By Kathleen Acuff
Bill Cooper was sworn in for his first term and Margot Harrigan for her second term on the board of the Los Altos School District on Dec. 8. Victor Reid is the board’s new president, Jay Thomas is now vice president, and Harrigan is clerk.
Before taking his seat as a regular member, Duane Roberts made his final statement as board president, saying that “the hardest thing a board has to do” is to close a school. Roberts congratulated David Casas on jumping out of the frying pan into the fire as Casas stepped down from the school board to begin his first term on the Los Altos City Council. Casas would have been the board’s new president; as it is, he is the new mayor pro tem.
Kenyon presents first interim financial report
District expenses are up about $1.4 million over last year, but revenue is up about $2.9 million and the district is operating programs at more or less the same levels as last year, according to Randall Kenyon’s first interim financial report. Kenyon is the district’s assistant superintendent for business services.
Among the positive impacts on the district’s budget for the current school year is the revenue from parcel taxes; Kenyon estimated an increase of $4 million over last year. The report projects $1.2 million in revenue from the Los Altos Educational Foundation and $112 per student from the state lottery. State aid is down, and decreasing interdistrict enrollment and property tax revenues “should push us into basic aid status,” Kenyon said.
Other negative financial impacts are the climbing costs of health insurance and energy, and the “almost total depletion” of funds for furnishings, equipment, portables and upkeep of grounds. Establishment of the charter school will subtract an unknown amount from the district’s budget.
Superintendent Marge Gratiot emphasized that the district deliberately decreased interdistrict transfers with an eye toward qualifying for basic aid status. “We’re not going to be throwing out the welcome mat in the future,” she said.
Kenyon said that the district probably will know in August whether it has qualified for basic aid next year, or, which is unlikely, this year. Kenyon projected that the district could receive $800,000 from basic aid next year. Several board members, however, said that they do not expect the district to qualify for basic aid status - or to receive much benefit if it does.
The state-required first interim financial report for the current school year was conservative. Kenyon believes that finances for the next school year “will be a little worse than what we projected a few years ago.”
Dick Hasenpflug, who attended the meeting, told the group that the Citizens Advisory Committee on Finance will reconvene in January to consider the district budget for the next few years.
Board considers school calendar changes
The board discussed the possibility of aligning the elementary school calendar with the high school calendar if the high school district decides to adopt the revision now before its board. The Mountain View-Los Altos Union High School District most likely will decide Jan. 12 to begin its next school year Aug. 16; close the first semester before, instead of after, the December break; begin the second semester Jan. 5; and end the year June 3. The elementary district’s possible calendar changes will be on the agenda as an action/information item for the first district board meeting in January.
Most board members, some parents in the audience, and the Los Altos Teachers Association are against changing the elementary school calendar. Gratiot’s report to the board stated that the administrative council of school principals prefers the current Aug. 23 starting date, as well.
Board president Reid pointed out that practice for high school sports and band always starts two weeks before school. “So I think (the high school district will) be adjusting it again when they realize they have no August vacation,” he said.
Debbie Torok, co-president of the Blach PTA, told the board that families with children in both elementary school and high school will lose a week of vacation in June and another in August if the high school district adopts the changes it is considering for next year.
Amid the discussion of family vacations, Amanda Terry, head of the teachers group, said that teachers prefer that children miss the end rather than the beginning of school.
