REMEDIAL PROGRAM IN JEOPARDY HART OFFICIALS, FACING SHORTAGE OF CLASSROOMS, WEIGH OPTIONS.

Byline: Bhavna Mistry Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA - An experimental intervention program for academically struggling ninth-graders may have to be sacrificed to relieve crowded classrooms at high school and junior high campuses, officials say.

Passport Academy was created last year in a dozen portable classrooms to help more than 100 struggling ninth-graders who otherwise might have faced repeating their freshman year because of a new state law banning social promotion.

But the campus, created behind the William S. Hart High School District headquarters, may have its facilities redeployed as officials try to cope with booming enrollment in Los Angeles County's fastest-growing city.

``It may not happen next year, but I believe it will happen,'' Passport Principal John Krinkle said. ``It's not a question of something we want to do - it's something we have to do.''

Leslie Crunelle, assistant superintendent of education for the Hart District, said officials are struggling now with figuring out how to fit 17,500 students - the projected enrollment for 2001 - into facilities designed for 15,600.

So far, officials have considered switching the district to a year-round schedule, expanding its partnership with College of the Canyons and continuing voluntary high school classes at night.

``If we get serious with reconfiguration, we could lose Passport,'' she said. ``It's one of those questions we'll have to grapple with.''

But officials say the district doesn't want to lose the Passport program, which is designed to provide ninth-graders the academic boost they need to be successful in high school. One option, they say, would be to create a similar program for ninth-graders in the district's regular high schools.

``Sometimes we get to the point were we're so stretched that programs and students suffer,'' Krinkle said. ``When things get this tight, we have to do what's best for everybody.''

According to officials, of the 135 students who enrolled in ninth-grade at Passport during its first year, 91 will transfer to regular high school next year. Three will go to Bowman Continuation High School, and two will continue at Passport.

``What they are doing is valuable,'' said Joyce A. Pemberton, whose son attended Passport last year and will attend Canyon High this fall. ``One would hope that there would be the opportunity for kids that didn't make the credits.''

Pemberton concedes the program did have some problems at first, but she expects it to get better in the future.

``It had a lot of first-year problems,'' Pemberton said. ``They had a lot of students that had severe discipline problems and spent a lot of time and effort dealing with that.''

Designed with an emphasis on learning and success, the Passport program ran 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., in 90-minute blocks, every other day. Classes were limited to 18 students in math and no more than 30 in history, computer science and technology classes.

Intensive tutorial sessions - some including parents - helped bring up students' grades.

And Passport allowed students to earn extra credit, thus making up for deficient credits that otherwise could result in their being held back.

``When we see how many of our students walk on the stage and graduate in 2003 we'll know how effective we've been,'' Krinkle said. ``That's the determination of how successful we are.''