NEW SCHOOL IN THE WORKS OFFICIALS BREAK GROUND FOR COLUMBIA ELEMENTARY.

Byline: Karen Maeshiro Staff Writer

LANCASTER - School officials broke ground Thursday for the $15.3 million Columbia Elementary School, the Eastside Union School District's fourth elementary campus.

The 57,600-square-foot school, located at 27th Street East and Avenue J-4, will open next school year and will be able to accommodate up to 800 students.

``It's a school that we believe will begin a renaissance for Eastside,'' Superintendent Greg Riccio said.

Columbia, Eastside's first new school in more than three years, is named after the shuttle that was destroyed Feb. 1, 2003, over Texas.

The 12.5-acre campus will become the new home of staffers and pupils from Tierra Bonita North Elementary School.

Tierra Bonita North now shares a campus on 27th Street East at Lancaster Boulevard with Tierra Bonita South.

The two schools had started out in 1991 as one, created to accommodate youngsters living in the housing tracts that sprang up in east Lancaster in the late 1980s.

``It's very exciting. We can't wait,'' Principal Dorothea Thompson said. ``We are looking forward to a real building and not having to share the playground and cafeteria with Tierra Bonita South. It will be a school to call our own.''

The school construction is being financed using money from a $15.5 million bond measure passed in 1997 by Eastside voters, along with state funds.

The campus, which has a post-modern design, will consist of a core building with three main wings that contain administration offices, a library and multimedia center, and a multipurpose room with a kitchen.

On each side of the main building will be one- and two-story classroom buildings with courtyards. There will be a total of 41 classrooms.

For increased safety, the site also will include a bus and auto drop-off zone separated from the public parking area, and large grass and paved play areas.

Karen Maeshiro, [phone]

karen.maeshiro(at)dailynews.com