Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : Castaic School Officials Seek Safe Site for New Elementary Campus : Education: Trustees want to avoid busing students across the Golden State Freeway.

School officials here are looking for a new elementary school site to avoid having to bus students across the Golden State Freeway to attend classes.

Castaic Union School District trustees voted 5 to 0 in closed session Thursday evening for a $25,000 feasibility study of a seven-acre site near Camino Del Valle Park.

Carmichael-Kemp Architects of Los Angeles will examine the Sloan Canyon Road property to see if its slope, seismic conditions and soil content are suitable for a school.

“We’ve been looking, (and) because the market and timing is right, this site may be in reach for the district,” said board President Lester Freeman. “(There) is the reality that Castaic Elementary School, where it is located, is an old school.”

No other sites are now being considered, Freeman said.

About 500 students attend Castaic Elementary School, situated on North Ridge Route Road adjacent to Castaic Middle School. District officials want to close the existing campus and move all students to the new site.

“There’s the possibility we would sell the existing site,” Freeman said.

The Sloan Canyon Road property encompasses three parcels of land owned by different people. One site is vacant, two have houses on them. District officials declined to state the asking price.

Although only about a mile from the existing elementary school, the site is west of the Golden State Freeway where nine out of every 10 Castaic students live, and where additional homes are planned.

Most parents dislike having to drive their children across the freeway to attend classes.

“At this point (the effort for a new school) is being driven by the issue of transportation, where children could walk to school instead of being bused,” Supt. Scott Brown said.

Students on the east side of the freeway will eventually be accommodated by elementary schools situated between the Golden State Freeway and Castaic Lake, north of the community, Brown said.

The district has the deed to two other properties from Cook Ranch Associates as part of the 3,600-home development planned above Castaic Lake. Those two properties will be graded by the builder once construction of the 1,330-acre project begins.

No time frame has been set for when the district might open a new elementary school. A major factor in any purchase effort by the district will be the availability of state funding, Brown said.

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