LASD abandoning neighborhood schools?

We are residents of Monroe Park, Palo Alto, a neighborhood in the Los Altos School District north of El Camino Real, and parents of two children at Bullis Charter School.

After attending Area Attendance Advisory Committee and school board meetings on the resetting of LASD area attendance boundaries for 2008, we are struck by the gross failure of the school board to serve children’s interests across the district.

We are dismayed that children residing in neighborhoods north of El Camino Real have been identified as the means for filling Covington School and the planned reopened Bullis-Purissima School, despite their lack of proximity to these schools.

The district’s guiding principles have been corrupted by their abandonment of neighborhood schools.

Fair service to all children in the district mandates alternative solutions. Equal treatment across socioeconomic and geographic lines should be a priority.

More equitable school boundaries are needed to serve all the children of LASD and to avoid marginalizing those neighborhoods outside the city limits of Los Altos.

Deirdre Crommie, Ph.D.

Randall Stafford, M.D., Ph.D.

Palo Alto

Challenges, solutions to boundary debate

As Los Altos School District wrestles with new boundary lines, I’d like to suggest that there are two distinct challenges. (1) Significant growth in the north is leading to schools larger than LASD desires, and (2) fewer children live near Bullis than are desired to create a viable neighborhood school.

While a cursory view suggests one issue can solve the other, the distance, neighborhood impact,and equity issues require each to be examined independently.

In the north, the answer should not force families to drive across town to fill Bullis and Covington, or draw unnatural boundary lines.

I suggest the board examine alternative solutions, including: (1) adjust school size policy to include several large schools, 2) move sixth grade to middle school, or 3) for the long term, evaluate options to open another northern school.

At the Bullis site, the community continues to support a neighborhood school when viable. With the current small child population, the question is, How do we create a viable neighborhood school there?

I firmly believe the answer is for LASD and Bullis Charter School to reach a compromise where: LASD recharters BCS to become a neighborhood school in Los Altos Hills. BCS relocates to the renovated Bullis site, and additional capacity at Bullis is made available for district growth.

Though compromise is difficult, it’s in the best interest of our community and children.

Amy Gaffney

Los Altos

Identify source for global warming

Regarding Amy Wright’s letter published May 16: I would like to ask Ms. Wright to identify the source for her claim that global warming is a subject for which “nearly all scientists worldwide are in agreement.”

It’s one thing to throw out such a statement to rebut articles you don’t like, but it’s another to back them up with source material.

My understanding of the subject is that scientists worldwide are far from agreeing that humans are responsible and that global warming is a phenomenon that occurs naturally over millions of years.

Edward Kelley

Los Altos

Bikes: 400 cars not on the road

Last Thursday morning, I volunteered at the Bike to Work Day energizer station at Foothill and Main. In three hours about 400 cyclists came past our station and our counterpart across the street at Foothill and Burke.

I’d like every reader to think about those 400 cars that were not on the road, and to reflect on the many traffic complaints in Los Altos, and our universal hand-wringing over obesity, pollution and global warming.

On May 30, there will be a public meeting in Grant Park to initiate a feasibility study for a bicycle/pedestrian path through Los Altos.

The significance of this meeting is that our city is asking for public input right at the start of this major project. Our segment will link the Mountain View and Cupertino portions of Stevens Creek Trail that will reach our borders soon.

While the Los Altos portion cannot follow our section of the Creek due to private property, our city can participate in this regional asset by creating an enviable bike route alternative. Details about the meeting are on the city of Los Altos Web site home page.

At this point, Los Altos is seriously retro in our lag behind other cities in California, other states and even other countries in accommodating nonmotorized transportation.

The way I see it, we can change that, or we can whine about too many SUVs on the road and continue doing nothing.

Randy Rhody

Los Altos