Space to Learn : Santa Ana School Has Grand Opening, Grander Vision for Community

After three years of attending classes inportable buildings, students at Pio Pico Elementary School happily celebrated the grand opening of their newly constructed campus on Tuesday.

“We have more space here, it has new and clean bathrooms, and they give us more good food,” said Osman Carrillo, 8, as he attacked his lunch.

The 565-pupil school opened in temporary housing in 1991 to handle the overflow of students from the nearby Lowell and Martin elementary schools, which had 950 and 1,150 students respectively. Now that classes have been moved into the new, two-story building, enrollment is expected to grow to 800 by July, and instruction will be carried out year-round, said Principal Judith Magsaysay.

“It’s a better facility, and technology will be brought into the school through the fiber-optic system,” Magsaysay said of the $6.63-million facility built with state funds.

District officials said construction on the 4.5-acre site luckily was completed just before the county went bankrupt, so none of the construction funds were frozen.

The new Pio Pico on West Highland Avenue is pastel yellow, trimmed with green and maroon-colored door frames, complete with large bay windows and sloping roofs. The space-efficient campus is organized around a circular courtyard that doubles as an assembly area.

“In the portables, everything was farther apart, “ said Lucrecia Garcia, a bilingual instructor’s assistant, referring to the 15 drab-brown structures that still line the schoolyard. “Now everything is closer for everyone. We have more equipment, more personnel and the school grew. We used to have 10 classes. Now we have 18. And we hired eight new teachers. We had 10 before.”

Pio Pico had about 300 students when it opened, and its student body is 98% Latino. It made a name for itself as the first public school in the county to experiment with school uniforms as a means to focus students on their studies and minimize gang influence. To remind the youngsters of the school’s mission to become the “hub” of the community it serves, officials named the school after the territory’s last governor when California still belonged to Mexico.

“He was a philanthropist who supported public education and opened many public schools,” said Magsaysay, the principal. “The school board chose him because it was looking for a local Latino leader . . . (who) was active in his community. He is a good role model for the kids.”

Two fifth-graders--one speaking Spanish, the other English--told those attending the opening ceremony that Pico “is remembered as a man of charity, honesty and integrity. He never cheated, never sought revenge. He was generous and trusting. Pico strongly supported public education in California. We are proud to bear his name in our school.”