SANTA ANA : Elementary School Groundbreaking Set

Santa Ana High School will have a new neighbor next year when construction of Martin A. Heninger Elementary School is complete.

Santa Ana Unified School District officials, including School Board President Sal Mendoza and Supt. Rudy M. Castruita, will preside over a groundbreaking ceremony for the new school at 1 p.m. on Tuesday at 417 W. Walnut St.

The school, scheduled to open in early 1992, will be immediately north and east of the county’s first high school and will help to ease overcrowding in the district.

The school will include 19 regular and two kindergarten classrooms.

The new school is expected to ease overcrowding at Grant, Lowell and Wilson elementary schools. Students from those three schools will participate in the groundbreaking.

Santa Ana Unified is one of the fastest growing districts in the state, said Diane Thomas, district spokeswoman. The district has gained 3,300 students since the beginning of the school year, bringing enrollment to nearly 46,000. Enrollment is expected to reach 62,000 students by the year 2000, district officials said.

Because of overcrowding, the district has been forced to place hundreds of portable classrooms on existing school sites and has placed most of its elementary schools on a year-round calendar.

In the past 18 months, the district has opened a new high school, two elementary schools, established a temporary elementary school made up of portable classrooms and begun construction on three elementary schools.