Treading lightly at oldest high school

Christine Carrillo

With Measure A construction underway at various school sites, each of

them experiencing an influx of portable housing within the school

district, questions for officials are centering on construction at

the oldest school, Newport Harbor High School.

Still receiving inquiries about the future of the high school’s

nearly 75-year-old tower and overall facade of Robins Hall/Loats

Theater, district staff members are working to ease community fears

by updating residents on the goings on at Newport Harbor.

“There’s going to be a lot happening at Newport Harbor High School

over the next four to five years,” said Paul Reed, assistant

superintendent of business services for the district. “We’re on

course ... and we will get to the end of this; we will make it better

than before.”

Newport Harbor High will be among the first two high schools --

Costa Mesa High School being the other -- within the district to

undergo Measure A construction. Newport Harbor is expected to begin

its Measure A construction early next year.

While nearly every site within the district is anxious for

construction to begin, the Newport Harbor High community is more

concerned with the historic and aesthetic nature of its buildings.

Their concerns have not gone unnoticed.

“We’ve been working hard this year and we will continue to work

hard,” said David Peterson, assistant principal at Newport Harbor who

oversees the school’s facilities and attends all of the site

committee meetings. “We want to ensure the history and the tradition

and the legacy of Newport Harbor. [The school] is like the central

point in the community. We’ve got a tremendous amount of public

support and a tremendous amount of public concern. We appreciate the

support and will address the concern in the best way possible.”

Robins Hall/Loats Theater buildings, which have posed the most

concern, don’t fall under the Measure A plan. After a structural

engineering study was conducted on the school’s buildings, most of

which were built in 1928, the results showed that they presented an

unacceptable risk if Newport Beach suffered a large “magnitude

seismic event.”

As a result, the board of trustees voted to move ahead with plans

for a new building.

The board looked at two options -- one, to conduct a partial

deconstruction, seismic augmentation and reconstruction that would

cost anywhere from $20 million to $30 million and, two, to build a

new structure reminiscent of the existing architecture that

incorporates the existing tower and theater facade. The board voted

for the second proposal, which saves the tower and would cost the

district from $18 million to $23 million.

To meet the financial demands of such a project, school officials

will combine allocations from the state as part of Measure A with

funds it should receive based on the safety concerns the school

facilities present.

“This is a district project that has yet to be funded and the

school board is in the driver’s seat,” Reed said.

Still awaiting funding, construction for that plan may not be

completed for another four to five years, Reed said. Until then, the

students and administrators will be relocated into a group of

portables that are now being erected.

Another major renovation at the high school already underway is

the swimming pool. The pool, similar to Robins Hall/Loats Theater,

presented immediate health and safety concerns. Due to its

deteriorating condition, the school board recognized the need to

address those concerns by voting to move forward with immediate

repairs rather than permanently shutting down the facility until

Measure A got around to it.

Repairs to the pool fall under priority six of Measure A, and

Measure A construction at the school sites is only expected to go

through the priority four level.

Staff still seeks other sources for funding, since the first half

of the two-phase pool project will cost the district about $628,000

instead of the previous estimate of $400,000.

“The pool is used by hundreds and hundreds of kids, as well as

people in the community,” Robert Barbot, the district’s

superintendent, said during a school board meeting in March. “When we

look at the other priorities, we think this is justified.”

The board agreed and, at the March 11 board meeting, voted to move

ahead with repairs.

The pool is used by students at Newport Harbor, as well as the

city of Newport Beach and a few other community organizations. The

repairs to the pool are expected to be completed near Labor Day, well

before the school will receive funds for construction on Robins

Hall/Loats Theater.

The school holds site committee meetings, which are open to the

public, every other Monday. The next meeting will be held at 7 a.m.

on July 14 in Heritage Hall.