By Eliza Ridgeway

Los Altos Hills resident Mark Brier read excerpts from e-mails written by Los Altos School District board members that appeared to contradict the district’s public statements.

He read passages, acquired through a public records request, describing redistricting as “not totally devastating (to the district),” and asking, “what other strategy will help Bullis Charter School go away?”

Brier’s comments were among several that underscored some residents’ distrust with the school district, aired at a Nov. 15 city council meeting. The meeting was held to answer residents’ questions regarding a council-led effort to form an independent school district. The county’s Committee on School District Organization is scheduled to consider the town’s redistricting bid Dec. 7.

The town’s redistricting effort, and formation of Bullis Charter School ultimately sprang from the district’s 2003 decision to close Bullis-Purissima School.

Brier considered the e-mail statements he read indicative of a negative attitude on the part of the public agency.

“The county or state (committees) will be interested if we could prove (the district’s) malice towards the Hills,” Brier said.

LASD board member Mark Goines dismissed the notion that the comments were relevant to the redistricting process.

“Out-of-context e-mails are irrelevant to (the county’s) process,” Goines said. “It’s important to be comfortable that you can communicate openly your feelings and opinions when it’s appropriate,”

The exchanges addressed Goines’ and board member David Pefley’s negotiations with the town and district last spring.

In one e-mail, Goines wrote, “LAH is split between two different school districts;

therefore they have no school because neither district pays enough attention to them. (I respect that concern).”

In another, he wrote, “We have over 100 children in substandard facilities today at Bullis.”

By California law, all communications among district representatives regarding a public subject should be available via a public records request.

E-mail record-keeping varies across local agencies. LASD used a technician to retrieve e-mails on its server, but this exempted communications sent to board members’ private e-mails.

LASD board members have not released redistricting correspondence from their private accounts.

The Los Altos Hills City Council, which uses only private accounts, relies on individual councilmembers to release relevant e-mails.

The Los Altos council has used official accounts for several years, City Clerk Susan Kitchens said, but relies on councilmembers individually to report and release their e-mails when requested.