This is really a no brainier. The DI program is for entire Mountain View community not just for Castro community. Right now Castro campus has more than 600 students!!!

By that measure, shouldn't bubb be split up soon too? I thought bubb was one of the biggest

Smart decision to split the programs. Very little effect will even be noticed other than that the neighborhood program kids will get more focused attention and funding and a fighting chance for the future. The children will still attend the same campus.

Kessens and Salcedo love to talk about segregation and sound alarms bells, but ultimately neither have the background or knowledge in education or curriculum to present a coherent solution to closing the achievement gap. Continually arguing for a "rich, inclusive and accepting environment", whatever that means, doesn't solve math problems for kids or help their reading comprehension. It also suggests that the current program at Castro has not created such an environment, so it's hardly an endorsement for keeping the programs under one roof. The reality is that the DI parents and program dominate the school and the PTA and on the playground the DI children are self-segregating anyway as they are in the classrooms that make up the two programs. If the DI parents were so concerned about segregation they would have worked on these problems long ago. Even in this article, DI parents quoted in this article outnumber the traditional program 3:1. DI parent Livnat, quoted above, is the PTA present, but that fact is left out of the reporting.

Castro Elementary School had 675 students in the fall reporting period for 2013-2014. I don't know the numbers for this year, but I bet there were up at least some. Last year was up 56 students from the year before. As for Bubb, it had last year 537 students, down from the previous year when it had 581. These numbers are all reported and public.

The task force must have been formed in the wake of this
Web Link

Los Altos School District, also has over-crowded schools and already has two schools on the same campus. MVWSD should learn from LASD. They have problems, too.

MVWSD has an opportunity LASD does not: Some (old) campuses can be made available for new schools. (Whisman School, for example.) LASD will be lucky if they can find a school campus site and if they do, it will probably cost more money than they have. (The new campus should be in Mountain View, but I think they will have to settle for a Los Altos site.)

The DI program is already segregated. It's mostly made up of the white middle/upper middle class in Mtn. View. A few Hispanic parents have become aware that their kids might get a better education amongst the white middle class, so they have enrolled their kids in the program.
I saw this coming a long time ago. Remember when PACT was at Castro and the parents got tired of having their precious kids playing in the same playgrounds with the "other" kids from the Castro neighborhood? So they left and now the DI program wants to leave (or at least segregate themselves even further)...no big shock here.
I have no doubt that the teachers want what's best for their students at Castro...all the students. But I also doubt that this initiative wasn't a push by parents who decided their kids shouldn't be mixing w/ the rest of the population that goes to Castro, the population they are strongly pushing out of the area because of raising rents. What they really want is a new campus and this will probably push out the few Hispanic kids who are in the program whose parents will not be willing to drive/walk them to a further school.

What would be the result if Castro became *all* Dual Immersion, with outreach to parents of English-language learners of being in the DI program? There would seem to be a big advantage to Spanish-speaking children to grow in their mastery of their first language while becoming proficient in English.

I'm interested in hearing the pros and cons via comments.

I don't think there is enough demand to make Castro all Dual Immersion, so Im not sure that plan will fly.

This issue regarding Castro School, ironically the only school named after an hispanic, has a long history in Mountain View. The only way to solve it is to split. No matter how you slice it, the DI Parents and white kids will always win and the poor hispanic kids will always lose. It's like gravity. Then again, it must feel great to send your children to a barrio school and have them come out on top over and over again while the poor children are eclipsed and lose out on services.

My "poor hispanic child" excelled at Castro and continues to excel @ UC Davis. Education is also the role of the parents at home. That's what my father always taught us. We have zero victims in our "poor hispanic" family because we refused to buy into that garbage.

Proud Mama congratulations on doing an awesome job with your child. You are absolutely correct about the role of parents. They play the most important job in making a positive impact on their child's educational outcome. Unfortunately because of many reasons, you are in the minority. Some parents believe it's only the school/teacher's responsibility to teach and once the kids get home...they sit in front of the tv or video games. In some cases parents are uneducated or do not know the language enough to help with homework.
I do not know what the answer is to getting parents to understand the value or prioritizing learning the language and forming good study habits at home. The answer is not in throwing more money into programs that get little to no results.
I do not think that Castro will be going anywhere, it just will not have any of the programs that the upper middle class population will be interested in and they will not send their kids to their neighborhood school if it turns out to be Castro. The superintendent can pull his tricks of changing the lines to get more "diversity" at Castro (i.e. White people), but they will just find a way to transfer or go to private schools. If DI ends up staying at Castro I am positive there will be further segregation (different bell schedules/located in a specific area of the campus).

