Voters recall two school trustees
With the recall Tuesday night of two school trustees in South Orange County, a group of parents, politicians and gadflies claimed their greatest in a series of recent victories: control of the embattled 50,000-student Capistrano Unified School District.
With relatively low turnout, about 70% of voters approved recalling Marlene Draper and Sheila Benecke, who between them have 36 years of experience on the board, and replacing them with substitute teacher Sue Palazzo and termed-out Assemblyman Ken Maddox.
Tuesday’s special election was expected to cost the district more than $800,000 at a time when the district is grappling with millions of dollars of proposed state budget cuts. Draper’s and Benecke’s terms expire in November, and both had said they did not plan to run.
The recall campaign was the latest controversy to dog the district.
Most of the district’s 56 schools are high-performing, but parents in the 195-acre swath of southern Orange County have in recent years loudly protested.
Among their concerns: the near closure of three elementary schools, the location of a new high school, attendance boundary changes and the construction of a $35-million administration complex while hundreds of classes were being taught in aging trailers.
Three years ago, parents joined forces to focus on getting rid of the district’s seven longtime trustees and the district’s longtime superintendent, James A. Fleming.
Fleming resigned weeks after the administrative complex opened in 2006, and he was indicted last year on felony charges of misappropriating public funds, using school district funds to influence an election, and conspiracy to commit acts injurious to the public, among them creation of an “enemies list” of people opposing him. He and another former administrator are scheduled to go to trial in August.
Critics had tried to recall all seven trustees in 2006 and failed because of a lack of valid signatures, but their slate of candidates won three seats on the board that year.
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Times staff writer David Haldane contributed to this report.
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