WESTMINSTER : Reopening of School Studied by Officials

As the Westminster School District reshuffles its boundaries to better accommodate its students, officials are considering reopening Naomi Wilmore School, which has been leased for the last five years to the South Coast College of Court Reporting.

The college, one of the largest court-reporting schools in the country, offers a three-year, full-time program that prepares students to become court and medical transcribers.

“We’ve been talking about (reopening the school) for a while, but I can’t judge the possibility of whether it will be done or not,” said Bill Lawson, assistant superintendent for educational services. “The concern is that children are being bused out of their neighborhood, and it would make more sense to have a school where the children are.”

College officials are preparing themselves for the worst. They said that if forced to move, they would probably go to another city.

“We’re not interested in moving,” said college director Jean Gonzalez. “We don’t want to panic the students, and relocating the school would be very difficult.”

Lawson said no proposals have been brought to the school district’s Board of Trustees and no action has been taken toward reopening the elementary school.

“Right now we’re gathering data and talking to parents,” he said.

The college, which employs about 100 people from the area and has 800 full- and part-time students, is one of the most innovative in the country, Gonzalez said.

Gonzalez said a change of location would be a major revenue loss to the city.

“We have 900 people here, in combination of employees and students,” she said. “If each person spends $100 a year on gas, groceries, restaurants, or flowers, that’s a lot of revenue to the city, and I hope the city of Westminster takes note of it.”

Gonzalez said that the school has not officially been told that the site might no longer be available but that it has been given warning.

Kathy Hettick, 38, recently moved to Garden Grove to be closer to the school.

“I would not be happy if they moved,” said Hettick, who is in her fourth year at the college. “I just moved from Orange to be closer, and I’d hate to have to move again.”