HomeMy WebLinkAboutApril 23Final – approved 5/27/15
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Los Altos Hills Education Committee Meeting
Special Meeting
April 23, 2015
1. Roll Call
Meeting called to order at 7:08 pm.
Attendees: Heather Rose, Jennifer Carlstrom, Kristin Russel
Council Liaison: John Radford
Members of the Public: Duncan MacMillan
2. Minutes
Motion to accept minutes as presented from February & March, 2015.
J. Carlstrom: Moves to accept minutes
K. Russel: seconds the motion
Motion carries unanimously
3. Public Comments
Residents in attendance addressing committee: Duncan MacMillan - see comments in
“Enrollment Report” below.
4. Enrollment Report
From DRAFT Enrollment Report provided by Steve Hubble:
Number of residents attending K-12 public school in 2014-15 is 783 which is down 138
from 921 in 2013-14. The count of 783 does not include LAH enrollments at BCS which
were estimated at 95 last year. IDT’s are at 30, which is the same. Overall, PAUSD is
down 15 students and LASD/MVLA is down 9 students.
The schools with enrollment changes greater than 5 students are:
PAUSD LASD/MVLA - Up LASD/MVLA - Down
Nixon down 12
JLS up 6
Gardner Bullis up 12
Almond up 6
Blach down 14
Loyola down 8
Los Altos HS down 8
Mountain View HS down 6
Discussion on BCS Enrollment Data
● Duncan MacMillan (Public Comments) - his interpretation is that the council was
definitely not going request BCS enrollment data, but that the council did not expressly
forbid the committee from continued efforts in that regard. The education committee
needs to gather a good census. Without a good census we do not have the data we
need to defend the rights of the citizens. His view is that BCS needs to respond with the
same data as the rest of the public schools. Any less is incomplete and not responsive
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to the Town’s request; and, it would not be useful including less detailed and unchecked
BCS data with the more detailed and rigorously reviewed data from other public schools
serving the Town.
● J. Radford - the council does not want to make any further requests for data from BCS
this year. In addition, he made the following points: the council wants the committee to
“back off” requesting enrollment data from BCS; we should not beat ourselves up for
losing this vote; rather, we should “declare victory” that BCS has responded with an
enrollment count to the City Council members this year.
LCFF data
● LCFF has complicated the financial reporting portions of the Enrollment Report as it is all
changed from previous years. Request for Town Clerk to gather financial data according
to new local control funding formula data (LCFF data) from MVLA, LASD and PAUSD.
Motion to request LCFF data from MVLA, LASD, PAUSD
J. Carlstrom: Moves the motion
K. Russel: second the motion
Motion carries unanimously
Action: H. Rose to send letter to Town Clerk & Cc: J. Radford
5. LASD Progress on 10th Site
● Open discussion on process for LASD Community Input.
● Discussion of potential new sites.
● Concern that proposed site at 201 San Antonio Circle in Mountain View will be extremely
expensive and require eminent domain to obtain, delaying action and denying needed
improvements to all school sites, then end up as unacceptable to BCS, spurring new
lawsuits after the current 5 year agreement expires. Past lawsuits were approximately
$2M per year with approximately $1M spent by each side on lawyers.
● Recommendation from the committee to suggest that the council consider supporting a
position that LASD not buy new land, but to outline a plan to better use LASD’s existing
120 acres and shared school/community facilities with the City of Los Altos at Hillview
and other large LASD properties such as Egan, Blach, and Covington.
Motion to include this in the June report out to Council.
K. Russel: Moves the motion
J. Carlstrom: second the motion
Motion carries unanimously
6. Routes to School
● Crosswalk for Gardner Bullis is done. Flashing lights have been installed.
● Gunn drop-off entrance at Miranda is done.
● Safety improvements for walkers at Arastradero & Manuella/Oak are done.
● Miranda end to end pathway is approved and the engineering study is funded.
● Quarterly meetings have started between the Town, the Sheriff and LASD to facilitate
safe routes to school.
● GreenTown Los Altos is working toward bike safety education during PE.
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● Joint BCS/LASD parent groups in process of seeking support on Safe Routes to School
Memorandum (previously endorsed by all LASD PTA’s, BCS BBC, and LAH Education
Committee). They need to get onto the LAH Council agenda.
