DISTRICT MAY TRY BOND FUNDS NEEDED TO BUILD MORE HIGH SCHOOLS.

Byline: Karen Maeshiro Staff Writer

LANCASTER - Saying their campuses are already packed with enough extra students to fill an additional high school, with some left over, Antelope Valley Union High School District trustees are thinking of trying again to pass a school construction bond measure.

The board may approve going for one as soon as next March under Proposition 39, which was approved by voters statewide in November 2000 and lowered the approval needed for bond measures from two-thirds to 55 percent but placed restrictions on the amount of debt a school district can pursue.

``It's not matter of an option. We have to,'' board President Brett Nelson said last week. ``The state has made it clear they have no more money for building schools. Even with the (proposed W.J. 'Pete') Knight High School, we are fully a school-plus behind. It's beyond catastrophic. If we don't build more high schools, we are going to have to do double sessions.''

District officials said last month that they have to figure out how to provide classrooms for 4,000 more students by 2005.

The district is projecting a ``baby boom echo'' moving up the grade levels and hitting the high schools in 2005. That year the district's enrollment could hit more than 23,000, up from less than 18,900 currently.

The district's six comprehensive schools, except for Antelope Valley High School, have enrollments close to or around 3,000. Antelope Valley High School has more than 2,300.

Palmdale High, for example, was designed to hold 2,100 students, but has 3,100.

The board heard a report on Proposition 39 at last week's meeting. Trustees must make a decision by the end of the year to get on the March ballot, Trustee Bill Olenick said.

The maximum property tax allowed under the proposition is $30 per $100,000 of assessed valuation, which Nelson said might be enough to build two high schools.

Another requirement is that the vote on the bond measure must be held in conjunction with a regularly scheduled election.

The district failed to pass a $91 million school construction bond measure in November 1999. The measure garnered 63 percent of the vote - just short of the two-thirds majority needed to pass.

Because that measure failed, the district qualified for ``hardship'' funds from the state. The State Allocation Board, which disburses school construction funding, is scheduled to consider the Knight High School project at its June meeting.

``It's important to say that right now we are 100 percent focused on free hardship money from the state,'' Olenick said. ``Realistically, as a growth district, we are going to have to look at a bond down the road, as soon as next March.''