Students get a home

Deirdre Newman

OCC CAMPUS -- For the past six years, Newport-Mesa high school

students attending classes at Orange Coast College had to trek back and

forth across campus.

Now they have a home of their own.

Today, the school celebrates the official opening of two new Middle

College High School buildings. The new additions include four classrooms,

a computer lab and a career center.

“It gives us more of a feeling that we belong,” senior Whitney Crowell

said. “Before it was more intimidating. Now everyone knows where we are.”

The new buildings will provide much-needed room, said Joe Fox,

principal of Middle College High School.

There has been a tight squeeze on available space with the recent

shortening of the school semesters and the retrofitting of existing

facilities, Fox added.

The addition to the campus also will help OCC students, because the

buildings are used for college classes in the afternoon.

The high school program on campus that is run in conjunction with the

Newport-Mesa Unified School District originated six years ago to

accommodate two types of students -- those whose low grades belie their

academic potential and those whose insatiable academic appetites exceed

the offerings at their high school.

There are 96 students in the program, who are divided into four

classes. The smaller class size provides an intimacy that is not usually

possible in large high schools.

Many students say the new facilities give them a sense of ownership

that was lacking as they moved from classroom to classroom in a game like

musical chairs.

“We have more independence to operate, and we can do our own projects

and not worry about getting the classrooms dirty,” senior Louis Nguyen

said.

The students will still be intermingling with the older students

because they are required to take at least one college class each

semester.

Construction started on the new buildings in April and was finished in

August in time for the first day of school. Some of the technological

features still need to be completed, Fox said.

Math teacher Juan Pommier is looking forward to getting the computers

linked up so he can have his students create and present projects

digitally, he said.

Pommier said getting wired will enable him to spend more quality time

with students.

“Because then I can have everything laid out” before class, he said.

“Math is so much about how you organize your work.”

One of Fox’s long-term goals for the new facilities is to beef-up the

career center with a plethora of information about colleges because most

Middle College High School students go on to obtain college degrees.