COSTA MESA : Groups Want to Use Community Center

By LYNDA NATALI

Oct. 19, 1992 12 AM PT

The City Council tonight will consider two separate requests from local groups wanting to use the Rea Community Center for social programs.

Newport-Mesa Unified School District officials have approached the city for permission to use the center’s mobile classroom to screen incoming students for medical and other potential problems.

Parents Who Care, a group formed by Latino parents early this year to help get children off the street, also is asking to use part of the center to tutor youngsters and provide fitness and other social programs for them.

The center, a former school that was closed several years due to dwindling enrollment, is owned by the school district. But the city leases the property, so all requests must first be approved by the City Council.

If approved, the school district would use the mobile office for Healthy Start, a program aimed at screening newly arrived limited-English-speaking students for medical problems. The district received a three-year, $400,000 state grant to fund the program, which is expected to help about 1,500 students this year, said Rosemarie Bodrogi, director of federal projects and adult education for the district.

Besides medical testing, the student’s English skills also will be evaluated for class placement, Bodrogi said. Healthy Start also offers parenting classes and referrals for parents to social service agencies if needed.

Parents Who Care is proposing to use three rooms at the center to house a variety of activities for teens. The group would provide supervision for the youngsters and all the events. However, the parent group also is asking the city to help with that supervision, which would cost the city an estimated $3,500 a year.

If the Parents Who Care proposal is adopted by the council, activities for teens would be held Monday through Friday from 6 to 9:30 p.m. and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Both requests will be considered tonight at the council meeting, which will begin at 6:30 p.m. at City Hall, 77 Fair Drive.