Permanent School to Be Mostly Portable

SANTA ANA — When students enter the new elementary school on West Santa Ana Boulevard next year, they will find the usual library, principal’s office and, of course, classrooms.

But the library will be a portable building, as will the principal’s office, the classrooms and even the restrooms.

The acquisition last November of a 2.3-acre parcel for the relatively affordable price of $750,000 enabled creation of the new facility, the district’s first school made up almost entirely of portable buildings and one of the few in the state.

Faced with a booming student population and the high cost of land, the district already sprinkles portables throughout every campus to relieve overcrowding, said facilities director Mike Vail.

Recent efforts to reduce class sizes in lower grades have added to the space crunch in a district that has seen enrollment jump from 38,000 in 1987 to 54,000 this year. Enrollment is expected to grow by 4,000 students by 2001.

The 960-square-foot steel and plywood classrooms, which cost about $50,000, are composed of two halves secured with metal seams along the roof and floor and are easily moved from one site to another. The portables in Santa Ana will be equipped with heating, air conditioning and phone lines.

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The advantages of the portable classrooms are obvious. The West Santa Ana Boulevard school is expected to open next fall at a cost of $3 million, about $2 million less than a standard elementary school, Vail said.

The school will include 14 portable classrooms for about 400 students. The only permanent building will be used for the kindergarten classes.

Local education officials could name only one other all-portable school in Orange County, Foxborough Elementary School in Aliso Viejo, which opened in 1992.

Audrey Edwards, spokeswoman for the state Office of Public School Construction, could think of only two other virtually all-portable schools in the state.

Santa Ana’s unnamed portable school will have only one building that falls under the traditional definition of “permanent.”

But the school, and the portables that dot campuses throughout the county, belie the reality that portables have become permanent additions to cash-strapped, overcrowded districts.

The portables “are going to be there a long time,” said Vail, who added that the campus’ small size makes it an unlikely candidate to receive permanent buildings. The average size of a Santa Ana elementary school is about 5 acres, Vail said.

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Some students attending nearby Carver Elementary School probably will attend the new school. Carver parent Socorro Chacon was concerned mostly that her children receive a good education. She noted that children already attend classes in portables at Carver and that the new school will help keep overcrowding at Carver from worsening.

“We don’t see a difference if the bungalows are in Carver or the new school,” said Chacon, a member of the advocacy group Carver Concerned Parents.

But Chacon is bothered that the all-portable school will not have an auditorium or space for parents to hold meetings. Vail said the district could not include an auditorium because of the high cost of construction combined with the school’s small size. He said officials at the school still might be able to allocate some space for parent meetings.

Acknowledging that portable classrooms had become permanent, and unsightly, additions to the schools, district Trustee Robert W. Balen last year sponsored a policy to keep the buildings well-maintained.

Vail said some touches, such as landscaping, will be included at the all-portable school.

Balen supported the all-portable school, noting that designing it from the ground up should ensure a good-looking campus.