Schools

Los Altos School District Facilities Brainstorming

Written by lalahpolitico

Jan. 8, 2015 – FMPC committee participants “pitched” their favorite brainstormed Los Altos School District facilities “solution ideas” to the whole committee. Then committee members cast five votes for their favorites. Ultimately four of the ideas will be examined by the FMPC  in more detail over the next two meetings: Jan 21 and Feb 4(?), 2015.

Two of the four “winning” solutions assume new land; two solutions involve two or more LASD schools sharing an existing site and giving a vacated existing site to Bullis Charter School for exclusive use.

Los Altos School District FMPC Meeting Jan, 8, 2015 from Norma Schroder on Vimeo.

Here are some recommended portions for your viewing.

Use the video slider to move to the time where  you want to start to sample.

0:00 Sang Yoo – board member of Bullis Charter School – explained how the current camp school is already a community resource for – scouting, coaches meeting, soccer practices, etc.  Any new site for the charter would also be a community resource the same as any LASD school site.

13:40 ** Edsel Clark (Superintendent for Curriculum) – Magnet/ChoiceLab School. Move an elementary (either Santa Rita or Oak ) to its Jr. High, either Egan or Blach, sharing that site. BCS gets exclusive use of the vacated elementary. The Jr. High site without Egan or Blach, become a magnet site with k-6 or k-8.

28:00 ** Brenda Dyckman (Principal Egan Jr. High) – Preschool at both Jr. Highs. Covington shrinks to 3-6. Covington TK – 2 goes to Egan. BCS k-8 is placed on Covington site, sharing the land. At Blach, TK – 2 from some school. The affected 2nd elementary site becomes an LASD magnet program.

33:00 ** Louise Katz (Balanced Mountain View) – Acquire Two New Small Sites [if you can’t get a single bigger one]. One for younger grades, the other for older. Preferably in NEC or N. Los Altos. BCS gets a vacated elementary school. Do a middle school conversion (move 6 to Jr. Highs)  to create space at the other existing k-6 schools.

36:50 James Reilly (Mountain View Resident, Covington Parent) – Acquire a single new site in NEC. Put BCS on it. It is optional to do a middle school conversion.

44:30 **Mega Middle School – Katie Kinnaman (Principal LASD Gardner Bullis School). Put 4 seperate themed middle schools on a single Jr. High sized site — either Covington, Egan or Blach. Each theme middle school will be no more than 500 students for a total mega site population of 1600 to 2000. Some themes would be environment, STEM, performing arts, community service, etc. If Covington is moved, it should go to Blach. In that case, BCS would get Covington.  But which school get which Jr. High site is flexible.  Assumes a middle school conversion.

57:00 The voting process

The Super-scientific Evaluation Method

Solutions above with a ** were among the four which will be reviewed the committee using their fondly nicknamed “Super-scientific Method.”  The participants evaluate the solution against the trustees 4 Policy “Challenges” and against the “14 Criteria” developed by the 2013 Superintendent’s Facilities Task Force.  This is a highly structured process  which you can read more about in  LASD Facilities Master Plan Committee – Some Progress

 

 

About the author

lalahpolitico

Norma Schroder is an economics & market researcher by trade and ardent independent journalist, photographer and videographer by avocation. Enthralled by the growth of the tech industry over the decades, she became fascinated with the business of local politics only in the past several years.

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