A new high school for the Castaic community has been in the works for 12 years. William S. Hart Union High School District will begin construction this spring and had originally planned to open the school for the 2015-2016 school year.

Now, due to the fact that permits and approval have taken longer than expected, the district has pushed back the opening date to Fall 2016, according to board member Gloria Mercado-Fortine.

“Even though we are closer now than we’ve ever been to having Castaic become a reality, there are still a lot of things,” she said. “Everything does take time, and I think we’ve been pushing it as hard as we can.”

The district wants to be transparent during the process and keep the public informed, she said.

Mercado-Fortine

Castaic High will open to one or two grades at first to prevent the difficult transitions that often come from moving students during their last two years of high school.

Currently, the Hart district has not decided if they will accept ninth and tenth graders or only ninth graders during that first year.

“We want to make sure when we open that we do provide a strong instructional program,” Mercado-Fortine said, “so that if it’s ninth grade or ninth and tenth, we provide all of the classes that are needed for that grade level.”

In addition, board President Joe Messina noted that the reason for the delay was largely due to the fact that they want to welcome students to a well-built, complete school building.

“The school needs to be built in total, not sort of built while there’s still construction going on,” he said.

But he also said with certainty that “This school will be built.”

Groundbreaking for Castaic High is planned for May 8. Visit the Hart District website for continuous updates on the process.