IRVINE : District Planning to Build New School

The main roads through the Northwood Pointe village haven’t even been built yet, but school district officials already are planning for the day when the acres of rolling farmland will be an upscale community with hundreds of homes and school-age children.

Projections suggest that the Irvine Unified School District will have to accommodate more than 800 new students by 1997, many of them from the growing northern side of the city.

So the district is moving forward with plans to build a new high school at what will be the intersection of Yale Avenue and Portola Parkway. Neither road has yet been extended into the area.

Construction of a new Northwood campus could begin as early as next year. Preliminary site plans and drawings were presented to the school board earlier this month. More detailed plans are now being completed.

If work on the high school begins in 1995, it could be ready for students by 1997, Supt. David E. Brown said.

But a timetable for the project will remain preliminary until the Irvine Co. finalizes its development plans for Northwood Pointe, Brown said. Completion of the still-unnamed high school might be pushed back to 1998 if construction slows at nearby residential developments, he said.

The Irvine Co. intends to build a maximum of 2,085 homes on 416 acres just outside the city’s northern border. The first homes should be built by next summer and the full project is scheduled to be completed by the end of the decade, said Ken Coulter, the company’s vice president for land development.

Northwood Pointe, also known as Northwood 5, will include a mix of both starter homes and larger homes as well as a retail complex, Coulter said.

The school would be built in two phases. The first phase would include construction of a main classroom area slated for a 1997 or 1998 opening. It would serve about 1,200 students. A second phase could be built later to accommodate a total of about 2,200 students.

The school would be situated in a small valley between Portola Parkway and the new Foothill toll road. Plans call for the construction of athletic fields, basketball courts and a parking lot, as well as a main classroom and administration complex. A stadium, gymnasium and fine arts building might be added in a second phase of construction.

Brown said the school would be designed to handle the latest in computer technology, including the use of CD-ROM information systems in the library.

Earlier this year, Brown and other district officials met with Tustin school officials about the possibility of developing the high school together. The school is not far from a portion of Tustin that also is growing rapidly. But after several meetings, both school districts decided against a partnership right now.

But Brown said it is still possible that Tustin might get involved with the project later, perhaps when it comes time to build the second phase of the campus. The state Legislature would have to approve a special bill allowing the districts to develop the high school jointly, Brown said.

Irvine school officials have yet to come up with a final price for the campus. Money for the high school will come from a tax assessment district that covers several new developments.