CHOC clinic doesn’t fit at Rea Elementary

Cindy Brenneman

On behalf of the board of directors of Mesa Verde Community Inc.

and its membership, I am requesting the Newport-Mesa Unified School

District board reconsider its plan to establish a new medical clinic

at the Rea Elementary School site in the Estancia school zone. While

we realize our knowledge of the project is limited to recent

newspaper accounts and the numerous letters from affected members of

the community, based upon that information, we strongly oppose this

project.

The proposal as presented is just too idealistic -- providing

medical treatment to ill children at their very own school site.

However, common sense dictates that medical treatment would not be

limited only to the students at Rea school. Of course nobody wants to

deny medical treatment to sick little children. Everyone knows there

is a huge health-care crisis, and that this crisis is not limited to

the medically uninsured, but to the underinsured and others as well.

As soon as the public learns of the free medical clinic’s

existence, the seriously ill of all ages from all over will converge

on the Rea school site. The Newport-Mesa Unified School District is

liable for the health and safety of its students and therefore

exposing them unnecessarily to infectious diseases and kidnapping

possibilities is unacceptable in this day and age.

There are other issues to consider as well. As you are aware, the

Westside of Costa Mesa presently is overwhelmed with unresolved

social issues and is working very hard to overcome those problems.

Adding even one more social service to an area already suffering from

the impacts of the high number of existing social services will

seriously harm fragile relationships. Rea school already houses a

nonprofit, Save Our Youth.

Therefore, please do not overlook the concerns of the community.

The idea of locating this clinic on the campus of an elementary

school in the middle of a residential neighborhood is simply

ludicrous. We need more classrooms and quality teachers on school

grounds, not a free clinic.

We would like to propose that CHOC and the district consider other

locations for this clinic. We understand the serious need for health

care and support the concept in general, but please, not at this

location. We ask you to please consider the negative impact this

location would add to the already overburdened Westside residents.

We will attend the next school board meeting to learn more about

what is being proposed at Rea school and express our thoughts. In the

meantime, if there is any information you could provide for us to

share with our board and membership, it would be appreciated.

* CINDY BRENNEMAN is president of the Mesa Verde Community Inc.