Palmdale, Lancaster Districts Seek to Run Own High Schools

The two largest elementary school districts in the Antelope Valley are moving to expand into the high school business, starting a process that officials say could lead to the demise of the valley’s current regionwide high school system.

Capping several years of debate, trustees of the 15,675-student Palmdale School District voted 5 to 0 Tuesday night to seek unification, typically a two-year process culminating with voters deciding whether the elementary district can expand into operating its own high schools.

Also Tuesday, trustees of the Lancaster School District, the region’s second largest elementary district with 12,275 students, voted 5 to 0 to pursue the same goal by hiring a consultant to study the concept and survey local community leaders, school employees and parents.

Area school officials predicted successful unification drives by the Palmdale and Lancaster districts would force the dismantling of the Antelope Valley Union High School District, which now provides high school education for the entire region.

“I predict we won’t have a district within five years. I’m convinced of it,” said Steve Landaker, president of the high school district’s governing board. Landaker said he supports the unification process, although he was unsure whether his fellow high school board members will agree.

At present, the six-campus high school district serves Lancaster, Palmdale and all surrounding unincorporated Los Angeles County areas. But its 12,835 students come from eight elementary school districts that now run only kindergarten through eighth grade programs.

Under unification, Palmdale and Lancaster, believing they can better serve their students with their own high school programs, would break away from the current high school district and take over its campuses in their areas. That could force similar moves by the six other smaller districts.

The Keppel Union and Wilsona districts on the east side of the valley already are jointly exploring potential unification plans. And school officials in the Westside Union, Eastside Union, Hughes-Elizabeth Lakes Union and Gorman school districts are being forced to consider the issue as well.

A main reason the smaller districts are exploring unification is that the existing high school district would be cut in half by the departure of the Palmdale and Lancaster districts, leaving its western areas unconnected to its eastern areas. Also, school officials fear the remaining high school district would no longer be viable.

Palmdale, furthest along in the process, now must gain the high school district’s consent or obtain signatures from 25% of Palmdale’s registered voters to pursue the issue at the county schools level. Ultimately, the State Board of Education would decide whether to grant a unification election.