Major quake could damage school

Deirdre Newman

Engineers have deemed two Newport Harbor High School buildings

unacceptable risks in a major earthquake.

Robins Hall and Loats Theater, which are connected, house 15

classrooms, all of the administrative offices, the library and food

services.

While district officials haven’t decided if the buildings will be

seismically reinforced or torn down, one of their top priorities is

relocating the students and staff.

But this will not be done until the summer because there’s no

place to move them right now, said Paul Reed, assistant

superintendent. On Tuesday, the Newport-Mesa Unified board of

trustees approved Reed’s recommendation to start preparing a

transition plan to vacate the buildings.

Parents and administrators are taking the news about the seismic

risk in stride, saying they feel comfortable with the district’s

timeline.

“I don’t think it warrants panic,” said Lisa Boler, PTA president.

“We have to trust that the architects they’ve hired and other people

involved with Measure A [the district’s facility improvement program]

know what they’re doing and wouldn’t put our children or our staff at

risk.”

The comprehensive facility improvement program, which is primarily

funded by a $110-million bond, included a general assessment of the

seismic risk of all the buildings in the district. But Robins and

Loats warranted a higher level of scrutiny because of their age.

Construction on the buildings started in 1928.

The district discovered the risk in December, Reed said. Officials

are now determining how to deal with the buildings as they work to

craft a transition plan.

Some of the challenges of moving the students and administrators

include finding a suitable place on campus to temporarily house them,

and providing electrical power and Internet capacity to that

location, Reed said.

Principal Michael Vossen said the magnitude of displacing so many

people requires thorough, painstaking planning.

“Anything so monumental has to be thought out in such a way that

it causes minimal disruption to the students,” Vossen said.

Because of the high level of risk and the ambiguity surrounding

their future, Robins and Loats will be removed from Newport Harbor’s

scheduled facility improvements set to begin this summer.

* DEIRDRE NEWMAN covers education. She may be reached at (949)

574-4221 or by e-mail at [email protected].