NEW JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL ON TRACK FOR SCHEDULED OPENING CAMPUS TO HOUSE 760 SEVENTH- AND EIGHTH-GRADERS.

Byline: Eugene Tong Staff Writer

STEVENSON RANCH - As the future Rancho Pico Junior High School rises from a bare hillside on the west end of Valencia Boulevard, Principal Dave LeBarron is a stickler for details.

``I've been able to make changes that educationally make sense,'' he said, visualizing the school's future front office in a space framed by wooden stakes. ``We've moved the office to the side so people can pass through (from the front door). It offers them more privacy.''

And despite fears that winter rains would dampen the year-long crash building schedule, LeBarron said crews were about 50 percent done with what will be the sixth junior high in the William S. Hart Union High School District.

``We were concerned with getting the buildings watertight before the rains,'' he said on tour of the site last week. ``In early February, they installed the roof, so they will be doing things rain or shine.''

The campus is scheduled to open this August with about 760 seventh and eighth graders. It also will house ninth graders from West Ranch High until their permanent campus across the street is completed in 2005.

Rancho Pico is a virtual clone of Rio Norte and La Mesa junior high schools - a central office and library flanked by a cluster of classroom ``pods'' with covered walkways linking each building. Plans also call for a gymnasium, which is postponed for about a year to offset rising costs and stay within the $17.2 million budget.

LeBarron said there will be enough room for students to stretch their legs and play sports on the nine acres of athletic fields.

``It would be nice to have a gym, but a gym doesn't make a PE program,'' he said.

On the campus' eastern edge, about a dozen portable classrooms will accommodate West Ranch's freshman class. To prevent mingling between the junior high and high school students, officials have devised separate schedules.

LeBarron has said at a recent school board meeting: ``If I could have my way, no junior high student will set eyes on a high school student.''

Besides stucco and drywall, LeBarron is busy planning the curriculum and support groups that will round out the junior high experience.

In academics, all school department heads have been appointed, and only a dozen teaching positions still need to be filled. He said he already received transfer requests from about 20 Hart district teachers.

A parent advisory council also has been meeting and making key decisions that would define the school's culture. For example, the group drafted a uniform dress policy allowing students only to dress in solid-colored attire, which was approved by the school board last month.

The council is now devising ways to raise money for amenities such as library books, benches and trees, said member Cheryl Strong, whose 11- year-old daughter will start seventh grade at Rancho Pico in August.

``A lot of parents think they can just drop off and leave (at junior high),'' she said. ``But at this age, there are so many different variables in the kids' lives. The more you know what's going on, especially at school, the better you can keep your child on track.''

And students recently voted on their future mascot and school colors. Rancho Pico will be home of the Mustangs, highlighted by the colors navy blue, powder blue, and silver.

``We're getting a great group of kids,'' LeBarron said.

Eugene Tong, [phone]

eugene.tong(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

3 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Rancho Pico Junior High School in Stevenson Ranch is about 50 percent complete, according to Principal Dave LeBarron. ``They will be doing things rain or shine,'' he said.

(2) The new junior high along Valencia Boulevard is scheduled to open in August, in time for the new school year.

(3) The frame of the new administration building leads to a central courtyard.

David R. Crane/Staff Photographer