District Proposes Attendance Shifts : Education: Parents will be able to review the plan to put 1,300 students into two new William S. Hart Union schools.

More than 1,300 teen-agers this fall will funnel into the William S. Hart Union High School District’s two new schools, and hundreds of others will shift to different campuses for the first time, under a plan announced Monday to alter attendance boundaries.

Parents will review and comment on the draft proposal at community meetings this month; the first is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. today at Sierra Vista Junior High School.

“There are a fairly large number of people who are going to be affected by this who may have concerns,” said Supt. Walt Swanson. “I’m going to guess there are an equal or larger number who are very happy with this decision.”

The new boundaries are to accommodate the fall openings of Valencia High School in Valencia and La Mesa Junior High School in Canyon Country and prepare for two other campuses expected to be added by the year 2000.

Both new schools are being opened for their lower grades this fall--seventh at La Mesa, and ninth and 10th at Valencia. The upper grades will be added in subsequent years.

Hart officials surveyed more than 800 parents during a series of January community meetings and attempted to reflect their comments. The 470 responses from parents indicated a strong desire to reduce school populations, keep students together when they move from elementary to junior high school and junior high to high school, as well as cut travel time to and from campus whenever possible.

The proposed boundary changes are influenced by those of Santa Clarita’s three elementary school districts, allowing students that attend the same primary school to move as a group into the Hart district.

“We haven’t separated any elementary school area that isn’t already separated,” said Lew White, district facilities director. “Elementary school students should be able to continue together in junior high.”

Based upon enrollment projections for the fall, the adjusted boundaries call for shifting 267 students who live in Castaic and Val Verde from Saugus High School to Valencia High School. About 180 of their neighbors would continue to attend Saugus.

Valencia High would also draw students from the Summit housing community, many living around Rio Vista, Valencia Valley and Valley View elementary schools and a few from the Northbridge housing tract.

The bulk of students going into La Mesa Junior High School live near Rio Vista, Pinetree and Valencia Valley elementary schools.

Hart officials have also suggested giving the two new schools different hours of operation so additional school buses won’t have to be purchased to transport students. District classes normally begin at 8 a.m., but class would start half an hour earlier at Valencia High and an hour later at La Mesa Junior High.

More than 11,000 students are enrolled in the district’s six schools, 37% more than the capacity of the existing buildings. Generally, a junior high school houses 900 to 1,000 students and a high school houses 1,600 to 1,700 students. District officials believe few juniors and seniors will want to transfer to a new school.

Students who disagree with where they’re slated to attend school will be allowed to take classes at a different campus under open enrollment.

Assembly Bill 1114 took effect this year and mandates that all California districts allow students to attend the school of their choice.