CABLE DEAL TO UPGRADE SCHOOL.

Byline: Sonia Giordani Daily News Staff Writer

When the City Council first started negotiations to establish a franchise agreement with Falcon Cablevision, the top priority was to improve cable television service and quell the complaints of the 1,298 Morrison Ranch residents the company serves.

But when the council finalized the 10-year contract Wednesday night, guaranteeing a brand-new cable system and better customer service to those residents, few were more excited than Willow Elementary School Principal Jane Wagmeister.

As part of a Public Education Grant set up in the franchise agreement, the local school will receive $7,000 from Falcon to fund the purchase of video equipment for its classrooms.

``This will allow us to have televisions and VCRs in all of our classrooms and instructional areas and also the ability to connect the TVs to the computers. And that would allow the teachers to incorporate the technology into their instruction in a variety of ways,'' said Wagmeister, who completed her wish list Thursday.

She said Falcon's funds will help teachers tie educational programs broadcast on such cable channels as the Discovery Channel and the History Channel into the curriculum. Additionally, cables linking television monitors to the computers and linking all the classroom monitors to a central system will give teachers and school administrators access to larger student audiences.

The Las Virgenes Unified School District's four other schools in Agoura Hills were equipped with such equipment under a similar franchise agreement worked out by the city with TCI, the city's other franchised cable company. Willow Elementary - which falls within Falcon's operating area - was left waiting for its fair share for years, said Don Zimring, assistant superintendent of business services for the district, who attended Wednesday night's council meeting.

Zimring noted, however, that Falcon has supported education in the region for years, benefiting Calabasas schools in neighborhoods where it provides cable service to thousands of homes. He added that the company is a leading sponsor of the Las Virgenes Technology Foundation.

In the past several years, Falcon has provided televisions for Willow's classrooms. With seven additional classrooms recently added to the campus, however, Falcon's regional manager, Susan Booker, said she intends to equip those rooms with television sets and videocassette recorders as soon as possible.

The 10-year contract will give Falcon the right to serve its 1,298 subscribers in the city's Morrison Ranch neighborhood. In exchange, the company will agree to completely renovate its service to offer Agoura Hills residents a state-of-the-art fiber-optic cable system within the next 15 months.

Booker said the first step will be to notify customers of the impending construction, which will require new fiber-optic cable lines to be laid under residential roadways.

Under the agreement with the city, Falcon must complete work on the project within 15 months. Booker said customers will be notified at least 48 hours in advance of construction work that could interrupt their cable service, but she added that most of the work will be completed during the day.

Additionally, a customer service hotline will be set up once work begins for residents to speak with Falcon representatives.

``We are thrilled to have the franchise agreement and to bring a new system of services and technology to the residents of Morrison Ranch,'' Booker said.