GOLDEN POPPY PLANTED FUNDING FROM BOND IN PLACE GROUND BROKEN FOR NEW SCHOOL.

Byline: Charles F. Bostwick Staff Writer

PALMDALE - Palmdale School District officials broke ground ceremoniously Friday for the first campus to be built with a $25 million bond issue passed by voters in November.

The $16.1 million Golden Poppy School will help accommodate a district enrollment that officials say is growing by 700 or 800 pupils a year, enough to fill a new school every 18 months.

``I just want to say thank you to the community for allowing this to happen,'' school trustee Tom Lackey said at Friday's ceremony, conducted as giant earthmoving machines worked in the background. ``The district is growing at an exponential rate.''

The district now has nearly 22,400 pupils, up from 12,900 in 1990.

Expected to open in April 2004, Golden Poppy will be large enough for 1,200 pupils on a three-track schedule and will draw students from homes north of Avenue R-8 and east of 60th Street East.

It is being built on 10 acres the district bought a decade ago on Rockie Lane, south of Avenue R and east of 60th Street East.

``I see our school as it's being built as being a symbol of our community's cooperation with our school district,'' said Principal Lisa Pospisil, who was a teacher 10 years ago when she served on a committee review school plans for what became Golden Poppy.

Golden Poppy is now in a temporary campus at 40th Street East and Avenue S, with about 300 students.

The new Golden Poppy will hold children in kindergarten through eighth grade, a popular arrangement among parents who want all their children in one school or think children ``grow up too fast'' in middle school, officials say.

``We have people waiting in line to get into our other K-8s,'' Superintendent Nancy Smith said.

The two-story school will have a full-size gymnasium and will be nearly identical in design to 3-year-old Barrel Springs School, officials said.

The next campus planned is for Ana Verde Plaza School at Avenue R and Division Street. If the state school bond measure on the Nov. 5 ballot passes, the groundbreaking for Ana Verde will be in January, Smith said.

The state school bond that goes before California voters Nov. 5 includes money to build five more Palmdale schools.

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Shovels scooped up first few bits of earth for the new Golden Poppy School campus, but an earthmover will do the rest.

Jeff Goldwater/Staff Photographer

(2 -- color) The $16.1 million school, shown in architect's drawings, will be the first built with funds from November's bond issue.