180 Days of Learning : SANTA ANA UNIFIED

The district is in the midst of its biggest building program, with nine major projects underway.

By 1999, Santa Ana Unified will have added 380 permanent classrooms for a total of 1,200, said Mike Vail, senior director of facilities planning.

Begun in 1987 to cope with rising enrollment, the $250-million building program is expected to conclude in 1999 with completion of the space-saver intermediate school, so named because it will be next to an existing commercial development.

Vail said the district may still be short of space and may have to keep its 600 portable classrooms.

“It’s preventing the overcrowding from getting much worse,” he said of the building program.

Enrollment for 1997-98 is projected at 53,700, officials said. Ten years ago, the district’s student population was 38,200.

Using portable classrooms and putting some schools on a year-round schedule are techniques that administrators are using to meet two goals: to ease overcrowding and to take advantage of a state incentive to reduce class size in primary grades.

Of the $250 million needed for the building projects, $224 million came from the state school building fund, Vail said. The rest came from local sources.

“There’s plenty to do here,” he said.