Early College High School, built for elementary pupils, gets a facelift
Graduates toss their caps during the Early College High School commencement ceremony on June 5, 2014.
Early College High School is undergoing a $4 million makeover, giving it a more accessible entryway, repurposed classrooms, new flooring and other upgrades.
While the Mesa Verde school will experience several modifications, the modernization project will not add any square footage, according to Tim Marsh, the Newport-Mesa Unified School District’s administrative director of facilities support services.
The yearlong effort broke ground this week.
The improved entrance will provide better access from the front parking lot on Mesa Verde Drive East and Baker Street, allowing visitors to enter and check in there instead of at the larger, more open back lot and entryway along Baker.
In addition to the new flooring, the ceilings, cabinets, sinks and wall finishes will be replaced, according to Newport-Mesa spokeswoman Annette Franco.
A new lunch shelter will be built closer to the food-service area, replacing the old shelter.
The campus, which once served elementary students, will have some of its oversized rooms repurposed to better fit high school students.
The low sinks used by the pint-sized learners of past will be torn out so pupils of the present can have fully equipped science and art rooms.
Only five classrooms have air conditioning.
The modernization project will include the schoolwide installation of heating, ventilating and air conditioning systems, Franco said.
The improvements could help forge the up-to-date campus that was once promised to Early College.
Over the years, the Mesa Verde site has seen plenty of schools come and go.
Marsh said the old elementary school location was utilized by Coast Community College District for 25 years, starting in the late ‘80s.
Early College opened in 2006 as a joint venture between the NMUSD and CCCD, offering a small group of high school students college-level courses.
When CCCD began construction on a $48-million location in Newport Beach in 2010, the college district and Newport-Mesa discussed the possibility of Early College moving in.
Toward the end of the location’s completion in 2012, Newport-Mesa officials realized the layout of offices and instructional space did not fit the needs of a high school.
In January 2013, Coastline Community College students moved into the Newport Beach location while about 270 of Early College students remained at the Mesa Verde location.
