A Class Operation

The financial crisis that has enveloped this city’s school district in recent months was replaced, if only briefly, by a giddy excitement at Thurston Middle School early Thursday.

Almost three years after a firestorm ripped through Laguna Beach, devouring hundreds of homes and 14 classrooms here, the school reopened with the sound of a buzzer.

As students crowded onto the campus--a blur of backpacks, baggy shorts and the occasional green coiffure--they expressed relief at trading the portables that were moved onto the school grounds after the fire for the new, air-conditioned classrooms.

“They’re so clean, especially the bathrooms,” said Tyler Murphy, 11. “It was pretty awful to live in portables for a long time. They were stuffy.”

If the students were happy, the teachers seemed doubly enthusiastic about their new accommodations.

“This is the silver lining,” said math teacher Patty Burke-Pratley, who has been with the district 30 years. “The district is falling apart all around us--the fire, floods, [the county] bankruptcy, the superintendent resigned and on and on, and we’re coming back to a brand new building.”

Driving home her point, Burke-Pratley slid aside the clean, white “eraser boards” that have replaced the chalkboards of yesteryear, revealing hidden storage shelves. Then, with a flourish, she whipped open the door of a narrow closet where she can hang her jacket.

“These are the things most people take for granted,” she said. “But so far we haven’t had them.”

The new classrooms are not only glamorous compared to the rectangular portables that were used for the last three school years, they are also fresh and functional compared to the few buildings that survived the fire, including some octagonally shaped structures that are distinguished by what some district workers call “Pizza Hut architecture.”

“They were so outdated that everything was always breaking down,” maintenance worker Todd Foote said. “Actually, [the school] scored on this deal.”

The school district has been rocked by a fiscal crisis that has required trustees to slash about $2 million from the current school budget. District officials have blamed the problem on falling property tax revenue, losses incurred in the fire and Orange County’s bankruptcy and bookkeeping snafus.

Despite the showy new campus, Thurston will feel the effects of the shrinking resources.

The school will have fewer teachers and more students per classroom. Also the entire industrial arts program was axed, including a popular surfboard-making class. Some classes have merged. French I and French II have been combined and the students who play string instruments now meet alongside two choir groups.

“We’re just doing what everybody does when you don’t have enough money,” Principal Cheryl Baughn said.

While nothing seemed to dampen spirits Thursday morning, there were the usual first-day glitches. All electric clocks were stalled at 6 o’clock. And workers scampered around campus making various last-minute adjustments.

“The little thises and thats,” said Baughn, dismissing any minor inconveniences as she roamed the campus, keys and a cellular telephone bulging from her skirt pocket. “It’s like moving into a new house.”

Although 14 classrooms burned, the Laguna Beach Unified School District rebuilt 16 to accommodate a slight growth in enrollment, from 530 students in 1993 to 572 today.

The new classrooms are actually a bit smaller than the portables that were hauled away in June, but they are shaped in a way that is more conducive to learning.