COLLEGE WITHOUT WAITING.

Byline: CONNIE LLANOS  Staff Writer

CANYON COUNTRY -- A new high school that offers college credits will open next year in Canyon Country to serve students otherwise less likely to continue their education -- for example, those living with parents or other relatives who are low-income or don't speak English.

The program has been approved by the board of the William S. Hart Union High School District to operate at College of the Canyons' Canyon Country Learning Center, now under construction.

The goal is for students already to have extensive college credits -- possibly an associate's degree -- when they graduate from high school.

Erum Jones, the math department chairwoman at Golden Valley High School, has been named planning administrator for the new campus. Called Early College High School, it will be the first of its kind in Santa Clarita and is scheduled to open for the 2007-08 school year.

``It is extremely exciting as an educator because I have a lot of core values, and Early College High School embodies a lot of my values,'' Jones said.

Jones said she has experience dealing with students in alternate programs and believes those who take advantage of this new type of high school setting can thrive in it.

``Sometimes kids need an alternate environment to learn in.''

Early college campuses have been sprouting up nationwide, with 50 schools now open and an estimated 170 planned by 2008.

These smaller, more autonomous schools cater to students traditionally less likely to go to college, such as racial-ethnic minorities, those who learn English as a second language, those whose parents didn't attend college and those without college money.

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