Let me see - Bob Weaver and the other Whisman/Slater community organizers were told, 4 years ago, that this would make sense when there were enough students. And the Gandhi and Muir family have been consistent in their calls for fairness to their neighborhood. (May 2013 Nick Veronin article)

Web Link

The Board has given clear and consistent public policy direction. I'm personally glad to see that Peter Darrah, is finally beginning to see the light. The light shown by the professional demographers, that have been allowed and encouraged by the Rudolph administration to take a very active role in this Task Force process, has been crucial.

And Trustee Ellen Wheeler is continuing, like now Darrah, to think district-wide, for fairness to all neighborhoods.

I'll support any plan as long as it ensures my children don't have to sit in the same classroom as poor Latino students. I'm not racist. I'm just concerned about my property values.

Of course, the above comments are satire, but it is impossible to ignore the blatant racism and classism of many parents with respect to school zoning.

I do not understand this story. Maybe an example would help. Suppose I lived at the site of the former Wagon Wheel on Middlefield near Whisman and had a 6-year-old son that I wanted to attend a public school in Mountain View. Which school(s) might be attend under this new scheme? Not nearby Whisman School on Easy Street. It is leased out to a private school for money. Not Slater School. It is leased out to Google for cash. Oh where, oh where could he go?

If diversity helps close the achievement gap why was this important factor not considered when drawing the boundaries in the first place? Diversity was *deliberately* excluded from the boundary design process because the board gave the direction to focus on neighborhoods. Redrawing for diversity is really ripping up the stakes on this process.

"Diversity Now" has a point, I guess. Just in case no one can say where my 6-year-old son could go to public school in the example above, suppose he was a little lamb. Then where oh where could he go to school?

A child in the Wagon Wheel neighborhood goes to Huff now and Slater in 2019 when they open it. But that is not what this article was about. I suspect you knew that, though.

@Diversity now? Agree with you. The proposed boundaries isolate Huff and Bubb areas to the south side of ECR effectively segregates highest income population. If diversity is a priority, it really is necessary to draw boundaries that span El Camino Real and that would really undermine guiding principles of the boundary process. I'm baffled why those scenarios did not come out earlier in the committee sessions. Seems really like a missed opportunity.

Diversity can be implemented in the separate school assignment process. Now - the diversity of Stevenson (PACT choice) is the lowest in the district (Economic Disadvantaged). It is so isolated - because of the assignment process. Former Trustee Lambert, in the past, has mentioned how much the Monta Loma (not even to say TH and LA) diversity suffers by the student and family exits to ST.

Racial category diversity is not the same as Economic Disadvantage diversity, Stevenson - has actually a rather wide range of ancestor-cultural diversity (look at drop-off times). However - even the Hispanic category at Stevenson, is much less Economic Disadvantaged that the district average.

Trustee Lambert was a member of the failed BATF. I hope he, and other such former BATF members, do not try to destroy this process, by incessant "minority reports". The Superintendent has given the charge to his administrative task force. If you do not like 'the charge' and 'the process', resign from his group in protest. If you are a member and you do not think the task force has taken your concerns as paramount: Then just take your much superior process (???, TBD) directly to the Board. The Board will then decide if they want to VOTE to dump the process that Rudolph has set up with the professional demographers.

There is 'suppose to be' 20% more money to spend on each Target Student at the school where that student attends. (LCFF legislation/LCAP regulations). This means - there should be a documented almost 20% more educationally focused programs at the TH and Castro campuses - based on their high Target Student percentages. The recent experience at Huff - shows that only a dedicated Principal, organizing a dedicated staff and school community - can significantly turn Target Student academic achievement around. That is why Heidi Smith earned national recognition - she changed the focus. She made a focus on the disadvantaged kids that has been lacking. If a school only has one focus- the students of the advantaged - it will never achieve what Smith and staff did at Huff.

