Planning Commission to consider school proposal

Jessica Garrison

COSTA MESA -- An educator who already operates four group homes for

foster children in the city wants to open a school on the grounds of

Harbor Christian Fellowship Church.

The Planning Commission will consider the proposal at its meeting

tonight.

South Coast Priority School is a state-certified, nonpublic school which

serves children who have learning disorders, emotional problems, or are

developmentally disabled. The school also has a campus in Newport Beach,

and many students in the Newport-Mesa school district whose problems

prevent them from attending district schools, go there, school owner

Richard Sewall said.

Commissioners originally planned to vote on the matter Aug. 9, but

postponed their decision in order to learn more about the project.

At a special meeting Aug. 16 to study the idea, Sewall, along with Harbor

Christian pastor Bill Gartner, assured commissioners that the school

would be a good thing for children in Newport-Mesa, and would not lead to

increased traffic in the neighborhood or pose a danger to residents.

“Our students are not criminals,” Sewell said. “These are children who

are victims, true victims. They have been born addicted to drugs ... or

abused.”

Sewall said 90% of the school’s students come from Newport-Mesa, and if

the school is not granted a permit, those students will have to be bused

out of the area to other nonpublic schools, possibly as far as two hours

away. He also gave commissioners a letter from Bonnie Swan,

Newport-Mesa’s head of public education, stating her support of the

school.

“We want to be good neighbors,” Sewell said, adding that students would

be closely supervised by staff, and most would arrive at school by bus,

so parents would not clog neighborhood streets picking up and dropping

off children.

No one at the meeting spoke against the school, and planning

commissioners gave no hint of their decision.