Political war continues to rage in Capistrano Unified School District
Teachers’ strike over a 10% pay cut is just the latest dust-up. Now there’s another school board recall effort — the third in five years.
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 Lauren Lindroth, left, a language and composition instructor, and Gail Stirtz, who teaches accelerated English, sit on a curb outside Dana Hills High School writing postcards to school board trustees asking for support and an end to the first teachers' strike in Orange County in a decade.(Don Bartletti, Los Angeles Times / April 25, 2010) |
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For years, Capistrano Unified was the picture of a quiet, upper-middle-class, high-performing school district.
Students in the south Orange County district still do well academically, but the adults have waged a loud political war for more than half a decade. And they show no signs of stopping.
Last week, the teachers went on strike over a 10% pay cut. The school board wants to make at least part of that cut permanent; the teachers union has accepted the cut for this contract year but contends any extension should be open to negotiation.
And that's just the latest dust-up.
On one side of the divide is the Committee to Reform CUSD, which five years ago moved to oust the old school board and superintendent — and succeeded. On the other is a new group, Parents for Local Control, and the teachers union, the Capistrano Unified Education Assn. Both accuse the current trustees of being as corrupt as the old board.
Parents for Local Control is behind the latest school board recall effort — the third in five years. The 2,300-member teachers union stayed out of the 2005 and 2008 recalls; this time, with instructors on strike after contentious contract negotiations failed, the union has thrown its support behind the ouster effort.
Meanwhile, the district continues its yearlong search for a new superintendent. A wrongful-termination case by the previous superintendent, A. Woodrow Carter, was dismissed by an Orange
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