By Eliza Ridgeway

The Santa Clara County Office of Education’s committee on redistricting, set to evaluate Los Altos Hills’ bid for an independent school system, will consider the town’s resolution in August, county Superintendent Colleen Wilcox has decided.

The town resolution asked the committee to create a redistricting plan. At the August hearing, the committee will decide whether to do so, according to Larry Slonaker, spokesman for the office of education. If the idea is rejected, Los Altos Hills would have to approach redistricting through a town-wide petition. The hearing, for which a date has not been set, will be open to the public.

In a letter to the county committee, Wilcox described five steps that the redistricting plan must take before coming to a public vote, and estimated that the process would take 1.5-4 years. It has not been determined whether Hills residents would be the only voters eligible for a redistricting election.

Los Altos Hills’ redistricting plan calls for formation of a K-8 school district in Los Altos Hills and for preservation of existing high school attendance boundaries. If the town separates from the Los Altos School District, it will gain control of the Bullis-Purissima school site and of property tax schools funding.

The county redistricting committee has 11 members representing the county’s five districts. The only member from one of the districts affected by Los Altos Hills’ proposal is Phil Faillace, who is also a board member of the Mountain View-Los Altos Union High School District.

The redistricting saga began three years ago, when LASD closed Bullis-Purissima Elementary School, the last public school in the Hills. Irate residents formed Bullis Charter School, a public school independent of LASD, and some called for the town to form its own district.