School board gives OK to spend money on sketches

Jessica Garrison

NEWPORT-MESA -- Let the drawing begin!

School board members Tuesday voted to spend $365,000 to prepare drawings

to overhaul athletic facilities at Costa Mesa and Estancia high schools.

The money, which was set aside from the proceeds of the sale of the

district’s farm, will go to pay an architect to develop plans for a

50-meter aquatic facility and a 400-seat mini-auditorium at Costa Mesa

High School and a 2,500-seat athletic stadium at Estancia, as well as a

complete overhaul of fields and courts at both schools.

The board also voted to pay for an environmental report on the proposed

projects to make sure stadium lights don’t bother residents and deep

holes won’t displace old artifacts.

The total cost to build the sports complex is expected to be about $6

million, and community members will now have to raise that money. The

school district is struggling to figure out how to pay for $127 million

in repairs to classrooms and office buildings.

Jim Scott Jr. -- who with his father, Jim Scott, and a number of other

community members has started a foundation to raise the money -- said he

was “tremendously excited” about the board’s vote.

“I’m very pleased, and I was very impressed by the statements of the

board,” he said, adding that the project stirred up a lot of enthusiasm

around Costa Mesa, and also led to the formation of Eagle Pride, a

foundation dedicated to raising the profile of the schools in the

Estancia zone.

In other school district matter:

* Parents and teachers at Whittier Elementary School were crushed to

learn the state did not award them grant money to open an additional

preschool program, said preschool teacher Gladys Green. The preschool,

which opened one class in February at Whittier school to help low-income

children get a head start on school, has a 50-student waiting list. Green

said she planned to appeal the decision and, failing that, to reapply

next year.

“It’s so frustrating,” she said. “I know we can make a difference.”

She added that district officials, so sure of getting the grant, had

prepared a classroom and gotten everything ready. They are in the process

of calling all the parents on the waiting list and helping them find

other child-care options.

* Mike Fine, the district’s head of business services, gave board members

an update on all the district’s special funds, which, along with the

mammoth general fund, make up the budget. Board members will vote on a

final budget at a special meeting Sept. 7.

A great deal of new money for schools will be coming from Sacramento,

Fine said, but it is coming in dramatically different forms than it did

last year, and with many restrictions on how it can be spent. Fine said

he wants individual schools to continue to have control over funds, but

this will require extra work on the part of school principals and staff

members to understand how the budget works.