Spend parade funds to rehab orchard
It is outrageous for the Los Altos City Council to spend $8,000 of taxpayers’ monies for a parade to promote a homosexual agenda. That money is better spent sprucing up downtown or tending to the apricot orchard on San Antonio Road. Looking abandoned and desolate, the orchard could use help. Imagine the tree trunks whitewashed, the weeds removed from each trunk, the deadwood cut from the limbs and the ground cultivated.
I grew up on my parents’ apricot orchard. Among the hundreds of acres to which I have been exposed in my life, never have I seen an orchard look as sadly distressed as the one on San Antonio Road.
Spending public money must always be done for the benefit of the majority of constituents. Using these funds to clean downtown or to restore this orchard would draw public applause for the council.
Lil Beltramo
Los Altos
Parade celebrates a happy hometown refuge
I want to thank the sponsors of the Gay/Straight Alliance parade for providing such a wonderful afternoon for my husband, three children and myself. It was a joyous and friendly occasion at the crossroads of State and Main streets Sunday afternoon. Being alumni of Mountain View and Los Altos high schools, we take great comfort in knowing that we have returned to the right community to raise our children: one celebrating tolerance and diversity. Los Altos has always been a beautiful place; happily, we have surpassed that superficial beauty, for it is clear our hometown is a happy refuge for all people. And that is truly a beautiful thing.
Beth Wang
Los Altos
What about the rest of the district?
Los Altos Hills Mayor Breene Kerr’s and Councilmember Craig Jones’ statements in your article (June 7) concerning Los Altos Hills redistricting are insulting to the innumerable hours of complex analysis done by the members of the LASD Citizen’s Advisory Committee on Finance, trustees and staff.
The use of the Bullis facility and selection of a permanent location for the charter school have implications for the entire district. Would Kerr and Jones have the trustees commit to a plan conceived without public oversight which could result in enrollment of up to 650 children at other district schools? Should all remaining elementary schools be filled with sufficient portables to house up to 600 children so that LAH and BCS can build a theater and pony barn at Bullis? While these problems may only occur if enrollment growth continues at the pace of the last few years, the LASD trustees would rightfully face the wrath of the remaining district families if they did not have a contingency plan for these cases. Estimating future enrollment, budgets and facilities needs is not a 30- or 45-day project.
LASD has already expressed a commitment to finish Phase I construction at Bullis and to reopening an elementary school there, yet the LAH council persists in pursuing a one-sided “term sheet” as an “emergency” solution that yields nothing to the rest of the district children. Perhaps if the true goal were to bring public education back to all of the Hills as advertised instead of only considering the 100 or so LAH children enrolled at the charter, a real compromise would be possible.
Tamara Logan
Los Altos
Update on plans at Hidden Villa
I would like to update you on some recent changes we have made as a board and to share with you some future plans for Hidden Villa.
Hidden Villa ended last year with a budget deficit - a planned deficit, but a deficit nevertheless. We have been blessed with a strong base of supporters. However, symptoms of an improved economy have been offset by two years of natural disasters (tsunami, Katrina) which have made fund raising for non-profits extremely difficult.
Last September we began a strategic planning process. Over this year we have examined and assessed all of our programs and goals. To avoid further use of our reserves, in March the Board of Directors asked the executive and associate director to prepare a balanced budget for fiscal year 2007. As a result, we have made some program and budget changes.
Next year, Hidden Villa’s expense budget will reflect a $350,000 reduction. This was a difficult decision, because 80 percent of our budget is in personnel costs, and there is little other place to trim in our already lean organization. The cuts will affect eight positions; half of the staff members affected have the option to remain with the us in another position.
The biggest programmatic change will be the reduction of camp activities to 70 percent of present capacity. In FY-’07 we will continue to host day camp and four weeks of junior residence camp while we put our 12-day residential camps on hold.
This will allow us adequate time to invest in planning year-round youth programs. It will also allow us to keep Hidden Villa open and accessible to the public for most of the summer months.
We are continuing our effort to build strategic partnerships with schools and provide more in-depth environmental science education programs.
Friends in the community have sustained Hidden Villa through their time and talents. I assure you that we will continue to deliver relevant, quality programs to the community.
Tom Livermore
President, Board of Directors
Hidden Villa
