By Traci Newell

Officials estimated that the Los Altos School District could lose up to $3.5 million and the Mountain View-Los Altos Union High School District $3.7 million as negotiations began last week with the Los Altos Hills City Council on its plan to seek its own K-8 district to bring a public school back to the town.

LASD Superintendent Tim Justus said a new Hills district would necessitate program reductions and cuts, and trustee David Williams predicted a loss of 10 percent of the high school district budget.

“It is not something we are going to sit back and let happen,” Williams said. Justus said he is optimistic that something can be worked out to satisfy Hills concerns.

Representatives from LASD, MVLA, Palo Alto Unified School District and Bullis Charter School met last week with Los Altos Hills Mayor Breene Kerr and Councilman Craig Jones to assess the impact of and alternatives to a new district.

“We’ve been particularly pleased with the cooperative spirit that’s developed,” said Kerr. “It’s fair to say that we’ve gotten people’s attention by a vote on redistricting.”

PAUSD Superintendent Mary Frances Callan would only comment that she is waiting to hear all the facts.

After voting unanimously March 23 to form the new district, the LAH council voted 3-2 to delay the process 30 days to examine other options with the affected schools.

The LAH City Council is scheduled to meet with representatives from the districts and Bullis at 1:30 p.m. today in council chambers. The meeting is closed, but an announcement will be made at its 4 p.m. conclusion.

Kerr said Los Altos Hills has three demands he believes the districts can meet: first, better treatment of the town and Bullis Charter School, including more money and a site more suitable than the portables the school occupies; second, establishment of a public school in Los Altos Hills with preference given to Hills students; and third, making sure decisions that come from the negotiations are permanent.

“I can’t imagine how they could, in one month, make up for what’s been done in the past,” said Nancy Kelem, member of the Hills public education committee that pushed for the new district. “But I would love to be surprised.”

The disputed closure of Bullis-Purissima Elementary School by the Los Altos School District in 2003 and the strained relationship between Bullis Charter School and LASD, marked by a series of lawsuits, are cited by Hills residents as the two primary causes of conflict between town and district.

Marlin Miller, spokesman for Bullis Charter School, said the charter school is seeking two things from the negotiations.

“We want to find a permanent home for our school in the Hills,” he said. He added that the school also wants to be able to accommodate as many students from Los Altos Hills as possible.

Justus said that in addition to losing 300 to 400 students, LASD would also sacrifice part of its parcel-tax revenue.

Even if drastic cuts had to be made, he said, “I’m really not worried, because I think in the long run the district would reorganize and still be one of the top districts in the state of California.” In that case, he added, balancing the budget and adjusting the number of personnel would be priorities.

Williams said that if the proposal went forward, MVLA would lose 181 students and about 10 percent of the district’s budget.

“It would change our district dramatically,” Williams said.

The Los Altos Hills’ public education committee cited complications in state law as its reason for recommending that a Hills district send all its students to Gunn High School in Palo Alto. Los Altos Hills teens now attend high schools in both MVLA and PAUSD.

“It was a surprise that they chose to include PAUSD and not MVLA,” said Julia Rosenberg, president of the MVLA board of trustees, “because I think we do a good job of serving Los Altos Hills students.”

Noreen Likins, Gunn principal, said that taking all of the Hills students “would put pressure on us and our resources, but I think this is a long way from happening.”

If the proposal is successful, Justus said, PAUSD might have to redraw the lines within its district to shift high school enrollment away from Gunn.

Callan said K-8 districts normally feed their students into a high school district rather than a unified district. If the Hills district wanted to feed into the PAUSD, additional steps beyond the initial redistricting proposal would have to be taken, she said.

Justus said it could take 18 months to six years for the proposal to wend its way through county and state bodies and then to voters. He feels the proposal would take more time because the redistricting affects such a large group of people.

Porter Sexton, executive director of the Center for Educational Planning at the Santa Clara Office of Education, said it is the responsibility of the county board of education to determine the boundaries of the area that would vote on redistricting.