SCHOOL BOND BACKED BUSINESSES DONATE $66,000 TO MEASURE.

Byline: Charles F. Bostwick Staff Writer

LANCASTER - Two attorneys and four businesses have contributed $66,000 to the committee pushing a $103.6 million high school construction bond issue.

Attorney R. Rex Parris, one of the contributors, said he believes the campaign needs $200,000 to assure Measure V passes March 5.

``If we can raise $200,000, we know it will pass,'' Parris said Friday. ``Every dime less than that decreases the chances.''

Parris and attorney Walt Kuzyk each donated $20,000, as did Scott Gaudineer of Flewelling and Moody, an architectural firm that did design work for one of the schools proposed to be built.

An additional $5,000 came from Johnny Zamrzla of Western Pacific Roofing in Palmdale, and $1,000 from Jim Vose of Vose Properties, which has done property work for local school districts.

Parris and Kuzyk said they believe that people who have become successful in the Antelope Valley should repay the community.

``The community has been very good to me and I feel like I have to give something back,'' Kuzyk said.

The March 5 ballot measure needs 55 percent of the vote to pass and would cost taxpayers $29.25 for a house assessed at $100,000.

A $91 million high school construction bond measure failed to pass in November 1999. After supporters spent about $120,000, to negligible opposition, it garnered 63 percent of the vote but fell short of the two- thirds majority needed to pass.

State law has since been changed to allow approval with 55 percent.

To encourage passage, the Measure V campaign plans media advertising as well as telephone calls to voters and to parents, political consultant Chris Jones said.

The bond money would pay for the construction of William J. ``Pete'' Knight High School proposed at 70th Street East and Avenue R-8. The high school is estimated to cost $67.3 million.

It would also pay for a Palmdale continuation high school named for Parris and for two campuses, one in Palmdale and one in Lancaster, for Phoenix High School, the district's last stop for expelled students.

The continuation high school, for teen-agers who aren't doing well at conventional campuses, will be built at Avenue Q and Sixth Street East.

The bond would also pay for renovations at the district's three oldest campuses: Antelope Valley, Palmdale and Quartz Hill.

If California voters in November 2002 pass a school construction bond measure and provide matching funds, the district could afford to build another high school, likely on the west side of Palmdale.

Measure V supporters say local high schools expect to get an additional 4,000 to 4,500 students over the next three years - more than enough to fill an entire high school - as housing tracts continue to be built.

The district collects developer fees on new homes, but school officials say they are not sufficient to pay the full cost of new schools. The fees will pay for adding 40 or 50 portable classrooms before next fall at the district's existing campuses, officials said.