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Published on 11/25/1996 All articles from this issue

LASD says farewell to 13-year veteran Faillace

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Town Crier Staff Report

After 13 years on the elementary school board, Philip Faillace is resigning to serve on the Mountain View-Los Altos Union High School Board, to which he was elected this month.

A public reception to honor Faillace's years of service to the Los Altos School District Board of Trustees will be from 5 to 7 p.m. on Dec. 3 at the Hillview Community Center Social Hall.

Faillace served as president of the LASD board three times in his years of service. During his tenure, the district started the Los Altos Educational Foundation; selected a new superintendent Marge Gratiot; dealt with a request to unify all Mountain View and Los Altos high school and elementary districts into one large district; passed and then renewed the first school parcel tax in Santa Clara County; LASD was named the number one school district in the Bay Area by the San Francisco Chronicle; decided not to move the sixth graders to the intermediate schools; and was one of the only districts in the county to implement the class size reduction program in three full grades.

Throughout the years, Faillace has kept the district focused on its primary mission: the academic achievement of its students.

"Phil has consistently kept us focused," Gratiot said. "It's easy to succumb to one more good idea, or another new curriculum, or the fad of the month. But whenever I am tempted, I know Phil will ask, 'How will this affect the achievement of our students?' "

Gratiot said the district will miss Faillace's brilliance and his analytical skills.

"He was always available to help me think through difficult issues, and he has a unique perspective on things," Gratiot said.

Faillace is a Los Altos computer scientist who graduated from Princeton University. He has a master's degree from Stanford University and a doctoral degree from Oxford University.

His two daughters graduated from the Los Altos School District; one is now a student at Princeton and the other attends Los Altos High School.

For more information on Faillace's public reception, call the Los Altos School District offices at 941-4010.