By Kathleen Acuff
The Los Altos Hills Public Education Committee continues to work toward a public school in the Hills.
PEC has decided to narrow its options from the current 10 to four that fit the criteria of a publicly supported, financially sound neighborhood school that provides an excellent education.
The committee plans to present its options at neighborhood meetings, then survey the neighborhoods to find out how interested they are in the project.
“We want a neighborhood school at least as good as Palo Alto’s and maybe Los Altos’,” said Duncan MacMillan in the committee’s Nov. 18 meeting.
“How do you define a neighborhood school?” asked Peggy Rutner.
“Bullis!” replied committee chairman Steve Hubbell to general laughter.
Saying “school areas define communities,” Nancy Kelem, with the help of Roger Burnell, defined “neighborhood school” as “reasonably accessible to as many residences as possible” and “centrally located within town limits.”
Hubbell had asked the Palo Alto Unified School District for the school name, grade level and home address of each Los Altos Hills student enrolled in that district. PAUSD declined to provide that information, citing privacy concerns, but did divulge that 418 Los Altos Hills students attend PAUSD elementary, middle and high schools.
According to Palo Alto district staff, 139 Hills children attend PAUSD elementary schools, and almost 70 percent of those students attend Nixon. Ninety-seven middle school students and 182 high school students round out the total.
Hubbell also reported that tax revenues in the Hills and its sphere of influence appear to equal about $11,000 per student, although he is still trying to confirm that number. MacMillan urged the committee to share this data with the Los Altos School District.
“They might think it is not so ridiculous to open up a public school up here,” he said.
Kathy Evans having reported that the state’s guidelines say that redistricting takes about three years to accomplish, MacMillan wondered aloud whether Palo Alto would be “willing to open neighborhood schools in the Hills when they become aware of the numbers?”
Evans and MacMillan will send the committee’s preliminary findings to the Los Altos, Palo Alto and Mountain View school districts.
More than a touch of the “Don’t Tread on Me” spirit inspires the committee’s efforts. As members discussed criteria, Hubbell remarked, “There’s ’self-determination,’ which was popular around 1776.”
Kelem added, “LASD is depriving students of community feeling.”
Hubbell replied, “We wouldn’t be having this discussion if Bullis was still a community school. … We pay all this money and get nothing for it. … We get kids educated the way someone else wants them educated.”
Among the 11 members of PEC are several persons who are also working to establish Bullis Charter School. Stacey Ahrens serves on the BCS board of directors. Kelem, John Swan and Evans, whose husband, Peter Evans, is chairman of the BCS site task force, are on the charter school’s list of supporting families. Jill Jensen, at whose home the meeting was held, is on the charter school’s list of community supporters. The other members of PEC are Burnell, Edward Emling, Hubbell, MacMillan, Rutner and Debra Vallner. Breene Kerr is the town council’s liaison to the committee.
As the meeting was closing, Burnell said of having it in a private home in the Hills, “I notice it discards people from other communities that we didn’t expect.” Several committee members then suggested holding future meetings in members’ homes.
