Bullis flip-flop

Joan Mellea

I am thrilled that the Los Altos School District has finally come around and acknowledged that offering “school choice” is important to our community. LASD families will be tremendously fortunate to have three great choices: their neighborhood school, the Bullis Charter School and eventually a magnet school offered by the district.

It is wonderful that LASD must have found the money to renovate the old Bullis site to house the magnet school, but I wonder whether phase 2 of the district’s building plans for our existing schools will again be further delayed in exchange.

It’s also fabulous that there must be money to develop a new “technology” program, as well as money for a new library, librarian and custodian, not to mention an entire new teaching staff and an additional principal.

Last year’s LASD budget required $1.5 million in cuts, which deeply hurt our existing libraries and custodial staffs as well as enrichment areas that seem to have been cut yearly. Will our existing schools be made whole again or are these budget cuts being used to fund the magnet school?

I am thrilled that the district is committed to lowering the number of students at our largest schools. But they can easily solve that problem - this year LASD admitted 129 out-of-district students; without these students, our schools would fit well within the targets LASD adopted when they first closed Bullis.

Why fund-raising for school board?

Gerri Carlton

I found it very disturbing to read of Tammy Logan’s withdrawal from the upcoming Los Altos School Board election because of her lack of time to raise funds. Historically in Los Altos, this election has been considered a service to the community, not a steppingstone to further political ambitions. Yes, I know John Moss and Dave Casas are former school board members, but they are the exceptions.

In 1989, when I first ran for a seat on the school board, we made a “gentlemen’s agreement” to campaign only by meeting the public as a unit, at PTA meetings, in home meetings, in public meetings and by giving information for the League of Women Voters brochure. Interested voters could compare the answers each of us gave to their questions.

We paid our own filing fees and for the statement in the voter’s guide, which was only a couple hundred dollars. The only other expense we incurred was $15 per candidate for postage/mailings to invite people to our informal home meetings. My next term was uncontested. And for the third election, we again agreed to keep costs to a minimum: no mailings, no signage, again only meeting the public and debating our different positions.

Why has this changed? Why has this public service position become one that requires a budget of $12,000-15,000?

Meeting the public and having a dialogue with the others who are campaigning has served this community well for many years.

Are the students and parents of the Los Altos School district up for sale? I hope not.

Limited use of tennis courts

Noreen Letts

The 12 tennis courts at Los Altos High School and the surrounding fencing have recently been entirely renovated. Now that the work is completed, the school administration has decided that only four of these courts will be open to the general public at any one time. he rest, when not in use for school purposes, will be locked.

For many years, these courts have been used by the general public - especially by senior groups early on weekday mornings and by many others on the weekends. Public courts in Los Altos are very limited.

The city maintenance of them is poor compared to other communities such as Palo Alto and Mountain View.

It is continually frustrating for Los Altos taxpayers to be refused funding to improve city courts and now, after those same taxpayers spend millions through Mountain View-Los Altos Union High School District bond issues, they cannot use the facilities they paid for.

The administration apparently is concerned that the courts will be damaged by roller bladers or whoever. We noticed no serious concerns about such damage for the past 20 years.

How interested in the next wave of school bond proposals can Los Altos tennis players be?