The Castaic Area Town Council has endorsed the Romero Canyon site as a location for the future Castaic high school.

Romero Canyon, owned by developer Larry Rasmussen, is one of two sites being considered by the William S. Hart Union High School for the long-promised school, which has been planned for some 10 years but still lacks a location.

But some Castaic residents, including those on the site-advisory committee who voted against the endorsement, say the Town Council rushed to a vote before all the facts and studies were in on the two properties under consideration.

The vote was 5-4, with one council member absent.

Town councils are elected bodies for unincorporated communities and provide advice for local county supervisors and other local agencies.

After Castaic-area students graduate from the eighth grade, they attend either West Ranch or Valencia high schools on an alternating system. Castaic parents have complained for years about the alternating school program, which can split childhood friends within the same neighborhood, and about the lack of a high school for their community.

Both Valencia and West Ranch high schools have had to deal with student overcrowding.

In 2008, local voters approved a $300 million construction bond, Measure SA, with the promise that it would built a Castaic high school.

Last year, Hart board members narrowed the options to Romero Canyon and the Hasley/Sloan site, owned by the Santa Clarita Valley Facilities Foundation. The foundation is a nonprofit organization that locates, purchases and prepares land for Hart district school construction.

The Hart board has spent about $400,000 for consultants to study Romero Canyon and the Hasley/Sloan properties for any “fatal flaws” — major obstacles that would affect the time line or budget for school construction.

“The reason I endorsed Romero is I believe in (owner) Larry Rasmussen,” said Town Council member and high school committee chair Flo Lawrence. “He’s a guy who wants to sell his land and wants to get it done.”

Lawrence said Rasmussen’s history in the Santa Clarita Valley was another reason he favored Romero Canyon.

“He has a proven track record of doing this in this valley with other schools,” Lawrence said. “He will do everything to move forward.”

Rasmussen was present at the meeting May 19 at which the Town Council endorsed his site. He organized a question-and-answer session for the council before the final 5-4 vote, Lawrence said.

Lawrence, Steve Teeman, Richard Hood, Robert Kelly and Renee Sabol were in favor of the endorsement, while Vanessa Brookman, Lori Bennett, Scott Moon and Scott Wardle voted against it. Jeff Preach was absent from the meeting.

“We felt that we should wait until the consultants had made their final reports,” said Brookman.

The vote frustrated council member Preach, who was out of town during the meeting.

He said the Castaic community deserves a high school, but he doesn’t understand why the council rushed to endorse one property.

“I don’t think council’s got a right to make an endorsement with less than half the information,” he said.

“I would have been the fifth vote, and it would have been 5-5,” he said, adding that he wrote Hart district board members outlining his concerns with the endorsement.

Personally, Hart Superintendent Jaime Castellanos said, the endorsements don’t carry much weight with him.

He’d rather rely on the reports that are currently under way.

“Politics aside, it has to be decided on what the facts are,” Castellanos said.

While initial reports were given to the board in May, Castellanos anticipates that on June 9, the consultants will present in-depth information about both sites.

The board could make a decision as to which property to go with in July or August, Castellanos said.

“We have to make a decision based on our consultant findings,” Castellanos said. “That’s going to validate significant issues with each of the sites.”

Others hope the endorsement doesn’t completely rule out Hasley/Sloan as an option for the high school.

In 2006, John Zaring, who served as campaign manager for Measure SA, and other parents collected more than 1,000 signatures from Castaic residents lending their support for a high school on the Hasley/Sloan site.

The group is back in force again this year and expect to collect just as many signatures, Zaring said.

“We’re trying to deliver the message that there is actually support in the community for a school site at Hasley/Sloan,” Zaring said.

However, a handful of residents who live near the proposed Hasley/Sloan site have strongly voiced their opposition to a school and said they will take legal action if the site is selected.