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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMarch 26Final  –  approved  4/23/15   Education  Committee     Special  Meeting     March  26,  2015         1. Roll  Call   Meeting  was  called  to  order  at  7:05pm  by  the  Chair,  Ms.  Rose.  Present  were   committee  members  Jennifer  Carlstrom,  Duncan  MacMillan,  Heather  Rose  and   Karen  Schuster.  Steve  Hubble  was  present  as  a  guest.    Council  liaison  was  not   present.     2. Enrollment  Report  with  Steve  Hubble     Why  Town  Needs  the  Enrollment  Report   • Insurance  to  keep  a  public  school  open  in  town  that  all  residents  of  LAH  can   attend.   • In  2006,  all  the  public  schools  within  the  city  limits  of  LAH  were  closed.    The   Town  had  enrollment  data,  so  the  County  granted  the  Town  a  meeting  to   discuss  the  issue  of  having  no  public  schools  located  within  the  Town   borders  and  having  public  school  students  split  between  school  districts   (LASD/BCS/MVLA  &  PAUSD).    As  a  result  of  these  meetings,  the  County  got   LASD  and  PAUSD  to  agree  to  the  current  MOU  that  allows  PAUSD  students  to   attend  a  common  “in  town”  school  as  a  7-­‐year  transfer.    The  MOU  transfers   operating  funds  from  PAUSD  to  LASD  for  these  students.    In  2006,  the  LAH   application  to  create  a  school  district  was  denied.    The  County  needed  LAH  to   demonstrate  that  students  were  at  a  disadvantage  with  not  having  a  LAH   public  school  district.   • Today,  the  data  could  be  used  for  routes  to  school  planning  by  studying   numbers  of  students  by  tax  district  area.    The  report  could  be  used  to   renegotiate  MOU  payments  between  PAUSD  and  LASD.    The  report  could  be   used  to  negotiate  a  new  MOU  between  BCS  and  LASD  for  payments  above   LCFF  levels.     Enrollment  Report  Process   • The  letter  sent  to  Superintendents  constitutes  a  non-­‐disclosure  agreement.   No  personal  information  is  reported.  No  student  names  have  ever  been   requested,  nor  disclosed.       • Steve  Hubble  checks  address  information  provided  by  school  districts  against   the  most  recent  tax  assessor  data.    Each  year,  he  finds  60-­‐70  addresses  do  not   match  county  assessor  records.    He  corrects  the  minor  issues  such  as  street   name  misspellings  “Avenue,  Lane,  Road,  Court,  etc.”    After  those  corrections,   he  finds  about  10%  of  the  addresses  submitted  are  not  within  the  city  limits   of  LAH.    Also,  Steve  calculates  the  total  amount  of  public  money  provided  by   all  properties  in  LAH  to  school  districts  by  adding  up  property  and  parcel   taxes  with  bond  revenues  and  how  much  goes  to  each  K-­‐12  school  district.         Final  –  approved  4/23/15   • The  process  Steve  goes  through  is  rigorous  and  constitutes  an  “audit”  to   verify  the  number  of  LAH  residents  in  public  schools  by  tax  district,  school,   and  grade  level.  This  is  high  quality  data  for  the  Town  to  use.     BCS  History  of  Participation   • In  2007-­‐8,  2008-­‐9,  2009-­‐10,  BCS  reported  Enrollment  Data  as  the  other   school  districts.   • BCS  did  not  respond  to  the  October  4,  2011  letter  with  their  2011-­‐12  data.     And,  has  not  responded  since.     3. Part  of  Education  Committee  Charter     Our  charter  states  we  will  keep  records  of  students  from  Los  Altos  Hills  on  which   schools  they  attend.     4. Discussion  Points     • Does  the  Mayor  need  to  recuse  herself  from  the  enrollment  report  because   her  children  attend  BCS?  We  may  need  to  ask  the  opinion  of  the  city  attorney.     • Why  do  we  need  the  Tax  Rate  Area  (TRA)?  The  TRA  provides  gross   geographic  information.    This  information  allows  the  committee  to  audit  that   the  students  are  in  town  of  Los  Altos  Hills  vs.  Unincorporated  or  Palo  Alto.   The  TRA  information  allows  us  to  find  out  what  the  tax  rate  is  and  therefore   find  out  how  much  money  is  going  with  the  student  to  the  school  from  LAH.     • It  is  preferable  to  have  address  information  so  that  we  can  provide  the   council  with  accurate  information  in  order  to  keep  a  neighborhood  school  in   town  available.       5. Motion:    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.       D  MacMillan  moved  to  approve  the  motion.  Duly  seconded.  Motion  Carries   unanimously.       6. Motion  to  make  Steve  Hubble  an  associate  member  of  the  Los  Altos  Hills   Education  Committee.       Jennifer  Carlstom  moved  to  approve  the  motion.  Duly  seconded.  Motion  Carries   unanimously.       There  being  no  further  business  the  meeting  was  adjourned  at  8:40pm