5 Districts Fight Builders Over School Funds

Educators statewide are hoping five pugnacious Santa Clarita school districts win their court battle against California’s powerful building industry, setting the stage for similar victories at home.

School officials in other fast-growing regions say admiringly that the Santa Clarita districts--William S. Hart, Newhall, Castaic, Saugus and Sulphur Springs--are leading the state in the drive for construction money.

“From what I’ve heard, they are out front on this issue,” said Dianne Jacob, past president of the California School Boards Assn. “They are out there punching and fighting.”

Millions of construction dollars are at stake to accommodate the rapid growth in Santa Clarita. The Santa Clarita districts have mushroomed by 4,000 students since 1982.

“It strikes me that no one has been as aggressive,” said Bill Ingram, current school board association president. The association, which counts 96% of the state’s 1,025 school districts as members, is watching the Santa Clarita case closely. The five districts, he said, are unique.

Besides tangling with the California Building Industry Assn., three of the Santa Clarita districts are waging other legal battles against the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, also over school construction fees. Last week, the districts requested--and got--the support of the Santa Clarita City Council in their fight with the supervisors.

And over the weekend, executive officers of the school boards association met to discuss whether the group should join the fight.

“We’re kind of known as the mavericks up here,” said Pat Willett, a Newhall district trustee.

But Willett said that explosive growth in the Santa Clarita Valley and a lack of support from the supervisors have forced the districts to be tenacious. “There’s not much point in sitting and wringing our hands,” she said.

William M. Clark, assistant superintendent in the Saugus district, said the districts would rather devote energy to conditions in the classroom, not to building the classroom.

“We would love to be out of the litigation business,” Clark said.

The growth problems are formidable. Each of the five districts has recently built or is planning to build campuses.

A school that opened in the Newhall district in September was just below capacity on the first day of class. This month, the Castaic district opened its second campus in 100 years.

Conditions in the Saugus district summarize the trend. In the last 2 1/2 years, Clark said, the district has grown by 22% to 5,159 students.

Two years ago Saugus officials opened a school made entirely of temporary classrooms. Designed to hold 330 students, the school now has 485.

New Saugus School to Open

In April the Saugus district is scheduled to open another school and begin construction of one more. A third school is on the drawing board. And the building may not stop there.

“By 1994, we will have over 1,000 students who will still need housing,” Clark said.

The crowding, which Willett blamed on unfettered development, prompted the five districts to launch an initiative to impose school construction fees on development. Santa Clarita voters overwhelmingly approved the measure on June 7, 1987.

The fees, which range from $5,439 to $6,300 a unit, are the subject of the fight between the Santa Clarita districts and the California Building Industry Assn. State law already requires developers to pay $1.53 for every square foot of residential development to support new schools. The Santa Clarita fees generally exceed the amount that would be paid under the state law.

The builders sued the districts, claiming that the fees were unconstitutional. A Los Angeles Superior Court judge sided with the school districts in August, 1987.

But last month the state Court of Appeal supported the builders. Santa Clarita voters, the court ruled, had no authority to impose the fees.

The Santa Clarita districts are appealing the case to the state Supreme Court. “It’s a courageous act,” said Jacob, a trustee in the Jamul-Dulzura School District in San Diego County. “Whether they win or lose in court, they are raising this issue to a high level.”

Ingram, a trustee in the Paris Union High School District in Riverside County, said other school districts undoubtedly will launch similar construction-fee initiatives if the Santa Clarita districts prevail before the state Supreme Court.

In a related battle, the Hart, Saugus and Newhall districts have filed suit against the Board of Supervisors, saying that county development guidelines prohibit the board from approving residential projects that will overburden the school system.

County Counsel De Witt W. Clinton has said the districts are misinterpreting county policy.

Even with the court cases unresolved, the Santa Clarita districts have gained some money to build schools.

Some developers have agreed to pay the voter-approved fees. The Newhall Land and Farming Co., for example, will pay the Hart district $6 million toward the construction of a high school.