7. District Updates
BCS Update - H Rose – covered in Enrollment Report discussion.
MVLA Update - K Russel -
● After four months of searching, board members at the Mountain View-Los Altos
High School District announced they have selected Jeff Harding, the current
superintendent of the Healdsburg Unified School District, as the top finalist to
replace Superintendent Barry Groves.
LASD Update - covered in 10th site discussion.
PAUSD Update - J Carlstrom
● Superintendent, Dr. Max McGee, made the decision to eliminate zero period at
Gunn without taking it to the school board for a vote. Proposal has not been well
received by the students as only 24 of them use zero period to “stack” their
schedules. PAUSD BOT Ken Dauber recommended no zero period and a
maximum number of AP classes at two. Suicides are above normal range - City
of Palo Alto is six times the national average for young adults according to CDC
records (see attached), PAUSD making changes designed to alleviate stress
from student life. Portion of proposed Measure A parcel tax proceeds will be
applied to student wellness which includes suicide prevention.
● Action - K. Russel to understand the facts behind bus service and
determine if LAH has the right to ask for free bus service based on distance
to schools or closure of in town sites.
8. Council Yearly Presentation
● Review prior year’s activities and actions for next year -
○ accomplishments from 2014-2015
○ goals for 2015-2016
○ Waldorf Lease for Eastbrook site - review & recommendations
● Include annual Enrollment Report
● Include required Committee information
● Action - H. Rose to prepare draft before May committee meeting.
9. Communications
● Recommendation to have an article in Our Town on the education committee - what it
does, how to get involved and who to talk to and what you can talk about.
● OR do an article on what percentage of students from LAH go to what school.
There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 8:45pm
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To: Los Altos Hills City Council
Date: March 27, 2015
The primary purpose of the enrollment report is to provide high-quality data to the City of Los
Altos Hills to support the City’s claims to keep public education in town and that the local public
school is open to all residents of Los Altos Hills.
In 2006, the enrollment report was one of the important documents that enabled the City of Los
Altos Hills to apply to the County of Santa Clara to create its own school district. The
application was denied, but the result of those actions were helpful in obtaining two positive
outcomes. Gardner Bullis School (GBS) was reopened and the districts (LASD and PAUSD)
entered into an MOU that enables all residents of Los Altos Hills to attend the one public
elementary school in town.
The Inter-district Transfer (IDT) mechanism includes payments from PAUSD to LASD to support
the education of PAUSD students at GBS. (Note: As a matter of practice, residents in the
southern parts of Los Altos Hills can also attend GBS using an Intra-district transfer within
LASD.)
Aided by the enrollment report, the City of Los Altos Hills could decide to pursue “Community
School” status for GBS. Community Schools have a customized set of operational rules as
negotiated among the school, its community, and the school district. A Community School
receives the full amount of school district tax dollars to support its operations. This is very
important in a “Community Funded” (Basic Aid) school district.
In the future, the enrollment report could also be used to support the City’s re-application to
create a Los Altos Hills city school district, should that become necessary.
Because the City of Los Altos Hills is using the enrollment report to monitor and support policy
changes in education, it is vital that the data in the report be as accurate as possible. This is
why the City of Los Altos Hills requests student street address information. The City has never
asked for nor mistakenly received student names from BCS, LASD, MVLA, or PAUSD.
Each street address is audited to insure that it is within the defined city limits of Los Altos Hills.
Each year, about 30-40 addresses submitted are found to be outside the defined city limits of
Los Altos Hills or to be input errors on the part of parents in the district data bases. While
address information is used in the creation of the report, that information is not shared,
disclosed, or published in any way.
Bullis Charter School (BCS) provided the requested information for at least two years and then
stopped. For school year 2014-15, BCS has thus far not replied to the City’s September 2014
request, nor has it replied to subsequent communications.
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Therefore, the Education Committee makes the following request of the Los Altos Hills City
Council:
That the City Council instruct the City Attorney take the following actions, things in parallel:
1. Write and send a letter to Bullis Charter School again requesting enrollment data as
provided in the letter dated September 25, 2014;
2. Render a legal opinion supporting this request, should further action be required.
Respectfully,
Heather Rose
Chair, Los Altos Hills Education Committee