Capo Unified Boundary Process Tests Parents

Frenzied phone calls and reading parties are becoming commonplace in Capistrano Unified, as parents in the south Orange County school district try to decipher the fate of their children before attendance boundary changes are finalized Feb. 14.

Many parents say misleading district correspondence, lack of information and confusing language and maps have closed them out of the process, forcing them to play detective.

“The process is frustrating,” San Juan Capistrano parent Cindy Barry said. “They kind of have the agenda already set.”

The schoolhouse shuffle is a troublesome side effect to the district’s attempt to ease overcrowding by opening three new elementary schools and one new middle school in the fall.

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Figuring out the 21 options that call for redistributing thousands of students in Aliso Viejo, Coto de Caza, Dana Point, Laguna Niguel, Las Flores, San Clemente and San Juan Capistrano is an overwhelming task that has many parents wondering whether the process is meant to be difficult.

“I don’t think that [the district] really wants a lot of input,” Barry said.

There are two options for filling Don Juan Avila Elementary School in Aliso Viejo, six for Kinoshita Elementary in San Juan Capistrano, seven for Tijeras Creek in Rancho Santa Margarita and six for Don Juan Avila Middle School.

“It’s hard to figure out the facts,” said Lanci Wall, a San Juan Capistrano parent.

Even those who have helped fashion the options acknowledge their complexity.

“The whole process is confusing unless you kind of have someone sit down and go over it with you,” said Lisa Millerd, an Aliso Viejo parent who helped draw up the first series of recommendations.

The district staff gave the trustees a briefing of several hours to help them wade through the information.

“I looked at the options, and now I have to go back to each one of them and figure out the impact on each one of the schools,” Trustee John Casabianca said. “It’s very complex.”

Despite the number of options, some seem only slightly different from others.

For example, three of the seven options for Tijeras Creek Elementary School in Rancho Santa Margarita are variations on the same proposal.

And the district hasn’t made it any easier, parents say, by playing down the importance of the issue, not explaining how neighborhoods are grouped and limiting access to maps that would clarify the issue.

Greg Tomlinson said he didn’t receive letters from the district even though his children may be changing schools.

“I’ve had to get a lot of information from other neighbors and copy it,” Tomlinson said.

And the letters didn’t adequately convey the immediacy of the plan, said Coto de Caza parent Janet Clark.

“It is still presented like it’s a study,” she said. “It should be worded in a way that’s direct and clear that ‘this will affect you.’ ”

But three letters about the process should be enough information, said Cindy Brown, manager of student attendance services for the district.

“I don’t know what else we could do to let [parents] know,” Brown said. “We’re certainly available here by phone.”

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Visualizing the proposals has been a problem for many. Instead of using streets or neighborhoods, proposals distribute students by study areas, groups of neighborhoods whose borders are sometimes unclear.

Worse still, parents say, the only three maps that explain each study area are hanging in the district office.

Barry said the small black-and-white photocopied map sent to parents didn’t have enough detail for her to read.

“Would it have been so hard for them to send home a map with colored overlays for each option to parents?” she said.

Brown acknowledged that parents were not happy about the inaccessibility of the maps but said issuing detailed, colored maps highlighting each option for parents would be too expensive, $100 for each 8-by-11-inch map.

About four months since the boundary process began, the district earlier this month tried to reach more parents by posting colored maps with the options on its Web site.

“I think that’s very clear,” Brown said. “In the past there would only be a large map on the wall to refer to. That’s hard.”

The posting expands parent access to colored maps but is impossible to view without Internet access. To combat confusion, parents have formed committees to exchange information and to propose alternatives to be presented at the final public hearing Monday.

“My mentality is, when you enter a public school, if you really want something you’ve just got to get it yourself,” Wall said.