High School May Get New Lunch Pavilions

Mission Viejo schools are the subject of several agenda items at the Capistrano Unified School District board meeting Wednesday, which if passed, will mean a local high school gets more room for kids to eat lunch and the expansion of a popular language program.

Proposed are three, large, covered lunch pavilions at Capistrano Valley High School, which would cost $1.4 million. The district can use Mello-Roos fees from area homeowners to pay for the structures.

“[T]here is a need for more space for students to eat lunch,” says the school board agenda.

The outdoor courtyard and communal lunch space would also service attendees of the new theater, now under construction, the agenda says.

Another Mission Viejo school, Viejo Elementary, is the subject of another board item, whether to expand the district’s popular Spanish Two-Way Immersion program to all students at that school.

Currently, Viejo is the only elementary school with the program that also offers an English-only track for those neighborhood families who don’t want the dual-language experience.

San Juan Elementary in San Juan Capistrano and Las Palmas in San Clemente have converted over to an all-Two Way “language academy.” Two-Way is open to all students of CUSD.

Viejo is in its third year of offering Two-Way, and according to a staff report, the number of families choosing the English-only track is shrinking as the popularity of the Spanish program grows.

If the school board approves the language academy, the school will phase in a Two-Way-only program starting with the kindergarten class in September 2013, the staff report states.

Also on the agenda, the trustees will:

• Hear an update about how the state budget might impact next year’s school budget
• Consider releasing the results of an investigation into cheating allegations at Oxford Preparatory Academy, a local charter school. A report saying the claims could not be substantiated has not been made public, although Patch had access to it for an earlier story.
• Vote on whether the district should offer the state’s seal of biliteracy for students proving their merit in English and one other language; the seal is affixed to diplomas and/or transcripts

The board meets 7 p.m. Wednesday at the district headquarters, 33122 Valle Road in San Juan Capistrano.