Santa Ana Debates Plan for Space Saver School : Development: Some worry about increases in crime and noise. Others don’t want to turn down state financing.

SANTA ANA —  More than 450 parents and community leaders packed a school board meeting Tuesday night, debating a plan to build a school in the Bristol Marketplace shopping center.

By late Tuesday night, the Santa Ana Unified School District board had not voted on the proposal for the $43-million “space saver” school.

Space saver schools typically have several stories, instead of taking up room with single-floor buildings. The idea is to add schools--without condemning private property--in densely populated cities with little room for new developments.

Tuesday night, many residents urged the board to approve the new school, noting that state officials chose the Santa Ana Unified School District over others to receive money for it.

“I can’t imagine anyone winning the lottery who would say, ‘Nah, I don’t want the money.’ That’s stupid,” said Santa Ana resident Richard Eldridge.

But others worried that the school district has not adequately addressed problems that the new school would bring, such as increased traffic, crime and noise, to an already busy area.

“Nobody wants the school to lose the money, but there must be adequate mitigation, so we can all walk away happy,” said Santa Ana City Councilwoman Lisa Mills, who was speaking as a member of the West Floral Park neighborhood association.

She called for a two-week delay so board members could come up with an alternative site or revamp the plan to satisfy people who live nearby.

Santa Ana’s space saver school would be a three-story building within the Bristol Marketplace, a shopping center now being remodeled.

Santa Ana school officials say the proposal provides a fast way to build a much-needed school in an overcrowded district. State officials, when allocating money for schools, said they will give priority to plans that use the space saver idea.

Tuesday’s public hearing was held at Phillips Hall on the Rancho Santiago College campus, across the street from the proposed school site.

Many residents told the board that a new school would better serve the community if built elsewhere and that district officials could have chosen an alternative site without losing the state funding.

However, in a Jan. 31 letter to the district, officials of the State Allocation Board said approval of the plan is site specific and that the board is “expected to move forward with the project in a timely manner.”

The letter, signed by state Sens. Marian Bergeson (R-Newport Beach) and Leroy F. Greene (D-Carmichael), also states that “any changes to the current proposal shall subject the district to a loss of the funding now reserved for the project.”

Throughout the meeting, many residents supported the plan as a way to alleviate overcrowding and hailed the board’s recent decision to make the campus a fundamental school. Fundamental schools combine traditional instructional programs with strict dress and behavior rules and strong parental involvement.

“For us to get a gift of $43 million (from the state) to be able to build a school, four to seven years before we would otherwise be able to, is a great opportunity,” Supt. Rudy Castruita said before the meeting. “It’s an opportunity to build a school for 1,300 students, and that’s the bottom line for me.”

The new 98,000-square-foot campus would accommodate 1,300 students from the sixth through eighth grades, easing a space crunch at other intermediate schools, said Mike Vail, senior director of facilities.