Maria, You have a pretty cynical view of all this.

My understanding from reading this article, and from the D/I parents I know, is not at ALL what you claim. If D/I parents wanted their children segregated they wouldn't be sending them to D/I. What is happening is that the district is hiding the failures at Castro traditional behind the D/I program and has been for years. It's time to split the schools so the needs of the traditional program won't be masked anymore and the additional funds from Local Control can go where they belong-- to the neediest kids who are not being well served by the current situation.

@Marcello, St. Francis Acres. This Castro Task Force was formed by The MVWSD ADMINISTRATION exactly because of the Castro and Whisman/Slater community input in Feb. 2014. Credit to the Superintendent (and also those juntas). The administrators at Castro did (IMO) a very fine job.

@Maria - dual Castro facilities have been discussed and incorporated as 'options' in official MVWSD documents and Board meetings since at least 2009.

@Proud Mama Yep! It will also help (IMO) if MVWSD implements the 20% more $$ to Target students in a way that "proportionately" spends that money on Target (low income & ELL) students and does not 'spread it our evenly to all schools'. But that - is a coming and continuing Public Policy battle at both the State and District level. As a former Peace Corps teacher - which side of that battle do you think I've joined? (who is "Angel"?)
Mr. Nelson is a trustee of the MVWSD, and this, as always, is his Own Opinion.

@Solange. The District is not "hiding the failures at Castro" Neighborhood Program. It just did not well 'deaggregate the data' in a way that was clear. Castro, Ther. ML, LA and Stevenson/PACT all have subpopulations of Economically Disadvantaged students who academically (standardized bubble test) achieve at or near the 800 level on the API (the minimum). Only Bubb and Huff (about 30% and 10% disadvantaged) are very significantly above 800 API for their Economically Disadvantaged students.

The detailed reports of the parents at the Feb 2013 Castro meetings with Superintendent Goldman - make the point very clear - the parents at those meetings record that they were very clearly told 'of the failures' that needed to be addressed.

i think i need to terminate my proofing secretary
"spread it out equally to all schools" the February 2014 Castro meetings

The two schools one school site model seems to have worked out pretty well for MVWSD at Theuerkauff with the addition of Stevenson some years ago. I agree with Steve Nelson that if a school has a larger component of the type of students the LCFF extra dollars are meant to address, then that school should receive proportionately more of the money. Outreach to get more of those kids into preschool before they enter K is very worthwhile. Extending the day for kindergarteners at the lower-performing school ought to be considered too. It doesn't have to be extended day for the entire district. Offering after school programs and homework club type activities can help too. There are things that can be done.

Solange - well said.
The reason the district was looking to separate the schools is mainly to improve the traditional program and not for "segregation". Those programs are already segregated but are masked as if they are not for reporting purposes.

I definitely like Superintendent Goldman opinions. Even if someone can understand what the "trustee" is saying not sure what if any difference it would make for the current and future problems.

Since we are talking about trustees, when can start using the north shoreline commercial (Google, Microsoft, Intuit) property taxes towards Mountain View schools. And lets not come up with another bond measure for residents before start using the property taxes from the Big Corporations towards our schools.

It is a joke to say "Stevenson is in Theuerkauff campus". DI and Castro are in same campus, i.e., same playgrounds, play structures, drop-off, cafeteria etc.

Stevenson is fenced off in Theuerkauff campus. There is Zero interaction between Theuerkauff and Stevenson students or parents. There drop-off and pick-up locations are not even remotely close.

Steve, it seems absurd to say that the district wasn't able to "deaggregate" the data for Castro D/I vs. traditional. If that's true, there is something very wrong with your data analysis. So either the district was unaware, somehow, that it's population of mostly low-income/english learners at Castro weren't performing well, or they wanted to keep that fact buried. Either way, it doesn't reflect well on the leadership.

