CACTUS SCHOOL COULD MOVE IF PARENTS, TEACHERS SUPPORT IT.

Byline: Marci Wormser Staff Writer

PALMDALE - Palmdale School District officials said Tuesday that they will consider switching Cactus School to a new campus next year to preserve it as an elementary school.

In a meeting with parents and teachers upset over a proposal to convert Cactus into a middle school, Superintendent Nancy Smith agreed to allow a petition to be circulated to ask parents whether they would drive their children to a new campus three miles away.

``The numbers are the determining factor,'' Smith said. ``If the numbers work, the board is going to try to save the school.''

Cactus, now at 20th Street East and Avenue R, could be relocated to the campus at 37th Street East and Avenue S that currently houses Golden Poppy and Los Amigos elementary schools, Smith said.

Golden Poppy will be relocating to a permanent campus on 62nd Street and Avenue R-4 in one year.

Smith will meet with parents and teachers again March 21 to review the results of the petitions.

District officials want to use Cactus as a middle school because of its central location and because it has a gymnasium, sports fields and classroom laboratories. The district is short of space for seventh- and eighth-graders, officials say.

Cactus is not a neighborhood school for youngsters who live nearby. Parents from anywhere in the district can send their children there.

But the district can not afford to provide buses for students who are unable to walk to the proposed new campus on Avenue S, Smith said.

The district's proposal to shift younger Cactus pupils to other schools upset some parents and teachers.

``It seems like other schools are getting the priority over us,'' said Cactus teacher Carolyn Kuhn at Tuesday's meeting. ``We've put in all these years. We're like a family. It's just heartbreaking.''

Kuhn told Smith that transferring at-risk students to other schools will multiply their problems, and that all students will suffer from instability.