Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : School District Expansion Petition Drive to Begin in Palmdale : Education: The planned ballot measure would bring kindergarten through 12th grade under one umbrella.

The Palmdale School District next week will begin collecting the more than 6,000 signatures it needs to get a measure on the ballot asking voters whether the district should expand to include high school.

Supt. Forrest McElroy announced the launch of the petition drive at a news conference Friday. The district plan to change from being responsible for kindergarten to eighth-grade education to K-12 education would be put to voters in November, 1994. If approved by voters, the district would be in the high school business effective July 1, 1995.

“I think that unification is an exciting direction for us to go,” said McElroy, who is resigning at the end of the year. “We know it’s not something that should be taken lightly.”

The elementary school district, like most in this northern Los Angeles County region, has for decades considered taking on the responsibility for high school education. Until this summer when the small Soledad-Agua Dulce School District unified, the region had just one high school district to serve all its secondary education students.

Palmdale district officials believe that by unifying they would be better able to meet the needs of students.

If the ballot measure is successful, McElroy said, he envisions smaller high schools and reduced class sizes than currently offered by the Antelope Valley Union High School District.

Probably more than any other issue, McElroy said, educational unification is one that demands the community’s support.

Besides voting for the ballot measure, the district is hoping volunteers will help gather the 6,000 required signatures representing 25% of registered voters residing within the Palmdale School District. A meeting will be held at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the district office, where petitions will be handed out to volunteers.

“It will take a lot of people to pull this off,” McElroy said.

Although at 70 square miles it is the smallest school district in the Antelope Valley geographically, the Palmdale district is the largest in terms of enrollment with 16,500 students. By adding secondary education, McElroy said the district would gain 5,000 students.

If the district collects enough petition signatures and they are validated, the county Committee on School District Organization would hold public hearings. The county would then make a recommendation and the proposal would be forwarded to the state Department of Education.

If the state ruled favorably based on nine criteria established by law, including racial and ethnic impact, increased state costs and the educational program, the final decision would be left to the voters.

There has been minimal opposition to the district’s unification effort, McElroy said. At a series of meetings over the summer, he said, the most frequent concern was about the district’s ability to accommodate the high school students.

If it unifies, Palmdale School District would automatically take possession of Palmdale High School, the only high school within its borders. Besides students already attending Palmdale High, McElroy said, in the first year of unification the district would only add ninth-graders attending other schools. District students attending grades 10 through 12 at other schools would continue to do so.

Palmdale would later add a high school on its western boundary, he said, and one on its eastern boundary. “Everything I say is all vision,” McElroy said. “Unification has to happen.”