A CAMPUS WITH A MISSION; STEVENSON RANCH SCHOOL TO OFFER SPECIAL CURRICULUM.

Byline: Mary Schubert Daily News Staff Writer

When the school district opens its next high school in a few years, it will offer a specialized curriculum focusing on the visual and performing arts, a trend begun at Canyon, Hart, Saugus and Valencia.

The proposal for the as-yet unnamed - and not yet built - campus in Stevenson Ranch was approved this month by the Board of Education for the William S. Hart Union High School District.

District philosophy for its four mainstream high schools, and all future high schools, dictates that each campus have a specific academic and/or vocational focus that points students toward broad career avenues.

The so-called ``curricular paths'' are designed to accommodate all types of students - those who plan to go directly into the work force, those headed to community college or trade schools, and those who will attend four-year universities, said Leslie Crunelle, assistant superintendent of educational services for the Hart district.

Students of all types would be mixed in the program, drawing participants based on common career ambitions, not grades. ``It won't divide the `college preppers' from the `vocational ed-ers,' '' Crunelle said.

Canyon High School, for instance, has chosen a health science emphasis that could draw students interested in becoming anything from a pharmacist or an X-ray technician to a physician, a nurse or a pharmaceutical sales executive, Crunelle said.

``You mix kids based on their interest, and there are many avenues out of that path once they leave high school,'' she said. The program includes internships, job shadowing and mentor relationships with business professionals in their chosen field.

Crunelle said the curricular paths are meant to give students an educational advantage. ``When students are involved in relevant learning experiences . . . (teachers) don't have to answer the question: When am I ever going to use this in my life?'' she said.

``It provides students with learning opportunities that more accurately reflect what life will be like for them after high school,'' Crunelle added. ``They get a chance to do things off campus that are practical applications of what they're learning.''

Other curricular paths across the district include careers with children at Canyon High, industrial technology at Canyon and Saugus highs, business at Saugus and Valencia highs, and video production, graphic communications and computer-assisted design at Valencia High.

Programs in the planning stages include business technology and entertainment at Hart High, arts and entertainment at Canyon, and journalism and medical and fitness foundations at Valencia.

The basic idea - similar to what other school districts call magnet schools or academies - is not new in California. The Los Angeles Unified School District established magnet schools years ago as a way to integrate students voluntarily.

The Pasadena Unified School District established its first ``academy'' in 1990. Now, district high schools have eight academies, focusing on health careers, technology and business, computer careers, aerospace, business and finance, graphic communications, visual arts and design, and travel and tourism, said Betsy Richman, a spokeswoman for Pasadena Unified.

The Glendale Unified School District will open its first specialized campus in the fall. Clark Magnet High School in La Crescenta, the site of a long-closed junior high, will emphasize science and technology, said district spokeswoman Susan Hunt.

A school district study showed there was student and community interest in that field, particularly because NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory is nearby and the parents of many district students work there or in Glendale's technically oriented entertainment companies like Walt Disney Imagineering.

``It certainly is a field that a lot of kids will find employment in,'' Hunt said. Clark Magnet High School will begin with about 520 freshmen and sophomores and ultimately grow to about 1,100 students in grades 9-12.

The new campus also will alleviate some overcrowding at the district's three other high schools, where enrollments are 2,400 (Crescenta Valley High), 3,100 (Hoover High) and 3,500 (Glendale High), Hunt added.

Crunelle said each district high school was told to choose its own curriculum focus, one that fits the ``culture'' of each campus and the prospects for employment and career opportunities to which that specialized instruction can be applied.

Next year, for instance, students in the health program at Canyon will be doing internships at Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital, Crunelle said.

The high school in Stevenson Ranch will be built on about 45 acres west of the Golden State Freeway and along a planned extension of Valencia Boulevard, Crunelle said. The earliest the campus would open would be in September 2001, she said.

Architects have already begun designing the campus, which will have room for about 2,000 students. Crunelle said the Stevenson Ranch campus also will have other curricular paths, but none have been decided.

The visual and performing arts students will have classrooms and equipment where they can learn stage design, costume design and other production aspects, planners say.

A committee of two dozen school principals, teachers, parents and students have met regularly to plan with the architect what sort of high school would best suit the community's needs, Crunelle said.

The group decided the new campus should have an auditorium, possibly seating 600, that could be used by students during class and in productions, as well as the general public. Since the 1994 Northridge Earthquake damaged the Hart High auditorium, the Santa Clarita Valley has had no comparable facility, Crunelle said.

These days, districts ``wouldn't put that sort of facility in a school, because the state won't pay for it and it takes up square footage'' that counts as classroom space, Crunelle said.

Therefore, the Hart district may seek donations from the Santa Clarita Valley's entertainment industry to help pay for the auditorium's construction, she said.

Rochelle Neal, principal of La Mesa Junior High, serves on the planning committee for the Stevenson Ranch high school. The arts emphasis is a good fit for students in the valley, she said.

``There is so much entertainment business out here. It's growing so much,'' Neal said. ``A lot of our community members are involved in that industry, and there are a lot of studios in the area,'' she said.

Kelly Warden, who just graduated from Valencia High, also served as a student representative on the committee planning the new high school.

``We decided that since (Santa Clarita) is becoming a Burbank-type city - we're getting all these studios - and since CalArts will be right down the street, we wanted to be able to use everything we had around us to put together a visual and performing arts career path,'' Warden said.