NEWPORT BEACH : 2 Closed Schools Will Be Reopened

The Newport-Mesa School Board voted Tuesday night to reopen two schools near Estancia High School that had been previously closed and to reconfigure boundaries for the entire area in an effort to balance enrollment among the district’s schools.

The decision marks the second time this year that the district has voted to reopen closed schools because of overcrowding. Last spring, the board voted to renovate Lincoln Intermediate for students living in Corona del Mar.

In its latest move, the board decided that both Adams Kindergarten Center and Victoria Elementary will be used for students from kindergarten through fifth grades who live in the Estancia High School zone. Starting next fall, most students in that zone will attend TeWinkle Middle School for sixth, seventh and eighth grades. Whittier Elementary School sixth-graders will transfer to Enson Intermediate School for the seventh grade.

Students as far south as Victoria Street will be bused to Adams kindergarten beginning in the fall of 1992, when both of the currently closed schools open. Also in the fall of 1992, new boundaries will go into effect for California, Pomona, Whittier and Wilson elementary schools.

Tuesday’s vote was unanimous and came after more than nine months of discussions among parents, administrators and district officials.