County OKs Schools’ Use of Ex-Mira Loma Jail : Antelope Valley: District would set up a bare-bones campus for students who had been expelled elsewhere.

A proposed “last chance” school for expelled students at the now-closed Mira Loma jail cleared an important hurdle Wednesday night when the county agreed to let the Antelope Valley Union High School District use the facility rent-free.

County officials also guaranteed that the school district would have use of the jail for at least three months, and probably longer.

School officials were reluctant to spend the funds needed to convert a part of the jail to a classroom unless they were sure the county would not reclaim it soon.

“I think we’re secure in knowing we’re going to have the facility for at least a year,” said John Hutak, the district’s director of security, welfare and attendance, in a report to the board.

The county, he said, agreed also that it would give the district a 90-day warning before reopening the jail.

The school board unanimously approved the agreement. If all goes according to plan, the school--which will be the first of its kind in the state--will open in April.

Not everyone at the meeting applauded the concept, however.

“If we provide educational services to students we label ‘expelled,’ are they still expelled?” asked Dave Kennedy, president of the Antelope Valley Teachers Assn. He said that the new school would violate a district zero-tolerance policy that automatically expels students for serious offenses, like using a weapon on campus.

The students in the Mira Loma school would indeed be technically expelled, countered Supt. Robert Girolamo. He added that it has not yet been determined if students who perform well at the “last chance” school would be permitted to re-enter regular classes.

Budgetary concerns about the project were lessened when Hutak announced the cost of converting the building has been reduced from an original estimate of about $25,000 to about $5,000.

“We’re making it a real Spartan environment,” he said.

A concrete floor in the visiting area will be repaired, not replaced, and old office carpeting that was to be cleaned will now be ripped out, leaving more concrete floors, Hutak said. There will also be no curtains or blinds on the windows.

“There will be bathrooms and that’s about it,” he said. “We’re trying very hard to maintain the character of the facility.”

Hutak said he hopes the program will have about 30 students when it opens.

The jail, which had a capacity of 1,900 inmates, was closed in 1993 because of county budget cuts. Sharon Bunn, director of facilities administration for the Sheriff’s Department, said the county had no objections to letting the Antelope Valley district use the facility, but wanted to make sure it would be returned in an emergency.

“I think what we were deciding is what would be a reasonable time frame,” she said, adding that 90 days was the minimum notice requested by district officials.

The classroom will be in the former visitation area. Other parts of Mira Loma are being used as extra office space for patrol deputies and for storage.