District presents safety fencing plans to Andersen school community

Building officials with the Newport-Mesa Unified School District presented plans at a community meeting Monday to add a 6-foot-tall fence around Andersen Elementary to increase campus safety.

The meeting was one of three scheduled this week. Similar meetings are set for 6 p.m. Tuesday at Victoria Elementary in Costa Mesa and 6 p.m. Thursday at Adams Elementary in Costa Mesa.

In a presentation before about 20 residents and parents at the Newport Beach school, James Lamond, director of facilities development, planning and design for the district, showed examples of the gray, metal picket-style fence that will be installed at Andersen this summer.

The fence will run along the sides, back and part of the front of the school. Several gates in the fence will be unlocked before and after school and on the weekends, Lamond said.

He also described plans to plant new accent trees, spruce up the landscaping in the front of the school and remodel the lobby to add safety features.

The district began discussing school security after the Sandy Hook shootings in Newtown, Conn., in 2012. Of the district’s 22 elementary schools, only Andersen, Adams and Victoria lack fencing around the entirety of the campuses.

In July 2014, trustees voted on a plan to fence Andersen. Last fall, the Andersen Fence Design Committee met twice to review district proposals for fencing and other improvements.

The issue ignited protests last year in the quiet neighborhood where the school is located. Many parents said fencing would take away from the open, community feel of the campus.

“What we’re trying to do is come to a happy medium that matches what’s going on in the community,” Lamond said Monday night.

Even so, the appearance of the proposed fence disturbed Karin Michalik, who has lived in the neighborhood for more than 30 years.

“That looks just like a prison, I’m sorry,” said Michalik after seeing renderings during the presentation. “Let’s make it at least nice-looking for everyone who lives around it.”

But one woman, who declined to give her name, said the fencing looks like what she has seen at school campuses elsewhere. She said children’s safety should be the priority.

Last year, parents and other residents living near the school gathered hundreds of signatures on a petition in support of hiring an outside consultant to study school safety with the hope that a fence wouldn’t be necessary at Andersen.

In March 2014, the board voted to spend $5,987 to have Safe Havens International, a nonproject campus safety organization, survey the school’s security, according to district documents.

After evaluation of the school’s policies and visits to the campus, Safe Havens was unable to identify a security alternative to fencing significant portions of the Andersen campus, according to a summary of its findings.

In the report, the organization noted that Andersen “lacks anything resembling appropriate access control, particularly during student arrival and dismissal.”

“Open campus design of this school creates a dramatically increased risk exposure to a variety of types of acts of violence,” the report stated.

—Staff writer Hannah Fry contributed to this report.