Irvine : Plans Being Readied for High School Expansion

The Irvine Unified School District is moving ahead with plans to expand Irvine High School and is looking at proposals to raise money to build additional schools.

After considering reports on expansion of both Woodbridge and Irvine high schools, the school board directed an architect to come back with plans for Irvine. District trustees asked that Woodbridge High School be studied further, to see if any adjacent property could be purchased.

Also, the board endorsed a report on financing the building of new schools through a construction loan to be repaid later from a special assessment. The Irvine Co. made the offer because neither state funds nor a special assessment could be produced in time to meet the district’s needs, a spokesman said.

The district needs 800 to 1,000 more high school places “as soon as they can be constructed,” the spokesman said, and also will need a fourth high school, probably by the mid-1990s. It also needs “a couple” of elementary schools, in Northwood and south Woodbridge, to be open by the fall of 1987, and will need a third new elementary in 1990, the spokesman said.

The trustees also increased the maximum enrollment for elementary schools to 600, or 720 with relocatable classrooms, and for high schools to 2,100, or 2,400 with relocatables.