By Editorial

The next four years will be a critical time for the Los Altos School District. The K-8 district faces great financial challenges with an expected 15 percent drop in state funding next school year.

Officials plan to go before the public next year with a new parcel tax and may ask for another bond measure after facilities renovations they envisioned fell short with 1998’s bond funding.

In addition, Dick Liewer, associate superintendent in charge of curriculum and a key factor in the district’s high STAR test scores, plans to retire at the end of the school year. Filling his shoes will be a tall order.

For these and other reasons, we endorse incumbent board members Victor Reid III, Duane Roberts and Jay Thomas.

We found all three to be extremely knowledgeable and insightful about district issues, and committed to finding solutions. They all have business, planning and finance backgrounds that will surely be a factor in the tough budget decisions ahead.

Challenger Bill Cooper is affable and energetic, and we have no doubt he would make a fine board member. But he freely admits he is not a “finance guy,” and this expertise is needed on the board.

Cooper has touted the fact that he has children attending a district school, and thus has more sensitivity to the needs of children, parents and teachers. But Thomas, who has children now out of Los Altos schools, noted board members need to have a “big picture” perspective serving the needs of all schools equally.

It can be argued that board members can better serve us by not having kids at a particular school because that eliminates potential bias toward that school.

Thomas, Reid and Roberts have done a credible job in focusing on academic excellence first and the district’s mission to develop children to their fullest potential.

We accept the incumbents’ explanation that forces beyond the school board, such as bad original estimates and escalating construction costs, foiled original plans for facilities renovations. But the incumbents owned up to the fact that the district should have had more professional help from the beginning.

With the challenges before it, the district will need board members who can sell the community on the need for more local funding, which is near an already sizable 20 percent of the current budget. It won’t be easy, especially for a new member who needs to be brought up to speed. An experienced board is vital in this situation.