On Feb. 9, the LASD trustees discussed reconvening a Los Altos School District Measure N related committee that actually has power – the ad hoc 10th Site Committee. We have been hearing again and again at a slew of Los Altos School District board and special meetings just how unimportant the Measure N Citizens Oversight Committee (COC) actually is. And what a relief that the COC is powerless, because the COC actually has a Bullis Charter representative on it!
Citizens Oversight Committee is Unimportant
At the Jan. 26 special LASD board meeting, Mark Kelley, attorney and principal at DWK, explained at some length during his presentation just how constrained the role of the Measure N Citizens Oversight Committee (COC) is. Its job is not to say if the money is well-spent, or the contractors are good, or the site and plans meet district needs. Rather the only thing the COC members determine is — after money has already been spent — was that on “what’s allowable under the bond.” [Lalahpolitco: If you recall the bond language, a whole lot is allowable, and there is no actual promise of or plan for what what happens first. There are just bond “priorities.” We do have candidate campaign promises though.]
A Committee that Actually Matters – ad hoc 10th Site
On Jan. 26 Dave Kelley suggested the formation of a board ad hoc committee containing two board members and some citizens and experts who would seek out and negotiate for land and who would interview and negotiate with potential builders. This is a committee that would do something that matters. This committee would obviously not meet in public.
Wasting no time, at its Feb. 9 board meeting, the trustees considered “reconvening its ad hoc 10th Site Committee to work with a broker in identifying a possible additional school site.” The most recent report of that committee was January 2013. The board discussion Feb. 9, 2015, suggests the original members will all be retained, but that two people may be added: Duncan MacVicar, who represented the City of Los Altos on the Superintendent’s Task Force on Enrollment Growth Committee; Mark Goines, ex-LASD trustee who is rumored to be intimately involved with the allegedly available for purchase $70M site the board has been eyeing.
- Tamara Logan, board member
- Steve Taglio, board member
- Tom McGovern, LASD parent and commercial real estate broker
- Nancy Morimoto, LASD parent and north of El Camino Real resident
- Tom Campbell, CACF representative
- Randy Kenyon, LASD staff
- New, Duncan MacVicar, City of Los Altos, Civic Center Plan Committee 2008
- New, Mark Goines, ex-trustee LASD
CONCLUSION
Lalahpolitico: Tsk. Tsk. The board and staff are snubbing a key stakeholder again. BCS supported Measure N and provided campaign volunteers. LASD trustee Vladamir Ivanovich has said to the Bullis Charter community, “You have to trust us.” Yet he defames them as “one issue” and doesn’t trust them at all. How come this is not at all reciprocal? Pleez xplane.
[…] the Feb. 9 Los Altos School District board meeting, the board reconvened the powerful ad hoc board 10th Site Real Estate Committee…adding Mark Goines This committee is authorized to search for sites, select a site and negotiate a land […]