Portable Classes Stacking Up Well

After years of using temporary classrooms to expand crowded campuses, one Orange County public school district has concluded that “portables” have nowhere to go but up.

The county’s first double-decker relocatable buildings are now open at Las Flores Middle School. But don’t let the name fool you: The new buildings barely resemble their ticky-tacky trailer predecessors.

Grouped in a horseshoe around a courtyard, the three Las Flores buildings--installed at a cost of $2 million--come complete with an elevator, two sets of stairs and concrete foundations. Equipped with air conditioners, wired for the newest technology and connected to the school’s public address system, the buildings house 18 classrooms where eight of the old-style portables used to sit.

The addition of the relocatable buildings was necessary to absorb an influx of students pouring into the Capistrano Unified School District, one of the state’s fastest-growing school systems, which admits about 2,000 new students a year. The district also is building several new schools.

The project’s prime advantage is adding capacity without gobbling up precious playground and parking space on campus, Supt. James A. Fleming said.

“It gives us the space we need without encroaching on parking and public areas, which has long been a problem in growing communities,” Fleming said. “Rather than going out, we’ll go up.”

Recently given the state architect’s seal of approval, two-story portable classrooms are drawing interest across the state--from Northern California to the sprawling Los Angeles Unified School District. They are particularly popular in jampacked urban areas, where land is hard to come by.

Already, Capistrano officials are planning to use double-decker portables at other crowded schools, such as Shorecliffs Middle School in San Clemente and Fred Newhart Middle School in Mission Viejo, said Dave Doomey, assistant superintendent for facilities planning.

But the idea of them--in an area of traditionally low-slung schools--does take a little getting used to.

“Wow, I didn’t even know they made two-story portables,” said parent Frances Hellings, who has three children at other Capistrano schools. She added: “All of my children have been in portables at different times. It hasn’t affected their education one way or another.”

In decor the buildings, which serve about 540 students, mirror the rest of the campus, with putty-colored, smooth stucco walls, bright teal doors and tinted windows. The rooms are soundproofed indoors by carpet covering steel and concrete floors.

Inside, class projects from years past dot the walls outfitted with gleaming white boards and built-in cupboards and shelves.

On Monday, as officials offered tours of the new facilities, students leaned over shiny new desks to contemplate multiplication problems until the bell released them for recess. But before they hit the playground running, the students were treated to a bird’s-eye view of the surrounding suburban landscape.

Eighth-grader Nikki Jones, 13, enjoys the novelty of her new digs, even though she wishes there were a few more stairs to get to the second floor in the morning.

“I first thought they kind of looked like an apartment,” Nikki said. “I was excited when I found out I had a class on the second story.”

Relocatable classrooms date back decades--from World War II Quonset huts to today’s ready-made schools, said Jim Murdoch, a lobbyist representing a group of educators and school builders known as the Coalition for Adequate School Housing.

But the real mushrooming of portables began in the late 1970s and early 1980s, when Proposition 13 killed school districts’ ability to tax property for new construction. Although the ban was later lifted, and districts can now issue construction bonds with two-thirds voter approval, portables became a popular alternative to more pricey permanent construction.

Fueled by the enrollment burst known as the “baby boom echo” and the need for more quarters created by the state’s class-size reduction effort, demand for relocatables has swelled in recent years.

While no one keeps exact figures, Murdoch’s group estimates that between a fifth and a quarter of California’s public school students are taught in some form of relocatable classroom--and that as many as 50,000 to 100,000 portables may sit on school campuses.

“There is nothing more permanent than a portable classroom,” Murdoch said. “The kids are there and they stay there. If enrollment does drop off, districts usually use them for something else.”

Despite a growing need for more classroom space, districts weren’t able to expand skyward until the Division of State Architect approved the venture last year, said Bruce Hancock, executive officer of the state allocation board.

“The state has very stringent standards to ensure seismic safety, so it’s not easy to get new systems put in,” Hancock said. “But we think there will be a lot more of it because of the reduced cost and ability to maximize space.”

And building up helped keep construction costs down, netting Capistrano Unified more classrooms for less money than permanent structures cost, said facilities administrator Doomey. The state building program covered half the cost of the new buildings.

“This only cost us $2 million, where permanent buildings would have been more than $3 million,” Doomey said. “It’s very cost-effective, and the quality is the same as a permanent classroom.”

Las Flores teacher Tanya Kearney, who had a regular portable classroom last year, said she loves the extra storage space and light her new room affords. The new buildings also have alleviated the need for some teachers, lacking rooms of their own, to roam from class to class.

“They’ve been a great comfort for roving teachers,” Kearney said. “It’s been a godsend to the staff. I’m looking forward to sticking around here--I don’t want to move.”

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Portable Classrooms Going Up, Not Out

Orange County’s first double-decker portable classrooms have opened at Los Flores Middle School in San Juan Capistrano. The 18-room, two-story classroom complex occupies the same amount of space as eight traditional modular classrooms.

Second-story continuous walkway

Elevator

Classrooms - 9 upstairs, 9 downstairs

Stairs

Courtyard

Concrete foundation - 3 feet below grade

18 double-decker classrooms fit in same space as 8 traditional modular units

Sources: Aurora Modular Industries, PJHM Southwest Architects, Capistrano Unified School District