REPORT FORECASTS NEED FOR MORE CAMPUS FUNDING; STUDY: GROWTH TO REQUIRE 3 HIGH SCHOOLS, JUNIOR HIGHS.

Byline: Mary Schubert Daily News Staff Writer

The Hart high school district will need at least three new high schools and three more junior highs to accommodate the 13,000 students expected to move into proposed housing developments over the next 20 years, a consultant's growth study said.

With explosive expansion in the Santa Clarita Valley expected to double the size of the district in just two decades, Hart officials are starting to plan now for how they will finance the school construction. The Board of Education is scheduled Wednesday to hear the results of a growth study conducted as they are in negotiations with developers for school construction fees.

``The primary driving force is our ability to finance new construction,'' said Robert Lee, superintendent of the William S. Hart Union High School District. ``Even if we have the money, we'll always be behind the (pace of) residential development,'' Lee said. ``But at least we'll be there at the same rate. If we don't have the dollars or the state is not there to pass bonds, we could lose ground every day.''

According to the study, 12,357 junior high and high school students will come from 67,818 homes planned to be built within district boundaries. However, the school district has negotiated reimbursements from developers for only 7,298 of those homes, according to the study by David Taussig and Associates, a Newport Beach consultant hired by the Hart district.

The consultant estimated the costs to build each new junior high at $23.7 million and each new high school at $50.5 million. If the homes are built faster - and the students arrive sooner - than the district can construct schools, then many students will have to take classes in portable buildings, or perhaps shift to year-round schedules, to ease the overcrowding, the report found.

The study was conducted to determine the amount of money - per house, condominium, townhome or apartment, or by calculating the rate per square foot - that the Hart district should require from developers to help defray the costs of building new schools. School districts must justify the fees they charge developers.

``The primary issue is that we are over capacity. We have more kids than we have seats,'' said Lee, who oversees the district, which has four high schools, four junior highs and a continuation high school.

It was only three years ago that Valencia High School began its first school year. Shortly afterward, in January 1995, La Mesa Junior High School opened its doors. Both of them are at capacity, and district administrators have been busy planning the fifth high school and junior high.

In those instances, the district was fortunate - the state paid for all of Valencia High and half of La Mesa, Lee said. But it's anyone's guess who will foot the bill for the next pair of schools, and how soon those homes that are still on the drawing board will be built and occupied.

The rate of construction, Lee said, ``is all market-driven. Developers will develop as fast as they can, and as fast as they're allowed to, if the market will be there to absorb their product,'' he said.

The state establishes a maximum developer fee that school districts may charge for residential projects - $1.84 per square foot, said Henry Heidt of the state Department of Education's school facilities planning division.

``School fees . . . presently in the amount of $1.84 per square foot of residential development only provide a portion of the funding for the school facilities necessary to house students generated from new residential development within the district,'' the consultant's study found.

``New residential development will generate additional students for the district's schools and . . . the costs to accommodate such students are in excess of the fees adopted by the district.''