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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMarch 12FINAL  –  approved  5/14/14   Los Altos Hills Education Committee Meeting Regular Meeting March 12, 2014 1. Meeting was called to order at 7:12 pm by the Chair, Ms. Rose. Present were committee members Jennifer Carlstrom, Duncan MacMillan, Heather Rose, Kristin Russel and Karen Schuster. John Harpootlian was present as the council liaison. 2. Kristin moved to approve the 2-12-14 minutes as corrected by Duncan MacMillan. Seconded by Duncan. Motion Carries unanimously. 3. School District Updates: LASD/BCS Facilities: What is the LASD in-district student enrollment at BCS? The Mid October enrollment report is due at the state level. The state does not confirm resident attendance within the school district only that the students are a resident of the state. An audit of the numbers submitted is not done. The school district is burdened with verifying city or district enrollment. A court order would be required if LASD wanted an audit of BCS; and, LASD has been granted the court order. Given the dispute between LASD & BCS over the number of in-district students for the facilities request, there is no way to confirm BCS’s number without BCS providing the address data. BCS provides an estimate based on their current data, but LASD uses a different estimate based on historical data. The March 1st response was that BCS disagrees with LASD’s estimate -- it is too low. April 1st is the final offer for next year. PAUSD & Safe Routes: Construction on Oregon Expressway by Santa Clara County VTA expected to improve safety of students walking and biking to local schools. Partial payment by the City of Palo Alto on this $4M project helped make it happen. This relates to future plans for changes to Foothill Expressway which LAH residents cross. Gunn Construction: There are concerns regarding the Miranda FINAL  –  approved  5/14/14   Entrance to Gunn. Construction delays continue. To address these concerns would include a lot of coordination for different cities and counties to manage retiming of lights. At Gunn High School there will be 400 linear feet for drop-off and pick-up at the new Miranda entrance PAUSD has identified a search firm for a new superintendent to replace Kevin Skelly. PAUSD put on hold adding another elementary school as populations not increasing as quickly as predicted. Proposed area was Garland or Cubberley. PAUSD & Bullying: Bullies have been expelled and the parents of the expelled children are protesting with signs outside of Gunn HS. State education code requires protected class of students to have a system in place against bullies and other types harassment. Non-protected students have a slower less efficient process. A review panel determined that PAUSD acted properly in expelling the children who bullied. PAUSD continues to more clearly define the process for addressing bullying. In 2009 Gunn began implementing a bullying lesson plan. Egan: The City Gym and MPR are being used every period during the school day by Egan students. It was reported that the Los Altos Police was called to mediate a car blocking traffic. Blue Ribbon Nominations: Egan, Blach and BCS were all nominated to be Blue Ribbon schools. LASD: Allysa Gallagher who is in charge of innovation at the district level was awarded Multiplier of the Year. Other LASD news, Full Day Kindergarten will be in place next year at all schools. There will be an estimated 40 more children than last year entering Kindergarten. 55 students will be enrolled in transitional Kindergarten. Egan 8th Graders will have the opportunity to take Geometry. The 6th district PTA had a presentation. The topic was Close the Prop 13 loophole. 4. New Business Document Archive: Heather is gathering committee documents on FINAL  –  approved  5/14/14   Google drive with access by all committee members. The public has access to all public documents as well. What is the goal of this committee? Roughly half of LAH tax dollars go the PAUSD, LASD & MVLA school districts. The goal of the committee is to observe the school districts and report back to the council as well as other duties. MVLA board meetings are currently not being attended by a LAHEC rep. Kristin volunteered to begin attending these at the start of 2014-15. PAUSD is attended by Duncan, Jennifer or Heather. The LASD and BCS meetings are covered by Heather. Some BCS meetings are held at the county office of education board meetings. Many of these meetings are also available online. LAH has one public school open within City limits; it is operated by LASD – Gardner Bullis School (K-6). 5. Presentation to council on 3/20/14: Last Committee update was 11/12 and the last Enrollment report was 3/13. Given the committee now has 5 years of enrollment data, Kristin suggested we provide some analysis to council. Duncan will work with Steve on this idea. There being no further business the meeting besides working on the presentation was adjourned at 8:25 pm.