By Kathleen Acuff

Slater Elementary School at 325 Gladys Ave., Mountain View, is the site of the Mountain View-Whisman School District’s parent-participation program, PACT. English is the second language for about 30 percent of the school’s students.

The five trustees of the Mountain View-Whisman School District, after an exhaustive and exhausting review of their options March 22, unanimously agreed to close Slater Elementary School at the end of the next school year.

Trustees reached their decision through a two-part process, voting unanimously by voice and raised hand for each in the public meeting. First, they voted to postpone closing any school at all until 2006-2007, then they stated reasons for their choice of one of three closure proposals they had publicly discussed at length.

“That we voted to delay school closure allows me to accept Proposal 3. We have a long way to go to rebuild credibility - that goes for the board as well as the district,” said Trustee Gloria Higgins.

Her remarks followed Trustee Rosemary Roquero’s tearful apology to the Slater community as she, too, told the assembly that she favored closing Slater and opening a magnet school at Castro.

Ten children in the Los Altos School District attend Mountain View-Whisman schools.

One is enrolled in the dual-immersion language program at Castro Elementary, the other school considered for closure; three are in the PACT program at Slater; two are in the home-schooling program (not offered by LASD); two are in special education classes and two are in child care. Thirty-four children who live in the MVW district attend LASD schools.