Tracy Cheslock, of Wall, never thought her 4-year-old daughter and 15-year-old son would attend school on the same campus.

But if all goes according to plan, that is exactly what may happen next fall. The East Allegheny school board voted last month to move the kindergarten class from Green Valley Primary to the second floor of the East Allegheny High School campus, where the prekindergarten program is already located. The space will be called the Early Learning Center.

Though district officials have repeatedly said the center's students and the high school students would remain separate, Mrs. Cheslock said she fears for her daughter's safety.

She plans to voice her opposition at an informational meeting about the plan Monday with a petition that had been signed by 15 parents of East Allegheny schoolchildren as of Tuesday. Some of those on the petition did not have children entering kindergarten but signed it anyway because "they think it's a bad idea," she said.

Principal Sean Gildea of Green Valley Primary said the class is being moved because of an influx of kindergartners last year. The district averages about 130 kindergartners a year, but last year registration peaked at 169 students, forcing the school to create two new classes. Half of the library, the music room and a computer room had to be closed to accommodate the additional classes.

District officials still do not know if the influx is temporary or if population bubble will continue. But Mr. Gildea said they have to be prepared for both.

"We have a large population [aged] zero to 4 in this area," he said. "That doesn't mean that they're going to be going to East Allegheny [schools], but we need to be prepared for it and in order to prepare for it we need more space."

The board looked at a number of different options, including expanding Green Valley Primary, putting in modular classrooms or moving the class to the Westinghouse School. But ultimately, they decided on the high school campus in part because the prekindergarten class, which currently shares the second floor of the high school with eighth-graders, have had no safety issues with being on campus, said board president Karen Hensler.

The new space will have eight kindergarten classrooms and two preschool classrooms, which are larger than the ones at Green Valley Primary. There will also be a library that will double as a computer room, a gym, a music room and a cafeteria.

In her petition, Mrs. Cheslock said she opposes the plan because she worries her daughter will be inadvertently caught in the path of sparring high school students.

"They're fighting all the time," she said. "I'm quite sure they're not going to be concerned about [kindergartners] getting in the way."

She also said she does not want her daughter's education disrupted by a bomb threat. This March, her son, a student at East Allegheny High School, was sent home early after a bomb threat was called into the school.

High school Principal Gary Peiffer said there are about 10 fights a year and that bomb threats are generally rare, though in 2000, they had five.

He said the Early Learning Center would be "a school within a school," and that the younger children would be completely sealed off from the rest of the campus.

"Even if there was an incident with a 16-year-old student, it wouldn't affect the daily instruction of the younger kids," he said.

Younger students will be bused onto the campus separately to different drop-off points and the center will have a separate entrance with a security guard. The center's two other doors will be locked from the outside and only used in emergencies. Kindergartners and preschoolers will also arrive and leave close to an hour later than high school students.

The only time the two groups would have contact with each other would be in a controlled setting, said Ms. Hensler. High school students could volunteer to read to kindergartners to fulfill requirements. The high school may also restart its early childhood development class, in which high school students would help out in kindergarten classrooms as part of a curriculum.

One drawback is that the campus has no playground, though the district is applying for grants to build one. In the meantime, the children would have to play inside.

Mrs. Cheslock said she is dissatisfied with the district's response to her concerns and may send her daughter to private school if the plan goes ahead. For Mrs. Cheslock, a receptionist and the family's sole income earner, this would be an especially large sacrifice.