NEWPORT BEACH / COSTA MESA : District Grapples With Anticipated Student Growth

Department heads at the Newport-Mesa Unified School District have begun grappling with ways to accommodate expected growth in the student population to the year 2000.

New Irvine Co. developments in eastern Newport Beach and on county land between Newport Beach and Laguna Beach, along with young families moving into existing neighborhoods, will bring between 200 and 300 new elementary school pupils and about 300 middle and high school students into the district each year over the next five years, projections indicate.

Portable classrooms will be added to some elementary and middle schools as a temporary solution for the 1995-96 school year, said Dale Wooley, director of planning and program development.

Longer-range answers are needed for lower grades, which are at 99% of capacity districtwide, he said.

Many parents at a study session last week advocated reopening Lincoln Elementary School, which was closed three years ago when enrollment was declining, or another school for the new students.

Board member Martha Fluor suggested that the district merge two high schools into one in each city, closing Ensign and TeWinkle middle schools and moving their students to the vacated and larger high school campuses.

“In effect, you would have two powerhouse high schools for the district,” she said.

District officials have been told to study the feasibility of each idea and consider their effects on the quality of education, ethnic balance, ideal school size, student safety, transportation costs and reopening costs.

Constraints imposed by such geographical features as Upper Newport Bay are also part of the puzzle.

The board has scheduled another study session for 7 p.m. March 21 to review that information.