Board Approves Financing for New School

The school board this week approved financing to build an elementary school in Corona del Mar and lease 13 portable classrooms to keep up with enrollment increases in the Newport-Mesa Unified School District.

Through a special tax assessment district, formed by homeowners several years ago to help pay for education costs, the school district will raise about $15 million to purchase land and construct a school for the southernmost coastal area of Newport Beach.

The school would accommodate 500 students or more by 1999.

If the board decides not to build the school, the money would go back to the homeowners. However, district Supt. Mac Bernd said, “We anticipate that the project will go forward.”

District officials have been grappling for a year with projections showing an enrollment increase of 1,000 students by 2000. Under a five-year plan, officials hope to address the student housing problem in three phases by 2001.

The school board has also been reviewing proposals to redraw school boundaries and reopen the former Rea School in Costa Mesa by fall 1998. A study session on those ideas is set for May 15.