DISTRICT TO BUILD 2 MORE SCHOOLS.

Byline: Mary Schubert Daily News Staff Writer

Just two years after Valencia High School and La Mesa Junior High opened, negotiations are under way to acquire more land on which to build the school district's fifth high school and fifth junior high.

The matter will come before the William S. Hart Union High School District tonight in a closed session of the five-member governing board.

District schools for grades 7-12 have filled up as fast as they have been built, and enrollment in elementary schools across the Santa Clarita Valley shows no signs of slowing, either.

Hart district officials, therefore, have been trying to prepare for the day when these children of the 1980s and '90s reach junior high and high school, said William Maddigan, the district's director of business.

``Our major focus a couple years ago was to finish La Mesa and Valencia,'' Maddigan said. ``We realized that, as soon as we finished those two schools, we would have to start looking at (building) the next two schools.''

The district's next high school and junior high likely will be built somewhere in the 3,400-acre Stevenson Ranch development, already home to a new elementary school of the same name.

In exchange for the developer fees levied on residential construction, Agoura Hills-based Dale Poe Development Corp. set aside land for the district as the future site of a high school and junior high.

Ideally, Maddigan said, district officials want to limit enrollment at their junior highs to 1,000 students and at their high schools to 2,000.

According to October statistics, Canyon, Hart and Saugus high schools exceed that optimum level with enrollments of 2,130, 2,145 and 2,110, respectively - and Valencia High is fast approaching that mark, with 1,960 students.

The main stumbling block to new school construction is raising the money; Maddigan said Valencia High cost $37 million to build and La Mesa was completed for about $14 million.

``We need to arrange for state funding for the construction,'' Maddigan said. ``Once we get the land nailed down, the big problem will be to get the state to commit to the cost of building the school.''

He predicted that the high school or junior high wouldn't open until 2000 or 2001. ``We're not sure which one would be built first,'' Maddigan said.

Meanwhile, Canyon Country and the eastern Santa Clarita Valley also need another high school and junior high, but vacant land is harder to come by - meaning the district would have to buy a parcel, rather than waive developer fees in exchange for a land swap.

``We are going to need a high school and a junior high school for sure on the east side of the valley,'' Maddigan said. ``We would have to get state assistance to buy sites out there.''

Another consideration to keep costs down on new school construction is that the amenities and infrastructure should already be in place, said Lew White, coordinator of facilities for the Hart district.

``We can't afford to build miles of road and miles of sewer line and electrical,'' he said. ``We need to have the utilities.''

Hart school board member John Hassel said the district, to plan for future school construction, has taken into account a consultant's prediction that there will be more than 100,000 housing units added across the valley by about 2010.

``We have to recognize the growth that historically has taken place here, and use that as a guideline,'' Hassel said.

White noted that the district, while planning for its next two campuses, hasn't figured out how to pay for them. ``There is no clear source of funding for the next junior high and the next high school,'' he said. ``With the growth we've experienced, we really should have those schools available in the next three years.''

Jeff Stevenson, vice president of Dale Poe Development, said the firm will provide the district with a 24-acre parcel on which to build the junior high and a 42-acre piece of land to build a high school. Precise locations weren't revealed until the district, the developer and state officials who approve new school construction agree on a site, Stevenson said.