COSTA MESA : Board Lays Out Options for Schools

Informational packets will be available today for people interested in the proposed options for dealing with overcrowding in elementary schools in the Estancia High School zone.

Projections show that enrollment at all four elementary schools will reach capacity in the next two years. At the last meeting of the Newport-Mesa Unified School District board, the district staff recommended that sixth-graders in the Estancia High School area go to junior high instead of elementary school. Under the proposal, TeWinkle Intermediate would be expanded to include the sixth-graders, and most grade schools in the zone would house only kindergarten through fifth grades.

The packets will reflect the information that was considered by the staff in making their recommendations.

“Now we’re coming back so that the community can see the other options that we looked at and what their disadvantages are,” said Dale Woolley, director of student support. “We are trying to come up with the best possible simulation that would disrupt the least number of people and is the best possible one educationally.”

Woolley added that there is still time for community response to the plan because the board will not vote on the changes until its second meeting in September.