Student Transfers in Capistrano District

The Capistrano Unified School District Board voted recently to send more than 700 children to different schools because of so-called “imbalances of enrollment”.

The children who are being transferred from Castille Elementary School to Barcelona Hills are leaving their houses not yet built.

The board speaks of keeping schools oriented to neighborhoods but completely ignores the concept of a neighborhood as it exists in the school itself. They also ignore the fact that, this fall, children who move into newly completed homes (many miles away in Coto de Caza) will be sitting in the desks of children whose homes are very close to Castille and who were unnecessarily transferred to another school.

Our children will have endured a change for the sake of keeping the district staff from the ego-bruising experience of being proved wrong by a mere group of citizens. Dr. Jerry Thornsley, the district superintendent, said that this could be a positive experience to teach our children how to deal with change.

It was this same Dr. Thornsley who has boasted that his staff has never changed a recommendation as a result of community input and that he is consistently within 2% of forecast enrollment projections. Where was his brilliance when so many children were being assigned to Castille, thus causing this unnecessary dilemma in the first place? Of course, with such a dependent board, he has no worries about being held accountable.

The board voted and it is done! Now comes our turn. We will vote in 1990 and 1992. After that, or if we’re really lucky, even before, we all look forward to sitting down with Jerry Thornsley and helping him to view his next job as a positive learning experience too.

JIM AND MARILYN STEPHEN

Mission Viejo