Fantastic. The location would have been an awful place for a school. High-density housing should go in there.

Why are 600 Mountain View Students attending public Schools in Los Altos when they live in Mountain view?

"The Los Altos School District includes a portion of Mountain View and enrolls approximately 600 students who are Mountain View residents."

@perplexed - The Los Altos School District was formed in 1909 on what was at the time unincorporated County land. Parts of that land was later annexed by Mountain View, other parts became the City of Los Altos (1952) while some parts remain unincorporated.

One Los Altos School District school (Springer Elementary) is actually in Mountain View.

See District History here: Web Link

The situation is much more convoluted than just saying parts of Mountain View live in LASD. In actuality, it's about 1300 kids who reside in Mountain View but in LASD rather than MVWSD. The article is referring to a particularly unfortunate subset who live in the Greater San Antonio area, north of El Camino Real. A tiny portion are in the city of Palo Alto in what is called Monroe Park, behind Del Medio Avenue but on the MV side of the creek.

Like Slater, this is 600 Mountain View students who have no neighborhood school. They are split 3 ways between 3 different distant LASD schools. Some go to Santa Rita, some Covington and some to Almond, depending on what section of this small MV area (measures just about 1/4 square mile, much smaller than the Slater area.). So separated from their neighbors, consider the Crossings and Old Mill Condos. They live about 1/2 mile from Monta Loma, but that's a different district. The closest LASD elementary school is Santa Rita which is 1.25 mile away. But they aren't assigned there. Nope. They are made to travel 3 miles to Covington, and there's no bus service offered, none at all.

LASD shows no real interest in getting these kids a neighborhood school. That talk of the office building (3 acre plot) by The Crossings was a sham. They wanted to get that place because it WAS substandard. Their aim was to stick their award-winning district-wide open-to-all charter school in that inferior building to try to deter families from entering the drawing to attend the Charter school.

What clumsy inept planners. That's LASD. And you thought MVWSD were the only clown board members.

I think this is a fair opinion with valid facts regarding school sites and distances, but the opinion is entirely my own. I hope this sheds some light on those in MVWSD who think they suffer from bad board members.

Oh, and this situation has nothing to do with enrollment growth. These 600 kids have been in this situation for about a decade. It has gone up some, along with the overall enrollment in local schools, but no worse. Some in LASD view these 600 as not truly belonging to LASD. (Totally unfair). The last bump in housing that affected this situation was when The Crossings was constructed. That subdivision occurred in 1994 and construction was complete well before 2000. So for over 16 years we've had this housing. LASD made no plans to deal with it. In 2008 they changed things to split these kids 3 ways between 3 elementary schools, whereas it had been the case that they were split 2 ways before that.

So when they claim that this is a problem caused by recent unexpected enrollment growth, this is disingenuous. The situation was created 20 years ago. More recently, it became possible that ADDITIONAL enrollment growth might appear in the future, too, but so far, enrollment has actually declined overall.

There's a simple solution. They have a badly defined "temporary" elementary school at the same site as Egan Jr High. Egan has 12 acres and the "temporary" elementary school has occupied 7 acres for the last 15 years.

Pretty obvious. They should just build their new El Camino elementary school permanently on that site by Egan. $0 fee for land purchase. They they could home all the MV kids there, so they'd have a neighborhood school at most 3/4 of a mile away. Not ideal, but beats 3 miles.

This would in turn reduce enrollment (now at 500-570 each) at Covington (16 acres), Santa Rita and Almond. Combine them in such a way as to house the remaining Los Altos students (total about 1050) and also free land somewhere to build another new school to serve those who have been at the temporary school at Egan for the last dozen years. $0 cost for land.

Oh my. Too cheap. Politicians always want to spend money.

This is great news. Spend the money on improving the existing schools. Don't waste it on buying land. Never understood why the neighbors would want to misuse funds like that from the start.

@ History & @ More Convolution The only government worse than a democracy is ...? It has been fairly well know (IMO) over the last decades that CA school district administrations and school boards are not very good at Capital Project management. In the case of LAUSD (Los Angeles) this resulted in an estimated one billion dollar loss of value (yes > $1,000,000,000).

