Local News in Brief : Irvine : School District Won’t Build in Tustin Area

The Irvine Unified School District board of trustees has abandoned a controversial plan to build a new high school within Tustin Unified School District’s boundaries, choosing instead a northern Irvine site that had been considered previously, district officials said Wednesday.

“The fact that Tustin was very opposed to the plan . . . caused us to consider choosing an alternate site,” said Corinne Riave, facilities planning coordinator for the Irvine district.

Board members voted unanimously against the 40-acre Tustin site at the intersection of Culver Drive and Irvine Boulevard, Riave said, explaining that Tustin Unified’s opposition would have delayed plans, thereby jeopardizing Irvine’s chances of obtaining state funding for construction of the new school.

The new site, one of four Irvine locations rejected by the school district in January because of community opposition, is at the northwest corner of Yale Avenue and the proposed Portola Parkway.

To secure a $25-million bid for state funds, Riave said the school district plans to purchase the site and make arrangements with the Irvine Co., which owns the land, to exchange it if it later is found inappropriate by residents or the school board.

If all goes well, construction of the school, which will cost an estimated $50 million, should begin between 1992 and 1994 and serve about 2,000 students.

Maurice Ross, superintendent of Tustin Unified School District, who had complained that an Irvine school would attract his district’s students and interfere with his district’s future plans for a new high school about 2 miles away, said he was pleased that the problem had been resolved at this level.

“I think it is in the best interest of everyone involved,” Ross said.