By Nathan Wright and Jonathan Volzke, San Clemente Times

Voters will decide June 24 whether two senior trustees of the Capistrano Unified School District should be removed from office.

Capping years of political strife between residents and an entrenched board majority, trustees voted 5-0 on Monday to set the special election to decide the fate of trustees Sheila Benecke and Marlene Draper. Both were targeted for recall after an unsuccessful petition drive to remove the entire board. Critics contend the district, generally well regarded for its educational successes, has been fiscally mismanaged by a board out of touch with its constituents.

The former Superintendent, James Fleming, faces felony counts for alleged political activities during the first recall attempt, including creating an "enemies list" that linked the names of district critics with information about their children culled from supposedly confidential district records. Benecke and Draper were among the trustees who gave Fleming a standing ovation during his last board meeting, even after copies of the lists had been leaked to the public, although district officials had steadfastly maintained there were no such documents.

After Monday's vote, from which Benecke and Draper abstained, the CUSD Recall group introduced Ken Maddox and Sue Palazzo as candidates for the two seats currently occupied by Draper and Benecke. Maddox, 44, is a former member of the California State Assembly. Before his political career, which began as a Garden Grove City Councilmember, Maddox was a Tustin Police Office. He has been publicly mentioned as a replacement for former Orange County Sheriff Michael Carona, who gave up his star to fight corruption charges.

San Juan Capistrano resident Palazzo, 59, currently works for the district as a substitute teacher and is a former fulltime teacher of the Los Angeles Unified School District.

The recall group backed a slate in November, seizing three seats on the seven-member board. But that has left to a fractured panel that often splits on key issues with a 4-3 vote, and led to a bitter public exchange between a longtime incumbent and new "reform" trustee.

 Benecke and Draper face a the recall after Orange County Registrar of Voters Neal Kelley confirmed that the signatures of at least 20,493 registered voters in the district were turned in on petitions.

State law required trustees set the election no sooner than 88 days and no more than 125 days since the election order. That meant the recall vote must be held between June 20 and July 27. Both trustees faced re-election in November, and Draper had already announced she would not seek office again. But no matter what, the election must now go forward, and it carries a stiff price  tag: $776,435. That will come out of the district's general fund.

The district is already cutting $28 million because of California's financial problems, and the district has spent more than its taken in for at least four of the last six years. Also on the agenda of Monday's special meeting: spending $176,000 on environmental studies necessary as the district prepares to cut the number of bus routes it runs from 66 to 19. The studies will look at the impacts of increased traffic around schools.

Trustee supporters contend the recall is a waste of money with so little time left in the trustees' terms and the budget problems. Recall supporters contend the trustees have been unresponsive to public concerns and financially irresponsible.

Founded in 1965, Capistrano Unified encompasses 195 square miles in seven cities and a portion of the unincorporated area of Orange County. With 56 campuses, it is the largest employer in south Orange County. The district includes all or part of the cities of San Clemente, Dana Point, San Juan Capistrano, Laguna Niguel, Aliso Viejo, Mission Viejo and Rancho Santa Margarita, and the communities of Las Flores, Coto de Caza, Dove Canyon, Ladera Ranch, and Wagon Wheel.