180 Days of Learning : ORANGE UNIFIED

The decision to replace bilingual education this year with an English-immersion program is getting all the attention. But Orange administrators also are readying two new schools for students this fall, with plans for a third next year.

Canyon Rim, a new elementary campus, is set to open in October to serve the fast-growing Anaheim Hills area. Because of construction delays, classes at the year-round school are meeting in spare rooms at Crescent Primary and Crescent Intermediate School until the new building opens its doors.

The 29,000-student district also is scrambling to prepare the old McPherson Junior High for its rebirth in September as a math-science-technology magnet school for elementary and middle school students.

The school will offer classes from kindergarten through sixth grade when it opens. But plans call for seventh and eighth grades by 2001.

Hundreds of parents lined up for days to register their children for the school last spring. Enthusiasm has not waned, Supt. Robert L. French said.

“It’s a dynamic faculty, a superpower principal and supportive parents,” he said. “We had 500 people show up for a PTA meeting. We never have that many people at PTA meetings.”

Another new school in Anaheim Hills, tentatively called Running Springs, is expected to open in the 1999-2000 school year.

The district also plans an election Nov. 4 for four of the seven members of its school board.