O.C. School District Won’t Shut 3 Schools

Capistrano Unified School District officials have abandoned a proposal to close three elementary campuses after confronting the anger of hundreds of parents desperate to keep their small neighborhood schools open.

District Supt. James A. Fleming made the decision Wednesday to remove the schools from a long list of possible cuts intended to cover a multimillion-dollar budget shortfall. In a letter to parents, the schools chief applauded the nearly 300 who turned out for a town hall-style meeting Monday night to protest the closings.

“When you see that level of passion for a school,” Fleming said in an interview, “I knew we needed to try to make the cuts in a different way.”

Fleming planned to recommend to district trustees that they close the Carl Hankey, Del Obispo and Foxborough campuses next year as part of a broader effort to shave about $12 million from the district’s budget over the next two years. Shutting the schools, he said last month when announcing the proposed cuts, would save about $1.3 million.

Although Capistrano plans to end the current school year in the black, Fleming said that because of shrinking revenue and increased operational costs, district reserves over the next two years would fall millions of dollars short of state-mandated minimums.

State law requires school districts to submit balanced, three-year budget projections to county officials that must show sufficient emergency reserves.

Capistrano trustees must decide which cuts to order by Dec. 13, although they may be able to rescind some or all of their decisions in coming months if California’s struggling economy strengthens enough to increase tax revenues and provide school districts with an anticipated $1.4 billion.

Fleming said he was hopeful that state lawmakers would provide the additional funds, of which Capistrano would receive about $10 million. The district, one of the largest in the county, serves more than 50,000 students in kindergarten through 12th grade.

Parents rejoiced at Fleming’s about-face, but were wary of what may come next.

“I’m thrilled to death,” said Allyson Dayak, who is on the PTA at Del Obispo. “But I’m still leery. This came out of the blue, and then they just dropped it. I just hope nothing else comes along.”

Fleming cautioned parents that in deciding to keep the schools open, he had to find the savings elsewhere. The spared schools, he said, will have to share principals with three other campuses, and full-time custodial staffs will be replaced with a crew that will serve multiple schools.

Fleming also warned that, to avoid hiring more teachers at the three schools, officials may have to transfer students who try to enroll after the start of the next school year to other campuses and combine classes from different grades.

That is better than no school at all, Dayak said, but she expressed frustration after several years of deficits and cutbacks.

“I feel like we’ve been cut to the hilt and they keep on cutting,” she said. “We’ll make it work, but it’s not as good a situation as it was two weeks ago.”