Overall the meeting last night was very good. Well organized and well supported. Most of the presentations provided good information and was well articulated. The goal of the meeting was to educate the three trustees in attendance on some of the issues not provided in either the Regional Committee or ABC reports.
The trustees in attendance were Dr. Duane Stiff (elected in 2000), Ellen Addonizio (elected in 2006), and Ana Bryson (sp?)(elected in 2006). First they stressed that they had not yet taken a look at the recommendations as they just received the information last week. They also mentioned that this was not a school board meeting. Dr. Stiff stated, "We understand the problem and we need to work together." Dr. Stiff also stated that at the January 14th meeting he plans to propose the addition of 8 additional class rooms at VDM, he stressed that these will not be portables, but rather modular/pre-fab buildings.
Cindy Wright then spoke to introduce and thank the trustee members in attendance, the city council members in attendance (Steve Knoblock, G. Wayne Eggleston from San Clemente).
Mike Winsten then spoke to introduce the theme of the night and to stress that the meeting was to be held with respect, peace, and harmony.
Trustee Bryson then spoke stating that their was no perfect solution but their is a just or best solution and that is what was trying to be accomplished. She stressed that we need to make the solution work for our children and she "wants to hear what needs to be said."
There was only time to discuss 7 of the 10 topics. The topics presented include Mello Roos, Traffic, Safety, Disaster Preparedness, Lack of Talega representation, Need for a Census, and Overcrowding.
The speaker, Greg Dyer, for Mello Roos spent almost 45 minutes discussing the legal aspects of Mello Roos and his research findings. The cost of building VDM was $29.4 million of which $15.2 million came from the state in matching funds. The resulting $14.2 million comes from the collection of Mello Roos taxes (R5/R6), developer fees, and district fees. Mr. Dyer discussed what the law states and what the district policy statement said. In short there must be priority access to the school for those paying the Mello Roos taxes unless there is an overriding reason not to do so. Additionally this access right is directly proportional to the amount of taxes paid. He mentioned that he was having trouble finding out what the taxes have paid for or where all the money goes, at which time Trustee Bryson mentioned that she works for the county tax collector and could provide him direction on how to obtain that information.
Next Marty (did not get the last name) spoke about traffic. His goal was to stress the need for a traffic study. He estimated that there were 400 cars twice a day going through the intersection at the school twice per trip (coming and going). He also estimated that approximately 125 cars are lined up along side the school for drop off and pick up. Lou Avera (TMC President) then spoke as a member of the city traffic commission to state that the intersection was in the top 5 hot spots for traffic congestion.
Kristen then spoke on safety estimating that 226 families would have to drive past Vista Del Mar on their way to Lobo then sit in the VDM traffic (VDM starts later than Lobo), causing additional traffic and safety concerns.
The best speaker of the night was Sam Spitanko (sp?). His topic was disaster preparedness. He is a Lt. Col. in the Air National Guard specifically in emergency preparedness and response. He had six points that he went over than stressed the need for an emergency preparedness assessment. He referenced an east coast study of bus drives and volunteer fire fighters living in a 10 mile radius of a nuclear power plant (similar to us). The bus drivers and volunteer fire fighters were asked in the event of an emergency would you perform your EMS job duties or tend to your family, he cited that over 70% of the bus drivers and over 60% of the volunteer fire fighters would tend to their families.
Kristen then spoke again with concerns about how there was no member from Talega on either the Regional Committee or ABC. She stressed that they were not knowledgeable with regards to Talega's layout or the effect the Regional Committee's recommendation would have.
Cindy Wright spoke about the need for a census to understand school impact not just for Talega but for all of San Clemente. She asked how can you plan for growth if you do not know what that growth is?
Sandra Bertolo then spoke with regards to overcrowding. She mentioned that it is not just the number of kids at the school, but how do we accommodate the number of kids, specifically getting kids through lunch and recess. She stressed the importance of not mixing the middle school kids with the elementary kids at lunch time. At that point in time it was getting late and audience was getting restless so they committee opened the floor to questions.
Dr. Stiff's plan is to first increase the capacity of VDM from 1875 students to 2125 (not sure these are accurate). Then to formulate a plan to solve the problem for the long term. He stressed that we need to work together and that it was going to be a rough road ahead. During this discussion, Mike Winsten suggested using the land currently for sale at La Pata and Vista Hermosa to build a middle school (this was an idea that I had as well, more on that in another email coming soon). Mike would like to build a 7-9 middle school to help relieve over crowding at the high school as well, not sure of that a 7-9 is doable but a 6-8 is definitely doable.
The meeting ended after 10:00 PM. I then introduced myself to Kristen, Glenn Walker, and Cindy Wright. Kirsten and I spent some time talking and I think we are moving in the right direction for working together to accomplish both sets of goals. I also spoke to Mike about he and I working together to develop a proposal to build a new middle school.
