Administration Building
Quotes By Catagory

Smith's plans for the new administration building

May 09, 2007
Sam Miller, The Orange County Register "Trustees Monday voted to lease out one of three wings in the new administration building. The decision will raise about $338,000 annually, which will go to older schools for facilities improvements. The district will consolidate its operations into the building's center wing and northernmost section. About 15,000 square feet in the southern section will be rented out. No tenant has been identified. Smith said the district will grow into the building."

Some residents had criticized the 126,000-square-foot building as too large for the district, and it was at the heart of a failed recall effort in 2005. School district officials moved in a year ago. Miller is the South Orange County education reporter for The Orange County Register.

Smith touts admin building pros but ignores cons and prudent alternatives

May 09, 2007
Dennis Smith 1
Dennis Smith, The Los Angeles Times "The district's Education Center is a valuable asset and a good investment for the future. We now have the flexibility to use this building for important school support purposes and to lease additional available space to provide extra funds for our schools."

District officials continue to promote the Fleming rationale for the new building - consolidation of operations, expansion needs for the next ten years - and a new twist by Smith - lease revenue from the portion of the building to be given to schools in the district. There was no mention of a comprehensive feasibility study to consider more prudent alternatives or any discussion about district-wide priorities and proper allocation of limited capital resources -- just plans to stay in the overbuilt facility until the district grows into it over the next ten years. Smith is the Superintendent of the Capistrano Unified School District.

Recall advocates said decision to lease showed that building the admin building was wrong, other options should be considered

May 09, 2007
page59_blog_entry177_1
Tom Russell, The Los Angeles Times "This absolutely shows that the recall reform advocates were right, that this building was not necessary."

District critics called the construction of the three-building complex unnecessary and extravagant. Reform advocates pointed out the false dilemma presented by the district - the old administrative facilities vs. the extravagant new Taj Mahal, without any consideration of alternatives like those modeled by other, more prudent school districts. The excesses of the new administration building are now clear - it is both extravagant and physically excessive. The district should call for a thorough, independent feasibility study to consider alternatives that are more prudent and fair to everyone, such as a sale/leaseback arrangement or a sale and relocation of operations to unused or under-utilized facilities in the district (a sensible option chosen by other award-winning, but more prudent Orange County school districts). Russell is the spokesman for the CUSD Recall Committee.

Admin building was a catalyst for the recall campaign

May 09, 2007
Seema Mehta, The Los Angeles Times "Construction of the center was controversial in 2005, when community members and parents grew increasingly critical of the board's decision to build it while hundreds of classes were being held in aging trailers. The center was a catalyst for a recall attempt against the district's seven trustees. The recall failed to make the ballot, but three recall advocates were elected in November."

Mehta is a reporter for The Los Angeles Times.

CUSD will lease a third of its $52 million Taj Mahal for $400,000 per year

May 08, 2007
page59_blog_entry209_1
Jonathan Volzke, The Capistrano Dispatch "Capo Unified officials intend to lease about one-third of their new Valle Road headquarters, using the income for facilities improvements at schools in San Juan Capistrano and Mission Viejo -- areas that contributed to the building's construction cost. New Superintendent Dennis Smith said the district will actually operate more effectively in the smaller space, and the lease could generate up to $400,000 a year. The construction of the building, which will cost more than $50,000,000 with interest, was one of the sparks that ignited the recall fire."

Volzke is the publisher of the Capistrano Dispatch.

Smith plans to lease entire wing of Taj Mahal & consolidate operations, calls $52 million admin building a "good investment"

May 08, 2007
Sam Miller, The Orange County Register "New Superintendent Dennis Smith said the move will earn the district about $338,000 annually, which he will then distribute to older schools to use as they please for facilities upgrades. The district will consolidate its operations into the building's center wing and northernmost section. The southernmost section will be rented out ... Smith, though, said it was a good investment and its size will be needed as the district grows in the coming decade."

Miller is the South Orange County education reporter for The Orange County Register.

Subcontractor says CUSD payment delays among worst in 30 years

Feb 08, 2007
Russ Patterson, Laguna Niguel News "...the district’s delays ‘are among the worst’ in his 30 years of working with public agencies.”

Patterson comments on the district's refusal to pay $1.6 million to various contractors in connection with the construction of the new administration building. Patterson is president of The Patterson Company, a subcontractor that did $310,000 in masonry work on the project, which has been completed and occupied by the district for several months.

Doomey admits public was misled, but takes no responsibility as public is told to "move on"

Nov 30, 2006
Doomey
Dave Doomey, The Orange County Register "Twice, Doomey was asked Tuesday why the public was misled. 'It was misinformation that was provided. It was corrected this evening,' Doomey said. 'But why,' somebody asked. 'I can’t answer that question,' he said, and moved on, despite insults hurled from the back of the room."

