I would like to thank the board of making the decision of postponing. I am glad to know that the voice from the North Whisman neighborhood is being heard.

I highly appreciate the school board for listening to the public opinion and doing justice to the Mountain View citizens. I like Ms. Wheelers idea of moving PACT to Slater. Here is the summary for PACT enrollment and the analysis:


Area Students %
Misc 8 2.19%
Bubb 36 9.84%
Castro 13 3.55%
Huff 26 7.10%
Landels 115 31.42%
Mloma 59 16.12%
Theuer 109 29.78%
366 100.00%

Right now 70% of the kids are coming from different locations of the city, and less than 30% are around Stevenson area. Are the PACT parents concerned about them? How about the 50% coming from Huff, Bubb, and Landels? Slater is much closer to all these neighborhoods. The traffic is much better than Stevenson area. It seems the 30% (109) parents of the Stevenson are so powerful, that they can disrupt the whole city.

Also, the school neighborhood issue is cyclic (do you have any data when PACT was at Slater or Castro, that will further clarify my assumptions), I do not see any growth of PACT parents in Theuerkauf area in the next 5 years. Normally, people move with good schools, therefore, if you have a school in Slater area you will see more growth there (already 50% are coming from nearby). A permanent place for PACT in Whisman will facilitate future growth of the school. The fact that PACT is not for every parent by law negates the public school's idea. Therefore, it should keep the admission process fair to everyone by reserving seats for each neighborhood according to their population and remove the lottery system. The Whisman neighborhood will have the choice to go to PACT or conventional school in Theuerkauf, it will be their CHOICE. Also, the admission policies can be changed when there is a need, those are not written in stone.

Suppose if PACT is not moved then what is their future, how can they accommodate more kids and grow? They can not build in the public park. Is there a plan to move Theuerkauf or the district office?

I am not favoring any school or parent, I am just doing the simple math, and none of the arguments hold.

Here we go again with various "facts":

Stevenson Park is part of the school site, managed by the City.
By what traffic study is Slater easier to reach during school hours than Stevenson? Unless enrollment increases, expanding PACT reduces another school (probably not Huff). IF enrollment really does increase, most of the barriers to re-opening Slater can be removed.

The $23 million question is: "When we re-build Slater, how long before 400 students show up?" If it was my $23 million, I'd want to see the students first, not some idea that they could be lured from around the district and those not attending district schools. Oh that's right, as a voter and a taxpayer, it IS my money! Whisman neighborhood assoc should file a charter petition rather than worrying about PACT. A charter petition commits the students. Committed students not already enrolled in the district would indeed need a school. Find them and we'll build it, NOT build it and they will come!!!!

Whatever you are saying does not make any sense, just like PACT parents. How can you have kids without a school? The Stevenson Park is a public property, PACT can not encroach green space.

This is encouraging news, but before any more decisions about schools/programs are made:

Where *exactly* are the other 2000+ students?
Where are these 2000+ students that are not attending MVWSD schools? Records are required for parents exempting their child from the school district and the school district has to send student records for any transfers AND keep a record of who they sent the student's records to. The records are there. Release a report to the community so we can be better informed. We don't need specific student information, just numbers and destinations (e.g. to protect privacy, identify any school by name if >10 students left to go there, lump home schooled students into one category). We need some metrics to help gauge how MVWSD might or might not be able to serve these students and this is a great place to start.


PACT Program Transparency
There are two components that are frequently touted as critical to the PACT program's success, yet there seems to be no regular, transparent release of data to account for these:

1) What total amount of funds are received annually as part of the "Annual Family Donation"?

2) What "classroom support" volunteer hours were accumulated during the year and what would be there monetary value if paid aides were used instead?

We are asked to support the program without that information being made regularly available. Those donations are substantial and, unlike a PTA, is marketed by and collected by the school directly. Data should be provided annually along with several (I'd suggest at least four) years back data to compare against. If that data is published online, please point us to it otherwise that opacity needs to change pronto.

Also, as a publicly funded institution, it would be appropriate for PACT to publish more basic information about their activities publicly as well. The last "Stevenson Spotlight" on the web site is from Winter 2013. There are no "Stingray Newsletters" posted. A walled garden format doesn't serve the public who are funding them yet don't know much about what they are doing other than poorly worded or confusing web marketing. We should expect to be able to get more regular, freely available information about PACT.

@ Old Steve

"A charter petition commits the students. Committed students not already enrolled in the district would indeed need a school. Find them and we'll build it, NOT build it and they will come!!!!"

