The unfortunate feud that has festered for nearly three years between the Los Altos Elementary School District and Los Altos Hills parents exploded anew two weeks ago, when the city council there voted to establish its own elementary school district and send its high school students to Palo Alto.
If successful, the move could be a devastating blow to the Mountain View-Los Altos High School District, which would lose 200 or more students to Palo Alto, as well as nearly $4 million a year in property tax revenue from the Hills.
Officials at the Mountain View-Los Altos and Palo Alto school districts were caught by surprise, and are just beginning to analyze the move’s full impact. A special meeting between all the parties, including supporters of the Bullis charter school effort, will be held Wednesday, after the Voice goes to press.
Even if the move succeeds, it would be several years before a new district could be up and running. The Los Altos Hills council did agree to postpone its decision for 30 days, although it isn’t likely that the 5-0 vote to proceed will change. Unless a compromise can be reached, the issue will go before Hills voters in November of 2007 or 2008.
A Dept. of Education official told the Voice that state officials will decide whether other affected districts can vote on the matter. If the state were to find, for example, that the loss of Hills students would stop Los Altos from becoming a basic aid school district, areas besides the Hills could vote on the measure.
The decision by the Los Altos district to shut Bullis, the only school in Los Altos Hills, outraged Hills parents, who were forced to transport their children to schools outside their community. Even a move to establish a charter school (using the Bullis campus) became a contentious issue between the two sides and eventually led to last week’s decision.
There is no question that residents of the Hills, which is home to many of Silicon Valley’s wealthiest families, have a right to establish their own school district. Certainly, they were not served well in recent years when their only school was closed.
But we question whether establishing a completely independent district from scratch, with all its administrative costs and facility needs, makes sense for the taxpayers there. Also, the three neighboring districts have a lot to lose if Los Altos Hills goes its own way.
Now is the time for a calm appraisal of the issue by all the affected parties. We hope Wednesday’s meeting can produce the start of an agreement that can assure Hills parents that they will have a school of their own soon, perhaps next year. If that doesn’t happen, we could very well see all three districts and the Hills battle it out in a protracted legal struggle. That outcome makes no sense for anyone, and certainly not for the students.
