School board candidates speak their mind School board candidates speak their mind (October 31, 2003)

Eight contenders attend forum

By Katie Vaughn

Candidates for the Los Altos School and Foothill-DeAnza Community College boards got a last minute chance to weigh in on election issues during last week's string of campaign forums.

Held at Covington School by the League of Women Voters, contenders answered narrowly-tailored questions submitted by audience members.

During the Los Altos forum, questions for three candidates seeking the board's two vacant seats focused on what do with the vacant Bullis Elementary School campus.

Early this year, the board voted to close Bullis, Los Altos Hills' only elementary school, due to budget constraints. Officials targeted the school because of its small size and need of improvements.

Several Bullis parents pushed to open a charter school for their children closer to home. Their request was finally granted by the Santa Clara County Board of Education. Parents have their eye on the old Bullis site as the logical spot to open the charter school next fall. The board has so far refused, but said it would allow Bullis to reopen as a public school.

Some want to make the school an income-generator for the district by leasing it to non-educational entities.

When asked what the candidates would do with Bullis, incumbent board member Margot Harrigan said she would reopen it if doing so were economically feasible. She would rather use the building as part of the district's public school system than lease it or use it as a charter school.

Bill Cooper, an advertising firm owner who unsuccessfully ran for a seat two years ago, called reopening the school "an absolute no-brainer." He also considers Bullis an ideal site for a charter school, but acknowledged the district could benefit financially from using the building for other purposes.

Businessman and school board newcomer Albert Hill, Jr., said reopening would be an "entirely appropriate" move to explore, but would first look further into the finances. He believes the board should consider the revenue it could produce from leasing the building.

The fourth candidate, 18-year-old Kevin Bella, who is a student at UC Davis, did not attend the forum. He has said he doesn't want to be elected.

As to the heated debate over a charter school opening in the district, Cooper said the board must keep an open mind about it.

"Right now there is slated to be a charter school and there is no benefit to being confrontational, to being vindictive," he said.

Harrigan believes working with the charter school instead of fighting it will best serve Los Altos students.

"I'm here to support anything that benefits children," she said. "It is absolutely in our best interest to work compatibly with their staff to assure that there's an easy transition for those students attending the charter school."

Hill said police were called to a recent school board meeting due to confrontations over the potential charter. He stressed the importance of advocates and opponents working together on the issue.

"We all need to reach out to one another here," he said. The confrontation is "an unfortunate situation and we shouldn't allow it to happen."

Later that night, the five candidates for the three open seats on the Foothill-De Anza Community College District board answered questions about how they would cope with the state budget cuts now affecting the colleges and what they would do to offset reductions in funding.

Former Palo Alto mayor and banker Betsy Bechtel said the board should eliminate areas of duplication to become more efficient and maintain faculty.

Hal Plotkin, a financial analyst, would wait to see what Gov.-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger's budget allots for community college funding before deciding what programs the district should cut.

Computer programmer Michael Bradford believes the district wastes money by heating two swimming pools and employing an unnecessary number of managers.

Norman Shaskey, a certified public accountant and former Mountain View mayor, would like to reduce administrative overhead costs and possibly open enrollment so students can attend both colleges simultaneously.

Current trustee Andrea Leiderman said the district should get creative with its faculty contracts by offering multi-year instead of single-year agreements, become more entrepreneurial to create new sources of revenue and form partnerships with community businesses that could help fund programs.