BOUNDARY VOTE NEAR SCHOOL BOARD AIMS TO CUT LA MESA JUNIOR HIGH CROWDING.

Byline: Bhavna Mistry Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA - The Hart school board is narrowing in on a vote on recommended boundary changes for two Canyon Country junior highs: a plan that faces parents' opposition but that officials say is needed to relieve overcrowding.

Under the plan that will be before the board Wednesday, students who attend Pinetree Elementary School, along with about half those from Sulphur Springs Elementary School, would move on to Sierra Vista Junior High School, rather than La Mesa Junior High School.

This would relieve crowding at La Mesa without increasing student population at Sierra Vista ``to a degree that can't be adequately accommodated,'' wrote students services administrator Michael Allmandinger in a report to the board.

The recommendation calls for sending 190 students to Sierra Vista instead of La Mesa, one of the most crowded campuses in the district, during the 2002-03 school year.

All students living in the neighborhoods north of Soledad Canyon Road and east of Sand Canyon Road would attend Sierra Vista instead of La Mesa.

About half of the Sulphur Springs students would still attend La Mesa Junior High School.

Parents opposed to sending students to Sierra Vista have addressed the board and written letters pleading to keep the students together.

``They can't split the school up like that,'' said Pinetree parent Maria Smith. ``It's not fair. They're dividing the communities, friends and classmates.''

School board members and district staffers have been considering how to balance enrollment better at each of the campuses.

The proposal is part of an effort to balance or cap enrollment at each school at about 1,500. If approved, the proposal would put Sierra Vista's attendance at 1,386 and La Mesa's at 1,474.

Student population is expected to be about that next fall at Placerita and Arroyo Seco, the district's two other junior high schools.

School officials considered sending all students from Pinetree and Sulphur Springs schools to Sierra Vista, but backed off that plan.

``That is not our recommendation because it was larger than the numbers we'd liked to be at,'' Allmandinger said.

Beginning in the 2002-03 school year, the junior highs will be adopting an alternative instruction schedule and will be able to handle larger student enrollments, officials said.

Board members said they would like eventually to foster a feeder-school concept in which students can stay together from elementary school through high school.

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Map: Proposed School Boundary

Hart school district is considering changing the boundary line for two junior highs, sending all students north of Soledad Canyon Road and east of Sand Canyon Road to Sierra Vista instead of La Mesa.