Task Force Recommends Building Two Schools, Partnering With BCS, Cities

Written by  L.A. Chung 

Fueled by new families attracted by the schools reputation, growth in the El Camino Real corridor and continuing housing turnover as residents age out, the Los Altos School District is at “the tipping point” and needs to add two additional schools to accommodate the largest number of students since the 1970s, a district task force concluded.

The 53-page report by the Superintendent’s Enrollment Growth Task Force that will  be presented Tuesday night, contains few surprises for anyone who has followed school news—accentuated by discussions about how to accommodate Bullis Charter School—in the past eighteen months. But it focuses attention on approaches that have the consensus of a broad group of stakeholders, including the more active involvement of surrounding cities.

“Our schools – both LASD and BCS – have reached a ‘tipping point,’” the Task Force said. “Student enrollment is at its highest level in 40 years,” at 4,972, yet the district has nine campuses, not the 11 it had in the 1970s.

“Partnering is a key element,” the report said. “The committee feels strongly that the cities and school district should work together, along with BCS, to develop the best possible outcome for students and for the community as a whole.

The committee said it had found the feedback from a community session on April 2 valuable and had integrated what it had learned into its final recommendations.

“Everyone should have a stake in this game—if for no other reason than to eliminate spending taxpayer dollars on continuing litigation,” the task force report said, alluding to the eight years of litigation that has embroiled the district and Bullis Charter School.

Reconfiguring the existing facilities by closing a school is unacceptable to the community, the report said, and would require the district abandon a model that has made it successful. The additional school sites could not come from the district’s operating budget and broad community support is needed to pass a bond measure.

“This is not likely without cooperation between BCS and LASD and a shared long-term facilities plan,” the report said.

The committee recommended that pursuing a site for Bullis Charter School, ideally within the boundaries of the district should be the first priority, and “focusing a search for an LASD school site either in or around the El Camino corridor or somewhere near the center of the district.”

The committee did not recommend sites, as its charge was to understand the student capacity challenges of the district, the impacts on the current and future education of the community's children, and to “discuss the challenges of a long-term plan to house Bullis Charter School students and staff using current and/or future facilities.”

The 13-member task force was drawn from district staff, parents, and representatives of the cities of Los Altos, Los Altos Hills and Mountain View, the Los Altos and Mountain View chambers of commerce, and Bullis Charter School. They met from December through April with the help of a facilitator.

The school district board of trustees meets at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the District Board Room, 201 Covington Road.