TUSTIN : Sycamore School May Be Reopened

The Tustin school board will consider whether to reopen Sycamore School at its meeting tonight.

The school, on Elizabeth Way just north of Irvine Boulevard, was closed in 1978 along with four other schools when Tustin Unified School District’s enrollment was declining.

Now enrollment is on the rise. The district now has 5,449 elementary students enrolled and expects to exceed 5,600 sometime in the next school year, Assistant Supt. Hollis Griffin said.

“What’s important is to get the school open in a timely fashion so that we can accommodate the students that we need to accommodate,” Griffin said.

If the board votes to open Sycamore, about 300 students would begin there in September, 1992. Attendance boundaries have not been decided yet, but Griffin said district officials want to follow a “neighborhood school” concept, enabling students to walk to school.

The elementary schools whose attendance boundaries will most likely be affected by the decision to reopen Sycamore are Tustin Memorial and Marjorie Veeh.

Since it was closed, Sycamore has been leased for use by a private school and child-care program. Currently, four rooms are being used by the Santa Ana/Tustin YMCA child-care program, Griffin said. Whether that program can continue there will depend on the enrollment, Griffin said.