DISTRICT SEEKS CROWDING RELIEF WESTSIDE UNION WORKSHOP TO WEIGH REMEDIES.

Byline: Karen Maeshiro Staff Writer

LANCASTER - Faced with a crush of students moving into Westside Union School District, officials are studying whether attendance boundaries need to be shifted to deal with overcrowding.

Boundary changes are an option being considered by the district, where the enrollment stands at 6,521 - nearly 150 students more than the year before.

``Some of it is new housing around Rancho Vista. The inventory of empty houses is starting to fill up,'' said Lori Ordway-Peck, assistant superintendent of business services. ``Our research shows it's transfers from other parts of the Antelope Valley, but also new residents coming from other areas.''

The board will discuss attendance boundary changes, enrollment projections and overcrowded school facilities at a workshop at 7 p.m. Nov. 14 at the district office, 46809 N. 70th St. W.

The district plans to start construction in February on the $13 million Esperanza School, which will help ease crowding at Rancho Vista Elementary School and Hillview Middle School.

The new kindergarten- through fifth-grade school is located near Town Center Drive and Bolz Ranch Road by the new Rancho Vista golf course. It will be paid for with state funds and money raised from an extension of a school construction tax approved by district voters in 1998.

Hillview was built for about 800 students and is now housing 1,100. Rancho Vista was built to hold 600 students but has an enrollment of 750. Joe Walker Middle School has about 1,000 students and was built for 800 pupils.

There's enough space on the Joe Walker campus to add portable classrooms, but Hillview lacks that advantage, Ordway-Peck said.

``We do have more crowding in the southeast (part of the district) and less in the northwest,'' Ordway-Peck said.

Of the district's 10 schools, Neenach and Leona Valley elementary schools are the least impacted. Both campuses have less than 100 students.

Trustee Larry Bosma said families are moving into the district because its schools have high test scores. In Academic Performance Index rankings released by the state last week, Westside schools scored among the top campuses in the Antelope Valley.

``Lot of people are flocking to Westside because of the API. We are doing real well,'' Bosma said. ``I believe there are people trying to figure out how to get kids into the school district.''

With the increasing enrollment, the district will discuss possible boundary changes and changing the grade level configurations of the middle and elementary schools, Bosma said.

``That's what workshops are all about, trying to be ahead of the curve,'' Bosma said.