Los Altos Town Crier

News Flash

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The Day Worker Center of Mountain View was among a host of honorees named Mayor's Award program winners during a Monday ceremony at Mountain View City Hall. Mayor Tom Means honored the worker center for its "human services contribution."

News

Sewer appeals trickle in as deadline approaches

Opened your property-tax bill yet? Los Altos residents have a reason to pull that document out of their stack of bills sooner rather than later, because sewer fees have increased this year – for some residents, more than quadrupling – and the deadline to appeal individual increases is Dec. 1, before the bill’s Dec. 10 deadline.

Engineering Services Manager Jim Gustafson said the city had received 69 appeals as of last week out of approximately 11,000 residential ratepayers. By contrast, 174 residents formally protested the sewer rate change earlier this year, which changed billing from a flat rate to a water-usage-based fee.

Cover Story

Teaching technology: District testing new ways to integrate technology into everyday instruction

For 42 Egan Junior High School students, binders and notebooks are about to become a thing of the past. The seventh- and eighth-graders are preparing to use laptops in the classroom and at home on a daily basis as part of a pilot program initiated in the Los Altos School District.

Integrating technology into the classroom is becoming a priority for the district located in the heart of Silicon Valley. This year, the district also launched The Einstein Project, designed to teach technology to K-8 students – and teachers – throughout the district.

Sports

Mitty stuns St. Francis

St. Francis High’s up-and-down football season reached new depths Friday night. Needing to beat winless Mitty to bolster their already slim chances of making the postseason, the Lancers lost 21-14.

The stunning home defeat all but guaranteed St. Francis will miss the Central Coast Section playoffs for the third year in a row. The Lancers need to finish at least fifth in the West Catholic Athletic League to be eligible for the postseason, and a lot of things have to go their way in this final week of the regular season for them to place that high. St. Francis (1-4-1 league, 3-5-1 overall) not only has to upset first-place Bellarmine (5-1, 8-1) on the road Friday, but it needs Sacred Heart Cathedral (4-2, 5-4) to beat St. Ignatius (2-4, 4-5) and Valley Christian (4-2, 7-2) to upend Riordan (1-4-1, 1-7-1).

Community

2008 Town Crier Holiday Fund off to good start as it begins ninth year

The David and Lucile Packard Foundation of Los Altos is anchoring the annual Town Crier Holiday Fund drive for the ninth straight year. The foundation has committed $20,000 a year as a matching challenge to the fund over the next four years.

Launched in 2000, the fund assists local non-profit organizations whose work directly benefits the needy.

Community Briefs

Business

Numbers reflect less distressed home-sales market in Silicon Valley

The Silicon Valley housing market represents an “island of stability,” according to Paul Cardus, Silicon Valley Association of Realtors executive officer.

Cardus, guest speaker at the Kiwanis Club of Los Altos meeting Nov. 4, offered an update on the local housing market.

Schools

Mtn. View Whisman and CSMA keep art alive

Although the school year is still young for students in the Mountain View Whisman School District (MVWSD), budding artists and musicians are already beginning to make their marks and hit the right notes in the classroom. Unlike many California districts, Mountain View Whisman made sure that arts education stayed in the curriculum when it came to budget and program cuts.

Through creative collaboration with the Community School of Music and Arts (CSMA), the non-profit provider of arts education to the district’s elementary school students for more than 20 years, the district has scheduled more concentrated study in the arts this year than in the past.

Books

On the lookout for reviewers

Read any good books lately? The Town Crier is interested in your takes on recent books you've read. Reviews should be in the 400-500 word range. For more information, contact Book Editor Traci Newell at tracin@latc.com.

Travel

Send us a postcard

When you go on your next trip, take the Town Crier with you. Drop us a line from your far-away destination, send us a photo and we'll publish it. Better yet, send us a picture from that destination with you reading a Town Crier. You'll forever hold a special place in our hearts. Contact Travel Editor Eliza Ridgeway at elizar@latc.com with your correspondence. Thanks a bunch, and we'll see you in the Town Crier.