City's high-tech base gives schools a financial boost City's high-tech base gives schools a financial boost (July 01, 2005)

Revenue from Shoreline firms to help develop technology in the classroom

By Katie Vaughn

Three significant steps were taken this week toward a new collaboration between Mountain View's high-tech community and its two school districts.

On Monday night at separate meetings, boards for the Mountain View-Whisman and the Mountain View-Los Altos High School districts unanimously approved entering into a joint powers authority agreement with the city's Shoreline Regional Park Community. And the Mountain View City Council followed suit Tuesday night.

The city sets aside property tax revenue from the SRPC, which is home to Google, Alza and other high tech companies, in a special fund and uses the money on projects benefiting the Shoreline business community. Under the partnership, the SRPC will allot $800,000 to the districts annually for 15 years beginning on the start of the 2005-06 fiscal year. Since the money comes from the Shoreline fund, the city's general fund will not be affected.

The purpose of allocating $400,000 to each district is to strengthen technological education in local schools so students can later become part of the city's high-tech workforce.

"This is truly a gift from the city to the school districts," said school board member Fiona Walter. "It's money that we've never had for a need that we've known for awhile."

Walter said the districts and the city have long collaborated on a variety of projects -- from sharing sports fields to jointly funding arts and music programs -- and have been exploring ways SRPC revenue could benefit local schools for nearly a decade.

While board members from both districts said plans for how to use the funds are tentative, all are optimistic about the changes the money could bring to their schools. Judy Hannemann, who sits on the high school district's board of trustees, said her district's portion may be used to implement programs on new media and technology at "Freestyle High," a proposed digital multimedia learning center to be added to Alta Vista High School, the district's alternative continuation school.

In contrast, Walter said Mountain View-Whisman lacks a technology infrastructure of the sort the high school district currently has. Walter said the district will conduct a "needs assessment," then hire a full-time director of technology to oversee technological improvements in the elementary and middle schools, such as automating administrative tasks and adding computer programs for data assessment.

E-mail Katie Vaughn at kvaughn@mv-voice.com

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