SCHOOL SQUEEZE; CROWDING FORCES DISTRICT JUGGLING.

Byline: Mary Schubert Daily News Staff Writer

Beginning next month, junior high students new to the valley will be sent to whichever school has room for them. Arroyo Seco Junior High, bulging with 1,525 students, won't be one of them - it's too full.

That was the recent decision by the school board for the William S. Hart Union High School District. Although the merits of splitting neighborhoods between newcomers who go to one school and kids on their street who attend another can be debated, one thing is clear about the board's move: It will, at the very least, keep Arroyo Seco from getting even more congested.

``It's tough to have a school that's built for 800 and have 1,500 kids in it,'' said school board member Dennis King. ``The disadvantages of an overcrowded school are obvious. But the most motivating factor is kids want to go to school with their friends, so they'll put up with crowding.''

As it stands now, the surplus of seventh- and eighth-graders means that every morning and afternoon, lines of cars snake down Decoro Drive and Vista Delgado Drive as parents shuttle their kids to and from school. Many arrive 25 minutes before the 2:35 p.m. dismissal time.

It means that school administrators and counselors leave their desks at student break and lunch times to pitch in with the supervising duties around campus. Before and after school, they also help the crossing guards.

It means Principal Jacque Snyder works the lunch line every day, helping

expedite the hordes of hungry kids through the cafeteria. On most days, parents drop off two dozen sack lunches in the school office for their forgetful kids. There are also the piles of house keys, gym clothes and messages left each day in the office for the students.

It means Arroyo Seco's parking lot is so jammed that numerous school employees have to park on the street.

Faculty pileups

Crowding also spills into the teacher ranks. Hallways jam at break times as the school's 65 faculty jostle to check their mailboxes or use the photocopy machines at the same time.

``We haven't had an assembly yet, because we can't afford them. We just have too many kids - we'd have to have five assemblies,'' Snyder said, referring to the guest speakers and presentations the district periodically offers as a lesson or treat for its students.

The multipurpose room isn't big enough to hold 1,500 children at once, and Arroyo Seco has no loudspeaker system to have an outdoor assembly, Snyder explained. So instead they have no assemblies.

Board members hope that, taking everything into consideration, newcomers will understand and accept why they'll have to send their seventh- and eighth-graders to Placerita, La Mesa or Sierra Vista junior high schools - because enrollment has been capped at Arroyo Seco.

The rule, approved by the school board last month, will apply to anyone who opens escrow or signs a rental lease after the district's new March 1 cutoff date. It will remain policy until fall 2001, when the district's fifth junior high, Rio Norte, is scheduled to open in Valencia.

Pupil balance sought

The district and the school board want to balance enrollment, spreading students among the other three junior highs. Placerita has 1,285 students, La Mesa 1,270 and Sierra Vista 990 - each of them far fewer than at Arroyo Seco.

The disparity is due mostly to the residential construction that in recent years has been concentrated in Arroyo Seco's attendance area. The elementary schools that send their students to that junior high are Bouquet Canyon, James Foster, Charles Helmers, Highlands, Mountainview, Plum Canyon, Rosedell, Santa Clarita and part of Emblem.

School board members Paula Olivares, Gloria Mercado and Patricia Hanrion voted for the proposal to establish the cutoff date. King and board President John Hassel voted against it.

Boundary changes opposed

Following public meetings that drew hundreds of parents, board members agreed there was no easy solution to the districtwide overcrowding problems. Redrawing each school's attendance boundaries met with strong parent objections.

The stopgap measure of sending newcomers to less crowded schools, board members said, should buy the district enough time to house students evenly until Rio Norte can be built. But in the interim, they said, the district must raise the money to pay for its future schools - or else resort to more drastic measures to handle overcrowding.

Suggestions have included a switch to the kind of year-round calendar that many local elementary schools use, a rotating system in which 75 percent of the students are in school and the other 25 percent are on vacation. Other ideas include dividing students into morning and afternoon sessions, or adding early and late periods to the school day.

Either way, administrators and board members say, the district needs about $227 million to build four new schools and upgrade its existing ones.

``We still need to pass a school bond (measure). We'll get funding from the state, but we still need to have matching funds,'' Mercado said.

``We're going to have to seriously look at some alternatives. Year-round is one of those options,'' Mercado said. ``I would hate to see us go double session.''

More taxes

King agreed with Mercado that voters in the Hart district must be willing to raise their property taxes to pay for more and better schools. ``If we don't pass a bond, we'll for sure have to go on year-round education. That's the bottom line,'' he said. ``If we want to avoid year-round and huge overcrowding, it's just absolutely imperative.''

Olivares and Hassel shared that outlook. ``We're going to be in a terrible mess if we can't pass a bond,'' she said. ``The only true way to spell relief is m-o-n-e-y,'' Hassel added.

Meanwhile, board members are counting on a planned informational campaign to spread the word to prospective home buyers about the school boundary situation. ``At least those new residents who are moving in would know upfront what the situation was with the district, and why they're not able to go to their community school,'' Mercado said.

``The developers are selling homes, and one of the big things in their advertisements is that the Santa Clarita Valley has wonderful schools. The message (to new residents) is that . . . for a time you probably won't be able to attend your neighborhood school, but that will change,'' Mercado said.

``You're going to have students moving into an area who'll be going to a school that's different from their neighbors','' Olivares added. ``But I firmly believe that all our junior highs are excellent, and they (won't be) getting a second-rate education. My youngest daughter went to Arroyo Seco for seventh grade and then chose to go to Sierra Vista for eighth grade, and she loved it.''

In the end, Hassel said, local homeowners should realize that taxing themselves to pay for more schools might be an imposition now, but likely will enhance their property values over the long run.

``There's a direct relationship between quality of schools and real estate value, and I think it would be very shortsighted of people to vote against (a school bond) because they can't afford it,'' Hassel said.

``That investment in the future more than adequately repays the property owner in the end.''

CAPTION(S):

2 Photos

PHOTO (1--Color) Arroyo Seco Junior High School has 1,525 students, though it was designed to hold 800. Enrollment has been capped at the campus.

(2) Principal Jacque Snyder serves food at Arroyo Seco Junior High School to speed lengthy cafeteria lines at the overcrowded campus.

Shaun Dyer/Special to the Daily News