Audit Shows 2 Capo High Schools Lack Sufficient Teaching Time

An audit by the Capistrano Unified School District has found two high schools do not have enough instructional minutes for the year and will have their schedules altered to increase teaching time.

In September, district officials confirmed they were looking into whether students at San Juan Hills High in San Juan Capistrano and Capistrano Valley High School would be in the classroom long enough by year’s end to meet state standards.

That audit is now complete, and schedules do need to be changed, according to a report to the trustees.

“Through an internal audit, both schools were found to be short overall minutes for the year due to the implementation of the five furlough days in June, coupled with restructured instructional schedule for the 2012-13 school year,” the report states.

Requests for comments from Capo Unified and school officials sent Friday went unanswered.

Because of a shrinking budget, the Board of Trustees in June voted to offer five fewer school days this year. Had temporary tax measure Prop. 30 not passed, that number would have increased to 15 fewer school days.

However, because the state was willing to decrease the number of instructional minutes taught in the year with the possible failure of Prop. 30, San Juan Hills and Capo Valley high schools would not have had to change their schedules, according to the staff memo to trustees. Prop. 30 passed, so the state did not adjust down the number of instructional minutes high schoolers need to complete.

The change to the high school schedules will take place in the next couple of weeks, the memo states.