Honing in on zoning changes

Darla Yancey

The Newport-Mesa School District must involve the residents of

neighborhoods affected by changes to school zoning in the

decision-making process.

The reason is because zoning changes have the potential to:

* Disrupt the harmony and cohesiveness of impacted neighborhoods.

* Significantly and negatively affect property values for homes

transferred out of the Newport Coast Elementary School zone.

* Increase traffic and congestion in the Newport Coast and Newport

Beach areas due to parents having to travel longer distances to take

their children to school, rather than attending the nearest

neighborhood school.

The District should explore every available alternative before

changing school zoning, such as:

* Expanding the school.

* Adding temporary or portable classrooms.

* Changing from a full-day kindergarten to a half-day program.

(This would free up three classrooms at Newport Coast Elementary.)

* Staggering the start and stop times to ease traffic congestion

around the school.

* Implementing year-round school.

The residents of Newport Coast pay very high Mello-Roos and

assessment district property taxes that are not imposed on all areas

within the Newport-Mesa Unified School District. Among other things,

these taxes paid for the purchase and construction of Newport Coast

Elementary School.

The residents benefit by being able to send their children to the

new and modern Newport Coast Elementary School, where most schools in

the district are more than 30 years old.

Many residents purchased their homes in this area specifically to

have the opportunity for their children to attend Newport Coast

Elementary School. It is very unfair for residents to have to pay for

a new school that their children are prohibited from attending, even

though it is their local neighborhood school.

It is not the residents’ fault the district woefully

underestimated the number of elementary-school-age children who would

live in Newport Coast when they built the school, and the residents

of Newport Coast do not intend to let the Newport-Mesa Unified School

District tear our neighborhoods apart by changing the zone for the

Newport Coast Elementary School.

* DARLA YANCEY is a Newport Coast resident.