CASTLE OF LEARNING; STUDENTS DEDICATE NEW GRADE SCHOOL WITH SONG, POETRY.

Byline: Angela M. Lemire Staff Writer

Every housewarming party stands to bring in lots of presents, as well as sincere wishes for a promising future.

And well-wishers and guests didn't arrive empty-handed Friday at North Park Elementary School's housewarming, the official dedication ceremony that welcomed the Saugus Union School District's newest K-6 campus, which integrates state-of-the-art shared classroom resources, multiple-use community areas and an on-site day care center.

Guests brought poems, trees, seed money for the parent-teacher organization, placards, county and city certificates of recognition, flags, quilts, decorative displays and live musical performances for the occasion. A crowd of 150 parents cheered or reached skyward on tiptoes to record the moment with camcorders.

The students brought their own offerings, singing patriotic favorites with lyrics tailored for the occasion. They also recited poems and collectively took the North Park Knights' pledge to ``shine in honor and excellence.''

``This school is your school, this school is my school,'' first-graders sang, with the Valencia High School Marching Band backing them during the outdoor flag-raising ceremony.

Second-graders later sang, ``Sparkle, Sparkle Giant Knight,'' before school officials and guests adjourned to the multipurpose room to recognize efforts that made the school opening possible.

North Park opened with 600 students - 200 more than expected - to ease crowding at Emblem Elementary School and accommodate community growth. The school has the ability to house a total of 950 students and room for 14 additional teachers to be phased in over the next few years.

Besides the day-care center, the facility boasts a technologically advanced phone system that can accommodate Internet traffic, activity rooms with clear walls and the largest multipurpose room in the district.

Principal Catherine Laws, formerly of Rio Vista Junior High, thanked architects and the construction team for getting the campus completed in time for the start of school on Aug. 18. The Newhall Land and Farming Co., which contributed developer fees and land for the school in exchange for its surrounding North Park residential community, also received much praise and thanks from various speakers.

Laws assured parents that the Saugus Union School District has assembled a faculty and administrative team of compassionate, honorable and loyal individuals who will act in the best interest of the students.

``We promise that the teamwork ethic that already has been shown will continue each day,'' Laws said.

Playing on the imagery of the school's mascot, the North Park Knight, Saugus Superintendent Gail Wickstrom likened the new facility to Camelot, the city of medieval legend that Sir Thomas Malory famously envisioned as ruled by the noble King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.

``In the days of yore, before you got to be a knight, you had to be a squire first, to learn the basics,'' she told students, promising that their new school would do everything possible to teach them the basics of reading, writing and arithmetic in their quests to become knights. ``We dedicate this school as a castle of learning to you.''

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3 Photos

Photo: (1--Color) Sara Cook, 10, left, and Kelly Fordham, 11, show their colors in North Park Elementary School mascot Knight uniforms.

(2--3--Color) At right, the Valencia High School Marching Band helps dedicate North Park Elementary School on opening day. Above, the state flag is raised for the first time.

David R. Crane/Staff Photographer