DISTRICT PICKS MOBILE CLASSROOMS; PALMDALE OFFICIALS WORK TO PLEASE PARENTS, EASE CROWDING.

Byline: Karen Maeshiro Daily News Staff Writer

School officials have devised a plan to add portable classrooms to three elementary campuses and shift students from one school to another after parents rejected a proposal to add a sixth grade to Juniper Intermediate School.

The alternate plan calls for placing portable classrooms at Ocotillo, Summerwind and Yucca schools, and shifting Palm Tree sixth-graders to Ocotillo, an option some parents found more acceptable than the Juniper proposal.

``We were able to come up with a plan to satisfy parents - at least for the time being - but it's just a Band-Aid,'' Palmdale Unified School District Trustee Helen Acosta said. ``Growth is coming again.''

The district announced in December its plan to shift sixth-graders from the crowded Ocotillo, Palm Tree and Summerwind schools to Juniper, but parents turned out at four community meetings to oppose the proposal.

They said they didn't want their sixth-graders mixing with older seventh- and eighth-graders. They also cited concerns about safety, academics and crowded conditions at Juniper.

At last week's board meeting, a district housing committee presented trustees with three options: moving sixth-graders to Juniper; creating a sixth-grade center at Ocotillo; and adding portable classrooms at Ocotillo, Summerwind and Yucca.

Although the Ocotillo sixth-grade center idea was popular with parents, the committee recommended against it because of its high cost - nearly $1.8 million in the first year.

That's because the plan requires the district to buy eight buses at $690,000 and run them at an annual cost of $350,000.

Moving sixth-graders to Juniper would cost an estimated $856,000, and the plan to install more buildings at the three elementary schools was pegged at $508,000 to $616,000, a district report said.

The board is scheduled to make a decision at its Feb. 2 meeting.

To relieve crowding at Juniper, the district also said it will shift Tumbleweed School students to Mesa Intermediate.

``This was an outstanding job in response to parent concerns,'' Trustee Sheldon Epstein said at the meeting. ``The general perception was, you've already made a decision. The district has taken a hard look at this.''

Parent Sue Craft spoke to the board and cited existing overcrowded conditions at Juniper and asked why the district's students were being displaced by children in optional programs, such as Head Start.

``Shouldn't we take back classrooms before we move students from existing classrooms?'' Craft asked.

Another parent, Robin Blake, told trustees the district should work on solving problems regarding campus safety and packed classes at Juniper before shifting more students there. She encouraged the board to consider the option of adding more classrooms to the selected schools.

``Our concern is regarding moving our students to Juniper. I can't stress enough the problems they have. They need to address those issues there,'' Blake said. ``Juniper has problems with safety and education foundation.''

Already grappling with capacity enrollment at the west-side campuses, the district must decide how to handle growth that will result from an upswing in home construction.

Ocotillo, Palm Tree and Summerwind schools, which are on multitrack, year-round schedules and have portable classrooms, are housing more students than the 740 each school was designed to accommodate.