Capo School Lines Are Shifted

Trustees of the sprawling Capistrano Unified School District in south Orange County voted 5 to 2 on Monday night before a tense, overflow crowd of 250 parents to redraw high school attendance boundaries.

The meeting came as trustees apparently brought to a close months of contentious debate in one of the state’s largest school districts over which students will attend a new high school starting in August 2006.

Many parents, however, were unhappy with the result.

“This is fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants planning. It’s a flawed plan. It’s not well thought out. There is a tremendous rush to judgment over a highly contentious issue,” said Wayne Tate, the father of four from north Mission Viejo.

Trustee Marlene M. Draper defended the board against criticism that some neighborhoods were favored over others. “When we look at the district plan, we are looking at the district as a whole. We are not responsible to any single area. We are not influenced or bullied. I guarantee you we are looking at what’s best for all students.”

The new boundary plan affects hundreds of future students at each of the district’s four existing high schools.

Nearly all students living in San Juan Capistrano will attend the new San Juan Hills High School, which will be built in the eastern part of the city.

To bring the new campus to capacity, some students in the upscale Ladera Ranch development and from a tightknit coastal neighborhood in Capistrano Beach are also being relocated.

The plan approved Monday night was proposed by Superintendent James A. Fleming.

It also would shift students between existing high schools in an effort to ease crowding in the sprawling district that serves 50,000 students in seven cities.

Because the new school will open with only ninth- and tenth-graders, no students currently in high school will be forced to move before they graduate.

Since January, district officials have been holding public forums on the impending decision and considering boundary proposals from volunteer committees.

The process has been marked by angry protests and intense lobbying efforts by parents fearful that the redrawn lines would affect their children.

Monday night was little different.

The parents’ discontent and reluctance to change has highlighted many families’ strong connection to schools that some members have attended for generations.

And in a district in which nearly 70% of the students are white and the majority of the rest are Latino, questions of ethnic parity have played a role in the boundary debate.

Fleming has said publicly that his recommendation to the trustees Monday was driven, in part, by a desire to have no high school serving a disproportionate number of minority students.

In an unexpected, last-minute move, Fleming on Friday lowered the number of Latino students that would attend San Juan Hills.