CASTAIC'S 4TH, 5TH GRADES MAKE MOVE TO MIDDLE SCHOOL.

Byline: Mary Schubert Daily News Staff Writer

This is not your father's grammar school.

In the 2,000-student Castaic Union School District, the little kids have taken over the elementary schools. This month, as youngsters returned from summer vacation, only the kindergartners through third-graders reported to Live Oak and Castaic elementary schools.

The fourth- and fifth-graders, once the top dogs of the playgrounds, have shifted to Castaic Middle School under a realignment introduced this year. The plan was enacted to free up classroom space for the state's class-size reduction program for children in primary grades.

In the Castaic district, the student-teacher ratio has shrunk to 20-to-1 in the first and second grades, and doing that required extra classrooms at the elementary schools.

But parents of the fourth- and fifth-graders were concerned last winter when district administrators first suggested the solution. Many said they felt their 9-, 10- and 11-year-olds were too young to share a campus with the sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders.

Castaic Middle School Principal Beverly Silsbee said the younger students occupy a different part of campus, starting and finishing class at separate times.

``They don't really interact during the school day. Their schedules are different,'' she said. ``We have age-appropriate programs for the different grade levels.''

In the first week of school, Silsbee said she heard few complaints from the younger children about leaving their elementary school prematurely.

``They were worried that maybe some of the fun things that they did at their elementary schools they wouldn't be able to do here,'' she said. ``We don't have monkey bars, but we do have tetherball, foursquare, dodge ball, handball, and we have lots and lots of fields for soccer.''

The adjustment was probably bigger for the Live Oak alumni, because they had to leave their neighborhood school for the middle school three miles away. In contrast, Castaic Elementary students spent last year in portable classrooms at the middle school while their new school was under construction down the road.

``When you're dealing with 1,075 students, I can't guarantee that everyone's happy,'' Silsbee said.

To handle the extra students, the middle school beefed up its staff to 46 teachers.

When the realignment was first proposed, parent Liz Surane wasn't among its supporters. Her kindergarten and second-grade daughters attend Castaic Elementary.

``I wasn't for (the realignment) when they first proposed it, but there are so many children,'' Surane said. ``The new (residential) developments coming in don't give (the district) enough funding'' to build additional schools.

A voter-approved bond measure a few years ago funded construction of the middle school, which opened last fall, and the new Castaic Elementary, which opened last week.

``It's nice to have a new (elementary) school, but I think it's kind of a shame that after the third grade they have to leave it and go to the bungalows at the middle school,'' Surane said. ``I'd rather that it be an ordinary elementary school, through the fifth grade.''

Meanwhile, over at Live Oak, new Principal Cary Bossi said she liked the idea of a smaller, primary-grades-only school. With the older children gone, the school has only three portable buildings left, much fewer than last year, she said.

``I'm told that we have 200 fewer kids with the fourth- and fifth-graders moving up to the middle school,'' Bossi said. Live Oak's enrollment now stands at about 435 students.

But with the older children gone, the principal said, they have nobody to serve on the student council. The third-graders seem too young for that task, she added.

Although this is the third school her second-grader has attended in as many years, Surane said her daughter was unfazed by the new Castaic Elementary. Last year she was in the trailerlike buildings on the middle school grounds, and the year before the little girl attended the aging, original Castaic Elementary on Ridge Route Road.

``It didn't affect her at all that she was moving every year, because all the teachers were the same and all the kids were the same,'' Surane said.

Last year was the hardest, as the elementary kids didn't have much room to run around on the middle school playground crowded with portables. There were few amenities for younger kids there, like jungle gyms and climbing equipment, she said.

``Plus, there were no drinking fountains in the class, so they had to bring bottled water,'' Surane said.

Silsbee was optimistic that the fourth- and fifth-graders would fit in well at the middle school.

``I think that they like being on this campus,'' she said. ``They like all of the new and special things that our facility provides, and I think it's going to be a very positive year.''