By Welcome to "Ask Marge," a periodic column we plan to run that answers some of your questions about the Los Altos School District, directly from Superintendent Marge Gratiot herself.

1. Marge, can you tell me what kinds of challenges the district faces with the budget for the next school year?

Answer: For the next school year (2002-03), we will be looking at major cutbacks unless the community supports a parcel tax increase in the spring. Our state and federal funding alone does not pay for the excellent educational program our children receive, and we must rely on local sources of funds, primarily the parcel tax and the Los Altos Educational Foundation, to make up the difference. The Community Advisory Committee for Finance has recommended that the board increase the parcel tax enough to allow us to continue the current level of program without cuts, and the board will determine what that increase will need to be within the next few weeks.

2. We haven’t heard much about the mural controversy involving Covington and former student artists. What’s happening now, if anything, and what is the district’s position?

Answer: We have saved most of the murals at Blach and Egan, so the real issues revolve around the murals at Covington. We need to make the school seismically safe in order to reopen it next fall. That means the contractors need to work on the walls where the murals currently are. The artists believe that the murals are significant enough works of art to be protected by federal law, which would mean that the district would either have to delay Covington’s construction in order to allow the muralists to save the murals themselves or use district funds to remove and preserve the murals. Many people in the community have indicated to me and to the School Board that they do not feel the murals are federally protected, and that it would be inappropriate to use district funds or to delay Covington’s construction in order to save them. Since the artists have engaged a law firm, the board has not taken any public position yet.

3. We heard a lot from campaigning board members about the Los Altos School District being the No. 1 district in the state. How do they arrive at that statement?

Answer: Now that the state of California has decided to evaluate the academic progress of every school with a single number (the Academic Performance Index), it is easy to rank the schools and districts in the state. Using these figures, we have been the highest scoring district in the state for the past three years. All of us are proud of this (and so are our local realtors), but we also know that this is only one measure of the quality of education children receive.

4. Is the district on schedule for its facilities renovation plan? If not, what/where are the delays?

Answer: Currently, we are on schedule to have Blach, Egan and Covington completed by next fall. Almond and Springer will be at “camp” school during that year while their own campuses are being renovated. We are behind schedule in moving the maintenance department to the city’s property on Fremont, and in remodeling the old maintenance building into a district office. There have been minor delays on some of the projects because of unanticipated problems with the existing buildings, availability of materials, shortage of workers in some trades, etc., but our critical master plan deadlines for the schools themselves seem to be holding so far.

Send questions to editor Bruce Barton at the Town Crier, 138 Main St., Los Altos 94022 or e-mail: bruceb@latc.com and we will forward them to Gratiot.