DISTRICT'S NEW SCHOOLS MAKE DEBUT.

Byline: Jennifer Radcliffe Staff Writer

The San Fernando Valley opened its first new secondary schools in more than 30 years Thursday, giving about 2,600 students the rare treat of starting the year in spotless classrooms with shiny, unscuffed desks.

A middle school in Van Nuys and a high school on the campus of California State University, Northridge, were among a record eight new schools Los Angeles Unified opened Thursday. They're part of a $10 billion plan to build 160 schools over the next decade to relieve overcrowding.

Some 335,000 LAUSD students returned to class Thursday - nearly half of the district's enrollment. Students in year-round schools started class July 1.

Valley students - many of whom have attended older, more crowded schools on year-round schedules - were awestruck by their new schools.

``It's beautiful,'' 15-year-old Cory Viatoro said of the new CSUN campus, which features a large courtyard, and a red and orange four-story classroom wing. ``This is like a big opportunity for us. ... I think this is one of the best schools in the Valley.''

The CSUN campus, located on five acres near Zelzah Avenue and Nordhoff Street, is the first high school to open in the Valley since Kennedy High School 33 years ago. The 600 freshmen and sophomores who attend this year will explore careers in education, health and the arts.

``The opportunities you're going to have here are awesome,'' English teacher Sue Gordon told her homeroom class.

The campus relieves overcrowding in the high-attendance Monroe, Cleveland and Granada Hills districts. The $24.5 million school, which will expand to serve about 1,350 students, is equipped with two-way video technology to allow interaction between the university and high school.

LAUSD Superintendent Roy Romer used the technology to broadcast his welcoming remarks to each of the school's 38 classrooms.

``We're really excited about starting something that's going to change the whole of the district,'' he told students. ``We're going to try to make this experience more personal. We'd like to create a community in which you all are known and you know others.''

In addition to the debut of the middle school, Van Nuys also saw the opening of a new continuation school and a new charter school on the Birmingham High campus, called High Tech High.

Students and parents at the Van Nuys middle school - which will be named by the community later - were equally tickled to be breaking in a new campus, whose cafeteria, auditorium and gymnasium may not be ready until November. Located on 14 acres on Roscoe Boulevard, it is the first middle school to open in the Valley since Frost Middle School in 1969 and will relieve overcrowding at Fulton and Sepulveda middle schools.

``It's gorgeous,'' said Michelle Ziafat, whose 13-year-old daughter, Jordan, attends the school.

The campus features 67 classrooms for the 1,690 students in sixth, seventh and eighth grades. Each grade has its own floor and counselors - creating the type of small-learning community that the district is pushing now.

Jennifer Radcliffe, [phone]

jennifer.radcliffe(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

3 photos

Photo:

(1) Principal Connie Semf speaks to students via school television at the new CSUN high school campus. The 600 freshmen and sophomores who attend the new school this year will explore education, health and the arts.

(2) Students change classes at the new middle school campus in Van Nuys on Thursday.

(3) Principal Suzanne Blake of the East Valley middle school stands on the new grounds on the first day of classes.

Tina Burch/Staff Photographer