Back in 1997 there was a movement for about ten minutes to make the Castaic Union School District (“CUSD”) a unified K-12 district and start a temporary high school somewhere on the grounds of Castaic Middle School against the future dream of a comprehensive high school site at that time unknown.
During this period I met with a member of the CUSD school board and Town Council who did not support the unification drive to find out why the movement enjoyed the life of a fruitfly. When pressed on his view he hemmed and hawed but basically admitted that any nascent Castaic High School would enroll about 600 to 800 students, would SUCK in athletics, and thus deprive students of the chance for Division I scholarships available at the four to five times larger Valencia High School just down the road.
Any other thoughts regarding unification were forgotten when the Hart District mooted a school site in the Sloan Canyon area on parcels actually acquired by the (quasi) independent Facilities Foundation, a plan that quickly fell to NIMBYISM and distraction in the actual building and opening of three additional high schools and two junior high schools. Also, the now bankrupt Suncal partnership then developing Northlake subsequently promised a turnkey dream high school in the expanded Northlake area, a dream that died in 2008 with the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the residential real estate market. For comic relief a mooted site in the Valencia Commerce Center failed because existing CCR’s forbade the construction of a school facility.
So on Wednesday, July 14th, the Hart District Board MAY make a final decision so that the three to four year process of construction and opening can finally begin in earnest. The two mooted sites are Sloan Canyon and another site in Romero Canyon and the few of us knowledgeable or interested in the unspoken back story of the zero sum game of real estate development in the SCV await with a sense of bemusement and moderate interest, much like the population of the US in the outcome of the World Cup.
Let me start at the outset by stating the obvious: Neither site is a “good” or obvious choice. In the late 1980′s when Newhall Land and Farming starting carving the Northbridge and Northbridge Pointe tracts out of the hills north of the Santa Clara River it became apparent that the last piece of “flat”land had been developed and any future development would contend with what I call RCO’s (ridgelines, creeks and oil facilities). Both proposed sites contain elements of some or all.
So what about costs? The proponents of both sites produce well meaning cost estimates that set their sites in a good light, but without venality or dishonesty these estimates could be wrong by substantial margins. As one old construction hand stated, you never really know what lies below until you start digging a hole.
So it appears that the “argument” now rests on affinity with the opposing developers. John Kunak pens a letter today stating the preference of various constituencies in Castaic with the Romero site (and also its developer) while talk swirls about an internal Hart District administrative bias towards the Sloan Canyon site. The decision probably hinges on the vote of one Paul Strickland, who must weigh his political ambitions in a no win situation where he will upset at least one substantial Republican constituency with his final vote.
I will not predict the final outcome of site selection, but I can predict that the eventual Castaic High School will enroll about 1,200 to 1,500 students and be the absolute RUMP of the Foothill League. Hoorary!
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