ORANGE COUNTY IN BANKRUPTCY : Plans to Open New School Stalled : Education: District does not have the money to operate Foothill Ranch Elementary’s sprawling high-tech campus. Children will continue to use portable classrooms.

Jenna Scherman, 10, never thought her fifth-grade year would be marred by something so strange and hard to understand as a bond crisis or that the word depressed would ever enter her vocabulary.

But suddenly, her world has collided with the adult world, leaving her and her brother and sister--and 367 classmates--angry and in limbo.

Jenna and her fellow students, as well as 14 teachers and the principal, learned this week that they had become victims of the Orange County bond fiasco.

They were looking forward to moving to the sprawling new Foothill Ranch Elementary School on Jan. 3, but its opening has been delayed indefinitely because the Saddleback Valley Unified School District does not have enough money to run the school.

“I was just so mad,” Jenna said at her family’s home in this unincorporated community near Lake Forest and the Whiting Ranch Wilderness Park. “Everyone is so sad. Someone should do something! All the kids are so depressed now, because everyone was so excited, and now, they’ve taken it away from us.”

Since September, Jenna, her sister, Katie, 8, and brother, Robert, 5, have attended school in portable trailers on the campus of Portola Hills Elementary School.

That unpopular reality will continue for the foreseeable future because about $62 million in district funds were in the county’s greatly diminished investment portfolio.

Carole Wong, Foothill Ranch principal, said the district “just doesn’t have the money to operate another school site” as long as its funding is under a cloud.

In a letter sent to Foothill parents Tuesday, Wong listed a second reason for the delay: “The funds to make final payment to the contractor are held up by the bankruptcy.”

But on Wednesday, Wong backed away from that assessment. Although the district owes the contractor more than $300,000, Wong said he has received 90% of his fee and will get the rest in two soon-to-be-paid installments.

“If we continue to stay at Portola Hills, it saves considerably on operating costs--electricity, janitorial services, whatever,” she said. “And until this is sorted out, we’ll just have to endure it.”

School district officials could not be reached for comment, saying through intermediaries that they were meeting with county officials to seek at least a short-term solution in hopes of opening the school.

In the meantime, Jenna Scherman is trying to muster a can-do optimism despite the sadness and confusion. She and most of her schoolmates have taken to raising funds themselves.

“Every little bit helps,” she said. “We can always do bake sales and carwashes.”

Wong said a second-grade class began collecting money during recess Wednesday, raising $1.39.

“Another student in that class is very perplexed,” the principal said. “He wants to know why the county would be so foolish as to throw all of its money into a ‘pool.’ ”

As confusing as the crisis is, Jenna has no trouble finding the emotion that expresses it best.

“I’m angry,” she said. “It’s really complicated for the little kids, because they don’t know what’s going on, and it’s complicated for me too. I just think whoever screwed this up--whoever did this--should be . . . Well, he should be severely punished for it.”

Her sister, Katie, hates the delay, saying that the Foothill-bound students at Portola have never felt that they truly belong--and for that reason cannot wait to get to the new place, a jewel of a campus capable of housing 650 students. At the top of a steep hill, the school offers a stunning view beyond Newport Beach to the ocean.

Parents and students had been looking forward to the opening--not only because the school is within walking distance of most homes, meaning no more busing--but also because of its high-tech features. It will have a computer network linking all classrooms and a multimedia library center.

“When I heard about the bankruptcy, I got all sad, because I wanted to go to the new school more than anything,” Katie said.

And 5-year-old Robert? “I feel the same way my sisters do,” he said.

Like other parents affected by the news, Carol Scherman, 38, worries about the growing pessimism and lack of trust in otherwise well-cared-for kids who now know the meaning of a broken promise.

“We had nothing to do with this crisis, and to see the children--especially--be hit with this, was difficult to swallow,” she said. “This was going to be a big week at school, but the news just kind of crushed everybody.”

Like other parents, Scherman is most angry at the Orange County Board of Supervisors, whom she vows to remember come election time.

“I’m so disappointed at the lack of fiduciary responsibility on the part of the supervisors,” she said. “It’s very hard as a citizen, a homeowner and a businesswoman to fathom the thought that they didn’t know what was going on with the finances in the county. I just can’t buy what I’ve been reading in the papers, that it was the result of one person. I think it’s ridiculous.”

Jenna does too, so much so that, as soon as she’s able, she may run for office.

“You bet, when I grow up, if this is still going on, I’ll try to do something about it,” she said. “I couldn’t do any worse than they have, now could I?”