@Steve Nelson: good point on Strevenson but what does it look like for enrollment policies to improve diversity at neighborhood schools. Sounds like bussing to me.. unpopular and infeadibke in our district.

It appears to me that part of the reason Principal Heidi Smith was sucessful narrowing the achievent gap was a relatively smaller low income and ELL students at Huff in comparison to other schools in the district. This makes a compelling case for *more* income diversity in MVWSD schools, not less. The new boundaries appear to create WAY more segregated schools than existing boundaries. In liberal Bay Area 2017 it's sad we're moving on that direction. And it seems that me that the diversity factor was avoided to make the boundary process smoother but will ultimately prove short sighted and a missed opportunity.

This is interesting. It does make some sense to keep the kids of one neighborhood together. It's really unfortunately it has to come at the expense of diversity. I do believe kids learn more overall and grow into better adults when they have exposure to a more diverse group of people. However, I don't consider my neighborhood school to be diverse. 75% of primarily one racial group is not diverse in my book, regardless of what that racial group is.

It looks like with these new boundaries Theuerkauf will become really, really small. It already barely has two classes per grade, right? Now with the Whisman neighborhood getting moved to Slater, will Theuerkauf even have enough kids to stay open? I understand many of it's current students are bused in from the Castro neighborhood because their school is full, but Castro will be expanding, so Theurkauf will lose those kids too.

It's strange that such a beautifully renovated campus is (and will become more) under-utilized. Just curious how that will work.

Diversity Now? Good question. Huff, under the previous principals (and API academic testing) was not above District average for Economically Disadvantaged students! (Dr. Lambert is wrong on this one, as other micro-economic research nationwide tends to show). Here is the link to the state MVWSD data, you can confirm for yourself. click in the "School" box to switch schools
Web Link

2011 API 735 for Economically Disadvantaged in MVWSD (800 was the standard)
2011 API 783 for ED in Theuerkauf HIGHEST! 218/290 students tested were ED
2011 API 752 for ED in Bubb 121/167 students tested were ED
2011 API 747 for ED in Huff 61/368 students tested were ED (before Ms. Smith!)

new Dashboard, Economic Disadvantaged
start to enter the school name in the box
Web Link

MVWSD 2016 Math LOW 40.8 pts below standard (1227 ED students)
Huff 2016 Math HIGH 13.1 pts above standard (15/265 students tested) (after Ms. Smith programs. QED)
TH 2016 Math Low 38.7 pts below standard (126/170 students tested)
Bubb 2016 Math Low 42 pts below standard (72/273 students tested)


Bussing does now exist in our district! From the Whisman area (Creekside Pk and Whisman Pk pickups) and mostly used by low income students. (by law no charge).

Bussing could exist - for a new assignment system. 300 students per day are brought over ECR to the two overcrowded K-5 sites South of ECR. Here is the question Blakely asked in public [it has to do with the 'better off' single family residential area very near Castro, Gemelio.] See community comment video for meeting of 11/17/16 "The following member of the public addressed the Board: • Laura Blakely" SAATF Update discussion.
= paraphrase=
If (perchance) the Walking Distance to Castro was considered (and crossing ECR from South to North is possible :), the single family homes and kids in Gemelio could join kids from West Shoreline and ... ?

Or is Castro an Hispanic-only school by design? This all is not curious - it is just very very very hard public policy.

Thank you @Steven Nelson for your detailed response.

I'm sure that Ms Smith is doing a great job but in 2016, there were 15 ED students at Huff. I think it must be way easier to focus on improving scores for those few than 126 at TH or 72 at Bubb.

Also, question about the bussing. I'm familiar with the bus but it was my understanding that this is only for kids that are within the schools boundaries (e.g. The SHoreline West kids assigned to Bulb). We aren't bussing in kids to Bubb and Huff outside of their attendance boundaries.

Since the new boundaries for Bubb and Huff don't include any areas from north of ECR, there are no kids to bus. Are you suggesting with a new assignment system that we give priority to economically disadvantaged intradistrict transfer kids over kids who zone into the neighborhood to preserve diversity? That I see as untenable for our community. Or are you suggesting something else? Would appreciate your explanation. Thanks!

