SCHOOL BLUES; SOME PARENTS SAY NEW SIMI CAMPUS TOO SMALL.

Byline: Lisa Mascaro Daily News Staff Writer

It was just a matter of days before teacher Claudia Bishop's classroom would fill with 20 little kindergartners starting their first day at the new Wood Ranch Elementary School, but not by the looks of things.

Boxes lined her classroom waiting to be unpacked. Neighboring teachers worked overtime sticking decorations on the walls and supplies on the shelves. Construction workers filled the halls, parking lots and playground and tractors rolled on by.

A frenzied enthusiasm has been leading up to the opening of Wood Ranch, Simi Valley Unified's first new school in more than 20 years, as construction on the $9.3 million campus winds to a close and staff members prepare to welcome 600 children Tuesday.

``We're so excited. None of us are sleeping. We go home, sleep for a few hours, come back and walk in the mud,'' Bishop said Friday as she stocked bookshelves. ``I wish I could be a kid again and start over in school. It's beautiful.''

Promised a decade ago as a state-of-the-art campus in the city's master planned community, the school will be delivered more than $2 million over budget and without the niceties many parents hoped for.

With split-level playgrounds, Mediterranean-tile roofs and a soaring bell tower, the coral-colored campus is a generation away from those that serve most of the district's nearly 20,000 students.

But with seven portable classrooms gobbling up playground space because of unexpected enrollment and the new 20-student classes, and without all of its computer technology, some parents are disappointed with the finished product.

``The teachers are great. The principal's great. It's a beautiful site - it's a tight site,'' said parent Marybeth Jacobson, a member of the school's planning committee who has been critical of the shortcomings.

From crowded playgrounds to classrooms with just one computer, parents are concerned the school was outdated before it opened and they criticize the district for not planning ahead.

And they say more problems are on the way, with continued enrollment from the development of nearby Long Canyon promising to bring even more crowded conditions to the new school.

``We have literally hundreds of houses being built and there's no plan with what to do when the school reaches capacity,'' Jacobson said.

For more than a decade the district has been planning on a new school in Wood Ranch, part of an arrangement with the original developer of the planned community.

When those plans fell through after the developer went bankrupt, the school received a piece of land, Long Canyon, instead of a school. The land was then sold for $7.1 million, with the funds to be used for the campus.

But they fell short - more than $2 million in the red - and now the district is scrambling to afford the facility.

Increased costs came from various factors, from higher-than-expected building costs to enrollment growth and the statewide class-size reduction program, which demanded more classrooms and a need for nearly $450,000 worth of portables.

So far, the district has taken out a $1.5 million loan to fund part of the shortfall, and is considering selling surplus property such as land near City Hall or an equestrian center to cover the rest, said Lowell Schultz, assistant superintendent of business services.

Spending any extra funds on Wood Ranch, officials say, would be unfair to the nearly 20 other elementary schools in the district.

``Our goal was to get the school open,'' Schultz said. ``We will be doing some heavy planing after school has started for next year.''

Officials are confident the concerns at Wood Ranch can soon be resolved. For example, Schultz said the district is considering changes, such as reopening a closed school or redrawing attendance boundaries, to ease the crush of potential new students and the impact of class size reduction. And Principal Karyn Crytser believes that with grant writing and fund-raising the school will have more computers by year's end.

``Of course they want more, I understand that,'' Crytser said. ``We'll get the computers and the nice things in there. It'll just take time.''

Those assurances keep parents like PTA President Kim Holden optimistic that the new school will get through its opening day growing pangs and come into its own sooner rather than later.

``I know there's some concern out there, I understand that concern. We don't have the best technological program. We don't have computers in every classroom like they do at Madera,'' Holden said. ``I think it can be worked out. There's always a way something can be worked out.''

With days before school was to open, principal Crytser was still hoping to hire one more teacher and the contractor was hoping to pour asphalt for the parking lot.

Classrooms were still without chairs and dirt mounds sit where flowers and plants will someday bloom. The amphitheater is still being built and the grassy area won't be ready for months.

Teachers were planning to spend the weekend setting up classrooms that usually take two or three weeks to arrange.

``I think it's comparable to moving into a new subdivision, a new house,'' said third-grade teacher Sue Koch. ``(You) know what's ahead. It's going to be a lot of hard work, but (you) know the end result is going to be good.''

CAPTION(S):

3 Photos

PHOTO (1--Color in Simi Edition only) Fourth-grade teacher Jeannine Teeter, left, and helper Laura Crosle haul materials to Teeter's classroom.

(2--Color) (Ran in Simi Edition only) Kindergarten teachers Claudia Bishop, kneeling, and Gretchen Jaeger, right, shelve books with Kaitlyn Gagnon's help.

(3) Karyn Crytser, principal of Wood Ranch Elementary School, strolls through the halls of the new facility, which opens Tuesday.

Joe Binoya/Special to the Daily News