COSTA MESA

Rather than follow district proposals, parents in the Estancia school zone have decided to keep most schools as they are and add portable classrooms to make room for smaller kindergarten classes. Parents also decided to start a sixth-grade academy at TeWinkle Middle School, with a format between that of a junior high and an elementary school, and to move Whittier Elementary’s fourth-graders to Rea Elementary.

District officials also have proposed an innovative solution to the problem of what to do about empty classrooms at Estancia High School: They plan to apply for a state grant to open a preschool on campus. High school and college students, under the supervision of qualified teachers, could volunteer as tutors in the preschool classroom and possibly gain experience and credits toward becoming teachers themselves.