No new schools until 2010

Barring an unexpected influx of students, neither a new high school nor a new elementary school will open in the Lake Havasu Unified School District until the 2010-11 school year,

That's when the district governing board projects student enrollment will reach capacity at the current buildings, triggering an order from the State Facilities Board to construct new buildings. Board members approved a required annual capital plans report with those projections at a special Tuesday night meeting.

Lake Havasu High School, built for 2,300 students, is expected to house 2,389 students in the 2010-11 school year, according to the report. The school, which houses the ninth through the 12th grades, topped the 2,000 mark this year for the first time in its history.

Enrollment in the pre-school through the fifth-grades is expected to reach 3,573 by 2010-11. The district's half-dozen elementary schools are each built for about 550 students.

"We're going to be overcrowded before it gets better," Jo Navaretta, board president, said.

The governing board may alter the figures with new information in the future as new annual reports are submitted.

Superintendent Gail Malay said the SFB would not fund new buildings until the current schools are estimated to be at 110 percent of capacity within three to five years.

"Even with 3 to 31/2 percent growth, we don't qualify for new schools until 2010," Malay told the board.

The SFB requires each school district to update its capital plan report annually, asking for new property three years before it's needed and new schools four years before they're needed.

State law mandates that only the SFB may order and fund new school buildings according to a specific formula. The SFB allows these space designations per student at different levels:

€Preschool through third-grade: 32 square feet.

€Grades 4-6: 28 square feet.

€Grades 7-8: 26 square feet.

€Grades 9-12: 25 square feet.

In computing its formula for the number of square feet per student, the SFB uses only the space occupied by students all day. They do not include space for hallways, libraries, restrooms, cafeterias, gyms, computer labs or theaters. The board takes off 15 percent from the building size to allow for space not used as classrooms, said Joe Stella, maintenance director.

To deal with projected overflow, the district expects to lobby the SFB for new buildings. Stella will attend the Sept. 8 meeting in Phoenix.

Malay has also instructed building principals to submit plans dealing with possible overcrowding.

You may contact the reporter at sdunham@havasunews.com