Good to have discretion. I think the Superintendent's policy warning is very important for the Board (majority) to remember.

If the Board does not "take action" but instead lets the Superintendent alone fill the member spots, set up the committee and it's workings: it obviously becomes a Superintendent's (administration) committee under board Bylaw. Such an 'administrative committee' is not covered by the Open Meeting Acts, it does not have to have open meetings and pre-publish it's agenda, and does not have to pre-publish it's materials.

I think this IS appropriate in this instance. If a family then wants to appeal to the Board - it will become a public agenda item, and then the Board will have to publish this information! That in itself may keep the Board in line - not granting scores of "I WANT, just BECAUSE" exemptions.

But of course there will be many other Opinions.

Well, I'll say one thing. Assistant Superintendent Carmen Ghysels is an excellent choice to head up this body. She has excellent experience in the district in what it takes to make exceptions to rules to accommodate those who don't think rules and policies apply to them while everyone else tries to follow them for the good of the organization and community. An excellent candidate from the School Board would be Mr. Gutierrez who likewise has similar experience on the record. Either way I doubt there will be much transparency involved which will make any such committee a complete disaster. And lest we not forget, one person's hardship might just be another persons excuse for getting their way at the expense of others equally or more deserving.

Forcing kids to attend low income ESL schools that are stretched thin will not be effective.
Instead, attract middle class families by offering specialized programs/tracks in those schools.

@Motovite. Oh please. Are you listening to yourself ? Don't you get that it is YOU, the parents, that differentiate a good school from an ok school? Who do you think creates your vague 'specialized programs/tracks in those schools'? why yes, it is the small subset of parents at huff and Bubb and the choice schools that make the schools great. It is the PTA that supports the teachers and programming that the in turn make the school great. You are obviously not involved in doing anything for the schools or you would not have such a simplicistic view of the world. I'm guessing you already have your application in for Bullis MV as well. Easier solution for 'the middle class'

Also , the beauty of this new exemption process is :once word gets out that family x got an exemption, all the other families will also demand such an exemption. It's very hard to hide where you live from an elementary school neighborhood. Everyone eventually figures out where other kids live via playdates, carpools etc. All it takes is one disgruntled parent whose exemption request was denied to call the voice and favoritism game over for the district. I am supportive of the new exemption process. No more favorites and overcrowding of some schools while others are underenrolled

Also, the beauty of new exemption process is :once word gets out thatfamily x got an exemption, all the other families will also demand the same. It's very hard to hide where you live from an elementary school neighborhood. Everyone eventually figures out where other kids live via playdates, carpools etc. All it takes is one disgruntled parent whose exemption request was denied to call the voice and favoritism game over for the district. I am supportive of the new exemption process. No more favorites and overcrowding of some schools while others are underenrolled

@ski6 from Cuesta Park

If your child attends Bubb then you have no idea what you're talking about. Your school already has (and probably always has had) a nice quorum of parents willing and able to help out in the classroom to actually make a difference. Some schools in this district don't have that and WON'T have that until the district makes the first move to entice more families with the capacity to be more involved in supporting the school to actually attend their neighborhood schools instead of attending Stevenson, Mistral, or yes, moving to Cuesta Park to attend Bubb.

There is a large number (personal friends of mine in fact) who used to live in my neighborhood but moved to your neighborhood before their kids started school. Instead of staying and making their old neighborhood school great, they ran away and are now making Bubb great. This trend will not stop until the district finds creative ways to make less desirable schools more attractive. Simply doing more of the same won't change anything, and will leave some schools with few parents to support them.

And a family in my neighborhood choosing to attend Bullis is no different those who moved across town to attend "the better school". Or those who from the beginning told their real estate agent, "We don't want a house that feeds to X school." Sounds familiar? We all are just doing the best we can to get our kids a decent education.

Ski6, I used to think like you until I saw for myself.
Canela is right, it is hard to do anything with 10-20 parents doing stuff for the whole school while the rest can’t/won’t help.
And no I am not applying to Bullis. It will be severely inderresourced for a while.
if they are planning to use title 1 funding they are naive. It is not that much money if you take into account how needy the population is (and you won’t get it unless there is a lot of needy students). And if middle class makes up a core of Bullis student body, they will be resorting to donations. MV folks however cannot shell out $5 k per year or they would live in Los Altos :) and it won’t be a sustainable model id only half of the parents pitches in, and the other half is freeriding.

Sorry you are both wrong. Bubb runs on the backs of about 30 parents that do 90% of the work. Your friends that left your neighborhood to attend Bubb are likely not volunteering at Bubb either. Every PTA I've experienced is the same... I do agree that the donations to PTA are higher at some schools with higher income neighborhoods. But make no mistake that less than 10% of the parents do 90% of the work no matter what school you are at. And wait till everyone gets to the great equalizer middle schools of Crittenden and Graham. If you really knew what went on at these 2 middle schools with at risk kids day to day, your head would spin. So yes I do know what I'm talking about

There are the 10% do-ers and the 90% takers with regards to volunteering and help. We watched parental involvement dwindle greatly over a 5 year period when we were there. Older helping families moved on the the replacements don't want to help.