Associate Superintendent Doomey was finally forced to admit that the district had lied about the funding sources for the new administration building, but he continued to stonewall parents who wanted explanations for this deceitful conduct, avoiding all blame or accountability and, in essence, expecting offended constituents, who had been deceived about the spending of tens of millions of tax dolars, to simply "trust" him and the district ... again.

Many thought the proposed great expense of the new admin building was a joke

Aug 31, 2006
Pat Plepler CU
Pat Plepler, Dana Point News "Many of us raised eyebrows when the expenditure for the administration building was first announced, while thinking they were surely joking. But no, all jokes aside, while Junior walked to school toting a heavy load of books each day, to attend classes in a temporary building, the "supers" enjoyed their grandiose dreams." Guest columnist Plepler is a Dana Point resident.

If possible, admin building should be sold and money spent on facilities and supplies for the children

Aug 31, 2006
Pat Plepler CU
Pat Plepler, Dana Point News "Money once spent cannot be unspent ... unless ... unless ... that grand edifice could be sold to some large business venture and, following that, the "support staff" put in Quonset huts. (Many of you will not remember Quonset huts; others never heard of them at all. Springing up during World War II, they were somewhat like the temporary buildings we use for classrooms, only even more temporary.) As for the money recovered from the sale of the fancy new building, put it where it is most needed, and no, I don’t mean teacher’s salaries. I mean things to directly benefit kids, like decent, clean buildings, large enough to accommodate as many as needs be, with lockers for all, books for all, a library in each. From all that I read, hear, and observe, we have top notch teachers here." Guest columnist Plepler is a Dana Point resident.

Fleming publishes CUSD's dishonest admin building spin, lies about savings, CSR and funding source

Jun 29, 2006
page59_blog_entry47_1
James Fleming, Dana Point News "I am happy to say goodbye to our leases for five separate buildings scattered throughout our 195-square-mile district, especially as CUSD will now recapture $550,000 annually in lease payments for use to cover instructional-related programs such as third-grade class-size reduction. The new offices are owned by the district; the $35 million cost is paid with funds restricted to brick-and-mortar projects within the city of San Juan Capistrano." The district kept the leases anyway, putting Fresh Start children into the old administration building they said was too dangerous for administrators due to possible train derailments; the $550,000 they expected to "recapture" was offset by more than $1 million in annual interest payments for the financing of the new administration building; and Associate Superintendent Dave Doomey later admitted that the "restricted" construction funds story was a lie. Fleming is the Superintendent of the Capistrano Unified School District.

Fleming confirms selfish, misplaced priorities of trustees and staff

Jun 29, 2006
page59_blog_entry47_1
James Fleming, Dana Point News "The CUSD Board of Trustees has taken a certain amount of heat for its decision, six years ago, to proceed with a comprehensive solution for housing student support services needed for a growing district. That decision was foresighted then, and even more so today." So, Fleming admits that six years ago, while the district was beginning a series of deficit budgets and student overcrowding and facilities deficiencies had become a crisis at schools like Capistrano Valley High School, CUSD was developing a "comprehensive" plan for its new administration building. During the CUSD Recall campaign in 2005, Trustee Marlene Draper tried to cover for CUSD's embarrassing, decrepit portable classrooms, telling the press that the district had a "strategic plan" to remove them - a plan that was at least two years old. Of course, Interim Superintendent Charles McCully later confirmed that no such strategic plan existed and, to add insult to injury, immediately following the recall campaign, the Trustees showed their true colors by voting unanimously to pay for a study to maximize portables at every campus in the district. Even if Draper had been telling the truth about the "strategic" plan for the kids, it wouldn't have held a candle to the "comprehensive" six-year plan the trustees and staff dishonestly and secretly carried out for the new administration building. Fleming is the Superintendent of the Capistrano Unified School District.

Fleming spins to justify Taj Mahal with more dishonest rhetoric

Jun 29, 2006
page59_blog_entry47_1
James Fleming, Dana Point News "While we strive to keep our non-classrooms expenditures as low as possible, a growing public school district requires an adequate facility for well-trained support employees to provide instructional, fiscal, technological and maintenance help to our campuses." Fleming tries to justify the district's new administration building with half-truths that completely ignore the gross inequity of cramming students into substandard portables while splurging on administrative faciliites that aren't just nice, but according the press, is probably the nicest in the entire State of California (KCET, Life & Times) or even the country (ABC 20-20). Fleming is the Superintendent of the Capistrano Unified School District.