SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO : Aliso Viejo School Decision Postponed

After a lengthy debate, the Capistrano Unified School District Board of Trustees this week voted to postpone a decision on whether to spend $4 million on property for a temporary school for students who live in the planned community of Aliso Viejo.

The district’s student population projections show a continuing growth in the Aliso Viejo area, which district officials say will further overcrowd schools in Laguna Niguel, according to William F. Dawson, assistant superintendent of facilities and support services.

If the land purchase is approved, the new school would be ready to house kindergarten through fifth-grade students in the fall of 1992. It would be what district officials call an “instant school,” a campus completely made up of portable classrooms.

Facilities at the “instant school” would be minimal, and staff and students from this temporary facility eventually would be moved to a permanent school in Aliso Viejo that is expected to be completed sometime in 1993, Dawson said.

Trustees Marlene Draper and Crystal Kochendorfer said they were not convinced that land for the temporary school site was needed and asked district staff to continue to explore alternatives.

“I have some reservations,” Kochendorfer said. “But I understand we’re in a real population crunch in that area.”

“I’m not opposed to the purchase,” Draper said. “I just want them to investigate the possibility of using any of the existing sites that we already own. I want to have all of the facts in front of me that convince me that we either need this site or we don’t. I’m not convinced either way yet.”

Trustee A. Edward Westberg said he already supports the purchase of the property and feels that the board has been given adequate information.

“We are going to be a small elementary school short in the Laguna Niguel area,” Westberg said. “I think that the decisions that our district has been making in school site selection and population projections have been very, very good. They have done their research and I agree with them that this new site is needed.”

The board is expected to make a final decision on the matter at its Dec. 16 meeting.