School Switch OKd for Next Fall

Tustin Unified School District trustees voted last week to move students and staff from Columbus Tustin Middle School to Utt Middle School next fall.

Utt Middle School was closed in the late 1970s and is undergoing major renovation expected to be complete by September, district officials said.

The move to Utt will allow the district to renovate Columbus Tustin, which was constructed in the 1950s and is also in need of major renovations, including the installation of air-conditioning, district officials said.

Under the district plan, students currently in seventh grade at Columbus Tustin who live within the boundaries of Robert P. Heideman Elementary School will be allowed to attend eighth grade at either Utt or A.G. Currie Middle School, with the district providing transportation as necessary.

Other students in the Heideman attendance area will be required to attend Currie Middle School until Columbus Tustin is reopened, at which time the board will reassess middle school boundaries.

All new middle school students in the district who live in the Heideman attendance area will also attend Currie.

Columbus Tustin is one of three middle schools in the district and current enrollment does not warrant a fourth middle school, district officials said.