School Officials Updating Building Program

A new elementary school near downtown San Diego, a new primary school in Barrio Logan, and classroom additions at San Diego and Morse high schools--all to relieve overcrowding--would be added to the long-range building program under revisions presented Tuesday to the San Diego city schools board.

Administrators unveiled the proposed 1990-91 update of their master plan during the first of at least three weeks of public hearings over how to set priorities through 2000, given that the district estimates it is at least $80 million short of money needed to carry out all its plans, which total $402 million.

The new schools and additions would cost almost $30 million, on top of projects already listed on previous master plans. They would be part of permanent solutions to the severe overcrowding that plagues numerous Southeast and Mid-City schools. Last month, trustees approved expenditures of nearly $4 million for a series of short-term actions--mainly portable classrooms and busing of students to closed campuses--to cope with overcrowding during the next couple of years.

The proposals from schools Supt. Tom Payzant will be discussed by several advisory committees to the district, as well as by individual schools, during the next week and will be modified by trustees in subsequent meetings.

Trustees asked Payzant on Tuesday to rank the proposed construction in terms of importance, especially since studies of overcrowding in the Hoover and Mira Mesa areas are expected to recommend additional capital projects when they presented to the board in the spring.