Aug 22, 2003
John Casabianca, Rancho Santa Margarita
News “As
a parent I was angry classrooms were set up in the
library ... Despite this, at the end of the school
year, I could honestly say my children got an
excellent education.'' At the
August 18, 2003 board meeting, Trustee Casabianca
joined his colleagues in a 7-0 vote, giving final
approval for the expansion of Arroyo Vista School
from a K-5 to a K-8 school. During Trustee
comments, Casabianca remembered dealing with
overcrowding at Arroyo Vista -- there were 1,349
kids on campus in 1996 and 1997 -- when his
children went to school there. What he refused to
address, was that CUSD had created such
overcrowding by systemmatically violating the
exemption process under Title 14 of the California
Environmental Quality Act. Between 1993 and 1999,
the district illegally expanded Arroyo Vista
School by nearly 100% of its original student
capacity without preparing any environmental
impact study or report whatsoever -- three times
the 25% limit they were restricted to under Title
14. Casabianca and his colleagues were advised of
this before he voted to approve the
project.
Aug 22, 2003
John Casabianca, Rancho Santa Margarita
News "I've
never seen an issue divide a community as much as
this has." Comment
made by Trustee Casabianca at the August 18, 2003
board meeting, during which the Trustees, over the
objections of numerous residents, approved the
construction of the Arroyo Vista K-8 expansion
without first completing an environmental report
as required by the California Environmental
Quality Act.
Mar 14, 2003
Marlene Draper, The Orange County
Register "I hope that we
would look at schools that would appreciate the
improvement for their children."
Trustee
Draper made this sarcastic remark to rebut the
crowd's vocal disapproval of the district's
proposed expansion of Arroyo Vista School at the
March 9, 2003 Board of Trustees meeting, where
local residents made public comments unanimously
opposing the district's expansion plans. The
meeting was carefully controlled by district
officials to avoid discussion of the actual issues
of concern to residents (i.e., overbuilding on
such a small school site, unsafe traffic and other
impacts on the local community, increased usage of
the adjacent community park, etc.). Public
speakers were kept to one minute instead of the
usual three minutes for remarks and were met with
sharp reminders from officials that the evening's
discussion was centered on K-8s in general, not
Arroyo Vista in particular. Draper's comment was
rebuffed with defiant applause from the Arroyo
Vista crowd who opposed any change to their
school, neighborhood and park.
