By Unlucky 13 haunts local schools
Thirteen is an unlucky number. It was an unlucky day for California the day that Proposition 13 was implemented. California went from having the best schools in the nation to the bottom of the list. Los Altos is lucky because it is a beautiful place with a small town atmosphere. We are lucky to have dedicated teachers who teach and live in our community despite the high cost of housing.
Perhaps our luck has just run out. On May 6, the Los Altos school board approved a $4.6 million budget cut for the 2002-2003 school year. What does this mean to our schools? It means losing 48 teachers, larger class size, one elective at the junior highs, no school supplies, and fewer janitorial services. Is this really happening in California, a state with the world’s sixth largest economy? A few years ago we had a budget surplus. Where did that money go?
The passage of Measure A would have helped our schools tremendously. A parcel tax is the only way our town can raise extra money for our local schools. We are a bedroom community. We don’t have industry like Mountain View or Palo Alto to increase our tax revenue. I agree that parents shouldn’t be asked to pay for a state that can’t efficiently manage its monies. But are we going to let our teachers and schools suffer to prove a point?
How long will our schools retain their number one ranking with this huge budget cut? I don’t think we’re that lucky.
I will support SOS and LAEF because I don’t want to see our kids make do with fewer teachers, larger classes and no electives.
Must children lose out because of ineffective economic stewardship by our state leaders?
JoAnn BuchananLos Altos
Pool complex meeting today’s local needs
As the bookkeeper for Los Altos Masters Swim Club and a member of the SPLASH Committee, I would like to address a recent writer’s concerns about the business plan for the proposed pool project.
SPLASH is committed to meeting the needs of Los Altos circa 2002. A replacement of the old Covington Pool does not accomplish that. As an example, the water was too deep and too cold for young children’s swimming lessons, while at the same time it was too shallow and too warm for current standards in competitive swimming and water polo. Both activities are important for Los Altos, where we have an abundance of both children and devotees of aquatic sports. Fortunately, city decision makers agreed that multiple pools are needed to serve the community.
We invite any interested resident to review the business plan. It provides a variety of programs, of which swimming lessons for Los Altos children are the cornerstone. The variety of programs under discussion -kayaking, synchronized swimming, etc. - provide what we hope is an attractive menu of options for our residents in addition to unstructured family swim.
The programs also provide a basis for 100 percent cost recovery so that the pool will not require a public subsidy.
Feedback from the community on pool design and programming are not only welcomed by SPLASH, but they are formalized into the city’s project schedule. If you are interested in swimming in Los Altos and would like to review the business plan, please e-mail splash@losaltosmasters.org.
Kamrin Knight DesmondLos Altos
Untimely election reveals mayor’s scheme
The election of Du Bose Montgomery at the April 17 meeting of the Los Altos Hills Pathways Committee represents the culmination of Mayor Toni Casey’s plans to reshape Los Altos Hills into her scheme for the future of the town.
At this special meeting, which Mayor Casey called for this purpose, the long-standing precedent of holding the committee chairman election after July 1 was overturned. The previous co-chairwomen, Ginger Summit and Nancy Ewald were unceremoniously dumped and Toni’s hand picked chairman was elected by the Casey cronies appointed to the committee over the last two years by the Casey majority.
Time was in Los Altos Hills that Pathways Committee members were picked for their love of the pathway system, its development and enhancement. They were people who loved the outdoors and were dedicated to developing a comprehensive system of both off-road and on-road pathways for recreational use.
The change in philosophy in the committee which Toni talked extensively about at the April 18 City Council meeting where the council eliminated the pathway easement from the Lands of Carse, is brought about by the appointment of people to the committee who are not pathway advocates in a deliberate effort to eliminate future off-road pathways and possibly eliminate those already in place, along with a possible sell off of some parcels of town-owned open space.
Should the Pathways Committee be renamed the Pathways Elimination Committee? This outfit bears watching.
William C. Downey.Los Altos Hills
Tragic demise of Westwind Barn?
Approximately 30 years ago, my daughter and a band of female horsewomen saw the great potential of a then-abandoned barn owned by Los Altos Hills, courtesy of a benevolent Hungarian countess. They “hired” an attorney as they cleaned the 32 horse stalls, repaired broken windows and “begged” the Los Altos Hills government to let them set up a non-profit cooperative establishment to make use of the countess’ gift.
My daughter, a Foothill College student, worked at Pac Bell to earn her “room and board” at the stable while cleaning stalls and pitching manure, as all of the group did.
By the time she took her Appaloosa and moved to Seattle, the group was beginning the ongoing practice of helping handicapped children with therapy - riding an old docile horse.
I know nothing of the Los Altos Hills Council’s aim in selling the Barn. It should be stunted. I hope money is not the driving force.
Once sold, this treasure and its purposes will be lost to the community.
Paul McGrewLos Altos
In defense of Father Pritchard
Priests are something like family in that you don’t choose them, and so they remain themselves; they don’t concentrate on making a good impression as elected leaders do.
The brilliant, reserved man I loved so much didn’t suffer fools gladly and wasn’t universally beloved. The wonderful pastor, whom everyone admired and liked, left the priesthood because he found it unbearably lonely. The one who was clearly a cut above average was too good to waste on a dinky parish like St. Nicholas; the bishop pulled him back into the chancery.
So you learn to value the ordinary decent person who is there when you need him for some mundane task like saying Mass for the elderly incapacitated on a Saturday afternoon. Father Joseph Pritchard was like that. He must, like all of us, answer to other people he knew before God; but for the parishioners of St. Nicholas, he was nothing but good.
Stephanie Muñoz
Los Altos Hills
