NEWPORT BEACH : Panel to Discuss School Crowding

An advisory group of parents and administrators in the Newport-Mesa Unified School District will meet Thursday to begin discussing options to alleviate overcrowding in the district.

It’s the first meeting for the Costa Mesa zone of the district, whose schools are bulging with steadily growing enrollments.

In the Costa Mesa zone, all four elementary schools are expected to be at or near capacity by the 1995-96 school year, said Dale Woolley, the district’s student services director.

The high school is expected to be near capacity by then, he said.

District officials began looking at the problem, zone by zone, a year ago when the board voted to reopen three schools in the Corona del Mar and Estancia zones.

The Newport Beach area will be studied in the fall, Woolley said.

“We’re going through each zone very carefully trying to make sure we have adequate housing.”

The advisory committee will meet at 3 p.m. at Costa Mesa High School to discuss options. Woolley said the committee will look at adding mobile classrooms or reopening Presidio, a K-6 school now leased to the Coastline Regional Occupational Program.

The school, which closed about 17 years ago, would provide space for an additional 436 students.

The board expects to arrive at a decision on March 12.