take a vivid imagination to consider what would be the community reaction if any of them were eliminated from Coto de Caza.

Some of these residents are now demanding that the Capistrano Unified School District--a governmental agency--immediately solve the overcrowding problem, and have challenged the district superintendent to seek employment elsewhere if not done satisfactorily. To them, [that] means finding a location for a school for Coto de Caza kids in someone else’s “non-private” neighborhood.

At the same time, many of the residents who campaigned against the school have stayed silent on the proposed El Toro conversion to an international airport, a monumentally greater governmental intrusion that will have a much more negative impact on their quality of life and their property values.

TROY ROE

Coto de Caza

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F.J. Guarnera makes our community sound like a slave plantation. Many of us actually clean our own homes and pools, maintain our own lawns, and look after our own “brats.”

Guarnera asks if residents of Coto feel a kinship with their guardians. Does Guarnera feel a kinship to the police force in Laguna Beach? The writer obviously knows nothing of the issues involved in the school debate.

Coto is not the promised land, just a nice community filled with people who have worked hard to get to be able to live there. Trust me, F.J. Guarnera, the world laughs at ignorance.

DAVID EHRLICH

Coto de Caza