2008-2009 School Boundaries

Tonight is the committee Town Hall meeting at the Capistrano Unified School District office located at 33122 Valle Road in the city of San Juan Capistrano. I have written a speech that to give on behalf of the residents of Seaside. I hope to see everyone there, the San Clemente section starts at 7:30 PM.

For more information on this issue please visit the Capistrano Unified School District website.
Ken

Good evening my name is Ken Nelson, I am the delegate for Seaside to the Talega Homeowners Association. I currently have two children attending schools at CUSD, a freshman at San Clemente High School and a 6th grader at Vista del Mar Middle School. In addition I have a one year old who will graduate high school in 2025. As an eight year resident of Seaside, I have been chosen to speak on behalf of the residents of Seaside. You can see by the show of hands that we understand the importance of this issue. We would like to thank the committee for their efforts and for their recommendation. We realize tough decisions had to be made and any recommendation would be difficult to make.

We sympathize with our new neighbors in the recommendation’s effected areas. We sympathize because we walked in their shoes. For the first three years of living in Seaside both my daughters went to Ole Hanson Elementary School, this is now known as the upper campus or freshman campus of San Clemente High School. My neighbors had kids going to Lobo, Truman, Concordia, and schools outside of San Clemente and outside of CapoUSD.

When Vista Del Mar opened we were among many in the community to embrace the new school. We helped start the PTA, found and support the Mako Education Foundation, and volunteer countless hours of parent classroom time. Our investment in Vista Del Mar extends beyond the financial, we have memories created over the years of service and participation in our children’s education. One can realize our commitment by simply looking at the tile wall in the multi-purpose room and reading the names on the tiles, many of those people are here tonight.

While we support the current recommendation we do have an objection regarding the grandfather clause. We feel that it is not acceptable to force a family to split up unnecessarily. Additionally it is important to understand the benefit that a sibling has when attending the same school as older brothers and sisters. There is a certain comfort for the child as well as the parent in having familiarity and experience with the staff, the teachers, and the other families one has already had the opportunity to work with in the past. Furthermore the current grandfather clause has set a precedence that the new clause would completely negate.

MORE IF NEEDED DEPENDING ON OTHER SPEAKERS
It is not our desire to see the Talega family split apart. If there is a way to accommodate all Talega children at Vista del Mar and maintain the same quality of education, we would support the recommendation. The fact of the matter is the school is simply not big enough. Something has to be done for the good of the community, the school district, and most importantly for the good of all of our children’s educations. Furthermore there is no bad school in CapoUSD. Lobo is a California Distinguished School where Vista del Mar Elementary is not. Lobo is not impacted where Vista del Mar elementary is. Both share great faculty, families, and students. Both have extremely high test scores. Both schools are worthy of educating not only Talega’s but Capistrano Unified School Districts future bankers, doctors, educators, politicians, military professionals, scientists, art historians and even lawyers.

CONCLUSION
It has been my privilege to speak here tonight. Thank you for your time.