ORANGE COUNTY IN BANKRUPTCY : New Foothill Ranch School Will Open on Time After All

What a difference three days make.

On Tuesday, Saddleback Valley Unified School District officials sent grim word to parents that the Jan. 3 opening of Foothill Ranch Elementary School was on indefinite hold because of the county’s financial quagmire.

On Friday, the same school district officials changed their minds, saying that the contractor has agreed to continue work even though he already is owed $118,000, and that district number-crunchers have figured it won’t cost that much more to open the new facility.

The news was greeted with cheers by 370 students at Portola Hills Elementary, whose classes have been held in portable trailers and who anxiously await a move to the new facility after the winter break. They were notified at lunch, which turned into an impromptu celebration.

“We were all smiling and screaming,” said Jenna Scherman, a 10-year-old fifth-grader. “I was yelling. It’s the best. I still can’t believe it.”

Jenna’s father, Ron Scherman, who had grumbled earlier in the week about the delay, struck a far different note Friday.

“Just the other day I heard rumors that even worse things were going to happen, so I was pleasantly surprised,” he said.

District spokeswoman Elaine Carter said the decision was made after officials discovered that paying for the trailers at Portola Hills Elementary School would cost nearly the same as the extra costs associated with running the new school.

“It just seemed like the practical thing to do,” Carter said, “even though there will be some additional costs to the district.”

Carter also said that two of the 47 full-time and part-time district workers notified this week that Friday would be their last day will be hired back because the new school is opening.

“It’s almost a wash to do it,” Trustee Dore J. Gilbert said of the financial implications to the district for opening the new school versus keeping things as they were. “Think how bad you feel when you’re ready to move into you new home and you get a letter that says, ‘Sorry, it’s not ready yet.’ ”