Parents protest zoning plans

Michael Miller

Dozens of Lincoln Elementary parents filled the school’s multipurpose

room Wednesday to oppose a plan to shift attendance zones in Corona

del Mar.

The information meeting, hosted by Asst. Supt. of Elementary

Education Susan Astarita, marked the second such event that

Newport-Mesa Unified School District has held to discuss the proposed

changes with parents. The plan arose from a perceived overcrowding at

Newport Coast Elementary, the newest campus in the district.

Newport Coast parents have already protested the notion of

splitting their school’s current attendance area and directing some

children to Lincoln Elementary. At the Wednesday meeting, Lincoln

parents criticized the proposed rezoning of that school, which would

gain one section of the Newport Coast zone and lose several

neighborhoods to Eastbluff and Harbor View Elementary.

“I don’t know a single child in my neighborhood who’s going to

Eastbluff,” said Lisa O’Neill, the mother of a 4-year-old who lives

in the One Ford Road area. “I want my daughter to go to school with

the children she knows.”

Elizabeth Kennedy, the PTA president of Lincoln, presented

Astarita with a letter addressed to Board of Education President

Serene Stokes. In the letter, she and her colleagues suggested moving

the overflow students from Newport Coast to Eastbluff, which has

lower enrollment.

“There is no need for, nor do we want our children in Lincoln

neighborhoods scattered to other schools as proposed by the

Newport-Mesa staff,” Kennedy told the room full of parents.

Astarita told the attendees that she welcomed their suggestions

and that the district was not even close to a final ruling on the

matter. The earliest the board of education might hear the proposal,

she said, was July 12.

In addition, she noted, the rezoning of Newport Coast and Lincoln

might not be necessary. Last month, after a number of homeowners

raised questions, the district asked all parents of Newport Coast

students to provide three pieces of proof that they live in the

school’s attendance area. Astarita said the district is still waiting

to hear from about 120 families.

The district has determined that any children living outside of

the Newport Coast attendance area must move to another school this

fall. In addition, Astarita said, parents who do not provide proof of

residence by the end of June will be ineligible to attend Newport

Coast the next school year.

When parents asked how outside residents had been able to enroll

their children at Newport Coast, Astarita said the district’s

requirements used to be more lax.

“In the past, all we’ve required for proof of residence is a

utility bill,” Astarita said. “It appears that some people have

managed to bring in someone else’s utility bill.”

If Newport-Mesa ends up diverting a large number of families from

Newport Coast, it may not need to move the north part of the

attendance area to Lincoln -- or, in turn, to redirect a number of

Lincoln neighbors to Eastbluff and Harbor View.

In that case, Astarita said, the only pressing concern would be

increasing attendance at Eastbluff, which some parents suggested

doing by adding middle school classes or magnet programs in art and

music.

Astarita said she would not rule out moving Newport Coast

residents to Eastbluff, rather than Lincoln, but added that geography

played a part. Of the other four elementary schools in the area,

Lincoln is the closest to Newport Coast.

“We’re trying to adjust boundaries so we have neighborhoods with

proximity to schools,” Astarita said.

The rezoning project began in October, when Newport-Mesa, teamed

with the consulting firm DecisionInsite, formed a study group of

parents and administrators to review demographics in and around

Corona del Mar.

According to the group’s projections, the number of school-age

children would decrease over the next decade in the Eastbluff and

Harbor View attendance zones, while numbers would increase slightly

at Lincoln and significantly at Newport Coast.

To balance attendance and to prevent overcrowding, the study group

created a preliminary plan to move the Aubergine and Provence

sections of northern Newport Coast to Lincoln, and to shift a number

of neighborhoods in the Lincoln zone -- including Balboa Island,

Irvine Terrace and Newport Dunes -- to Eastbluff and Harbor View. The

fifth elementary school in the area, Andersen, is filled to capacity

and is not being considered for rezoning.

Each of the four schools in the plan currently has fewer students

than its capacity. However, the study group expects Newport Coast --

which recently added a new building to its campus and plans to add

portables this fall -- to experience a sharp increase in enrollment

over the next few years. A chart created by the group pinpoints the

school’s population at 848 in the year 2010, 71 students more than

its capacity.

Lincoln, which currently has nearly 300 available seats for

students, would also increase enrollment without the rezoning plan,

but would still remain well under capacity.

Under the rezoning projections, the school’s enrollment numbers

would decrease slightly.

Eastbluff, the smallest school in the area, is projected to lose

enrollment gradually over the next decade. Under the rezoning plan,

it would gain nearly 100 students over that time, an increase that

might lead the district to move its special education classes to

another school.

Regardless of the possible shifts at other sites, Eastbluff

parents welcomed ways of increasing enrollment at their campus.

Lauren Young, the PTA president at Eastbluff, said she had approached

Astarita and Supt. Robert Barbot about the matter in the fall.

“We came to them and said, ‘Our zone isn’t being used to its best

capacity,’” Young said. “We knew our school was being underused.”