PARENTS' LETTERS FLOOD DISTRICT ON BOUNDARY ISSUE; BOARD TO CONSIDER INPUT AT TONIGHT'S MEETING.

Byline: Patricia Farrell Aidem Daily News Staff Writer

A 4-inch stack of letters sat on Mike von Buelow's desk Tuesday, the eve of what is expected to be yet another contentious meeting on a very emotional issue - remapping junior high and high school boundaries.

The letters were from parents in the William S. Hart Union High School District, the most prevalent plea from Saugus families who do not want their children to be sent to Sierra Vista Junior High School in Canyon Country, one of the district's California Distinguished Schools.

``We've sure gotten a lot of input,'' said von Buelow, the Hart district's assistant superintendent of personnel and business services. ``There's more than a ream of paper here.''

The communications provided little new information, von Buelow said. ``By and large they're repetitive. Some communities are counting on volume to make a statement.''

Still, the Hart school board, meeting on the issue tonight, must decide as soon as possible - February at the latest - how to redraw boundary lines as the district prepares to build two new high schools and two new junior highs, von Buelow said.

``It's decision-making time,'' he said.

And the decisions will be tough ones because the issue is an emotional one, Superintendent Bob Lee said.

``It's a bunch of different issues,'' von Buelow added, ``but it's mostly along the lines of, We prefer that our kids don't get sent to a more distant location. They cite anything you can think of - safety, distance, activities in the community, time spent on transportation, ties to their friends from elementary school to junior high or junior high to high school.''

And it's tough to argue with those who would prefer their children attend a brand-new campus planned in North Valencia that will be called Rio Norte Junior High, he said.

``When we get the new junior high, all shiny and sparkling, people will want to go there,'' he said.

What district officials hope the board will do at tonight's 7:30 meeting at Arroyo Vista Junior High School is set priorities for drawing boundaries.

``Should the first priority be keeping kids together from feeder schools or should it be transportation or should it be making sure the sizes of schools are relatively equal,'' he said. ``We can't meet all criteria.''

No matter what the outcome, the district needs to begin planning now by ordering temporary classrooms, staffing the schools and planning curricula.

Anticipating the need for boundary changes, the board appointed a parent committee last year to come up with proposals. Six recommendations came forth from the committee, with protests coming the loudest from the Saugus communities of Plum Canyon, upper Bouquet Canyon and Mountainview. East Newhall parents also made it clear they prefer their children remain at Placerita Junior High.

Last year, the board faced a similar situation, and backed down from a recommendation that residents of the new Plum Canyon developments attend Sierra Vista, which is under capacity. Instead, children there go to the campus their parents preferred, the overcrowded Arroyo Seco.