Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : College of Canyons Recovers From Quake : Education: Officials at the two-year community school chart 25 years of progress along with a few bumpy periods.

College of the Canyons held classes at night in a nearby high school when it opened 25 years ago. This spring, many classes were taught in tents.

But college officials and faculty members note that a lot of progress has occurred in between. For one thing, there were only about 600 students back in 1969.

Nearly 6,000 students will start classes today at COC, a two-year community college in Valencia, which marked its 25th anniversary this week. The campus will be at nearly full operation, despite sustaining about $2.5 million damage during the Jan. 17 Northridge earthquake.

Enrollment is down by about 200 students from a year ago, part of which may have been caused by the earthquake. The college’s sports stadium is undergoing repairs which are expected to last until early September, said Assistant Supt. Carter Doran. But he said he isn’t worried about any lasting effects.

“I think we’re back to normal,” he said. “The worst of the earthquake is over.”

The earthquake caused an 11% drop in spring enrollment and left 23 of the college’s 70 classrooms unusable, forcing officials to hold classes in tents and temporary buildings on campus, Doran said. “That was really a mess.”

Workers are installing a new running track and reinforcing the college’s stadium because its foundation was damaged in the earthquake, said Jorge Perez, director of facilities and planning. Other projects include repairs to sidewalks, parking lots, outside lights and classrooms.

Some of the worst damage occurred in a chemical storage room, said spokeswoman Sue Bozman.

“All of the chemicals were like a blender in there, and they soaked into the ceiling and walls,” she said. A modified storage cabinet that can be carried from the building has replaced the old storage facility.

Teachers and other employees returned to campus Wednesday to prepare for classes. Betty Spilker, an English teacher at the college since it opened in 1969, said she was looking forward to seeing her rebuilt office.

“This is the first time I’ll have seen it since they furnished it,” she said.

Spilker was one of several longtime COC employees honored Wednesday at a ceremony to celebrate the school’s 25th anniversary. Honorees included 10 employees who, like Spilker, have worked at the college since its beginning.

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Spilker said afterward that she is a little surprised that she has stayed so long. She was initially disenchanted to discover classes were being taught at Hart High School in Newhall because the on-campus buildings weren’t ready.

“I originally said I would work here for one year and then get a job at a real school,” she said.

But Spilker said she grew attached to the college, which COC President Dianne Van Hook called a “curious institution” that has been bold enough to hire a few “genuine off-the-wall sorts” and “take a risk on the inexperienced, but eager.”

“I think (the college) managed to select people who were eccentric but really special,” Spilker said.

The makeup of students at COC has changed as the Santa Clarita Valley has evolved from rural farmland to a rapidly growing bedroom community. The enrollment includes more recent high school graduates, many of whom can’t afford four-year schools for the first two years, and adults seeking career changes, officials said.

In the beginning, for example, the college attracted a lot of police officers who took classes there as part of their training, as well as high school graduates and adults going back to school.

Many community members and students have formed strong attachments to COC.

Colleen Fay, 23, of Canyon Country said she has attended classes there since 1989 and is starting in the college’s two-year nursing program this semester. Eventually, she said, she hopes to get a four-year nursing degree. But for now the ease of taking classes at COC suits her just fine.

“I’m broke and the school is close,” she said. “And I hate the freeway.”