New Life for Newcastle

The smell of tar excites residents in the quiet, modest neighborhood surrounding Newcastle Elementary School, where workers are busily laying down pavement for a playground, installing carpeting and tiles in empty classrooms, and planting sod of crayon-green grass around the campus.

“All their hard work means they’re closer to being finished,” said Laura Flores, 41, a mother of two young daughters who lives nearby.

The elementary school, which was closed in 1984 because of low enrollment, is scheduled to open Sept. 8 to help relieve overcrowding in the San Fernando Valley. It will serve children in the area roughly bounded by Vanowen Street to the north, White Oak Avenue to the east, Etiwanda Avenue to the west and the Los Angeles River channel to the south.

Neighbors and school officials couldn’t be happier.

Families said they’re relieved they will be able to send their children to a neighborhood school instead of busing them into other communities, while residents without school-age children welcomed the possible upgrade a new school could bring to the area.

Other Schools Hail Opening

School officials, including nearby principals, said they’re thrilled because, in a district expected to grow by 11,000 students next fall, that’s 420 fewer kindergartners through fifth-graders they’ll have to accommodate.

With about 580 students, “we’re filled to capacity,” said Joe Aguirre, principal of nearby Bertrand Avenue School. In recent years, he said the elementary school has had to add four bungalows and use a teacher dining room as a classroom.

“Needless to say, we’re very happy about the school opening,” Aguirre said.

Not only will the school ease crowding in neighboring schools but also in the East Valley, from which about 80 kindergartners, mostly from Langdon Avenue School in North Hills, will be bused to Newcastle.

The surge in the student population has hit the Valley particularly hard as the economy has prospered and more families moved into the area after the 1994 Northridge earthquake. Adding to the crunch in classroom space is the Los Angeles district’s class-size reduction program, which mandates a maximum student-teacher ratio in kindergarten through third grade of 20 to 1.

“The Valley has experienced tremendous growth, and now it seems to be moving westward,” said Julie Korenstein, who represents much of the Valley as a member of the Board of Education, which is expected to officially approve the reestablishment of Newcastle on Tuesday.

Built in 1953, Newcastle was one of 22 schools the district closed between 1982 and 1984 because of low enrollment. Neighbors said the site, primarily used as district offices, looked its age, with worn paint, crumbling asphalt and weeds.

“I think it will make [the neighborhood] better,” said Nola Cochran, 77, a longtime neighbor whose 48-year-old daughter attended Newcastle. “I think it’s wonderful.”

So far, nearly $1 million has gone into renovations. The school sports light blue paint and lots of Bermuda grass, which district officials say is durable.

“Kids are going to be playing on the grass, pulling off chunks, having fun,” said Natalie Messinger, former principal at Castlebay Lane School in Northridge and Newcastle’s new principal. “I can see them now.”

Color, Landscaping Give New Look

Blue will also brighten the auditorium and lunch tables. “I wanted to get away from that institutional look,” Messinger said. “An elementary school needs color.”

Painted in yellows, oranges, blues and greens, trains, kites, balloons, leaves, stars and moons decorate the ceilings of kindergarten rooms, the library and the nurse’s office.

New and old ash and mulberry trees line the campus.

The playground is awaiting updated and safer equipment, as well as handball courts and yellow lines delineating kickball fields.

Each classroom will have a television set and five computer stations with Internet connections.

Ceilings are being lowered to conserve energy and contain noise. Bathrooms will have hand driers and automatic flush valves.

“It’s so exciting to start with a new beginning,” Messinger said. “I can hardly wait for the children.”

Flores can’t wait to send her daughters, ages 3 years and 16 months, to the school. “I walk by almost every day, and I say to them, ‘Look, that’s where you’ll be going to school.’ ”