Forget redistricting, reopen Bullis

As a new resident of Los Altos Hills, I am quite dismayed at the ongoing struggle between the Los Altos School District and the Bullis School supporters.

I can truly see and sympathize with both sides, but I think it is time to resolve this issue once and for all so we can heal the wounds and get on with our lives.

After meeting my new neighbors and listening to their concerns, I have come to believe that the best and simplest solution is to return the Bullis students to the original location. I now understand what I did not know before, that Bullis School was the heart of the Hills in some ways - a community center for all to gather and meet, whether or not you had children in the school. We have no other place to do this. We are a community without a heart, as it were, and we need to be be healed and made whole once again. I truly feel that redistricting is the wrong answer. Let’s keep Los Altos Hills kids part of the wonderful greater Los Altos community where they belong.

Katharine Lang

Los Altos Hills

More good than bad at Los Altos High

Barrett S. McGrath says in his April 5 letter that there is a “growing extreme left-wing element that has infiltrated Los Altos High School.”

Despite this, the June 8, 2005 Los Altos High newspaper, The Talon, reported that in the class of 2005, 15 were headed for UC Berkeley, 13 to UCLA, 10 to UC Santa Barbara, 14 to UC Davis, 9 to UC San Diego, and six to Stanford. Some were going east to Harvard, Brown, Wellesley, Cornell, Syracuse, University of Michigan, Purdue, Vanderbilt, Duke, University of Pennsylvania, Vassar, Bucknell and George Washington University.

The vision of Los Altos High School discusses working together in the “spirit of unity and mutual respect” and being “committed to the process of continuous learning and the application of knowledge.” It goes on: “We value the diversity of our paths while promoting a community in which members have an equal opportunity to excel as people and learners.”

Is everything perfect at Los Altos High? Of course not. However, I think there is more good than bad.

I think that the experiences that my children have gotten at Los Altos High have helped develop them into people who I like, respect and admire. And although I like the pet parade, I value their experience at Los Altos High more.

Cheryl Weiden

Los Altos

Thanks from the flower lady

Although I am not a resident of Los Altos, I feel as though my heart and my devotion qualifies me to write this letter to thank the residents and merchants of this wonderful town that I have had the privilege of working in for the last 20 years.

As a maintenance worker for the city, I have worked in almost every section of the city these many years, but have been known mostly for the work I did in the downtown area for 11 of those years, affectionately known as “The Flower Lady of Los Altos” - a title I was and still am very proud of.

I appreciated the smiles of people driving by the long Flower Island, or people stopping to ask a questions about the different plantings in the intersections, and many people looking forward to the next spring or fall change.

So, thank you for making my career one that leaves me with many great and cherished memories.

Carol McKee

City of Los Altos

Supports gay pride position

Three cheers for Susan Grinstead (Letters, April 26). I support her position on “gay pride” proclamations and parades. I have become increasingly concerned about the use of our tiny streets by various groups to trumpet their own controversial causes. gay pride, pro life and choice and peace have been recent issues.

As a veteran of the fight over the family life education of the late 1960s and early 1970s. I am well aware of many of the techniques used to effect attitude change. The public school educational monopoly is an easy target for the agents of change. Name- calling is a way to discredit those who disagree with the promoted product. Now we have Los Altos citizens calling fellow citizens bigots. A newspaper editorial advises Los Altos to apologize while labeling our city council members as from the Stone Age.

This Stone Age doctor has some advice for the really uninformed. Beware of the name callers. Beware of anyone who thinks they have all the answers and the right to force them on everyone else.

Florence M. Lewis

Los Altos