SANTA ANA : Garfield Elementary Will Open Today

The new James A. Garfield Elementary School will open its doors to students, parents and staff today, helping to reduce the Santa Ana Unified School District’s space shortage, district officials said.

Students at the school have spent the past 18 months attending classes in temporary buildings on the playground portion of the school’s property, said district spokeswoman Diane Thomas. The new campus, at 850 Brown St. in Santa Ana, is the district’s 42nd.

The 5-acre site, designed as a “city within a city” with miniature streets, squares, alleys and parkways, includes a two-story classroom building, media center and library as well as a separate administration building. The classroom building, built to accommodate the school’s 650 students, includes 11 classrooms and two kindergartens, she said.

The district is the ninth largest in the state and growing rapidly. In 1980 its enrollment stood at 29,000 and has now grown to 48,000. District officials expect it to top 62,000 by the year 2000.

Thomas said that “because of incredible enrollment growth in the district, we’ve been trying to build schools as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, the money from the state is not forthcoming as quickly as we need to build new schools.”

The opening celebration will be at the media center at 5 p.m. and is open to the public.