NEWPORT BEACH : Eastbluff Residents Back Child-Care Use

More than 100 Eastbluff residents urged the Newport-Mesa Unified School District board this week to scrap plans to lease an old school site in their neighborhood to a community college and instead use it as a day-care center.

Amid shouts of support and raucous applause, residents told the board Tuesday of the large demand for child-care facilities in Newport Beach and again expressed opposition to the proposal that calls for leasing the Eastbluff Kindergarten Center, now used by a local YMCA, for use as a satellite site of Coastline Community College.

Coastline Community College officials have said that they would offer child care on the site and reiterated that pledge at the meeting Tuesday.

“Coastline strongly agrees this site would be ideal for this type of (child care) service,” said Kevin McElroy, a vice president at Coastline.

On Tuesday, the Newport-Mesa district also received competing proposals from two day-care operators who want to lease the site.

A lease agreement for the site could bring in needed revenues for the financially troubled district, and Coastline and the two competitors have bid to lease the site for $100,000 a year.

“We agree with you that Eastbluff should not remain empty, and we agree with you that the board should make money on the site,” G. Edward McCullough, a representative of the North Bluff Park Community Assn., told the board. “Child care is a matter affecting the entire Newport-Mesa Unified School District and has the least impact to the neighborhood.”

At one point during Tuesday’s talk, one woman read the board a list of two dozen women in the area who are expecting babies or have newborns and would use an infant care center in the neighborhood.

McElroy said the college hopes to continue working with neighbors, but has no plans to alter its proposal.

The board is scheduled to vote on the competing proposals at its meeting July 14.