NEWPORT BEACH/COSTA MESA : 2 Schools Are Added to District Surplus List

The Newport-Mesa Unified School District board has made two more schools eligible for sale by declaring them surplus.

The schools, Balearic School in Costa Mesa and Monte Vista High School in Newport Beach, may be sold at any time, but officials must offer them to other government agencies before putting them up for sale to the general public.

Balearic School is a small, vacant elementary school property.

A citizen committee’s recommendation that the district sell Monte Vista raised some controversy because the campus is used for the high school Alternative Education Program.

The committee reasoned that, since many of the students in that program are home students who report in with assignments weekly, it could be moved to one of the district’s other leased or unused properties.

But Monte Vista students and parents say students often spend more time there, and the school has its own community.

Board member Martha Fluor stipulated when the matter came up Tuesday that Monte Vista should not be considered for sale immediately, even though it was declared surplus. The board agreed not to sell it unless district financial woes threaten solvency.

Carolyn Stocker, executive director of business services and auxiliary operations, said it would be difficult to relocate the alternative education program and sell the school before September, 1996.