CANYON COUNTRY MAY BOLT; SCHOOL DISTRICT UNIFICATION ISSUE DEBATED.

Byline: Patricia Farrell Aidem Staff Writer

Long feeling neglected, insulted and otherwise ignored, Canyon Country is considering erasing its Sulphur Springs elementary school district, seceding from the Hart High School District and creating its own K-12 unified system.

A committee of educators and residents has been meeting for about a year, and a consultant's feasibility study of the proposed 14,000-student Canyon Country Unified School District is due in September.

A number of factors drive the campaign.

Backers say unification would better bridge the transition from elementary school to junior high and would give the community local control over secondary education, said Robert Nolet, superintendent of the Sulphur Springs School District.

``Parents were surveyed a few years ago and their most significant feeling was the desire for local governance,'' Nolet said. ``There's a feeling that if there was a Canyon Country Unified School District, if there was a board election from just this area, the board would be more responsive. It could better represent the issues of Canyon Country.''

And with most of the growth in the Santa Clarita Valley anticipated in Saugus, Valencia and Castaic, Canyon Country might lose its power base in the Hart District, Nolet said.

``There is the fear of the loss of local control,'' he said.

Also, residents would have a say in where junior highs and high schools would be built.

Aside from practical issues, emotions also are driving the campaign.

Historically, there's the feeling that Canyon Country gets no respect, Nolet said. That feeling intensified earlier this year when the Hart District was looking at changing junior high boundaries and met opposition from Saugus parents who didn't want their children to attend school in Canyon Country.

The school board backed the parents, opting to allow the severe overcrowding at Arroyo Seco Junior High rather than shift neighborhoods into the boundaries of the under-capacity Sierra Vista Junior High in Canyon Country.

``That whole Hart boundary issue probably added more fuel to this than anything else in the sense of control, community identification and respect,'' Nolet said.

Unlike the massive Los Angeles Unified School District, the Santa Clarita Valley has four small elementary districts, which built around historic schoolhouses in each community. The Sulphur Springs, Newhall, Saugus and Castaic districts now feed the valleywide Hart High School District.

Unity vs. unification

Surprisingly, Hart Superintendent Bob Lee said he thinks the concept of unification is a good one, even if it means dissolving his district.

``My thought is that this community in total - meaning every corner of the William S. Hart District - needs to sit down and seriously look at this whole unification issue and look at all aspects - financial, facility-wise, curriculum, what's good for the kids, what's good for the parents,'' Lee said.

``And if it means bringing in some people to help, this is a path that many areas have walked and learned from their ups and downs. . . then seriously say `is this the time, should we have done it yesterday or is it in the future?'

``Then set out a course of action.''

But as Lee sees it, there's no room in the discussion for emotion.

``You do this kind of thing with good planning, not because somebody didn't like the way they treated us in the boundary issue. If that's what you base your decision on, your foundation crumbles.''

The Sulphur Springs' consultant study will address financing and the possibility of the unified district taking over any Hart facilities.

Canyon High, Sierra Vista and La Mesa Junior High are in Canyon Country, but just outside the Sulphur Springs district boundaries.

The proposed Golden Valley High School might or might not be eyed by unification proponents. It is on the very western edge of Canyon Country, and will serve students from the faster growing west side.

East vs. west

The locations of those four campuses - particularly Golden Valley - have resurrected the valley's longstanding east vs. west debate and have further fueled the unification discussions, Nolet said.

``It didn't go unnoticed by the people of this district that when the Hart District considered the placement of Golden Valley, they considered that the east end of the district,'' Nolet said. ``There are people who questioned their definition of east.''

Lee argues that the Hart district has never paid attention to elementary school district lines in plotting new schools. They go where the suitable land is available to best meet the needs of the population, he said.

``We have no control over elementary boundaries, we don't even look at that,'' he said. ``When they put Canyon where they put Canyon, it was because that's where they could find dirt, it was because that's where they could build utilities, and it's where people didn't have to drive across a river bed to get their kids to school.''

In fact, the district did look at two sites on the very east side of Canyon Country when plotting Golden Valley, but both were rejected by the state. One property, Lee said, was too close to railroad tracks and there was a liquifaction problem and the second didn't meet seismic standards for school construction.

``It's hard to find buildable land the further east you go,'' he said. ``We put schools where we can acquire suitable property and meet the kids needs and parents needs.''

Slow, steady process

The Sulphur Springs study shows unification will address nine key points including financing, facilities, ethnic diversity, geographic identification and the impact on the balance of those factors in the Hart district. If the study finds unification both practical and feasible, the next step would be a petition campaign to see if 25 percent of the registered voters in the area support the idea, Nolet said.

If that is achieved, backers of unification would forward petitions to the Los Angeles County Committee on School District Reorganization, which would hold hearings. The next step is a review by the state Board of Education, which could call for an election.

Voters at that point would decide on the same ballot if they want to unify, and secondly they would elect a school board. If approved, the board would have about a year to organize, and during that period would settle property issues with the Hart district, and possibly the Saugus Union School District, which has elementary campuses in Canyon Country.