Eastbluff school celebrates reopening

Danette Goulet

NEWPORT BEACH -- Excited Eastbluff Elementary students, parents and staff

crowded into the auditorium in a display of the community atmosphere they

say makes the school so special.

More than 400 people turned out to celebrate the school’s grand reopening

Thursday night.

“I think it’s wonderful. I like the small feel to it. You feel like you

know everybody,” said Diane Wysopal, whose son, Grant, attends

kindergarten at Eastbluff.

Mark and Anne Satterfield filed for an intra-district transfer for their

twin sons, Derek and Cole, who attended Lincoln Elementary School last

year.

“It’s much better -- smaller,” Mark Satterfield said.

“The pick-up and drop-off is a world of difference,” his wife added.

Eastbluff reopened in September to relieve overcrowding at Lincoln, which

had about 840 students and was expecting an influx following the city’s

annexation of Bonita Canyon.

A two-phase renovation project needed before the school could reopen cost

$5.2 million -- about $1.8 million more than the original estimate.

Funds to renovate the school, which the district closed more than 10

years ago due to low enrollment, came from extra tax money paid by Bonita

Canyon residents. After the renovation project ran over budget, the

school board voted to take the needed funds from developer fees.

“We did not expect to have this school open, but when the money became

available, we moved on it,” said Serene Stokes, school board president.

“We fulfilled a dream.”

That dream was celebrated with a commemorative plaque that will be placed

next to the original plaque hung in 1970 when the school first opened.

The plaque was a gift from Project Services West, the firm that

supervised the school’s modernization and sponsored the reopening

ceremony.

With members of the school board and other district officials in

attendance, the students of Eastbluff all stood proudly and performed

“It’s a Grand Old Flag.”

The program came to a close with a performance by Ms. Metherell’s

second-grade class. It began with a student singing “This Land is Our

Land” and ended with students singing “Eastbluff is your school,

Eastbluff is my school.”

“Things are beyond expectation,” said Principal JoAnn Berbos. “We are a

school now.”