Is that how every other school in MV has been formed?

Ellen Wheeler continued to advocate for the pact. At a recent board meeting she clearly would clap with her hands in the air and hug all the pacts teachers. She's been a board member for too many years . Quite a cast of characters this board . Just an observation Mr. Nelson its Bad protocol to wear a hat indoors. A gentleman would remove this hat.

@PACT Program Transparency

"There are two components that are frequently touted as critical to the PACT program's success, yet there seems to be no regular, transparent release of data to account for these:"

"critical", I wouldn't put it that way at all, I would say they are significant enhancements. It's a big package of many parts which contribute to the total results.

"1) What total amount of funds are received annually as part of the "Annual Family Donation"?"

One teacher of TH said how the MVWSD web-site was lacking a great deal of updated information. This is not some conspiracy to hide stuff, it's just not always the highest priority to fully update every detail on the web-sites. I'm sure that information can be had, just ask Coladonato, he goes to the PACT Foundation meetings. It may already be available somewhere and he may know. Nobody's hiding that info.

Don't forget to ask the district for the MVEF donations that get put in one big pot to be distributed across the entire district, PACT families donate quite a lot to that too.

"2) What "classroom support" volunteer hours were accumulated during the year and what would be there monetary value if paid aides were used instead?"

I think this has been covered pretty well already, we don't track that. The complexity of trying could never be worth all the effort and rigid protocols to make sure the numbers are accurate.

But, MORE importantly...
We also NEVER want people to fear their actual volunteer hours are being checked-up on or that someone will ask them why they are not doing the hours they said they would. People give what hours they can and when they can't make it, we email our group by classroom to ask if someone else can take our slot. Sometimes we find a replacement, sometimes not.

There is no "log book" in the classrooms.

The teachers make due with with whatever help they get and they are always in control of what the parents do and when. Often the teachers will decide they need extra help or no help for a given day or slot. They email to let us know of the change. This is not tracked.

NOBODY is running around keeping tabs on hours, NOBODY is interrogating parents about their hours.

Sometimes entire field trips get cancelled because we can't find enough people at the right time to fill all the required slots. It happens, we know this.

@PACT parent

From the PACT Winter 2013 Spotlight:
"Regardless of cash donation, each family is required to contribute time to school. (See 2014-2015 Parent Commitment.) In the present school year, Foundation members are going to donate in excess of 25,000 man-hours in volunteer work. If the school is to pay $20 per man-hour, this would represent a half-million dollar contribution to the school, far exceeding the Foundation’s $147,000 projected cash income!"

1) Note the use of the word "required"
2) Note the use of "going to donate"
3) Note the use of "projected cash income"

I think you are wrong. Hours are tracked. Money is tracked.

You yourself have argued the critical nature of donations of time and money and the threat of non-participants in the program.

"This is not some conspiracy to hide stuff, it's just not always the highest priority to fully update every detail on the web-sites."

Not one weekly newsletter available on the Stevenson web site from any year. Not a one. They are being produced and emailed.

The Bubb Bulletin - available online.
Landels' Wednesday Word - available online.
The Huff n Stuff - available online.
Castro Connections - available online.
Monta Loma Spotlights - available online.
Theuerkauf's Cheetah Chatter - available online.
Stevenson's Stingray News - NOT available online.

And while Theuerkauf doesn't put up their "Cheetah Chatter" every week, they still managed to put something up more current than Stevenson.

The community should not have to ask a board member for information about school sites as you suggest. It's a responsibility of each school to communicate with the community it serves. There are problems across the district with this but Stevenson seems to have particular difficulties being transparent and proactive. Certainly with so many parents "required" to volunteer so much time *someone* at PACT should have the time to post information for the community.

There is simply no excuse for this level of opacity.

"Don't forget to ask the district for the MVEF donations that get put in one big pot to be distributed across the entire district, PACT families donate quite a lot to that too."

You can ask that. I'm focusing on what Stevenson PACT, as a publicly funded entity, asks for directly on its web site and what has been labeled as necessary for its success. If other school sites asked for donations in this way, they would need to publicly account for that as well. Here, the marketed donation monies are being treated as extra "income" for a publicly funded school. They are being tracked (if not there is a bigger problem) and that information needs to be transparent.

The MVEF is not a publicly funded organization so while they need to project better transparency as well, I am not as concerned about their donations which are spread around to different schools.

"I think this has been covered pretty well already, we don't track that. The complexity of trying could never be worth all the effort and rigid protocols to make sure the numbers are accurate."

