ANTELOPE VALLEY: SCHOOL BOND MEASURE STUMBLING.

Byline: - Charles F. Bostwick

PALMDALE - Antelope Valley Union High School District's $103.6 million bond issue was falling short of passage Tuesday in early election results.

Measure V, which would add $29.25 a year to the property taxes of a house assessed at $100,000, needs 55 percent of the vote to pass.

The money would pay for the construction of the $70 million William J. ``Pete'' Knight High School, named for the valley's longtime state senator, a former Edwards Air Force Base test pilot.

The bond would also pay to build three smaller campuses and modernize Antelope Valley, Palmdale and Quartz Hill high schools, the district's oldest schools.

The three smaller campuses are for the R. Rex Parris continuation high school at Avenue Q and Sixth Street East in Palmdale, and campuses in Lancaster and Palmdale for Phoenix High School, the district's last stop for expelled students.

The district is attempting to pass the bond measure under Proposition 39, the 2000 state ballot measure that lowers the approval level from the standard two-thirds majority if the district appoints a citizen oversight committee and meets other specifications.

Proponents say the district's schools are overcrowded and enrollment is growing at 1,000 or 1,200 students a year.