@Steven Nelson. Also on your last point, it was my impression that Castro was conceived to be a school specialized for ELL and disadvantaged children when they decided to build out Mistral separately. With this decision Castro would get a lot of extra state funding and that justified the very expensive on a second site. Was that the intention? Thanks!

"research shows that under-performing students can thrive when there's greater diversity in the classroom. " Really? What research is that? Look at the Tinsley project in Palo Alto/EPA. It was implemented over 30 years ago and is basically a failed project both academically and socially. Likewise for "bussing" which is what "diversifying" is akin to. Diversifying doesn't close the achievement gap but it allows those community members whose kids are not affected to pretend they're empathetic, wonderful people.

A case in point would be those community members influential in redrawing the Shoreline West boundary. It's interesting/ funny that the Shoreline West kids will be included within the Landels boundary rather than attending Castro which is one to five blocks away from their homes. This is to prevent communities from being torn apart? The Shoreline West families were never part of the Landels community and sending those kids to an already impacted school where they have to cross Shoreline Rd doesn't make sense. I guess it's easy to be PC if it doesn't effect your kid...

A large portion of the current Landels kids will be zoned for Slater when it opens. I don't know the exact numbers but I do know it won't be impacted when that group leaves. My neighborhood is also currently zoned for Landels and will be moved over to Theuerkauf. The concern is keeping them together at Landels or splitting them between Landels and Castro.

I had a good friend, now deceased far too soon; let's call him B. B was a superb lawyer who lived in a Bay Area upper middle class community similar to my neighborhood in MV. He was passionate about the quality of both public schools and especially of public school boards. He felt that in order to be able to deal with the complex legal and financial problems facing public schools, each school board must include one first-rate civil lawyer and one first-rate accountant, both working pro bono. He did pro bono work as a for all of his local school boards, and sat in every board meeting in an advisory capacity.

I look at the huge problems facing the Mountain View Whisman school board, and I wonder if it has any affordable access to legally and financially talented people that my friend B would have insisted that they have. I think not. They look to me like they're just a bunch of well-meaning fools who are well over their abilities to provide any such vitally important guidance.

@ William, yeah, I wonder a bit too. I got a quote thrown my way "Trustee Nelson' doesn't always speak the truth" when I brought up a statistical study, from Stanford, that showed our academic gap problem - correlated against a national test achievement database and using 95% "confidence intervals". Sorry - 'cause of our high and low socio-economic parents, and family education attainment difference, this result is extremely believable.

How many Board members could get their head around THIS distance-based school assignment process? from
Web Link

"The Belmont-Redwood Shores School District assigns students to schools using an algorithm. The school assignment algorithm developed by the District is based on a linear optimization (also known as linear programming) function known as minimum-cost flow formula. Companies use similar linear optimization functions to make important business decisions. For example, airlines use a linear optimization function to determine flight routes that are most direct and minimize fuel costs, and shipping companies use a similar method to move packages from warehouses to stores to customers most efficiently.

In our case, the District uses a linear optimization method to assign incoming students to schools close to their homes and within the limits of the enrollment capacity at each school. The assignment algorithm allows the District to find the optimal solution to minimize the total distance traveled by all students to their schools. One way to think about the District’s goal is to imagine a pedometer attached to every student for one morning’s walk to school; the optimal assignment would minimize the sum of the distances of all students’ walks to their schools. Instead of pedometers, however, the walking distance for all students is determined by querying the same Web-based mapping service, such as Bing Maps.

The Belmont-Redwood Shores School District assigns students to schools using the algorithm to minimize total walking distance traveled collectively by all students being assigned in that calculation. etc. "

There are probably at least 45 parents that know and use this type of stuff regularly, and another 25 who could easily program it! I rather doubt a majority of the board even knows what "a linear programming algorithm" is.

