By Sara Ballenger
A clerical error is to blame for the delay on the decision by the Los Altos School District as to which version of its Citizen’s Advisory Committee’s financial plans to put in place, which in turn decides the configuration of the district’s campuses for the 2003-04 school year.
Under the Brown Act, a law that requires public access to meetings, “no action or discussion shall be undertaken on any item not appearing on the posted agenda.”
The board meeting agenda listed the item as an information item. Since it was not listed as an action item, by law the board could not take action or vote last Monday.
The board members did indicate, however, how they might vote on the issue Dec. 9. Of the scenarios presented by the committee, board members seemed partial to Scenario D.
Under this plan, the district would operate six elementary schools and two junior high schools, without the extra revenue from renting the vacant seventh campus. The district would accelerate its construction and proceed with plans to renovate Santa Rita, Oak Avenue and Loyola schools. The schools would move to Covington, Blach and Egan camp schools for the 2004-05 school year.
The district would have to cut $150,000 from its budget begining with the 2003-04 school year to remain financially solvent for the next six years to maintain the 3 percent reserve required by law, said Randy Kenyon, assistant superintendent of business services. The six-year plan under scenario D did not include the opening of a seventh school within that time frame.
Also not included in Scenario D, is the six percent budget reserve recommended by the CACF.
“The CACF felt we needed to look at reserves above 3 percent until we understand Basic Aid better, and realilzed that the problems with state funding are byond our control,” said Dick Hasenpflug, chairman of the CACF. “So something that goes on with a three percent reserve the CACF feels is a problem.”
The Citizens Advisory Committee is composed of community members and leaders, and has been working with the district to develop a 6-year financial plan using the 2001-02 educational program as its baseline.
“I think its neccesarry to go forward with the construction of schools using the assests we have,” said CACF member Amy Gaffney. “If there is any financial way to delay closing any of the schools, do it.:”
The CACF also saw the rental of the unsused campus in affect as a school closure, since a rental consultant for the CACF stated, in order for the leasing of a campus to be worth it for the renter, the lease would have to be for a minimum of 20 years.
Questions also arose regarding Bullis-Purrissima School, the only school that would not be renovated under Scenario D. John Radford, a Bullis parent asked the board that since Bullis would be the last school renovated,it would be the school that closes in the future.
“Clearly we can’t open a sevent school,”Radford said. ” Before we made any decisions as to what schools to improve, if we we think we might close Bullis we need to be upfront with the parents and the school and tell them “hey we are thinking of closing Bullis,’” he said.
It is not yet clear if the district will in fact have to close a school in the future, or which school that may be.
“There are certainly a lot of variables that will take place as we move forward in the future,” said board member Jay Thomas. “We always want to keep the option to have a seventh school. We can’t comit to a long term lease on any of the schools. There has to be a lot of discussion on how to move forward with six schools. There is likely to be something that makes someone upset or a decision that somone isn’t going to like.”
Board member Victor Reid III, siad that what the board needs to be looking at is a one year plan for the 2003-04 school year.
“Because we wonder about how state funding will go, for the moment with the information we have we should make decisions on an annual basis with a good long range game plan,” Reid said. “The state is looking at being $22 billion in the hole next year. I think we need to have some flexibility and deal with what we have at the moment.”
The district is looking for feedback from the community. Send letters to the District Office, 201 Covington Road, Los Altos, CA 94024 or send e-mail to
The Dec. 9 board meeting is scheduled 7 p.m., at Blach Camp School, Room 9, 1120 Covington Road. For more information, call 947-1150.
