Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : Palmdale Schools Expansion Delayed : Education: District’s K-12 plan may be post- poned until 1997 because not enough signatures were collected to get proposal on ballot.

Palmdale School District’s plan to expand into a K-12 district may take a year or two longer than projected.

District officials said Thursday that less than one-third of the required 6,000-plus signatures needed to get the expansion proposal on the ballot have been collected.

The K-8 district’s original plan was to have collected enough signatures by the end of the year so the formal approval process could have begun last month. If that had occurred, voters could have decided the issue in November with the expansion beginning July 1, 1995.

A best-case scenario now has the district realizing its K-12 expansion no sooner than July 1, 1996, and possibly even in 1997.

District officials said they want to expand their education responsibilities to include high school to better meet the needs of students. They want high schools with lower enrollments and classes with fewer students than those now offered by the Antelope Valley Union High School District.

Volunteers gathered fewer than 2,000 signatures since the petition drive was kicked off in mid-November, according to the district.

The district needs signatures of 25% of the registered voters in its borders. Once the signatures are verified, the proposal goes before the County Committee on School District Organization.

If the county approves, the proposal will be forwarded to the state Department of Education, which evaluates the proposal based on a series of factors, including racial impact and increased state costs.

Voters will have the ultimate say on the expansion of the Palmdale School District from K-8 to K-12 education.