Report on Student Transfers Unfinished

School district officials said they are continuing a document review to determine whether transfers from Costa Mesa to Newport Beach schools are throwing off the ethnic balance on individual campuses.

Newport-Mesa Unified School District began an investigation in early February of the district’s open enrollment policy, which allows students to attend any school they choose.

Some officials have questioned whether the policy is creating “white flight” to Newport Beach from Costa Mesa, which has a larger Latino population.

The report was to have been presented to board members at tonight’s meeting, but it is incomplete, officials said. Once it is finished, district officials said, the board might use it as the basis for altering the transfer policy.

Supt. Mac Bernd said the information will be useful because the district is in the midst of drawing up a master plan to ensure there is enough classroom space to accommodate an expected boom in enrollment.

Bernd said district officials need to study the issue to discover whether Newport Beach schools are in danger of becoming overcrowded. “One of the issues we would have to confront is whether we need to make additional classroom space only to have it filled by transfers,” he said.