Playground party

Kline School in Costa Mesa celebrates new and improved playground facility and its 20th anniversary. They have cake, with donor Paul Merage, and eat it too. The old playground at Kline School had turned into a safety hazard in recent years. It wasn’t the students who were in jeopardy, though -- it was the classroom equipment.

When the small private school opened 20 years ago, it had a playground with a sand floor. As administrators brought in computers over the years, they began to notice the dust from recess getting all over the place.

“The sand was a nightmare for us,” said Susan Kline, the school’s founder and principal. “In maintaining so much equipment here, our mission is to blend academic tradition with today’s technology. Our fifth- to eighth-graders have a computer 100% of the time.

“With that in mind, we have as many computers as we have students, and that sand getting kicked up made it difficult to keep our equipment clean and in good working order.”

About a year ago, administrators began voicing plans to renovate the Kline playground. This summer, the school installed a rubber-floored playground with new swings and a jungle gym -- paid for in part by business magnate Paul Merage.

Merage and his wife, Elizabeth, promised to match up to $40,000 for new playground equipment at Kline. In the end, the school solicited $102,135 from the Merages and other members of the community.

At 4 p.m. Thursday, the school held a party outside to celebrate its 20th anniversary and to pay tribute to the Merages. As students ate cake and climbed on the new jungle gym, Kline administrators unveiled a bronze plaque that honored the playground’s donors.

Merage, a longtime benefactor of education, said he donated money to Kline to bolster an often-overlooked part of the school day.

“I think it’s a tremendous devotion they have to teaching the basics, but it doesn’t always provide for things that are important on the recreational level,” Merage said.

Speaking at the ceremony were Kline and the chairpersons of the 20th Anniversary Campaign Committee, parent Doran Andry and former parent Paula Mathis. Mathis, in her remarks, noted that 28% of contributions for the playground had come from Kline families.

“What is very exciting to me about Kline School is that it’s a school that’s totally committed to educational excellence,” Merage said.

Merage, who also runs the education charity Children First, donated $30 million in March to UC Irvine’s Graduate School of Management, the largest single gift the university had ever received. The school was subsequently renamed the Paul Merage School of Business.

Merage emigrated from Iran to the United States in 1960 and later founded Chef America Inc. with his brother David.

The company introduced Hot Pockets snacks to the world before its founders sold it to Nestle in 2002. Merage lives in Newport Coast.

20051118iq4mu9knDON LEACH / DAILY PILOT(LA)Students Yuji Andry, far left, Evan Barda and David Treet, pointing, gather around a plaque that marks Kline School’s 20th anniversary.