Quotes By Source
Fleming, James
Quotes By Source
Fleming publishes CUSD's dishonest admin building spin, lies about savings, CSR and funding source
Jun 29, 2006 | Permalink
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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.
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Fleming confirms selfish, misplaced priorities of trustees and staff
Jun 29, 2006 | Permalink
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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.
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Fleming spins to justify Taj Mahal with more dishonest rhetoric
Jun 29, 2006 | Permalink
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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.
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Fleming says boundaries couldn't be changed without upsetting someone
Mar 30, 2005 | Permalink
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James Fleming, The Orange County Register "People with good will will look at this data and come away with different conclusions ... No matter what I decided, there would have been a region that's upset."
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Superintendent Fleming blames partisan politics for district construction whoas; ignores district's own facilities planning failures
May 18, 1998 | Permalink
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James Fleming, The Orange County Register "They're holding the children hostage. The Republicans have said no, despite the fact that they were elected to represent the fastest growing school district in the state."

The state legislature voted against putting a statewide bond measure for school construction on the June 1998 ballot. A bloc of Republicans thwarted the bill, which would have allocated $6.5 billion for primary and secondary school construction. Of course, Fleming offers no explanation why the Irvine and Saddleback school districts, with similar growth and demographics, were able to cope much better. Fleming is the Superintendent of the Capistrano Unified School District.
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