Breaking ground

Jessica Garrison

NEWPORT COAST -- Her bright white hard hat glinting in the sun,

school board President Serene Stokes thrust her shovel into the dirt and

officially broke ground on the district’s first new school in 21 years.

Newport Coast Elementary School, which will resemble the “Italian

villa” style of the surrounding houses, will open “sometime in the year

2000,” Stokes said.

“We’re not committing to a date,” she added. “We want to build a

beautiful school within our budget, to meet the demands of the 21st

century.”

A crowd made up of former and current school board members, Supt.

Robert Barbot, state Board of Education member Marian Bergeson and other

movers and shakers in the district, as well as a gaggle of singing

children from Lincoln Elementary School looked on. Many students who now

attend Lincoln will come to Newport Coast when the school opens.

In addition to Stokes’ nimble shovel work, the event also included

tasty cookies and brownies, a performance by Lincoln Elementary School’s

choir and board members decked out in hard hats with their names

emblazoned on them.

“I’m very excited,” said Nadine Turner, the parent representative for

the new school. “The first meeting I ever went to on this was in 1996.”

As plans for the school were drawn, redrawn, and sent off to the state

architect’s office for review, two of Turner’s children graduated from

elementary school and moved on to Corona del Mar High School. But her

youngest will be attending Newport Coast.

“We can start looking for a principal in January,” she continued, as

Harbor Council PTA President Jill Money approached her, urging her to

start a PTA at her school.

Gianna and Dee Kerrison, new residents of Newport Coast, said they

decided to come to the groundbreaking even though their child is only 2

years old because they are so excited about the new school.

Nine-year-old Courtney Wright, now a student at Lincoln Elementary, is

excited for a different reason.

“I’ll be in sixth grade next year when I come to Newport Coast,” she

said. “And I’ll be in the first class to graduate from the school.”