Palmdale Moving to Take Over High School : Education: It would be the second defection from the Antelope Valley district. A petition drive is under way.

The Palmdale School District, the most populous district in the Antelope Valley, is forging ahead with plans to take over high school education within its borders.

If successful, the district, which now has only elementary schools, would be the second to secede from the Antelope Valley Union High School District, which for decades has been responsible for high school students in the Antelope Valley. The district serving the rural communities of Acton and Agua Dulce withdrew July 1.

But the departure of the Palmdale district, with more than 16,000 students, would have a greater impact than the loss of the rural district, which has only 1,700.

Palmdale School District Supt. Forrest McElroy said the unification of the 18-school district he oversees would be better for parents and students.

“Government is better able to serve the community if the government is closer to the people,” McElroy said. “A unified school district has an opportunity to provide a better educational program.”

The board of trustees last December passed a resolution supporting unification. Now, after years of discussion and analysis, the school district is beginning a petition drive this month that could lead to the district expanding its responsibilities to high school education on July 1, 1995.

First the school district must secure 6,000 signatures, representing 25% of the registered voters in its borders, to put the unification proposal before the county Committee on School District Organization. If the county approves, the proposal will be forwarded to the state Department of Education for a ruling on such issues as racial and ethnic impacts, increased state costs and the educational program.

The ultimate decision is left to the affected voters, who, if everything goes as the district has planned, will consider Palmdale’s unification in November, 1994.

McElroy said he has not received any opposition to the district’s unification effort, although he expects some.

The leaders of the Antelope Valley Union High School District, worried over the financial effect of such a large pullout, are not helping. They could have eased the Palmdale School District’s burden by passing a resolution supporting unification, eliminating the need for the time-consuming petition drive, but did not.

The withdrawal “would practically bankrupt the school district as we know it now,” said Wilda Andrejcik, a longtime trustee of the high school district.

A study completed one year ago by the consultant firm of Caldwell Flores Winters Inc. concluded however that unifying the Palmdale schools would not adversely affect the finances of the high school district, which is recovering from a $14-million deficit.

If the goal of unification is to provide better education, Andrejcik warned, there are many issues to be resolved first, such as whether Palmdale’s high school students would be allowed to transfer to other schools to take advantage of specialized programs.

As for the argument that a single school district’s oversight of education from kindergarten through high school allows for better continuity, Andrejcik said the high school district works with all the feeder elementary districts to ensure coordination.

Judy Fish, the Palmdale School District’s assistant superintendent of educational services, said a unified district allows for a common philosophy to guide a student from preschool to adult education.

“We’d be ensuring a very strong academic focus in everything we look at,” she said.

If the Palmdale schools are unified, the district will take possession from the high school district of Palmdale High School, the only high school within the elementary district’s borders.

Palmdale’s students account for the entire population at Palmdale High School as well as about 20% to 25% at two other high schools, according to Nancy Smith, assistant superintendent of business services. In all, the Palmdale School District contributes about 30% of the high school district’s student population.

The Palmdale School District would eventually need two high schools when the residential property within its borders is fully developed, Smith said. The district would also need an additional 12 elementary schools and two junior high schools to house the students from the expected 28,056 homes in its district.