By Eliza Ridgeway

The ball is in the Los Altos School District’s court in the final weeks before Los Altos Hills’ school redistricting deadline June 8.

The Los Altos Hills City Council has said it will petition the county for a new, independent school district if negotiations among the town, Bullis Charter School and local school districts reach an impasse. Bullis, the town and the Palo Alto Unified and Mountain View-Los Altos Union High School districts

are expected to consent to a

term sheet developed by negotiators.

But the response from the Los Altos School District (LASD), which stands to undergo the most changes if the term sheet is approved, is uncertain. The school board must hear from the public and deliberate before voting on an agreement with the town and charter. The Los Altos Hills council set June 8 as the deadline to hear back from the district.

At a joint meeting of the Los Altos and Los Altos Hills city councils May 8, the LAH council urged Los Altos councilmembers to publicly declare support for the ongoing negotiations, in order to “stiffen the backs” of the district. The Los Altos council did nothing.

“There needs to be some concrete action taken by LASD before our meeting June 8,” said Los Altos Hills Mayor Breene Kerr.

The district board meets twice more before that date and anticipates a report from the Citizen’s Advisory Committee for Finance on June 5.

The committee’s preliminary report stirred public interest with a lower-than-expected estimate of district financial losses if redistricting occurred - $683,000 the first year.