Schools get ball rolling

The Newport-Mesa Unified School District opened for the new school

year Tuesday, sporting a number of buildings newly glistening from

summer renovations.

On the same day, the district also enrolled several students who

were grateful to have shelter at all.

By the time school opened across Newport-Mesa on Tuesday morning,

four students from Louisiana had already signed on at Newport-Mesa

schools, having fled Hurricane Katrina to stay with their extended

families in Orange County. With local churches and nonprofits

continuing to shuttle survivors out of the southern states, district

spokeswoman Jane Garland expected the number to rise into double

digits before long.

“They may be here forever,” Garland said. “We don’t know. Each

one’s with relatives at the moment, and it’s up to the relatives.”

Under the federal McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, passed

in 1987, school districts must give homeless students the same access

to services as children with consistent homes. In this case, those

services included transportation, healthcare, school supplies and a

welcoming breakfast and lunch -- all on campuses that most of the

newcomers had never heard of a week ago.

While Newport-Mesa served as an emergency stop for some this week,

for others it merely provided an extra level of luxury. A number of

campuses in the district sported new facilities Tuesday following

summer construction that was funded by Measure A.

Costa Mesa High School, which ended its work in July, had a new

ceiling, a new floor and new lights in its administration building,

clean tiles in the bathrooms, additional lab tables in the science

rooms, and a sensor in the library.

“We had a terrific off-season,” said principal John Garcia.

Students expressed relief at being finished with the Measure A

construction, which made walking around campus, and even

concentrating in class, difficult at times.

“It was horrible,” said freshman Patty McCoy, 14, who attended the

school’s junior high last year. “All the construction was bad because

it was really noisy. It was super-noisy.”

Other schools finished with some or all of their renovations were

Pomona, Paularino, Adams and California elementary schools and

TeWinkle Middle School. The sites removed most of their portable

classrooms as teachers and students moved back into newly furnished

rooms.

During recess Tuesday, California Elementary principal Kelli Smith

surveyed the campus with its repainted buildings and new playground

equipment -- the latter provided by district funds and the school’s

PTA. Only a few portables remained on the grass, one of them housing

the school’s science classroom.

“For the kids, the biggest improvement is definitely the

playground,” Smith said. “For the staff, it’s having bright new

classrooms instead of dull, brown walls.”

The campus still has repairs to finish -- a section by the

playground is partially torn up -- but students could already

appreciate the difference from a year ago.

“I remember all the other classrooms here were just falling

apart,” said Brad Wilson, 10, a fifth-grader at California. “They

were just old and dumpy. Now the rooms are a little cleaner, and

they’re brighter.”

For other schools, the major changes were just around the corner.

Guy Olguin, the seventh- and eighth-grade principal at Corona del Mar

High School, said he expected Measure A work to begin on the campus

by the end of September. Olguin, who worked at Ensign Intermediate

School last year and saw the renovations there, said students should

be prepared for more background noise.

“All the renovations take place inside buildings while there are

other classes going on, so I don’t know how that’s going to affect

the sound,” he said.