AVC NEGOTIATING LEASE OF PALMDALE SITE FOR CLASSROOMS.

Byline: Jim Skeen Staff Writer

LANCASTER - Antelope Valley College is negotiating a lease to use the former Boeing recreation center as a classroom building, an effort to establish a foothold in Palmdale until a permanent campus can be built.

AVC officials hope to offer courses at the site beginning in January, provided a lease agreement can be completed and repairs to the building made in time. The building, located north of Avenue P near 30th Street East, was among the buildings SR Technics America acquired from Boeing as part of its effort to establish an aircraft modification center.

``The board is very excited about this,'' said AVC board President Michael Adams. ``This will help us as a stepping stone to a permanent campus in Palmdale.''

The main points of the lease have been agreed upon - the college will lease the 45,000-square-foot building for $1 a year for a three- to five-year period. The college will be responsible for all repairs and remodeling, maintenance and utility costs.

Initial repairs and remodeling will cost $90,000.

The building's roof will need repairs, as will the hardwood floor of the building's former weight room, which has warped because of water damage, said AVC interim President Patricia Sandoval.

The college is starting to look at what courses would be offered.

The two-story building has nine rooms that can be used for classrooms, and there is open space on the first floor that could be divided to form either offices or classrooms.

The recreation center would be the college's first building of its own for use for college courses. AVC offers courses in Palmdale by using space in the evenings at Palmdale High School.

The building would give the college a foothold in the south Antelope Valley while officials try to get the proposed $41.7 million Palmdale campus going.

Initially, college officials expected the Palmdale campus to be financed with funds from Proposition 1A, a $9.2 billion school construction bond measure approved in 1998. However, college officials were told last fall that the revenue from that bond measure had been committed to colleges elsewhere.

There is a possibility that AVC might still receive a portion of the Proposition 1A funds, about $2 million. State officials are considering transferring money, about $23 million, left from construction projects at the state's four-year colleges and universities.

The college should learn this summer whether it will get any of those funds.

College officials say AVC's proposed Palmdale campus appears to be well-positioned for construction funds if California voters approve a school construction bond in 2002. AVC officials said they were notified by the state Community Colleges' Chancellor's Office that the Palmdale campus is on their list of ``most promising'' to qualify for funding in 2003-2004.

The initial Palmdale campus is estimated to cost $41.7 million, with just over $10 million going for roads and utilities in and around the campus site.