JOINT STATEMENT CALLING FOR IMMEDIATE RESIGNATION OF CUSD TRUSTEES SHEILA BENECKE AND MARLENE DRAPER

San Juan Capistrano, California - In the election of November 2006, the people of the Capistrano Unified School District elected the three of us to the Board of Trustees by 17% landslide margins of victory - a clear mandate for change in the administration of the school district.  We ran as the "ABC Reform" candidates on a reform platform, vowing to restore honesty, integrity and accountability, as well as returning scarce dollars back into the classroom.  We answer only to the constituents of CUSD and we are charged to do what is best for all of the district's 53,000 students, as a community.  

Under the watch of Trustees Sheila Benecke and Marlene Draper, the school district has experienced a tumultuous decade of controversies that has included unlawful secret meetings, misappropriation or mismanagement of public funds, five years of budget deficit spending (2002-2006), unchecked funding of questionable building projects compounded by misrepresentations of their funding, including the extravagant construction of the district's 126,000 square foot administration building.

Trustees Sheila Benecke and Marlene Draper blindly followed former superintendent James Fleming (now indicted by the Orange County Grand Jury), doing his bidding without question and without properly exercising their principal duty as trustees - to put the needs of the children's education above all other interests.  

Trustees Sheila Benecke and Marlene Draper are currently under petition for recall by an independent recall committee that has identified them as the greatest obstacles to change and reform in CUSD. As stated in the recall petition, Trustees Benecke and Draper have, "permitted a culture of corruption to infect our school district" and "grossly mismanaged district finances."

Over the past several months, an unprecedented number of elected officials, mayors and city councilmembers, as well as the editorial staffs of prominent Orange County newspapers and media, have called for the resignations of Trustees Benecke and Draper.  By the issuance of this public statement, we add our names to the long list of elected officials who have called for the immediate resignations of Trustees Sheila Benecke and Marlene Draper.

We are honored to be part of the CUSD Board of Trustees and we do not take lightly our mission to restore honesty, integrity, accountability and transparency to CUSD.  Unfortunately, there are several alarming facts that we cannot, and will not ignore.  CUSD is in the midst of a budget crisis, operating at minimum reserves due to years of deficit spending that were approved by Trustees Benecke and Draper.  The leaders of the current recall campaign have confirmed publicly that they have gathered tens of thousands of petition signatures from constituents calling for a special election to recall Trustees Benecke and Draper.  The special recall election may well cost the school district $400,000.  Constituents have filed claims for millions of dollars against the school district as a direct result of actions by Trustees Benecke and Draper. The combined cost of these items could put CUSD below the two percent state minimum reserve requirement.

In light of these facts, the three of us implore Trustees Benecke and Draper to please resign for the sake of CUSD.  Whatever their personal feelings about the recall or its justification, whatever their opinions about the district's financial crisis or its causes, we urge Trustees Benecke and Draper to pragmatically consider these painful circumstances, and then act in the best interest of the school district by immediately resigning.

Due to our respect for the Board and in the hope that Trustees Benecke and Draper might 'see the light' and help to effectuate reforms as mandated by constituents, we have not joined the chorus of elected officials who have called for their resignations.  However, their voting record over the past year demonstrates that our hopes have been in vain, and that Trustees Benecke and Draper will not atone for even their most egregious actions. For these reasons, we now include our names on the long list of elected officials calling for their immediate resignations or recall.

If Trustees Benecke and Draper truly have the best interests of CUSD and it's children at heart, we call upon them resign before the tens of thousands of recall petitions are formally submitted to the Orange County Registrar's office.  Once the petitions are submitted, there is no going back and a special election must occur.  The outcome can only be a sad one for Trustees Benecke and Draper, as well as CUSD.  This is the time for Trustee Benecke and Draper to finally put the interests of the children above their own.