You aren't school administration so you can't speak to this, and there's little reason to believe your statement. Again, you yourself have argued as to the critical nature of participation and it is listed as being of great importance on the web site. How could something be so critical to a program's success yet not be tracked? That's either ridiculous, irresponsible, or the program is lying to the community about the importance of parent involvement.

With the information I've seen so far, and since schools need to keep track of non-staff on campus anyway - that information is somewhere.

If I had a student in the program and had the information the general public has available to it, I'd have even MORE reason to question its lack of transparency, and as soon as I found I was making excuses for it, I would begin to question it's viability.

Just because something great happens in a classroom doesn't write off administrative responsibilities.

More than I am looking forward to improved communication from the new Theuerkauf principal, I want the new principal at Stevenson to take the responsibility they have in communication with to the community that is supporting Stevenson (yet outside the PACT bubble) more seriously and be as transparent as they should. Otherwise, if Stevenson wants to continue to act like a private school, they should be dropped out of MVWSD and left to found a school with their own private monies.

Pushing back on the fight for transparency in publicly funded entities only raises more alarms and distrust. We aren't talking about releasing information on operations of the CIA, we're talking about a school site. Why hide it?

Just a note that the school doesn't take donations, the PACT Foundation (our version of a PTA) does. Just like every other PTA at every other school.

@Different PACT Parent

A fair point. However, if the Foundation is truly the one raising and handling the money, the details about the requested amount and handling of those funds should be on the Foundation's materials not the school's site. Otherwise, the school is acting directly in the fundraising and should participate in the accountability.

@Old Steve usually has most of his facts right, so, unless you have an assessor's property tax map - or a District Budget avaliable - I would not usually doubt his facts (opinions - I do all the time). Only a very small part of the block, about between the two Stevenson Park signs - are dedicated parklands owned by the city. From about the TH parking lot, back to mid tennis courts - and in front of the preschool. That is it! The rest of the site, about 16 acres is owned entirely by the MVWSD. The terms of our wonderfull arrangment with the City, all the fields are dual-use schools & parks, with City footing entire maintenance bill! Entire. One year termination clause in contract.

PACT school may not post their newsletter, and accidentially have an OLD OUT OF DATE document, that should be removed. I get sent their newsletter - every week. There is nothing unseemly about a seperate parent group - asking and accepting donations! What the heck do you think a PTA is? A parent group. Collecting money. PACT Foundation is such a parent group - it and not 'the school'. This Foundation collects their PTA-equivalent money.

The person asking for public accounting - as a legal right is in error. Both in $ to a voluntary support organization, and hours volunteered. I certainly trust the PACT Foundation parents to keep track of their own collections, and account for it as any "public charity" registered as a non-profit corporation in the state of California.

Finallly, Ellen Wheeler is not trying to close PACT, and she just (to me at least) seems to be saying - maybe another way for a new school, much more useful facilities, for PACT that would benefit others too. My weird-out-there idea is District Charter for PACT, and give them facilites at Sylvan Park (our 10 acres) . PACT Foundation petition, "vehemently opposes" both these ideas.

Dr. Skelly is right - these are reallly hard ideas to digest and collectively think about. There are lots and lots of community trade-offs and compromises. The "alternative"? Let district staff do it behind-closed-doors?

SN is a Trustee of the MVWSD, his own opinions

It's time to put up or shut up.

This is a link to a form that every parent of every student of PACT must sign. IWeb Link
t requires that they indicate which weekly, monthly and yearly services they will perform for the public school. Additionally, it also requires they indicate how much money they will be donating.
Also, reminds them of their obligation to do a TB test.

This does not come from a PTA. It does not come from a separate association. It is sent by the PACT school under their own letterhead. It is part of the registration package.

So, Steve.. Do you really not see a problem with this?

Or are you going to repeat your mantra that this is "out-of-date."

If so, then why don't you post a copy of the "commitment form" that was sent for the 2014-2015 school year. By all means, please reassure us that while this has been going on for years and years, it just happened to change for the current school year.

I sincerely hope you look into this and are honest about the issue. I hope that you don't sweep it under the rug or blame volunteers, etc...

The opponents of PACT love to remain ignorant, it's the only way they can maintain their hatred, by intentionally remaining ignorant. It is a threat to their established positions for them to actually learn anything truthful.

As I said, there is no tracking of volunteer hours, at best there are estimates of what we hope will be done. Nobody contacts parents interrogating them about if they have done the hours. NOBODY has a time-card, there is no time-clock, there is no protocol to check up on people's hours.

