School gets a major face-lift

Jeff Benson

Students used to be the only ones allowed on the plastic slide at St.

Joachim Parish School in Costa Mesa. But this year it’s become a

makeshift rest area for weary construction workers.

The school will rejoice in its first major face-lift next summer

after spending nearly $7 million in grants to replace its 55-year-old

buildings. Two classroom buildings, the parish office, the rectory

and the main hall have already been bulldozed, and they’ll be

replaced by an 8,500-square-foot gymnasium/multi-purpose building and

a two-story, Internet-ready classroom building that features a

state-of-the-art science center, music appreciation room,

technologically improved library and parish office.

School Board President Jenny Yonkers said the school isn’t

expanding -- just improving through modernization. Through the end of

the year the contractor, Slater Builders, will install underground

utilities and pour the concrete foundations before erecting the new

structures.

Principal Joe Leppert said the modernization project for the

pre-kindergarten through eighth-grade school was a natural fit

because the campus’s population grew by 20 students this year, to

292. In addition, the school and church hold English/Spanish

religious education classes and community support groups until 10

p.m. nightly, he said.

“Our school serves the youth of Costa Mesa, and the parish is

really involved in reaching the greater community and kids who go to

public school,” Leppert said. “We’re improving our facilities because

of years of wear and tear ... Everybody realized we outgrew the

place.”

St. Joachim is using portable classrooms for its pre-kindergarten

through third-grade classes, while its fourth- through sixth-grade

classes remain housed in its one remaining two-story brick building.

In the meantime, students are using a temporary blacktop area,

basketball courts and softball field that are enclosed by chain-link

fences.

The school began plans for the remodeling in August 2003 after it

received a $4-million grant from the Shea Foundation, which gives

sizable grants to Catholic schools nationwide, Yonkers said.

Members of the parish and the Newport-Mesa community gave another

$2 million in grants, she said. The school received its portable

classrooms in June and construction began in August.

“Schools like this always succeed or are improved because people

believe in them,” Leppert said. “People who believe in Catholic

education make it what it is.”

Administrators expect an additional $1.3 million is needed for new

furniture, fixtures and other equipment so the project can be

completed before the 2005-06 school year begins, Yonkers said.

Leppert said his students can barely hear the construction crews

working. The crews accommodate students’ recess and physical

education schedules by altering the type of work they do and

occasionally halting work altogether, Leppert said.

Eighth-grader Ellen O’Brien, commissioner of religious affairs on

campus, admitted she was a little jealous because she’ll be leaving

for high school next year. The crews don’t affect her studies or

recess, the 13-year-old said.

“I think the jackhammers were really loud at first, but that was

only for a couple days,” Ellen said. “It only affected us when we

were reading literature or something.”

Yonkers’ sixth-grade daughter, Molly, 11, said she’s looking

forward to playing basketball in the gymnasium when it’s finished

next year. Molly said it felt strange to sit in a portable building

because she’d spent the last seven years in the aging brick buildings

-- with the same classmates every year -- but she and her mother said

the kids are starting to get excited about the change of atmosphere.

“When the students saw their school getting bulldozed, the pride

was what really struck me,” Jenny Yonkers said. “Really, I think

they’re truly feeling like they won the lottery.”