By Kathleen Acuff

Sonny deMarto, president of the Association of California School Administrators, reads the message on the crystal bowl the group presented LASD Superintendent Marge Gratiot, left, at her retirement party last week. The bowl is engraved, “In honor of serving as a model superintendent for 18 years and for representing all California administrators as Superintendent of the Year.”

Marge Gratiot may have begun her career in the Los Altos School District as a kindergarten teacher, but she is ending it as the mentor of the entire district.

So said the more than 300 people gathered to pay tribute to and express their affection for the district’s superintendent of 18 years last Thursday at the Los Altos Golf & Country Club.

When district personnel analyze a situation, they ask themselves, “What would Marge do?” said Arthur Harris at the superintendent’s retirement party last week.

Gratiot “is the mentor to the entire district staff,” said the principal of Blach Intermediate School as he gave her the staff’s gift of a crystal vase inscribed “Guiding, caring, inspiring - Marge, our shining star.”

Before the evening’s program began, Los Altos Mayor David Casas, who was vice president of the school board before his election to the city council, remarked that he learned to look for opportunities to collaborate to make better decisions about community issues while a trustee under Gratiot’s tutelage.

“I attribute my community decision-making to my time on the board and my association with Marge,” he said.

Later, board President Jay Thomas calculated that, as super

Gratiot had attended 250 school board meetings, equal to one full year. He thanked her for “keeping everybody focused on education,” and presented two plaques, one for the exterior and the other for the interior of the district board room. From now on, the room is identified as the Dr. Marge H. Gratiot Board Room. The interior plaque also carries the words “Guiding, caring, inspiring.”

Steve Peck, principal of Santa Rita Elementary School, began the program by recognizing Gratiot’s family at the center table: her husband of 41 years, Bill; her daughters; her son; and red-headed grandchildren Jason and Katherine.

Randy Kenyon, the district’s chief business officer, said of his 18 years of working with Gratiot, “It hasn’t been dull, Marge. You’ve had a storied career.”

He told the room that the superintendent has been “a true mother figure for the district family who put her concern for others above her concern for herself … an innovator, a great problem-solver, and extremely humble.”

He added, “She’s not afraid to fight for what she thinks is right. She took a pretty good district and turned it into the crown jewel of California school districts.”

The longtime superintendent made Los Altos “a destination place,” Kenyon said, because “people come from all over the world to send their children to school here.”

His voice catching, Kenyon spoke directly to Gratiot: “You’re a great leader, a great human being, and I’ll always have a place in my heart for you.”

Board Vice President Victor Reid III read a letter from Santa Clara County Superintendent Colleen Wilcox that said, in part, “by the work one knows the workman … LASD is one of the finest school districts in the state.” The county Office of Education sent Gratiot a large tabletop bronze sculpture of a boy and a girl holding an empty basket and looking up with eager faces.

Representatives of the California Teachers Association presented Gratiot a crystal vase with the inscription “Always a teacher at heart.” State Sen. Joe Simitian and Assemblyman Ira Ruskin sent representatives and proclamations.

Mayor Casas told the throng that he and his family moved to Los Altos for LASD. Gratiot asked him to run for the school board, he said. Turning to the superintendent, he added, “Now look what you did.” He then proclaimed May 12, Dr. Marge Gratiot Day.

A chorus of about 20 district employees followed hard on his heels with “She’s come a long way from kindergarten” to the tune of “It’s a long way to Tipperary.” They traced Gratiot’s 35-year career in clever verses set to catchy tunes.

Judy Hannemann, a trustee of the Mountain View-Los Altos Union High School District, remarked during the party that she was an LASD trustee when Gratiot was hired.

“She’s a great lady,” Hannemann said. That theme and its variations echoed through the evening.