A few days before campuses on the traditional calendar re-opened for the 2013-14 school year, IUSD quietly hit a significant milestone: Enrollment climbed past 30,000 students.

Eastshore Elementary School has long yearned for its own school garden. Now, thanks to some philanthropic volunteers from Silicon Valley Bank in Irvine, it’s coming.

If you’re an Irvine student, parent or staff member, you probably received a phone message on the evening of Sept. 9 from Superintendent Terry Walker, offering a few welcoming words for the new school year.

On Sept. 9, IUSD Superintendent Terry Walker issued the following statement on the tragic auto accident that claimed the life of Marie Elizabeth "Lizzie" Johnson, who was entering her junior year at Irvine High School.

If you build it they will come. And if you don’t build it, they will come.

That’s the reality facing IUSD’s facilities team as the district moves forward with plans to construct its fifth comprehensive high school near the northeast border of the Orange County Great Park.

Irvine community members are invited to attend the upcoming Mayor’s Forum on Children’s Well-being from 6 to 8:30 p.m. on Sept. 12 at the Lakeview Senior Center.

Woodbridge High Principal Jason Viloria will soon be leaving Irvine, having recently been hired as the new executive director of curriculum and assessment for the San Dieguito Union High School District, IUSD Superintendent Terry Walker announced Thursday.

IUSD students continue to outpace their county and state counterparts on standards tests, according to the latest batch of scores released this month by the California Department of Education.

Assistance League of Irvine has announced that its annual "Operation School Bell" program will kick off the week of Aug. 12 for year-round schools and the week of Sept. 2 for schools on the traditional calendar.

Come Monday, July 29, a new school year will begin for Plaza Vista School, Vista Verde School, Westpark Elementary and Woodbury Elementary.