""I think this has been covered pretty well already, we don't track that. The complexity of trying could never be worth all the effort and rigid protocols to make sure the numbers are accurate.""

"You aren't school administration so you can't speak to this,"

Sure I can, I see directly what goes on and I know there is no classroom log-book and nobody tallies-up any sign-in sheets, or time-cards.

"Again, you yourself have argued as to the critical nature of participation"

In ENOUGH participation overall, not from any one family, but the aggregate of what all the families choose to give. Any effort at "tracking" would be worthless and counter-productive. Some parents do far more than they said they would at the start of school, others find they cannot do much at all. NOBODY knows and nobody cares to keep track.

"it is listed as being of great importance on the web site. How could something be so critical to a program's success yet not be tracked?"

Simple, there is no need, no purpose of tracking. When our parents see an opportunity to help the teachers or kids, they communicate it and they fill it if they can and as they can. If a specific opportunity is not filled, we understand this and accept it.

Even when a field-trip gets cancelled because of lack of parental support for that specific time-slot, we accept that.

There is no need and no desire to treat parents like paid employees.

"That's either ridiculous, irresponsible, or the program is lying to the community about the importance of parent involvement."

That's YOUR uninformed opinion, NOT based on any facts or direct experience.

"and since schools need to keep track of non-staff on campus anyway"

I see, and exactly HOW does one do that when there are several unsecured access points to every school site in the district, especially during school hours?

Our public schools are not prisons after all.

During off-hours the Stevenson school site has some reasonably secured fences, but it's only the presence of trust-worthy adults on campus during school hours which keeps eyes on the place. Same for the other schools I have seen.

@Steven Nelson

Stevenson has many PR problems that stem from both overly vigorous, un-official defenders here both moreso *very* poor communication from Stevenson (and it's parent foundation) that has resulted in a lot of mistrust within the community. The history of the documents (which can't really be erased) only supports this as a problem.

These communication problems have served to further questions as to the demographics of what families the school is assisting. Some believe the program's marketing and enrollment procedures are created through some sort of conspiracy, but I tend to think the problems created were likely unintentional and have created disparate impact with the SED in our community. Many of us are struggling with the enrollment data and per pupil spending variances (compared with other schools in the district) - this is exacerbated by the discussion of a neighborhood being denied a school site.

Trust is broken in both the district and in Stevenson and has to be rebuilt. Transparency is one part of this, improved communication is another. Making crystal clear the distinction between school and parent group should be high on the list and be made done on all documentation including the web site. Publicly posting regular information about activities (e.g. a newsletter) is another.

Legally or ethically, schools do have a responsibility to report how they are operating and if the program relies on special features, it is appropriate for the program to report how well those features are being supported. Especially when there are claims that the program would falter under addition of SED students whose families may not be able to fully support through participation labeled as "policy" along with something the school "requires" of its parents. These are terms not only used in past communication but also in the last posted SARC report.

Simply disclaiming pre-existing, historical terminology does *very little* to help rebuild that trust and trying to erase that history would be disingenuous. I would hope that both you and Stevenson parents see the benefits in reviewing terminology and communication as well as openness with the community in both repairing damage done and giving the community a more open place to have discussions how *any* program is subject to improvement or change.

Anyone who can't recognize that this discussion isn't important to the community and has brought forth tense emotional debate on threads here, in board meetings and elsewhere, probably shouldn't sit on a school board. If they do recognize that, then they should also recognize the need for clear, consistent communication and the promotion of that through all channels so that the community can more efficiently spend it's energies.

2nd "both" = but

No one is claiming that the addition of SED families would damage the program, quite the opposite! It is part of the school's 5-year-plan to increase so up-economic diversity. I agree that we have a PR problem which I hope we can repair.

"So up-economic" = socio-economic. Phone typing...

@PACT parent

How do you expect us to take you seriously when you berate someone else over being provocative and then call people ignorant haters?

You describe a completely unsafe environment for a school campus. It is the responsibility of all adults (parents or strangers) to report to the school office and check-in during school hours at any school I have heard of. At many schools even teachers have to sign in! There are two reasons for recording who is on campus and when: incidents involving danger to students and staff (kidnappings/abductions, shooters, etc.), incidents involving danger to anyone (earthquakes, utility explosions, etc. - they need to know to look for you if a building collapses on you). According to you, this environment of safety is not practiced at Stevenson and should also be up for debate. (You'll also note that while most campuses are "open", they aren't fence-free and have signs posted about hours of public use.)