Link to the state-wide Little Hoover Commission 2000 report
Web Link

Steven Nelson is not a LASD Board member

link to the LAUSD 1999 report
Web Link

Not to overemphasize that the CURRENT population of students in the Greater San Antonio Area is not out of line with historic norms, but consider this:

MVWSD closed up Klein Elementary at Ortega and California and sold off those 10 acres for a nice chunk of change. Years later, they are talking about squeezing in 2 schools on the limited parcel of land at Castro Elementary which now serves the former area of Klein.

LASD closed up Portola Elementary on E. Portola Avenue at Jordan Avenue and sold off those 10 acres for their immediate profit. Years later, the claim that siting an elementary school on W. Portola to serve the Mountain View area north of El Camino Real is not close enough--ignoring totally that this was the original location of the school for the area in question! Instead, they inexcusable treat the 600 kids from Mountain View north of El Camino Real as interlopers not entitled to a neighborhood school of their own. Well, they HAD ONE. LASD sold it off!

Sadly the LASD Board of Trustees really isn't putting kids in classrooms first. Here is what I think is going on based on the evidence:

1. 4 acres and nothing more - Several members of the board really want to continue with the get rid of Bullis Charter School strategy. They've already spent quite a bit of tax payers money on this so millions more is no big deal. The latest version of this is to shove all 800 or so BCS students on to one 4 acre site. The more unpleasant the better suited for BCS. The trouble with is that one, land is really expensive and two 4 acres doesn't satisfy prop 39. Most, if not all of the board would really, really like to stick it to BCS and they don't care how much they need to spend to do it.

2. Legacy - how cool is it to purchase new land and expand school district holdings? (really not very in IMHO) Maybe they will even name the school after one or all of them. Sweet!

3. Logic is not part of the equation - The logical solution is to place a new LASD neighborhood at the current BCS site on the Egan Campus and move BCS, all or part of it to Covington. The new LASD school could serve the San Antonio/El Camino area and relieve current and future crowding at Almond and Santa Rita. BCS could share the site at Covington or the Covington area could be granted a preference area for BCS. The District Office could move to office space elsewhere or to the BCS at Blach Campus. No new land needed. New neighborhood school added, money left for improvements at other campuses. Seems like a no brainer right? Unfortunately we have two board members with kids at Covington and they are not going down with out a fight. It doesn't matter that there are 3 other schools close to Covington that could serve that neighborhood. They want their school empty. No sharing.

The result is that we have a dysfunctional LASD board. Unable to make a decision, unable to move forward and unable to tell the truth.

LASD is fighting the wrong fight if they are trying to squeeze in BCS to suboptimal properties in undesirable locales. Did you see the standing room only attendance at the information sessions for BCS? Feels like 1/2 of the families in LASD are checking out BCS. The accolades continue to roll up for BCS and people are starting to notice. LASD has taxed the bejesus out of us and is losing market share. How about that?

LASD needs to stop the Big Lie. The truth:

There is not enough money to purchase a new site and improve other sites.
There is however, enough money to create a new school on existing property AND make improvements at every campus.

Real estate is a HUGE cost that doesn't need to happen. So decide. Here's the choice:

1. Should LASD purchase a new site and create a school there OR should they you existing property at Egan, Blach and Covington?

If you decide that they should purchase new land then you are deciding in favor of no improvements at the existing campuses.

Also let's be clear about this Egan and Blach are already being shared, so if you are in favor of purchasing new land then what you are really saying is:

IT IS MORE IMPORTANT TO KEEP COVINGTON AS A SINGLE SCHOOL SITE THAN IT IS TO MAKE IMPROVEMENTS AT THE EXISTING CAMPUSES.

Is it? I guess if had my kids at Covington I might think so, not sure what everyone else thinks, but I suggest that everyone should really think about it.

There will be no 10th school. The money will be spent on the existing facilities. And Everyone wants to go to BCS!!! Perhaps it's that it was the top school in the state last year!
The district will continue to withhold facilities from BCS, hoping to stem the exodus!

@Ron
Yep -they are lining up to get into BCS. Its a great school, tops in the state.

BCS has agreed to limit enrollment to 100 students for each grade - but the agreement runs out in a few years. At that point BCS can start adding more students. It would be wise to follow the law, deal with crowding before Egan and Blach have BCS taking up most of their campuses.

The best solution? Place all of BCS at Covington were they can fit. Build a new school for the area around San Antonio and El Camino at at the current BCS site at Egan. The school doesn't need to serve all of the NEC just part of it.

