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Published on 10/12/1998 All articles from this issue

Los Altos Rotarians take Measure H schools tour

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By Clyde Noel

Special to the Town Crier

The nine aging schools in the Los Altos School District need repair, rehabilitation and additional classrooms, say school officials. With a $94.7 million construction bond on the Nov. 3 ballot, school administrators turned to the Los Altos Rotary Club for help to pass the initiative.

Dick Hasenpflug, chairman of the Citizen's Financial Advisory Committee for the bond measure, said more Rotary Club volunteers are needed to help get out the vote.

"This bond issue has a two-thirds vote requirement to pass, and we need 11,000 votes. We need volunteers to call everyone in the district. We have been able to identify 5,000 yes votes but we need another 6,000 to pass Measure H," Hasenpflug said.

Superintendent Marge Gratiot, a Rotarian herself, discussed the problems in each of the nine campus buildings, and offered a personal tour of Covington School last Thursday.

"The schools need significant repair. Heating and ventilation systems don't work properly, electrical systems are inadequate and the roofs leak," Gratiot said. "Covington was built 48 years ago, and to reopen and renovate the school we need to make it safe for earthquakes and provide special retrofitting."

Rotarians who visited Covington found the dated radiant heater not only on its proverbial last legs, but also impossible to get parts for. Water runs all over the floor when in operation, district officials said. Wires are exposed in different locations. The roof leaks and pavements are cracked.

"Covington and Loyola schools were all built about 50 years ago, and although Covington needs the most work, the newest school, Bullis, has the greatest structural needs," Gratiot said.

Gratiot told the Rotarians that the schools also are overcrowded. "Springer School has 600 students enrolled when it was built for 400. That's overcrowding," Gratiot said.

"Forty percent of all our classrooms are now portables."