CLASS SPACE RUNS SHORT IN NEWHALL.

Byline: Mary Schubert Daily News Staff Writer

The Newhall School District, where 5,590 students attend seven schools amid ever-growing enrollment and a state philosophy of class-size reduction, is considering a bond measure to build more schools.

Before moving ahead, the district first will gauge public opinion to see whether voters are willing to pay a special school construction tax.

Nevertheless, the board of education decided Tuesday to aim for putting a bond measure on the Nov. 4 ballot, when elections for three school board seats will be held.

``State money for school construction is simply not a realistic expectation,'' said Superintendent J. Michael McGrath.

According to a December enrollment report, Stevenson Ranch and Newhall have more than 900 students each; Peachland, Meadows and Valencia Valley have 841, 832 and 824 students, respectively; while Wiley Canyon has 799 and Old Orchard has 472 students.

The more telling figure, McGrath said, is that district schools overall are housing 25 percent more students they were designed to hold. The situation is even worse at Wiley Canyon and Peachland.

``They're close to 50 percent above their designed capacity,'' McGrath said.

The solution has been to install portable classroom buildings; currently there are 53 of them across the district and an additional 30 portables are on the way, McGrath said. Those 83 temporary buildings are needed to comply with the state government's directive that public schools adopt a 20-to-1 student-teacher ratio in the primary grades.

The Newhall School District has reduced its first-grade class sizes, and second-grade classes will get smaller starting next month, McGrath said. Next year, the district will need to buy 19 more portables just to keep pace, he predicted.

Gov. Pete Wilson also wants schools to reduce kindergarten and third-grade class sizes, but McGrath said that wouldn't be possible at the seven schools.

``Given that (the district) is growing at 7 percent a year, we have no intention of adding another grade level'' to the class-size reduction plan, McGrath said.

The Newhall School District last tried to pass a bond measure in 1991, when officials wanted to build three new schools by levying property tax assessments against local residents. In June of that year, the proposed $20.2 million bond failed to garner the support of the necessary two-thirds of voters.

That measure lost by only 121 votes - about 3 percent of the 5,600 who cast ballots. Supporters tried again in November 1991, but that time the bond measure lost by a bigger margin, garnering only 56 percent of the vote.

Because the 1991 bond measure failed, the district alleviated overcrowding by switching Valencia Valley and Wiley Canyon elementary schools to a multitrack year-round schedule for two years. Under the system, which began in 1993, one-fourth of the students were on vacation while the other 75 percent were in session.

Back in 1991, the district had about 4,800 students, six schools and 42 portable classrooms.

But McGrath said the climate might be better in 1997 to win the two-thirds support a bond measure requires. California has bounced back from the recession it was in back then, he said.

Another factor voters might weigh is that the school district has no bonded indebtedness. ``Just last year, we paid off our last bond,'' McGrath said.

The state picked up the $6 million tab for construction of Stevenson Ranch Elementary, the district's newest school, shifting the financial burden away from local taxpayers, the superintendent noted.

The school board directed McGrath to compile a list of firms that conduct public opinion surveys. The board of education wants to hire such a firm to gauge the extent of support among district voters regarding a bond issue - and how much money they would be willing to tax themselves, McGrath said.

There are 27,672 registered voters within the boundaries of the Newhall School District, according to the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder's Office.

Perhaps the Newhall district and school board can take heart in the success of a neighboring district, which raised the money to build Mountainview and Plum Canyon elementary schools with voter-approved bond funds.

In June 1993, a whopping 78 percent of voters in a Saugus Union School District election approved a $10.2 million bond issue. The money was used to fund construction, not land acquisition, said Saugus district Assistant Superintendent Art Clark.

``Frankly, we're in a critical situation. Our schools are at capacity and that has been exacerbated considerably by the first- and second-grade class-size reduction plan,'' said Newhall school board member Mike McCabe.

``With the growth we're experiencing, we cannot continue through much of next year without doing something,'' McCabe added.