The Trustees all took a pledge to deal with enrollment issues first. So that's what they should do. We should all hold them to it. Building MPRs and student centers and putting in skylights at Covington is not dealing with enrollment.

Close Covington and move BCS to that campus
Move 6th grade to middle schools
Spend the $150M of Measure N bond funds to upgrade existing schools

Response to Pledge: So who is going hold the LASD Board accountable? LASD parents enjoy their lower load classrooms. If LASD gets their way and sticks it to BCS and BCS goes away, even with 10 sites, LASD is not going to like spending more money to hire more teachers and provide resources for a very crowded school district. Remember, BCS keeps LASD classrooms lower enrolled and there really is no enrollment growth in LASD because BCS sucks up 700 kids from K-8. BCS parents still pay school taxes that are not shared with BCS so more money in the pot for LASD students. Bottom line here. Taxpayers must scream and yell and demand that LASD utilize Egan site for NEC students and build a new school for them, place all of or some of BCS at Covington, and move district offices to the site at Blach. What is left of Covington after NEC kids are moved can stay at Covington or blend with Almond and SR. Done. More money in the pot for sky lights and other frivolous upgrades to LASD schools. Why keep a small population at Covington including two board members with kids there happy and content and waste lots of tax payers' money? If that board buys new land and tax payers let them get away with it, shame on all of us.
LASD Enrollment by school:
Web Link

Sorry..I meant use some or all of Covington for BCS.

Does anyone know about how many students at Covington and Santa Rita reside north of El Camino? Let's say MV students are moved to a new school built at the Egan site, how many kids would be left at Covington and Santa Rita? Also, when the new housing is built on California Ave and San Antonio area, how many more kids will be coming from that area? I don't think the LASD board is thinking very far down the road for those additional families if they want to build 3 story schools on tiny parcels of land, presumably for BCS. Then what? Empty and unused land still remains at Egan, Blach, and Covington? Odd. Makes the most sense to build a 3 story school with lots of play space at Egan for the NEC kids.

LASD has shared data publicly that says about 600 of the 1300 MV students in LASD schools come from the North of El Camino San Antonio Area. Some are in grades 7 and 8, no more than 1/4 of them. Over 150 are in each of Covington, Santa Rita and Almond as well.

If you look on Jordan way at 8 A.M. or so you will find a bunch of cars taking a left om Marich on their way to Almond. This is the Almond 150 student contingent from the NEC area. The ones headed to Santa Rita drive up Los Altos Avenue or San Antonio. The ones going to Covington drive up San Antonio or El Monte.

Yeah, it's a lot of kids there already, and there has been the same number for 10-20 years now.

Ah, well, LASD has revved back up their plans for turning an office building into a school site. But it's 5150 El Camino Real now. 4 acres again A less suitable location, if that's possible. 80,000 square foot office building again. About $85 Million to buy that building and pay off lease obligations currently in effect. After a 1 or 2 year delay, they can start constructing a new school for the El Camino area. Sort of. Well, it will then cost another $35 Million to strengthen the structure, replace windows, and bring up to Energy and Earthquake codes required for school sites. Only problem once again is there is still nearly zero outdoor space. Not likely they'd get Mountain View to buy a 1 or 2 acre park site next to it, since it's in Los Altos!

Pity the fools. May the light of reality shine into their bubble.

More developments in the LASD plan to turn 5150 El Camino Real into a new elementary school. They have stated that the plan is to tear the building down and build a new 3 or 4 story building with 100,000 square feet of space and also underground parking.

So, the construction cost estimate has gone up. It's now $120 Million they are talking about on top of the $85 Million to purchase the site. So, over $200 Million in cost, but they only have $145 Million in remaining bond funding available.

So, it's all talk and bluster. They haven't exactly abandoned plans for a school in that area though.

They should wake up and realize that the spare land at Egan Jr High is about 7 acres and that it is actually closer to much of the target area than is the 5150 El Camino Site. They already own that land, so that saves $85 Million and a lot of complications.

LASD is really catering to the desires of a small subset who hold undue sway over the board. Here is a very balanced analysis of some of the flaws cited by the board in supporting the wishes of that faction. Web Link

The trustees and the district administration have picked the next new trustee. She's the one who will win the election to replace Trustee Logan when she leaves her term early.
The winner is Jessica, a loyal soldier in the finance army.

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