PALMDALE HIGH SITE OF SPRING A.V. COLLEGE CLASSES.

Byline: Jim Skeen Staff Writer

PALMDALE - Antelope Valley College will hold spring classes at Palmdale High School after negotiations to use a Palmdale Boulevard office building fell through, officials said Friday.

The college will offer 19 late-afternoon and evening classes at Palmdale High School beginning in February. The college has held classes at Palmdale High School in the past, but those offerings were restricted to evenings.

``We appreciate the high school district's willingness to rent space,'' said AVC President Daniel Larios. ``In the meantime, we will continue to look for a dedicated facility that will enable us to offer an extensive schedule of day and evening courses next fall.''

AVC is renting the high school classroom space at a rate of $458 a week for 16 weeks.

The number of course offerings in Palmdale will drop from 65 classes this fall to 19 in the spring. College officials said they will continue to search for room for Palmdale course offerings.

``We want people to know we are committed to a significant presence in south valley,'' Larios said. ``The response we had this fall confirmed what we believed - there is a need for community college classes in the greater Palmdale area.''

More than 1,000 students enrolled in fall Palmdale classes, which were held at a recreation center at Avenue P and 30th Street East that was part of SR Technics America, an aircraft modification company.

SR Technics America, however, was forced to look for a buyer for the property after its business collapsed as the result of a downturn in commercial aviation after the Sept. 11 attacks and internal problems with its Swiss corporate backers, SAirGroup.

AVC and SR Technics America had entered a three-year agreement, allowing the college to use the recreation center for $10 a year. As its business began to fail, SR Technics America exercised a clause in the agreement allowing it to cancel the lease after the fall semester.

AVC officials were in negotiations for the use of a three-story office building at Palmdale Boulevard and 15th Street East, but those talks fell through.

AVC also will relocate its air frame and power plant program from an SR Technics hangar to Fox Field airport in Lancaster. The college has held that program at that location in the past.

College officials hope eventually to establish a permanent, 80-acre campus in Palmdale. It would be part of a master-planned housing development proposed on 540 acres south of Barrel Springs Road between 37th and 47th Streets East.

There is no funding for that project at this time.