San Juan Hills High School - Controversy

Controversy

There was controversy when Capistrano Unified School District was planning to open this school. The primary reason for the controversy was the changing of the district boundaries. Capistrano Beach residents, whose students previously attended San Clemente High School, feel that they are basically a part of San Clemente and some initially resisted the change. Many high school students from Ladera Ranch will now attend SJHHS, instead of Tesoro High School in Las Flores. A small number of high school students from Ladera attend Capistrano Valley High School in Mission Viejo. There were changes to district wide boundaries, one result of which included sending all of the high school students in Mission Viejo from a split between Tesoro High School in Las Flores and Capistrano Valley High School, to just CVHS (due to the students from San Juan Capistrano, who previously attended CVHS now attending SJHHS). Dana Hills High School in Dana Point saw the loss of all its students from San Juan Capistrano and its boundaries shrunk. San Clemente High School's boundaries also became smaller, which was essentially a welcome change because the school was already overcrowded. They had over 3,000 students, now enrolling students from the growing Talega neighborhood in San Clemente.

Some residents of San Juan Capistrano have been concerned about the potential increase in traffic on Ortega Highway which leads to the school. It should be further noted that the main cause of the traffic congestion at the intersection of La Pata and Ortega Highway is due to ongoing construction—a widening of Ortega Highway (from the Antonio Parkway/La Pata intersection to Lake Elsinore) in an attempt to make that part of Ortega Highway a safer route to travel.