The fidelity of the program at PACT (or any program) should be under regular review and available for consideration by the public. Apparently you are threatened by the collecting and sharing of data for people to make decisions upon and would rather be blissfully unaware of what may or may not really be going on - even if this would support your claims!

A simplified example: if the parents are asked for 20,000 hours of volunteer time and give 30,000 hours, it is not clear that the program would be viable at 20,000. If they give only 10,000 and the program still seems successful, one could question the requested hours component as being too high or that something else could be changed. A reminder to you: this is a simplified example to make a point, not something for you to create yet another straw man around; you are welcome to make an example as well but be accurate and present it as your own.

Review could also point out opportunities for other schools to adopt parts of the program which would bring students back into the other MVWSD schools and be of benefit to students already there. The fidelity of every program should stand up to review or be open to change. Sorry, but we can't rely solely on touchy-feely opinions of those within the program.

Asking everyone in the community to come into the classrooms to gain personal experience is, in a word: unreasonable. Name calling and yelling people down are common exhibitions of bullying. I guess your self-described experiences as a child have taught you how to try to bully others. These tactics won't deter those of us seeking empirical truths and transparency. Tantruming won't either.

Your providing of source information and comments about the positives of the program are your best posts. Your defenses of the program are definitely your weakest. Perhaps you could try to stick to your strengths.

@Different PACT Parent

"No one is claiming that the addition of SED families would damage the program..."

Not overtly, no - that could be construed as racist or classist.

But people, including the beloved PACT parent, have expressed concern that lowered participation levels would threaten the program viability and SED families would be the least prepared to participate. It's certainly worth looking into what the program could handle as a way to improve outreach toward improving SED enrollment and also points at the need for better communication (not PR spin, just basic truths).

Above:
Posted by @Different PACT parent
should read
Posted by mr_b

My bad.

PACT Parent doesn't speak for all of PACT. The Site Council has been doing exactly what you suggest: looking into what could be done to reach out to low SED families and encourage them to apply.

PR is not part of the 5-year-plan but communication is so hopefully outward communication could be added to that.

(Apologies to those who have read the following in another thread. It was originally intended for this one.)

It's worth noting that Monta Loma, a neighborhood school, has already begun integrating project based learning (PBL). The principal, Angela Lyon, was principal at Stevenson PACT for a time (2010-12?). It's encouraging to see such programs adopted into and adapted for other school environments.

As to PACT's communication difficulties, consider how terminology differs between the two sites. Here's an example from each site's 2013-14 SARC report, Parent Involvement section:

"Monta Loma Elementary School is a parent participation school. We believe that parents are an essential component of the school community. Monta Loma asks all families to commit to volunteering 30 hours per school year..."

"Stevenson greatly benefits from its supportive parents. As a parent participation school, Stevenson requires all parents to volunteer a minimum of 2 hours a week and join one of the school's committees..."

Both schools encourage parent involvement, but there are notable differences between "asks all families to commit to" and "requires all parents". There are important nuances between using "family" over "parents", and "asks ... to commit" over "requires" (illegal).

To be clear:
--"We encourage parents to volunteer at their schools, but we want to make it very clear that no school can require parents to volunteer in order for a student to enroll in school or participate in an educational activity," state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson said in a statement.--
Web Link
January 29, 2015

As for tracking involvement, refering to the same article:
--Some Sacramento City Unified schools still have hour tracking forms on their websites, but Ross said that doesn't mean a quota system is in place.
"Tracking provides an opportunity for schools to have a sense of where the level of engagement is, so they can work with the community as a whole to say, this is an area where we can improve and look for creative ways for parents to get involved," he said.--

Professional and *legal* communication matters in education and yet you can still have your participation and collect data for monitoring.

After great consideration my wife and I have decided this PACT School is not a good fit for our child.

@Old Steve
"By what traffic study is Slater easier to reach during school hours than Stevenson?"
Just look at Google Map and highlight traffic on that route. I use that route daily and I do not see any traffic before 9.0AM. I believe Stevenson starts at around 8.15AM, instead I see more traffic around Theuerkauf when I leave my kids.

It seems the existing 30% (109) parents of the Stevenson (living in the neighborhood) are short sighted (or they do want dis-comfort going to Slater), therefore, they cannot see a better future for PACT at Slater.

PACT parents please open your mind and heart, and think for the Mountain View Citizens at large, instead of isolating yourself and limiting your options.

I like to hear a reasonable answer from PACT parents (especially the 70% living in Landels, Bubb, and Huff area) with concrete data (NOT emotional feelings), why they do not want to move to Slater as suggested by Ms. Wheeler?