COUNTY PLANS COMPROMISE ON FUNDING FOR SCHOOLS.

Byline: Amy Collins Daily News Staff Writer

The question of how to finance the seven schools in Newhall Ranch has been the subject of years of negotiation but Los Angeles County officials now say they may have a solution.

The costs of the new schools will be shared by the developer - The Newhall Land and Farming Company - along with the state and local school districts. But who pays how much has been the sticking point for two of the three school districts.

County officials plan to propose a compromise Wednesday at the meeting of the Regional Planning Commission.

``It could be a model for other developments in the Santa Clarita Valley,'' said Lee Stark, a regional planner for Los Angeles County.

The Newhall Ranch planning document calls for five elementary, one junior high and one high school within the 70,000-resident new community to be located on 12,000 acres just west of the Golden State Freeway along Highway 126.

The schools would be built and operated by three different school districts. The Newhall Union School District would provide K-6 education for the students in the villages south of the Santa Clara River. Castaic Union School District would offer K-8 education for one village north of the river. The Hart District would teach 7-12 grade south of the river and 9-12 north of the river.

Newhall Land has reached agreement with Newhall District to pay for its new schools provided the district seeks state funding and refunds the company if any school construction funds are obtained.

Newhall Land is close to reaching agreement with the Castaic district, according to Stark's report issued to the Planning Commission on Thursday. The negotiating attorney for Castaic did not return phone calls Friday.

But negotiations have been slower going with the Hart district.

``We've had some good discussions in the last couple months,'' said Marlee Lauffer, the spokeswoman for Newhall Land. She said the company expects to reach agreement ultimately with Hart, but ``I doubt we will before the Wednesday meeting.''

Lauffer said a schools agreement does not have to be in place in order for the Planning Commission to approve the project and send it to the Board of Supervisors, ``but I know the Planning Commission is interested in schools,'' she said.

Robert Lee, the superintendent of the William S. Hart High School District, said the disputed costs could exceed $1 million for the high school.

``If we weren't growing, building homes, we wouldn't have to be building schools, and that's why we think it's a developer cost,'' Lee said.

Lauffer said one of the conditions Newhall Land wants is for the schools to commit to aggressively seeking state funds at ``Priority 1'' status, instead of sitting back once it has the Newhall Land money in its pocket.

Lee said one factor in Priority 1 status is that a school either agree to adopt a year-round schedule or that the local district will absorb 20 percent more students beyond what the state pays for through construction.

So if a state helps build a school for 1,000 students, the district will have to make up the difference to make the school accommodate 1,200 students. That would mean extra classrooms and restrooms that would raise the school's cost by $500,000 for a junior high, and add $1 million to $1.3 million for a high school, Lee said.

``From our perspective, it's not ideal, but it's not a catastrophe,'' Lee said.

He said the school board has taken a position to not use year-round schedules, so how to fund for the extra 20 percent has been a key element of the negotiations with Newhall Land.

The state will not fund the extra 20 percent. ``It's either going to be local or from the developer,'' Lee said. ``It's out of somebody's pocket.''

All schools built since 1994 have faced the same ultimatum in order to get Priority 1 state funding. The additional 20 percent costs for Valencia High School and Mesa Junior High School were absorbed by the Hart district, Lee said.

Stark said a solution might be on the horizon. ``We think they can both agree to a proposed condition that (County Counsel) Chuck Moore is going to propose,'' Stark said Thursday.

On Friday, Moore said the proposal was still being finalized and declined to comment on its content.