"(Goldman) is skeptical as to whether the parents of all of those students would be willing to pull their kids out of their current schools"

Did the District consider a phased matriculation approach (i.e. reopen the school as TK-2/TK-3 and add another grade every year)? That would limit the number of uprooted students.

There is no report (written) of what the Administration considered. There has, unfortunately, been a Brown Act problem with how the Administration introduced this. A Board Committee meeting, without this DI @ Slater/Whisman on the public agenda, was predominantly devoted to an oral presentation of the Administration. It was also discussed (briefly and legally) with the full Board at the Jan 18th Board Retreat. Both open & public meetings.
I do not accept, and have never even seen, where this $20M dollar figure comes from. ??? The Needs & Conditions report on our sites documents how there are > 300 student capacity permanent "Class 1" (structural) classrooms on the MVWSD Whisman site. + large Multi Use Room + Library. At < $100,000 per classroom to totally refurbish the permanent campus - this could be a neighborhood school in 16 months.
The community consortium of German + Chinese + Hispanic + Neighborhood: promise a vision of an even more fantastic - truly world-class "International Community" school. I await their vision!

Mr. Nelson is an elected member (Nov. 2012) of the Mountain View Whisman School District Board. He is one of the five members. The Board sets district policy.
The opinions expressed (above and always) are Mr. Nelson's alone, and do not reflect a vote of the Trustees on public policy.

The C&N report referenced before is kindly and excellently provide by the MVWSD Administration, to the public, the Board, and it's committees, on the site www.mvwsd.org.
Web Link

What I'd like to know as an Observer is just how much rent the district receives from providing the 10 acres of Cooper Park that they own? Also, how much rent do they get from that tiny preschool that occupies what few buildings are on that site? It's set up like most city schools, where there is a city park next to it. In this case that is 5 acres, but the school district owns about 10 acres, which is the bulk of the park. Since there is no school active there, that's quite a large park that the city gets.

Couldn't the district for example, rent that out to the German International School and then reopen Whisman school for that neighborhood, since there are more kids there now? That way both areas would have 1 school rented and 1 school open

The Whisman area needs to show the board that we are committed to the re-opening of a neighborhood school in our area. To that end we have created an online petition that we encourage anyone who supports our goal of a neighborhood school in the Whisman area to please sign this petition: Web Link Thank you!

Weaver should take a look at the high test scores of the Dual Immersion students at Castro. Their API out scores all other schools in the district AND they learn Spanish at the same time. The Whisman neighborhood would be just plain crazy to turn down this opportunity to have priority enrollment in a program with a waiting list. Do your homework Mr. Weaver!

"crazy" That's not really playing nicely, is it? :)

@Castro DI Parent from Old Mountain View (Landels neighborhood program Resident Area?)
Perhaps you could provide the link (or document) that explains the DI program "aggregated" data?

I have never seen that, even as a MVWSD Trustee. It is easy to get the "white" API scores (CST scores) or the entire school's Economically Disadvantaged or Hispanic disaggregated [sorry general public - but this is a highly technical subject!] scores. But that can 'lump together' the 'DI program' and 'neighborhood program'.

"the Dual Immersion students at Castro" includes Hispanic and White kids. 'Poor' and 'Rich' (just in income and $ wealth, not in culture). Wikipedia Web Link I do not presume to speak for either the Whisman neighborhood families, or the Hispanic DI families! Or the Board of MVWSD !!!!!

I'm glad that we have Mr. Nelson as a school board member. Having at least one "outsider" opinion is a valuable protection against decisions rooted in group think.

Regarding the possible DI move, I have two kids currently in the DI program at Castro, and I live within two blocks of Slater school. Despite the convenience that a Slater DI location would provide, I am very concerned about losing the diversity and community that currently exists at Castro. Enrolling our kids in DI is not just about them learning Spanish, it is a chance for them to learn an appreciation for diversity and community. I fear the many families in the Castro neighborhood would decide against busing their kids to Slater, and, even if they did, the parents themselves may be less able to participate as classroom volunteers or in other community building activities.

The wealthier DI parent control Castro school. They dominate the PTA, control all the money, and have always had the ear of the principals past and present. If you're a Latino you're lucky if you get to volunteer to clean and cook at PTA events. You may call that diversity, but I say it's all about bragging rights that your kids go to school with poor immigrants while learning their language.

What about giving the parents who live near Slater or Whisman school a chance to participate in their school without traipsing across town to do so?

Whisman School is no the only possibility. At least it is being used as a home for a couple of (private) schools. Slater School is being used a Google day care. The traffic this brings to the neighborhood is considerable in the morning and around 5pm when the parents get off work and come to pick up. It has no benefit to the neighborhood. So the school buildings aren't in good enough shape to use as a school? That seems hard to believe. But they have basically already started a 2nd small elementary school at the rear of the property, used for district-wide special education. Couldn't they just expand that school and relocate the special ed program to space freed up when a regular elementary school opens here? They would get access to the outdoor areas at Slater school and portables are automatically up to code when they add some more of them.

At a Castro parents' meeting last night, Superintendent Goldman clearly stated that he has ruled out the possibility of relocating the Dual Immersion program from Castro to Slater. That was a huge relief to the packed room of parents, many of whom had read or heard about this article and were extremely concerned.

Goldman did express concern that Castro isn't fulfilling the needs of socioeconomically disadvantaged (and mostly Latino) students in the neighborhood. I don't know the statistics, but that's strikes me as a valid concern.

But I and others questions his proposed solution. Goldman said a few things, but primarily he wants to increase the number of students in the traditional (i.e., non-Dual Immersion) program at Castro.

Many of us expressed our skepticism -- in both English and Spanish -- that making the program bigger would automatically make it better. Indeed, we think that we should work on making it better *before* increasing its size.

We also made clear that, as parents of students in Castro and neighborhood residents, we expect to be involved in decisions that affect our school. Specifically, we don't expect to first hear about radical proposals that affect our children in the Mountain View Voice.

Hopefully last night's meeting is the beginning of a constructive conversation. I'll be curious to hear from anyone who attends the school board meeting tonight.

ps. Apologies if you read this twice. Since there are two comment threads, I'm posting in both of them.

Goldman wants to improve the quality of education of the low socioeconomic immigrant population at Castro. Making it bigger means offering preschool as a leg up to this population. It means concentrating resources as opposed to having two programs competing for them. That's a noble cause, and a far cry from a "radical proposal" as you claim. I'm sure the Dual Immersion parents will survive just fine, as they always have, by ordering the Castro neighborhood community around, pretending to speak and advocate for them, and making demands of the superintendent who is in charge of educating all children, particularly the most vulnerable. At the end of the day, our children don't play with each other. You all go back to your nice homes in Old Mountain View and fancy jobs with big salaries. We go back to cleaning your homes, serving your food and taking care of your gardens.

To Castro Latino Parent: You wrote "The wealthier DI parent control Castro school. They dominate the PTA, control all the money, and have always had the ear of the principals past and present." Perhaps I'm being obtuse, but if other parents who share the same thoughts as you join the PTA board, then the DI parents won't be able to dominate, right? What is holding you back?

Not all DI parents are opposed to moving schools. As a DI parent from outside the Castro neighborhood, I think we should let the parents who live in that neighborhood decide what would serve there neighborhood the best. DI is a popular program and would survive the move. Perhaps the superintendent should meet with just those parents.

I agree: it would be a great idea for the superintendent to meet with just the parents (DI and non-DI) who live in the neighborhood. That way no one is presuming to speak for someone else.