Despite reports that the opening of Castaic High School has been “pushed back,” it has in fact been delayed by changes in scope and plans for the project, according to Joe Messina, William S. Hart Union High School District board member.

“Originally the school was going to be completed in 2013,” Messina said. “This was based on taking a set of West Ranch High School plans that were already approved by the state DSA (Division of the State Architect), using the original plot of land, plopping the school down and we’re done. But the land changed to a better piece of property in Romero Canyon, and now we’re looking at a high school that’s pretty much different altogether.”

Messina said the revised location provided more options to expand the project’s scope. “The new design has a different kind of performing arts center, three core tech ed flex buildings. And those facilities have to be built in such a fashion that they can be used after hours without people wandering around the campus as a whole.”

He said the shift to the second property also made it possible to add a new athletics stadium to the Castaic High campus.

“We don’t really have a (modern) stadium at any of the other (Hart District high school) campuses, and that shift in buying the land made that available to us,” Messina said. “Why not take advantage of it?”

The change in property and renegotiating the land purchase terms caused the first delay, Messina said, “probably a good six-to-eight months.” And because the property and plans were changed, he said, “the County of Los Angeles came up with some things we needed to work through.”

Messina said the county’s requirements included relocation “of eight million yards of dirt. There were just certain things the county wanted that took a lot more time.”

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The Brown Act regulating public officials’ meetings has been a factor in county approval delays as well, Messina said. “Because of  the Brown Act, we could meet on a Wednesday night and approve something, but if the county sent something back on a Thursday it’s going to be two more weeks before we meet again and get the information.”

Every change in the project also requires another state approval, which causes further delays, he said.

“Somebody needs to paint a picture of reality because it’s not like you can just throw this stuff up and go,” Messina said.

Grading of the land at the newer Romero Canyon site is slated for June, Messina said; it was not completed last June as reported elsewhere. Project management contracts and requests for bids from contractors and subcontractors will roll out this summer, he said.

While completion of the high school’s construction is now projected to be in 2019, Messina said the school can still open for classes prior to completion, in the same way College of the Canyons’ Canyon Country campus opened with limited facilities and curriculum and expanded them as the campus buildout continued.

“I would not be surprised to see 9th-grade students attending Castaic High School for the 2018 school year,” he said.