Eastbluff to open on schedule

Amy R. Spurgeon

EASTBLUFF -- Newport-Mesa school officials stressed Friday that

Eastbluff Elementary School will open on time next Thursday.

“We know we will be opening,” Jo Ann Berbos, Eastbluff’s principal

said. “We are patient and ready for things to be completely finished but

by next week we will be operational.”

Berbos said she, her staff and parent volunteers have been working

around the clock to get the school ready for the first day of classes.

In fact, enrollment at the newly renovated school, which served as an

elementary school in the 1980s and has been closed for years, has far

surpassed expectations, said Mike Fine, assistant superintendent for

business services.

School board members voted to reopen the school two years ago, after

the Bonita Canyon housing development entered the school district’s

boundaries. Funds to complete the $5.3 million renovation came from

developer fees and a special tax levied on those homes.

Some in the district initially questioned the price tag on the

renovation, but parents and administrators at the school Friday could not

stop extolling its beauty.

“We are very busy,” Berbos said. “I can hear the teachers pulling

bulletin board paper off the rolls now.”

Eastbluff consists of six, one-story buildings. The school will also

be home to a cutting-edge media center with 30 computers. On Friday,

however, only one computer was hooked up.

Berbos also said students will be provided with box lunches until the

kitchen in the lunchroom is finished. “This has been a very monumental

week,” said Lauren Young, vice president of Eastbluff’s PTA. “This

community has really played a big role in opening this school.”

Young gushed over the “awesome” Eastbluff staff.

Eastbluff students will be offered a well-rounded education, thanks to

fund-raising efforts by parents. The school can afford to offer P.E.,

art, science and music teachers year-round to every grade.

Young said the money provided by the district would only have covered

a portion of those extracurricular teaching costs.

About 300 students will attend the school.

“It will benefit our children,” Young said.

Eastbluff will present an orientation for students and parents Tuesday

at 6:30 p.m. at the school, 2627 Vista del Oro. The students will find

out who their teachers and classmates will be.