HomeMy WebLinkAboutSeptember 1Minutes Los Altos Hills Education Committee
September 1, 2010
1. Meeting was called to order at 6:30PM by Chairman Carey. Present were committee members
Jennifer Carlstrom, Eric Ramberg, Irena Halsey, Christine Murad, Lee Hartley, Duncan
MacMillan, John Radford, Tracey Stewart, and Bart Carey.
2. Meeting minutes draft from July 16, 2010 were adopted unanimously.
3. The LASD parcel tax was discussed. Currently it is still in limbo with an anticipated ballot date in
March of 2011. The LASD board has yet to call an election to finalize which ballot and what
amount it will be aiming for. Jennifer Carlstrom shared that the LASD board is planning some
type of strategic plan, since the parcel tax will not solve the long term financial problems.
Potential long term financial solutions the board has mentioned in the past are closing schools,
moving 6th grade to middle schools, and redeveloping downtown via plans such as Los Altos
2025.
4. Jennifer Carlstrom agreed to follow up with Bart Carey regarding requesting 11th day enrollment
data from the various school districts serving LAH students for the 2010-2011 academic year.
5. Bart Carey shared that Karen Jost had forwarded the 2009-2010 enrollment data and cover
letter to the Superintendents of the various school districts serving LAH students.
6. There were no new updates regarding the Miranda drop-off location for Gunn High School.
7. John Radford suggested that we meet with the new LASD superintendent, Jeff Baier. It was
suggested that at least 2 members of the committee meet with him; possibly Bart Carey and
John Radford.
8. Tracey Stewart requested volunteers to attend the upcoming school board meetings and report
back to the committee. She will follow up with the committee via email.
9. As part of new business, there was discussion of whether or not our committee is effective and
what political power we can actually wield. It was suggested that if the Ed committee cannot
influence the local school boards that we need to involve the LAH town council and re-
emphasize the amount of dollars per student LAH provides to each district. Because our town
constituents contribute such a large amount of money to the districts we have a vested interest
in their fiscal management and financial decisions that impact our students.
10. Additionally, it was discussed that the Ed committee propose a consent item to the LAH town
council to have a LAH town council liaison attend meetings with school district officials in the
future.
11. John Radford proposed conducting a town survey about private school attendance, since any
future discussions of our own school district with the county will need to have better accounting
of non current public school attendees. Jennifer Carlstrom suggested that we could use LAH
Families data extrapolation of a first guesstimate. Irina Halsey shared that she had created a first
pass at a private, public and parochial school database with contact numbers as an emergency
list for the local sheriff to use in a disaster. It was also suggested that through our own
networking could ask local parents at each school on Irina’s list to do a directory count as
another estimating method.
12. Lastly, traffic issues near our schools were discussed as the final item of new business.
Committee members discussed suggesting that the corner of Fremont and Ararstradero be a
four way stop to help alleviate safety concerns for students walking and/or biking to/from Gunn
High School. It was pointed out that technically this corner may be under the jurisdiction of Palo
Alto, so LAH may not have any control of this situation. Parking and traffic concerns near
Gardner Bullis were also discussed. Susan Stark raised the issue of frequent ticketing occurring
along Fremont and Fremont Pines. The school administrators had a meeting scheduled with Carl
Cahill to follow up on these issues.
13. With no old business, the meeting was adjourned.