PLAN WOULD MOVE ANAVERDE PUPILS TO HILLVIEW.

Byline: KAREN MAESHIRO Staff Writer

PALMDALE -- Westside Union School District officials are considering moving seventh- and eighth-graders from Anaverde Hills School to Hillview Middle School because of low enrollment at the Anaverde campus.

The district had hoped to have four to six classes of seventh- and eighth-graders at Anaverde, but it only has two.

"They need to be in a whole different social atmosphere," trustee Gwen Farrell said. "Since the school isn't growing, we can move them over to Hillview, where they would get a broader spectrum of education."

About 60 to 70 Anaverde seventh- and eighth-graders would be affected.

Anaverde is a K-8 school that opened in 2005 at a leased campus near the Antelope Valley Mall to serve students who live in the Anaverde master-plan community in southwest Palmdale.

Westside has an agreement with the Anaverde developer for Antelope Valley's first developer-built school within the development.

Grading plans have been approved, but construction has not yet started, Superintendent Regina Rossall said before Tuesday's meeting. The board discussed the proposed move at the session, but took no action. If approved, the shifting of students would take place at the start of the 2007-08 school year.

Anaverde has an enrollment of about 435 students, about 300 of whom reside in the Anaverde development; the remainder are special-education and transfer students.

"That school has not grown as we hoped it would," Rossall said.

Under the plan, Anaverde's seventh- and eighth-graders would continue to attend Hillview until the Anaverde school is built, Rossall said.

Farrell said many parents support the move.

Westside is leasing the Anaverde campus from the Palmdale School District, which previously used it as a temporary school.

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