SCHOOL PLAYGROUNDS SHRINKING; PORTABLE CLASSROOMS ENCROACHING ON OPEN SPACES : NEAR SATURATION POINT.

Byline: Mary Schubert Daily News Staff Writer

When asked which school subject is their favorite, most kids will answer - only half-jokingly - that they like recess and lunch the best, because that's when they get to run around outside.

These days, those all-important wide-open spaces, whether they be grass or asphalt, are getting smaller and smaller. Call it the vanishing playground syndrome, but increasingly in the Santa Clarita Valley, turf and blacktop are being covered with those portable classrooms needed to enlarge elementary schools with steadily growing enrollments.

The Saugus Union School District currently has 108 of the temporary buildings spread over its 11 schools. Sixty portables create classroom space - and take away playground space - across the Sulphur Springs School District's seven schools. At last count, the Newhall School District had 101 portables at its seven schools.

School administrators, while lamenting the loss of space for youngsters to run around and burn off their boundless energy, say they have no choice but to erect the so-called relocatable buildings on the only open space available.

Until a district can raise funds to build a new school - a tough task that depends either on state grants, developer fees or a voter-approved bond measure - superintendents and school boards have to put the students somewhere.

Sometimes the portables take up space in a corner of a school's soccer field. Other times, it's the foursquare courts that get covered up.

Jared Cascadden, director of facilities for the Newhall School District, said district staff members have relocated tetherball courts and handball walls to other parts of a school so that a portable classroom can occupy that spot.

In general, district administrators said, schools are designed to have permanent buildings on about one-third of their acreage, with playgrounds and grass fields occupying the other two-thirds. In an era of enrollment growth and class-size reduction, the demand for classroom space is incessant, and that ratio has shifted considerably.

``We've probably got 50 percent of the grounds covered with buildings at this point at Stevenson Ranch School,'' Cascadden said, referring to permanent and temporary classrooms at the Newhall district's newest campus. ``We are overcrowded. There's no doubt about it.''

While the situation in the Newhall district is far from ideal, for the time being there is no other solution until more schools can be built.

``The general consensus is that we have taken up too much play area with these temporary classrooms. Nobody likes it,'' Cascadden said. ``It is a major concern for everyone that we have so many portable, temporary classrooms. We're just trying to house kids the best way we can.''

In some instances, crews who have installed portables on a school playground have compensated for that lost hopscotch grid or foursquare court by uprooting some of the turf and paving it as replacement playground space, said Nick Teeter, assistant superintendent of business services for the Sulphur Springs School District.

``Usually what happens is we reduce the grass area,'' Teeter said.

The irony is that, as the number of children grow, there's less rather than more space for them to play.

Teeter said district enrollment is expected to be 4,800 when classes begin this week.

During the 1996-97 school year, the district bought 29 portable buildings strictly to meet the needs of the class-size reduction program for first, second and third grades, Teeter said. The last 16 of that order were installed over summer break.

In a recent meeting between teachers, school board members and administrators, the shrinking playground was one of the topics discussed. ``That was one of the major concerns - that we're reaching saturation at this point with the number of portables that we've had to (install),'' Teeter said.

District schools generally run 8 to 10 acres; Teeter said there is no agreed-upon limit on the maximum space that portables can occupy.

``The reality is that, until we're able to build additional schools, the only choice we have - since we have to take the kids - is to add additional buildings,'' he said, noting the next district school could open in about three years in the planned Fair Oaks Ranch residential development.

Ingenuity needed

To maximize the playground space, a little ingenuity helps, said Art Clark, assistant superintendent of business services for the Saugus school district.

``As the schools get larger (enrollments), we do different things to accommodate. For example, we go to three lunches instead of two lunches, so there are fewer children on the playground,'' Clark said.

``Any time you put 850 students on a campus designed for 660, you're going to lose some of your flexibility,'' he said. ``We're approaching 400 new students since school ended in June, so we've got to be able to house those students.''

Over the summer break alone, 15 more portables were installed at Saugus schools. District enrollment stands at about 7,900 children at 11 schools, which range in size from a 4.5-acre site to 10 acres.

Newhall schools will switch to a year-round calendar beginning in the 1998-99 school year because the superintendent and school board agree there's no room for more portables, Cascadden said.

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Photo

Photo: Portable classrooms at Santa Clarita Valley schools are increasingly covering up turf and blacktop.

Tom Mendoza/Daily News