NEWPORT BEACH

School officials this week broke ground on the district’s first new school in 21 years. Newport Coast Elementary School, which will resemble the Italian villa style of the surrounding houses, will open “sometime in the year 2000,” board President Serene Stokes said.

“We’re not committing to a date,” she said. “We want to build a beautiful school within our budget.”

A crowd made up of former and current school board members, Supt. Robert Barbot, state Board of Education member Marian Bergeson, and other movers and shakers in the district, as well as a chorus of children from Lincoln Elementary School, were there. Many students who now attend Lincoln will come to Newport Coast when it opens.