Middle School OKd Amid Anger : Education: Trustees in Newport Beach vote to reopen Lincoln Elementary for grades four through six, a move that affects two other schools. Parents are fiercely opposed.

Despite hours of appeals from angry parents, the Newport-Mesa Unified School District board voted Tuesday to reopen Lincoln Elementary School as a middle school for grades four through six.

The decision means that Andersen and Harbor View elementary schools and the Eastbluff Kindergarten Center will house children in kindergarten through third grade when Lincoln opens in the fall of 1992. Lincoln will serve students in the Corona del Mar High School zone.

The board’s 4-3 vote culminated a three-month controversy in the district, with parents from Andersen and Harbor View supportive of keeping their schools K-6 and reopening Lincoln as an additional K-6. Parents argued that overcrowding at Harbor View and Andersen could be reduced by opening Lincoln and redrawing school boundaries.

The 11 p.m. vote followed two hours of statements from residents and a parents ad hoc committee in support of the K-6 configuration.

Kay Sandland, a member of the ad hoc committee, was among the first to address the seven member panel.

“If we truly believed that (a new middle school) would be better for our children we would turn around now and do everything that we could to convince other parents that it really was better,” Sandland said. “We can’t do that, there isn’t one of us who can.”

Sandland’s speech and most others backing the K-6 structure were greeted with applause from the approximately 125 people who attended the meeting.

Parents said that a six-year school builds strong bonds between teachers and students. They argued that the new configuration would result in lower property values because many people move to the neighborhood so their children can walk or ride to school.

When Lincoln reopens, the majority of students will have to be bused several miles to the school.

“There is an enormous lack of trust in the board and the district to deliver what it promises and this exists in our community,” said Harbor View parent Denny Lynn Engelke to the board.

“If you must, after serious consideration, decide in favor of a K-3, 4-6 configuration, against the wishes of a large majority of the community, I implore you to put your money where your vision is: Give us buses, safety provisions, supplies and exemplary leadership and staff. And have it all there on the first day of school in September of 1992.”

Sherry Loofbourrow, the Corona del Mar district board member, was one of those supporting reopening Lincoln as a 4-6 grade school.

“I think what it does is it combines the strengths of the two schools,” Loofbourrow said. “Teachers can focus even more completely on the needs of the child at each level.”

Ron McMillan, another proponent of the new schooling structure, said it would be an educational benefit to the students. Board President Judy Franco also supported the new configuration, telling the audience that in another school district the 4-6 structure has been “highly successful.” Board member Forest Werner also voted for the new school configuration.

Board members Jim de Boom, Kenneth Wayman and Tom Williams voted against the measure.

After the emotional meeting, parents, a few tearful over the vote, gathered outside to express their dismay with the decision.

“I have never been more proud of the people that I live and work with,” said Candi Grant, the primary spokeswoman for the ad hoc committee.