COSTA MESA : Trustees to Vote on Reopening Schools

Trustees with the Newport-Mesa Unified School District are expected to vote tonight to reopen two elementary schools in the Estancia High School attendance area in a bid to reduce overcrowding.

The decision comes after months of debate on various strategies to deal with student populations that have been growing steadily throughout the district. In the Estancia zone, all four elementary schools are expected to reach capacity in the next two years.

The district’s staff has recommended a plan that would reopen the currently closed Adams and Victoria elementary schools, beginning in September, 1992. At that time both schools would serve students in kindergarten through fifth grades.

For the 1991-92 school year, Adams will remain a kindergarten center, with first-graders from the Wilson district housed on the same campus so that students will not have to switch schools too often.

Also beginning in the fall of 1992, all zone sixth-graders will begin attending TeWinkle Intermediate School. Currently, TeWinkle serves seventh- and eighth-graders.

Parents anxiously awaited the decision and attended meetings for the last few months. Most parents expressed support of the staff’s final recommendation earlier this month.

Among the proposals parents objected to earlier was a change in boundaries that would mean students from outside the Mesa-Verde neighborhood would be bused to the Adams site. The decision to reopen Victoria as well as Adams will eliminate the need for some busing.