DEVELOPER DEAL TO PAY FOR SCHOOLS : SAUGUS BOARD OKS PACT.

Byline: Mary Schubert Daily News Staff Writer

The Newhall Land and Farming Company has pledged up to $40 million to build as many as four schools on property slated for future residential development within the Saugus Union School District.

The school board on Tuesday approved a pact with the developer that owns acreage on which thousands of homes are planned. The property, in the vicinity of Decoro Drive, McBean Parkway and Copper Hill Drive, falls within the Saugus district boundaries.

``We have agreed to provide land and money for the construction of up to four schools in our North River area, which is where all of our development that relates to the Saugus school district is,'' company spokeswoman Marlee Lauffer said.

``This represents a more than $40 million commitment from our company for the building of elementary schools, and it assures that they will be built on time,'' she said.

Lauffer said the planned development, on nearly 3,000 acres, will take place over the span of a decade. ``We've got about 8,000 to 10,000 homes planned in that area,'' she said.

The Saugus district has 11 elementary schools with a combined enrollment of 7,445. Construction on its 12th school, Plum Canyon Elementary, is under way and is expected to be completed sometime in 1998.

Nevertheless, district officials are hard pressed to keep pace with the growing pupil population - enrollment increased about 6 percent this year above the 1995-96 school year. Until new campuses can be built, portable classrooms have been popping up in increasing numbers on school playgrounds.

``As we build anywhere . . . in the Saugus school district, we will make sure that we fund the land and the construction of the elementary schools,'' Lauffer said.

In a typical scenario, developers set aside land for schools within the residential tracts they built - but require school districts to buy the property from them. Often, public school districts also had to either foot the bill for construction themselves, usually by asking local voters to approve a bond measure, or appealing to the state government for the needed funds.

The latter source is increasingly scarce, said Henry Heydt, assistant director of the state Department of Education's school facilities planning division.

Although California voters passed Proposition 203 in March, the $2.25 billion that the school construction bond measure raised for kindergarten through 12th grade has all been earmarked, Heydt said.

To make matters worse, the state has a $7 billion ``waiting list'' of funding requests for school construction projects that haven't been filled, Heydt added. There are 1,000 public school districts across California - about 6,900 schools - vying for the same pool of money, and only a small percentage of the requests can be granted, he said.

These days, Heydt said, it costs about $5.2 million to build an elementary school that serves 600 students, the size the state prefers.

Because of the scarcity of state school construction funds, the school board and Saugus district administrators sought other ways to pay for added schools.

``This is a big investment in education by a local company,'' said Art Clark, assistant superintendent of business services for the Saugus school district.

``It would not be possible for the Saugus district . . . to purchase the land and build the schools, because those dollars are just not available at this time,'' Clark said. ``Funding at the state level is very uncertain.''

In fact, local taxpayers have paid for recent Saugus schools. Proposition S, a local tax measure of $10.2 million, provided construction funds for Plum Canyon and Mountainview schools, Clark said.

The district's 13th elementary school will be built on a 6.5-acre parcel near Sunset Hills Drive, in the North Park residential tract. ``We hope to have the school under construction by December,'' Clark said.

Lauffer said a combination of good business sense and being a good corporate neighbor is behind The Newhall Land and Farming Company's deal with the Saugus Union School District.

``We know that schools are a very important factor in marketing our community,'' she said. ``We would like to see the state return some of our money to the Santa Clarita Valley, but in the meantime, wishing that is not going to get schools built.''