Influx at Simi High Schools May Be Costly, Report Warns : Education: Plan to create four-year campuses is expected to cause overcrowding at one and $500,000 in start-up expenses.

Shifting ninth-graders from junior highs to high schools starting next September will leave the city’s two high schools seriously overcrowded and cost the district $500,000 in start-up expenses, a new report says.

The change will also cost an additional $200,000 annually, according to the Simi Valley school board staff report.

Each of the city’s high schools will add about 500 students next year as the district makes the transition to four-year high schools, a plan that could require a school board decision to construct more portable classrooms.

Even the opening of a third high school next September will not immediately ease overcrowding, the report says.

The school, a new performing arts and technology magnet, has room for about 1,200 students. But the district expects it to open with about 450 students next year, based on the results of a recent parent survey.

District officials said they believe overcrowding at the other high schools will subside as students gradually move into the magnet school, once it expands its class offerings and gains popularity.

But they acknowledge that Royal and Simi Valley high schools will bear the brunt of change in the meantime. Further impacting the schools are the unusually large ninth- and 10th-grade classes in the district.

“The enrollment will even out after a couple of years as enrollment at the magnet school continues to maximize,” said Leslie Crunelle, director of secondary education in the Simi Valley Unified School District. “We’ll know more about methods to solve the situation once the board decides whether to fund portables and we have the number of kids who are going to the magnet school.”

The report, which will be presented to the school board Tuesday night, is based on numbers from a recent survey gauging parent interest in the new magnet school.

The board will decide on specific ways to ease overcrowding early next year after enrollment figures for the magnet school are tallied. Board approval is needed before any money can be taken from the district’s general fund for portable classrooms, new science equipment and teacher moving costs for all three schools during the transition.

The report recommends adding two to four portable classrooms at Simi and Royal to deal with the extra students.

The expected flood of ninth-graders would increase the enrollment at Simi Valley High School by 20%. The school, which has 2,500 students this year, would then be 350 students over capacity. Royal High School, which has 1,858 students, would increase by more than 25%, putting the school at capacity.

The district has plans to move 18 teachers into each of the two existing high schools. Those new high school teaching positions, and others at the magnet school, will be open first to teachers in the district who volunteer for reassignment.

But even the extra portable classrooms would not provide enough space for each teacher to have his or her own room, meaning as many as seven teachers at Royal and five teachers at Simi would have to travel from room to room throughout the day. Overcrowded high schools in Ventura and Camarillo already have many traveling teachers.

The executive director of the Simi Educators Assn. said such moves are tough on teachers. Hal Vick said he has negotiated extra storage space and fewer adjunct duties for traveling teachers in other local districts.

“The fewer moves a teacher needs to make, the better, for a variety of reasons,” Vick said. “When teachers move around during preparation periods, it’s hard to do prep work. We’re less than thrilled with that approach.”

District officials said they would try to lessen the impact of traveling by setting up classrooms in clusters so teachers would not have to travel far and by providing them with home-base classrooms where they could keep their files.

The report also suggests that some programs at Simi Valley High School could be eliminated or moved to Royal High. Although district officials would not elaborate on which programs would be targeted, they cited certain shop classes that are full during only some school periods.

The magnet school will open next year on the former site of Sequoia Junior High School.