Note that the DI and Traditional Castro program haven't been split as of yet. They have the same principal and operate as one school. The proposal going forward is to split the 700 student school so that when it grows even more there would be two principals and separate schools sharing a site. I don't know that the drop off would change, but there is talk of some more construction on that site to handle servicing two independent schools. So this would be like Stevenson and Theuerkauf regardless of drop off. The 2nd school wouldn't just be a collection of portables off to the side. It would be a real school just sharing a site, small as it is. Clearly the direction is that the LOCATION is preferred for both of the two school programs.

I am completely for the split. Superintendent Goldman listened to the community last year and a thoughtful, organized and deliberate process was begun to gather data and inform the stakeholders. The Task Force was made up of parents and teachers and the two administrators that run the school with the highest enrollment in the district. The first administrator was brought in with a wealth of experience turning around schools with the socio-economic make up of the traditional program and can easily communicate in Spanish. The second administrator, and former top-notch and sought after DI teacher in the district, is beautifully fluent in both Spanish and Enlgish, and a Ph.d. and Fullbright Scholar to boot. The teachers at Castro, in both programs, are all dedicated and hard working with many Stanford grads. What more do the detractors in the community and the naysayers against the split want? How qualified are they to talk down a very promising solution. Show us your credentials along with your opinions. This is just sour grapes as usual for them.

Thank you for the comments explaining what has been done and why the recommendation to have two schools. I have lived in Mountain View for over 30 years, no kids but glad (yes!) that my property tax and parcel taxes go for making our schools and community one that helps all children to learn. I'm impressed by the calibre of teachers and administrators at Castro School--thanks for telling about them.

@Facts

"I don't know the numbers for this year, but I bet there were up at least some."
"These numbers are all reported and public."

Your hunch is correct. While the numbers are reported, they were only reported to the board orally the last two times they were reported, so I had to request the hard-copies, which I've posted to here: Web Link

Here are the enrollment numbers for a year ago, and for a month ago, for each major program:

2013 -> 2014
Bubb: 536 -> 558 (+22)
Castro DI: 369 -> 393 (+24)
Castro neighborhood: 301 -> 329 (+28)
Total for Castro site: 670 -> 722 (+52)
Crittenden: 601 -> 607 (+8)
Graham: 806 -> 784 (-22)
Huff: 572 -> 582 (+10)
Landels: 536 -> 545 (+9)
Monta Loma: 487 -> 491 (+4)
Stevenson: 357 -> 367 (+10)
Theuerkauf: 460 -> 413 (-47)

@Greg Coladonato - Great to see you sunshine district data. Could you also shed some sunlight on the robo-calls against Measure N sponsored by Silicon Valley Taxpayers Association Inc.?

I've just learned (by reading a Castro School newsletter) that the Board will make a decision on this at our next meeting Nov 6 (tonight - Nov 23 is just discussion). I do not know why we are not having a Board meeting (Regular or Special) at the site where the affected parents and students attend (some we have been told have trouble accessing private car transportation). I also hear - that 3/4 of those affected are Spanish speaking. It might be nice if that part (or meeting) were in Spanish. (right Juan Aranda?)

Oh well, public. You get what you get when you elect! Happy Nov 4th!

Steven Nelson is an Trustee of the MVWSD and these opinions, are, of course, his opions only.

Steven Nelson meant to say "tonight, OCTOBER 23 is just discussion" instead of "tonight November 23"

Yes, there should be a meeting held at Castro School to elicit parent input on the subject. Yes a lot of Castro parents do not have a car sitting in their driveway to get to the District Office.

You get what you elect. Elect incumbents and you get more of the same. Elect new faces and there's a chance you'll get a district that lives by its own standards.



MVWSD Strategic Goal #2 Operate with integrity, efficiency, effectiveness and transparency.

MVWSD Strategic Goal #4 Everyone in our district values and feels connected to our diverse community.

MVWSD Strategic Goal #5 Engage students, parents, and the community, including our city, as partners in our mission.

@Steven Nelson,

Hasn't this topic been beaten to death? Nine months of meetings and task forces. Soon it won't make a difference to anyone since years will go by and the achievement gap will just get worse (oh wait, that has already been happening).