3 Educational Centers Have Big Plans for Grants

Necessity may be the mother of invention, but a windfall fosters creativity too: Three Orange County educational institutions allotted a total of $1.25 million in the new state budget already have imaginative plans to put the money to use.

Santa Ana’s planned Discovery Science Center, which received $750,000, intends to use the cash to finish construction. Dana Point’s Orange County Marine Institute, awarded $475,000, wants to launch a major expansion.

Meanwhile, the Children’s Museum at La Habra plans to use its $30,000--the group’s first state subsidy in at least 14 years--to upgrade exhibits, add performances and revitalize its traveling-trunk program.

“We’re thrilled, because it was just found money,” said Melissa Banning, acting director of the 22-year-old museum, which serves about 170,000 children annually with hands-on exhibits and performances that explore the arts, humanities, science and medicine.

Gov. Pete Wilson approved the subsidies Friday as part of the new $75.4-billion state budget. Thanks to an unexpected $4.4-billion surplus, the state will give $24.2 million in onetime grants to education organizations throughout California. The money will be disbursed by July 1999, state officials said.

The Santa Ana science center still will need windows, carpet, sinks and lighting to complete the 55,000-square-foot facility at Main Street and the Santa Ana Freeway. And exhibits such as a make-your-own, camera-equipped Mars Rover replica must be installed. But the state grant means no more construction money is needed.

“That does it for us,” Discovery Science Center President Karen Johnson said.

Assemblyman Jim Morrissey (R-Santa Ana), who requested the subsidy--and previously secured two others totaling $6 million for the center--said the learning facility will benefit youths throughout the county, including his own kin.

“I have six grown children, and they’ve always been interested in science,” he said.

The 21-year-old Marine Institute serves about 100,000 kindergarten through college students a year--some, through video conferencing, as far away as Nebraska--said Assemblyman Bill Morrow (R--Oceanside), who sought the state grant.

“They’re really bringing science directly into the classroom in a way that stimulates the students’ thirst for knowledge,” Morrow said.

The institute’s plan to expand from 5,000 to 40,000 square feet will mean that more children will get more exposure to Southern California’s indigenous marine life, now housed in “touch tanks” at the center and viewed by visitors in next-door tide pools, institute president Stanley Cummings said.

“We recently had an anonymous grant of $1 million, which we’re trying to match, and the purpose of [all] the moneys will be to take us through the complete planning phase, which will take about a year,” he said. “We intend to break ground at that point.”

Although the La Habra children’s museum got a far smaller chunk of change, officials there say they hope the $30,000 will allow them to hold more than two live shows each month.