Education Is the Bottom Line

After months of agonizing, Laguna Beach school officials have settled a boundary question that will have the district enrolling up to 340 students from Newport Coast, an area under development that falls mainly within the neighboring Newport-Mesa Unified School District.

Not everybody is happy with the decision. In making it, the Laguna Beach board in effect made a crucial statement about the perceived fiscal benefits of accommodating new growth.

Laguna is a place that understandably likes things the way they are in its corner of coastal paradise. There was sufficient concern about what the boundary change would mean that city officials even pledged financial help to the district if it did not take the new students.

The district’s financial problems of recent times are well known. In expanding the district’s population, perceived by some as a minus, it will enjoy the plus of $2.8 million a year in additional property tax revenue; it also will take in $6.6 million from a mitigation agreement with the Irvine Co.

Perhaps the biggest downside is that some students living in the same neighborhoods will attend schools in different districts. In matching up communities and the school systems for those who live in them, it is generally desirable to retain geographical integrity. In this case, there is little reason for concern. Either way, students are likely to get a good education in either of two fine school districts.

But now Laguna must deal internally with the explosive fallout of its decision. First, it must attend to the concern of parents about how expanding enrollments will affect existing facilities. In the long term, it must resolve to get a better handle on its finances and make wise use of new revenue. Most important, it must focus on preserving the quality education that makes it such a highly prized district.