Parents seek a rezoning remedy

Michael Miller

More than 50 homeowners packed Newport Coast Elementary School’s

multipurpose room Monday evening to voice their disapproval of a

proposal by the Newport-Mesa Unified School District to rezone parts

of the school’s neighborhood.

No representatives from the school district attended the meeting,

held by the Newport Coast Advisory Committee, although committee

chairman Jim McGee said he had invited them to hear neighbors’

concerns. At the meeting, parents complained about the district’s

proposal to rezone the Newport Ridge neighborhood so that some

students would attend Newport Coast Elementary, while many of their

neighbors would be diverted to Lincoln and other elementary schools

in Newport Beach.

The district has expressed a desire to rezone the neighborhood due

to a perceived overcrowding at Newport Coast Elementary, which opened

in 2001 and has struggled since to keep up with rising student

enrollment.

“Obviously, we don’t agree with it for many reasons,” said Nina

Grover, a Newport Coast parent and homeowner, about the rezoning.

“When we were looking for a house, we looked at this school, and we

liked the idea of all the kids in the neighborhood going to the same

one.”

The Newport-Mesa district has not yet submitted an official plan

for rezoning the neighborhood, although Newport Coast Elementary’s

April newsletter noted that “the current boundary lines will be

changed for the 2006-07 school year.” District spokeswoman Jane

Garland has previously said that children in Newport Ridge who enter

school in fall 2006 may go to Lincoln Elementary, while others will

be allowed to attend Newport Coast Elementary if they have older

siblings there.

Garland would not comment further on the district’s plan on

Monday, saying, “At this point, it’s just talk.”

Newport Ridge is one of many developments in the gated Newport

Coast community, which was annexed by the city of Newport Beach in

2002. Residents at the meeting were unsure whether all of Newport

Ridge, or just a part of it, would fall under the school rezoning.

Many complained that the rezoning would split the neighborhood by

sending neighboring children to different schools.

Complicating the issue for many residents are the taxes that they

have paid to help construct Newport Coast Elementary. The

Newport-Mesa school district, along with the MuniFinancial firm,

administers a Mello-Roos Community Facilities District -- a special

tax district in which homeowners pay extra to finance local

properties -- in Newport Coast. The funds that residents pay have

gone in part to building the new school.

“We’ve all been paying Mello-Roos, and we moved in here knowing

that was the case,” Newport Coast resident Cecily Burke said.

California’s government code says school districts must have “a

priority access policy which gives priority attendance access to

students residing in a community facilities district whose residents

have paid special taxes which have, in whole or in part, financed the

construction of school district facilities.” The clause adds,

however, that districts may take various factors into account when

setting a priority access policy, including federal, state or court

mandates, transportation needs or safe pedestrian routes.

Monique Van Zeebroeck, the principal of Newport Coast Elementary,

said she sympathized with parents’ concerns, but that the school

could not handle its growing attendance rates for much longer.

Newport Coast has already planned to add three portable classrooms to

the campus next year to accommodate student enrollment. In addition,

Van Zeebroeck said, the school had set three different dismissal

times for next year to ease traffic concerns.

“I know a lot of residents are very upset right now, and I

understand that,” she commented. “It’s an emotional issue -- where

your kids are going to school. But it’s going to reach a point where

we’re just overcrowded.”

* MICHAEL MILLER covers education and may be reached at (714)

966-4617 or by e-mail at michael.miller@latimes.com.