To quote professional school bureaucrat Harding: "Dwindling numbers of students can spell trouble for schools that rely on steady enrollment for funding, but that won't be a problem for Alta Vista. The district receives enough property tax revenue that is does not have to rely on daily attendance funding, so big fluctuations in enrollment won't cause the school to shut down."

What the hey, is this all about preferential funding perks for lesser students?

Does this mean that CA State and/or maybe even MVLA have special, semi-secret pots of money for continuation schools and are giving Alta Vista more money per student than they give to our regular schools with better, brighter students?

We parents are getting really sick of seeing our bright, average and above average students short-changed for lesser and non-English-speaking students. The biggest benefit for the educational buck would come from supporting our brighter students because they contribute the most to society and our economy after they graduate from college.

Another question.

Dear Bureaucrat Harding: How much of the decline in students in Alta Vista is due to the large number of highly educated families moving into Mountain View and Los Altos, and not due to increased educational excellence in our schools? I suspect the former. Superior students are strongly correlated with families with superior educations and career expectations for their children. Mountain View is gentrifying, and that's good news for its future.

"We parents are getting really sick of seeing our bright, average and above average students short-changed for lesser and non-English-speaking students. The biggest benefit for the educational buck would come from supporting our brighter students because they contribute the most to society and our economy after they graduate from college."

You've been reading "Mein Kampf" again, haven't you?

Dear OldMV, I think the decline in numbers at Alta Vista is due to the excellent care taken by LAHS and MVHS so kids don't "fall through the cracks". Teachers, counselors, and Administration work very hard to keep a student at his or her home school. Also, kids who attend the Continuation school are English speaking students. All walks of life attend Continuation schools, including the brightest.
Finally, does the college graduate working at Starbucks contribute the most to society, like you stated?

Less is more when it comes to fail safe programs like Alta Vista. The sour grapes priorities from the "entitled" parents of more successful students are such an excellent example of the wrong thinking based in selfish myopic social views. The hallmark of the popular fascism that Neo-cons spout at every issue in this country nowadays.
Trump no doubt is their ideal spokesman. The worst embarrassment to American politics since Joe McCarthy.
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A secret pot of money for Alta Vista? Are you serious? Have you ever stepped foot on that campus or met a single member of the ridiculously overworked staff? Do you see the materials that they teach with, which many of them have to create using nothing but their imagination and a set of the state standards (which they were following LONG before Common Core, TYVM). The kids at Alta Vista are the neediest in TWO districts and yet the staff has to go begging year to year for more resources and funds. They have a thriving volunteer program because they went out looking for it. No, they are not funded like other schools. Neither are Mountain View or Los Altos. Or Paly or Gunn. Schools in these neighborhoods are funded through property taxes, not average daily attendance. That's all the article meant. Fewer students at Alta Vista hurts the culture and the camaraderie, but not the bottom line, fiscally. Stop looking for conspiracy theories and think about supporting the kids.