NEWPORT BEACH : Lincoln School Could Be Reopened

The Newport-Mesa Unified School Board, faced with growing enrollment at the elementary-school level, may decide as early as next week on the reopening of Lincoln School as an elementary school.

The board is considering two options, according to Carol Berg, assistant superintendent. The first calls for Lincoln to be reopened for all the fourth- through sixth-graders within its zone. Under the plan, grades kindergarten through third would be housed at Andersen Elementary, Harbor View and Eastbluff schools.

The second option calls for Lincoln to be a kindergarten-through-sixth-grade school, with Andersen and Harbor View offering the same grades. A third school would be constructed in the San Joaquin Hills area. Eastbluff, currently a kindergarten center for the entire zone, would be closed, Berg said.

The board will consider the matter at its meeting next Tuesday, and parents of both Harbor View and Andersen students are invited to an informational meeting at 7 p.m. next Monday at the Phase 1 Harbor View Homes Clubhouse on Port Westbourne Place.

Parents have formed an ad hoc committee to work with the board on the decision, which would not take effect until the 1992-1993 school year.

Some committee members say they are frustrated by what they call the lack of information provided by the board on the first alternative, adding that they believe that the needs of the children would be better served under the second plan, according to committee spokeswoman Candi Grant.

“The idea that your kindergarten teacher watches you grow through the time that you’re in sixth grade . . . provides stability and security in a world that is changing so rapidly and putting so much pressure on kids,” Grant said.

But Berg said unifying fourth-through-sixth-graders in one central location offers some advantages.

“The major plus for a K-3, four to six configuration is space,” Berg said. “And that the one school site (Lincoln) has some amenities . . . like a science room, a gymnasium, that could be shared by all the students in the zone.”