School’s Out From Now On at Bear Street : 1987’s Graduates Will Be the Last

After 21 years, a “school that was like a big family,” in the words of one administrator, had its final day Thursday.

Bear Street Elementary School in Costa Mesa is closing forever--the victim of declining overall enrollment in Costa Mesa and of Bear Street’s increasing business and traffic.

Marking the end was Bear Street’s final graduation. The sky was sunny but countenances were sorrowful as the outdoor ceremonies graduated the last sixth graders from the kindergarten-through-sixth-grade school.

Formerly Rural Area

“I’ve never seen so much crying,” Principal Betty Kratzle said. “I thought it would be all over because we had tears earlier in the week. The children had a goodby party for me, and we hugged and cried then. I thought that would be the end of the emotions.

“But after the ceremonies today, children started crying. Teachers cried. It was as if they were losing a parent or a house.”

The school is at 3100 Bear St., a once-rural area that is now only a stone’s throw from the expanded South Coast Plaza--the highest-volume shopping center in California.

“It’s not true that we’re closing because of declining enrollment,” Kratzle said. “Our enrollment is going up at the younger levels. The reason we’re being closed is because the street has changed; there’s now a lot of traffic and big business.”

The decision to close Bear Street School was made in the spring of 1986. Forrest K. Werner, one of the seven Newport-Mesa Unified School District board members who unanimously, but reluctantly, voted to close the school, said Thursday that declining enrollment was the chief factor.

“Traffic was a contributing factor,” he said, but mostly the closing had to do with the overall decline in student enrollment in Costa Mesa.

‘Had an Excellent Staff’

“We had two nearby schools, Paularino and Bear Street, with not enough students for two schools,” Werner said. “We could put all of Bear Street’s students into Paularino, which is a bigger school, but we couldn’t put all of Paularino’s students into Bear Street. So that sort of decided it for us. We had to close Bear Street.”

Bear Street’s students next year will attend Paularino. Werner, who lives in the Bear Street neighborhood, said the closing was especially hard for him because one of his sons had attended the school. “The school was excellent and had an excellent staff,” he said.

Kratzle, who has been principal at Bear Street the last nine years, said she thinks the school’s design was one reason it imparted “a real family feeling.”

“One big room held six classrooms, and that made for a lot of sharing,” she said. “Our school has always had a lot of sharing and caring. So, yes, it was sad today. Today we had some really sad children and teachers.”