While still currently under construction, local school officials have been told the development project formerly known as Newhall Ranch, which is also part of Valencia, will bring kids into the Saugus, Castaic and Newhall elementary school districts, as well as the William S. Hart Union High School District.
FivePoint officials confirmed Thursday those four districts have boundaries that fall within their project, which is located along the Santa Clara River and slated to bring 21,500 homes to the Santa Clarita Valley, 10,000 acres of open space and more than 75,000 jobs.
Davis Demographics, the company contracted to project student enrollments for multiple local districts, is starting to conduct its statistical analysis on how many students these districts can expect from the new development project as it continues its rollout over the next decade.
“There’s a lot of moving parts, but (the new Valencia development), as far I know, unless they tell me something different, I’ve always understood that the northern part belongs to Castaic’s boundary,” said David Kaitz of Davis Demographics, the company which provides reports on expected enrollment and housing trends to a number of the school districts in the Santa Clarita Valley. “The bulk of it, the lower part which is where they’re starting, is Newhall School District’s units.”
Kaitz went on to say that a portion of the east end of the new development project, in a relatively slim portion, belongs to the Saugus Union School District. And the Hart District, the only high school and junior high school district in Santa Clarita, receives all those students once they come into either seventh or ninth grades. (The Castaic Union School District oversees schools starting transitional kindergarten to eighth grade.)
This is good news for the districts, according to Kaitz, as all three districts have reportedly experienced declining or stagnant enrollment over the last few years, with those enrollment numbers continuing to slip into the next few years until new developments within their respective districts are completed.
“The main project for us is currently called Landmark Village,” said CUSD Superintendent Steve Doyle, who added that each home is expected to bring in half a student, statistically speaking. “We have been told that they are expecting approximately 1,800 homes to be built within our part of the development … therefore, we might get approximately 900 students from the development.”
“The development is in its very early stages,” said Deo Persaud, NSD’s assistant superintendent of business services. “Our district is projected to receive the first elementary school (within the development), but I would estimate that to be at least three years away and is based on too many unknowns at this point.”
The first occupants for NSD’s FivePoint homes, in what the developers are at present calling “Mission Village,” are projected to become occupants in 2021, according to Kaitz.
