CHILDREN EVICTED IN BOUNDARY FIGHT\Castaic school superintendent laments exodus from classrooms.

Byline: James J. Rodriguez Daily News Staff Writer

A nasty debate between Castaic schools and the Newhall Land and Farming Co. grew worse Friday after the developer's call to a vacation trailer park prompted the evictions of three families with schoolchildren.

James Harter, a Newhall Land vice president, called the owner of Valencia Travel Village earlier in the week after learning during discussions with the Castaic Union School District that some students were living at the park illegally, said Marlee Lauffer, a spokeswoman for the development company.

County zoning permits prohibit long-term residence by tenants at the Highway 126 park, designed for vacationers.

School officials said they learned of the evictions when parents pulled four students out of Live Oak Elementary School because they had to move out of the area.

On Friday, the superintendent of the Castaic Union School District, Allen Nishino, said he was upset and believes innocent bystanders were dragged into the battle. Newhall Land seeks to transfer 2,400 acres of its proposed 25,000-home Newhall Ranch from Castaic to the Newhall School District.

"It's unfortunate that these students have become victims of circumstances beyond their control," Nishino said. "It is my understanding that we have always had students enrolled from that trailer park over the last 18 years."

Lauffer said Harter's discussion with Travel Village owner Jerry Sanders was merely a courtesy call to discuss Newhall Land's plan to draw neighboring land out of the Castaic school district and to note that questions had been raised about children's living at the travel park.

Harter's warning that the travel park could be in violation of county zoning rules forced Travel Village to take action or face fines and possible closure by the county, park general manager Carl Haddix said.

Sanders and Haddix acknowledged the eviction notices probably would not have been issued if Harter had not called. Park officials, Haddix said, were previously unaware that tenants had children enrolled in local schools.

"If they hadn't . . . called us . . . we probably wouldn't have taken a look at the issue," Sanders said.

Two of the families weren't home Friday. A third declined comment.

Haddix said the tenants understood the circumstances surrounding the eviction notices. Nonetheless, he said it was difficult to give the families the bad news.

"We don't want to see them leave," Haddix said. "I feel bad because they are all good tenants. If you didn't see them, you wouldn't even know they were here.

"It's politics. What could we do?"

Travel Village became part of the debate with Newhall Land when residents of Castaic said the proposed land transfer skirts homes of low-income students, including those in the vacation park.

Newhall Land is seeking permission from the county Office of Education to transfer the land - a small part of Newhall Ranch - to Newhall so children in the new community would attend one school district.

The transfer could cost the three-campus Castaic district millions of dollars in potential property-tax revenue, development fees and money allocated by the state per pupil.

But along with questions about the boundary lines came questions about students at the park. The park operates under a county permit that prohibits permanent residency, Haddix said.

Yet tenants with children enrolled in local schools apparently are considered permanent residents, Haddix said.

"It (upsets me) that these two sides are fighting," Haddix said Friday. "Why in the hell do we have to get dragged into it?"