Hart District to Make 3rd Try on School Bond

School administrators in Santa Clarita are optimistic that the third time will be the charm for a bond measure that could help ease serious overcrowding at all 13 campuses in the city’s William S. Hart Union High School District.

The district’s governing board unanimously approved a resolution last week to put a $158-million school bond measure on the November ballot. If voters approve, the funds generated will be used to build six new schools in the next decade.

Santa Clarita voters twice in the last two years narrowly defeated a $52-million bond measure, but district officials hope that a new state law will give this one a better chance.

Proposition 39, approved last year, lowers the bar to pass local school construction bonds from 66% to 55%.

“Prop. 39 helps us; it helps us a lot,” said Dennis King, Hart’s governing board president.

The first new school, Golden Valley High, would open in Canyon Country within two years, district officials said.

A second high school site has been chosen in Stevenson Ranch and two junior high school sites have been selected in Rio Norte and Stevenson Ranch, said district spokeswoman Pat Willett.

The bond money also would be used to renovate, modernize and expand the district’s schools and purchase furniture and equipment.

The new bond figure is more than triple the amount of the previous two because the district calculated its future needs for a 10-year period rather than five, as was done previously, King said.

“Districtwide we’re already 40% over capacity and it’s only going to get worse,” he said.

School officials say the district’s rapidly growing student enrollment is expected to nearly double in five years, not surprising for a booming area that ranks among Los Angeles County’s fastest growing communities. Santa Clarita’s population increased from 110,642 to 151,088 in the last decade, according to census figures.

Overcrowding has for years been an issue at all of Hart’s campuses, which have a combined enrollment of 16,000.

The 30-year-old Arroyo Seco Junior High School in Valencia was built for 990 students, but now has about 1,600 in original classrooms and 26 portable buildings.

At Valencia High School, students arrive at 6:30 a.m. to get a math, drafting or physical education class. Valencia Principal Paul Priesz said, “We’ve reached the maximum use of our facilities.”

The school is only 7 years old, but already seats one-third more students than intended. Two practice fields are covered with portable classrooms and a parking lot holds 32 bungalows.

Not everyone favors the bond measure. Cam Noltemeyer of the Committee for Safe Schools and Fair Taxation agrees the district needs more classrooms but thinks Hart has enough money without asking taxpayers to pitch in.

“This is not a poor district. There’s been a lot of mismanagement,” she said.