But just maybe - they will surprise US!

What's more important is safety and that kids do not have to cross big streets when riding bikes or walking.

I hate to point out the obvious, but having been a student of diversity, where half the school was from working class/ poor white neighborhoods and half from WC/ poor Hispanic neighborhoods, nobody got an education. I recently went to my 30 year class reunion and it was super obvious that the kids subjected to the middle schools and high schools with the high diversity were negatively effected (fortunately, we did have neighborhood grade schools back then). This is because all the resources were divided in half and there were never ever enough at level courses for anyone. Gang issues were ongoing and didn't resolve until the schools closed. Remaining schools were left with "integrating" gang members into the school system. Many kids were bullied out of school and never graduated. If you saw the difference in truggles these kids have endured throughout their life because of the focus being on diversity and integration rather than education, you'd realize this is not a compromise. The focus must be on education. This wasn't in some far off state like Mississippi, it was right here in Silicon Valley, practically next door. The whole problem existed because there were not enough neighborhood schools. Get it?

I'm not a racist, I love the diversity of Mountain View and am heartbroken that over the years, we've seen such huge development that our lower priced housing has virtually vanished. I'm just saying you can't fix the problem by moving kids all over the place, inconveniencing families and neighborhoods, and you can't fix it with the belief that changing boundary lines works. It doesn't.

How about the concept of minimizing the pain and disruption to families with the boundary changes?

How many more years do we want people to have to wait before a new set of boundaries and enrollment rules get decided on?

How about doing the job in a manner that is objective and can be explained to and understood by the general public to accomplish objective goals that are measurable?

Even if we had the smartest most capable and collaborative people on the Board and the best Super in the USA, it would still be a massive time consuming political nightmare to come up with jerymandered boundary lines that would make all our schools more "diverse" according to any definition of that subjective term.

We can balance enrollment numbers so each school has roughly 3 strands worth of students, ie about 450 kids. If we do that with the fewest changes to the existing lines, then we negatively effect the fewest families and by the lowest pain level we can. Nobody loses big, but the over crowded schools get relief.

Throwing demographics and subjective "diversity" into the mix, means that politics and divisiveness will totally take over the process and end with everyone pissed-off at everyone else and all other business the district needs to do will all be poisoned and delayed by that one issue.

It took our district 4 years of political games and division to go from the passage of Measure G to finally deciding to have 9 schools open and renovated by 2019.

Families with K-8 kids have found workable ways to get to/from school with the current boundaries for many years. We know which streets are dangerous to cross.

Mass bussing of kids across the district may create subjective "diversity" for our neighborhood schools, but no lines will achieve that.

How are the families of Whisman/Slater going to feel about finding the new Slater so over enrolled that dozens of neighborhood families will be forced out?

I like the comment from ST Parent that I think reflects some truth - "Throwing demographics and subjective "diversity" into the mix, means that politics and divisiveness will totally take over the process and end with everyone pissed-off at everyone else and all other business the district needs to do will all be poisoned and delayed by that one issue."

This happened once before, with (IMO) the BATF. Read the many articles of the Voice over the half year of that exercise. Although it did not 'delay all the other business of the district' it was quite bad (IMO - but Dr. Lambert, member of the BATF and Trustee at the time may disagree).

We will see, how good an administrator Dr. Rudolph may or may not be. The SAATF is his Superintendent's committee.

On the issue of residency checks, I would certainly start this process as quickly as possible for the over-crowded schools and then expand that to all schools, including Stevenson and Mistral. We should make sure that only those living within the district can attend any of our schools and only those within a designated neighborhood may attend that neighborhood school.

For many years now we have heard claims that families have been routinely cheating the residency rules, but nobody can point to any specific examples and nobody has a clue about how many families have lied or failed to update the district about the actual address where the kids live.

The problem may be severe or may be trivial, but we should find out for certain what the numbers are and take action as needed.

We don't need rumors on this issue, we need facts.