BLUE CARD Dawn Urbanek

The changes to this policy are for the purpose of making it easier to amend Board Policies without having the full Board hear and vote on each policy.

The Board is voting on many items dealing with Rancho Mission Viejo and Trustee Holloway is going to need to recuse herself from these votes because of her previous relationships with Rancho Mission Viejo and her involvement in the Donna O'Neill Land Conservancy. 

Trustee Holloway was not present at the March 8, 2017 BOT meeting.

Trustee Hatton-Hodson has not been attending Board meetings since October 2016. CUSD announced that she would not be returning until April 2017 due to medical reasons. Any Trustee who cannot fulfill their duties for any reason should step down as Trustee. Because CUSD is governed by Trustee Areas, the students and taxpayers in Trustee Area 7 currently have no representation on this Board and if these proposed policy changes are made taxpayers within Area 7 will be disenfranchised.

Schools represented are:

• Arroyo Vista K-8 School
• Bathgate Elementary School
• Castille Elementary School
• Philip Reilly Elementary School
• Tijeras Creek Elementary School
• Wagon Wheel Elementary School
• Newhart Middle School
• Tesoro High School

Tesoro High School is facing huge impactions issues as the result of the Ranch development. Mello Roos taxpayers in Ladera Ranch are being denied seats that they are legally entitled to in order to accommodate Ranch students. 

A 1,172-acre wildlife preserve on the border of San Clemente and Rancho Mission Viejo is poised to be absorbed into a larger South County nature reserve.

San Clemente's City Council agreed in concept to ratify the merger after being assured that public access and nature programs will continue in the Donna O'Neill Land Conservancy, a protected wilderness the city helped establish in 1990.

San Clemente, Orange County and Rancho Mission Viejo are partners in the conservancy. It was created as a byproduct of the 3,500-acre Talega development, which set aside the land for it.

The conservancy – partly in San Clemente but mostly in unincorporated county territory – is private land offering the public scheduled guided hikes and interpretive programs.

In 2008, Rancho Mission Viejo and the county asked San Clemente to agree to merge the conservancy into a larger, better-funded reserve, The Reserve at Rancho Mission Viejo, which ranch officials describe as 16,536 acres and counting as new pockets of open space enroll in the reserve.

Some San Clemente residents balked, fearing the conservancy would be swallowed up, that San Clemente would lose its voice in conservancy matters and that popular programs might not continue.

Since 2008, the city has partnered with the residents group Friends of the Conservancy to negotiate terms of a merger spelling out some guarantees:

• Docent-led tours will be a priority on conservancy land.

• No longer will all events require San Clemente residents to drive 15 miles to an Ortega Highway entrance to the conservancy. Some events will instead use a trailhead on the San Clemente side.

• A building donated by Talega developers to San Clemente's Tierra Grande Park, near the San Clemente trailhead, will be used both as a nature center and a San Clemente recreation facility.

• The city and The Reserve at Rancho Mission Viejo will join forces to ask that an annual $25 fee paid by all Talega homes for preservation of coastal sage habitat in South County be earmarked for use in the conservancy. State and federal wildlife agencies administer the funds.

• While San Clemente will not have a voice on the reserve's board of directors, the city will have three seats on a 12-member advisory commission.

Patricia Holloway, a San Clemente resident active in the conservancy since its inception, led the city's campaign. She presented the proposed terms to the City Council, recommending approval.

Conservancy supporters endorsed the accord. "It's a new day," said Guinevare Breeding, a volunteer at the conservancy. "There are many good things in this proposal. This is way beyond where we were two years ago."

The City Council, voting 5-0, approved the agreement in concept last week, subject to formal documents being returned to the council for review and approval.

Contact the writer: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 949-492-5127

BLUE CARD Dawn Urbanek

The changes to this policy are for the purpose of making it easier to amend Board Policies without having the full Board hear and vote on each policy.  

Trustee Hatton-Hodson has not been attending Board meetings since October 2016. CUSD announced that she would not be returning until April 2017 due to medical reasons. Any Trustee who cannot fulfill their duties for any reason should step down as Trustee. Because CUSD is governed by Trustee Areas, the students and taxpayers in Trustee Area 7 currently have no representation on this Board and if these proposed policy changes are made taxpayers within Area 7 will be disenfranchised.

Schools represented are:

• Arroyo Vista K-8 School
• Bathgate Elementary School
• Castille Elementary School
• Philip Reilly Elementary School
• Tijeras Creek Elementary School
• Wagon Wheel Elementary School
• Newhart Middle School
• Tesoro High School

Tesoro High School is facing huge impactions issues as the result of the Ranch development. Mello Roos taxpayers in Ladera Ranch are being denied seats that they are legally entitled to in order to accommodate Ranch students.