By Sara Ballenger

The Los Altos School District’s Board of Trustees will be asking voters again for a $333 increase in the current parcel tax of $264 per parcel per year, in the general election Nov. 5. If the parcel tax doesn’t pass, the district will be looking at closing schools. Even if it does pass, the district is not opening a seventh elementary school.

While the increase is the same amount which failed to pass in a special election April 9, it is not enough to allow the district to open a seventh school.

“The board looked at the amount of parcel tax increase needed to maintain our academic program. It was clear that if the parcel tax increase is set at the amount that the community will support, a seventh elementary school will be something that we cannot afford without making unacceptable cuts to the program,” Superintendent Marge Gratiot said.

“Nothing will be changed during the current school year. Covington will continue to be used as a camp school for Springer students while Springer is being renovated, and Almond students will be at “Camp Egan” while Almond is being renovated.”

The decision has yet to be made as to which school will be moved to the Covington site. The vacated school will be rented. The district has until the 2003-04 school year to decide.

“Making a decision about which school site would not be used for district students, and looking at school boundaries that make sense and balance school size, will be issues that will involve looking at demographic-data, traffic impacts, distances students would have to travel to school, and family preferences,” Gratiot said.

With a seventh elementary school, the average school size is 430 students. Keeping the district’s current six elementary schools, average school size is 500 students, Gratiot added.

Voters within the school district boundaries, which includes most of Los Altos and Los Altos Hills and parts of Mountain View and Palo Alto will be able to vote on the parcel tax. A parcel is most commonly defined as the lot on which a house is built. .About 21 percent of the district’s population have children in the schools. The district currently serves 4,000 students.

If voters pass the increase, the district will earn revenue, which is why the amount of the tax is important. At the same time, the amount of the tax needed to be something voters could approve by a two-thirds majority.

Keep Los Altos Schools Strong, the district’s campaign organization commissioned a a phone survey of voter opinion, which recommended the $333 increase.

“District voters clearly exhibit price sensitivity: support falls sharply when we ask about a tax hike of $450,” said the survey by Goodwin Simon Strategic Research and Terris & Barnes.

The amount of the increase wasn’t the only thing surveyed. The poll also asked voters how they wanted to see the funds from the parcel tax used in the district. If the parcel tax passes, the district will earn approximately $4 million in revenue, according to Randy Kenyon, assistant superintendent of business services.

The poll shows the most important to district voters are school libraries, science labs, and well-paid teachers.

When the parcel tax failed last April, the district faced a $4.5 million deficit.

It was able to restore $2.6 million through fund-raising, but still had to make cuts. School board members laid off 110 of the district’s 206 classified employees, or the equivalent of 41 full-time employees, June 17.

“The pressing question on voters minds are how new money will be spent and whether the need is genuine,” the poll reported.

“Voters will appreciate a focused discussion on the parcel tax and how these new funds would protect programs and personnel which directly impact the quality of student learning,” according to the poll.