The Newport-Mesa Unified School District may not end up shifting
attendance areas in the Corona del Mar zone next year, due to a large
number of children found ineligible to attend Newport Coast
Elementary School this fall.
Susan Astarita, the district's assistant superintendent of
elementary education, said Tuesday that the district had found 56
children enrolled last year at Newport Coast Elementary who lived
outside the school's attendance area. With those children being
diverted to their own neighborhood schools this fall, Newport Coast
may not have the overcrowding problem that it thought it had.
Astarita said the district would make its final recommendation on
the Corona del Mar zone to the school board next month but that she
expected Newport-Mesa to maintain the status quo.
"We reserve the right to watch enrollment over the next few
years," Astarita said. "Our goal was really to begin a dialogue with
the community, and I think we've achieved that."
In October, Newport-Mesa formed a study group to examine
demographics at Newport Coast Elementary, where enrollment had risen
sharply since the school opened in 2001. Ultimately, the district
issued a report in May proposing to move some neighborhoods in
Newport Coast Elementary's attendance area to Lincoln Elementary
School, and to shift some Lincoln neighborhoods to Eastbluff
Elementary and Harbor View Elementary.
The plan drew protests from a number of parents who did not want
their neighborhoods to be split into different school attendance
areas. When some questioned whether all of Newport Coast Elementary's
current students lived within the school's boundaries, the district
asked parents in May to provide three proofs of residence to keep
their children enrolled there.
The 56 children who can't attend Newport Coast Elementary may
eliminate the need for the rezoning plan, at least for the moment.
Jane Garland, spokeswoman for the district, said that most of the
children's families had lived or stayed within the Newport Coast
boundaries in the past and not updated their information.
"There's a number of different reasons," Garland said. "Some lived
in Newport Coast in the past and just never changed their address, or
they were staying in a hotel or motel in Newport Coast while they
were having a house built in Irvine."
Some of the 56 children, Garland said, resided in areas completely
outside the Newport-Mesa district. She praised the community for
raising the proof-of-residence issue in May.
