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Published on 11/02/1998 All articles from this issue

Los Altos primary schools win big with overwhelming passage of bond measure

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By Linda Taaffe

Town Crier Staff Writer

Placing a $94.7 school construction bond on the general election ballot was a big gamble that paid off for the Los Altos School District.

Measure H passed with 10,084 votes - 75.4 percent - during the Nov. 3 election. Only 3,297 - 24.6 percent- voted no. The bond needed a two-thirds majority vote, or 10,720 yes votes, to pass.

"It was really a risk for us to go out at a general election because it's much harder to pass (a bond) than in an election where there's a lot of voters rather than just parents getting out to vote," said Marge Gratiot, superintendent of the Los Altos School District. "We wanted to do it soon and had confidence in the town."

Voter turnout at the election was twice as high compared to previous special elections held in the school district, Gratiot said. Of the approximately 25,000 registered voters in the district, 13,381 turned out at the polls.

Campaign co-chairwoman Nanette Freedland said by 10:45 election night, when the yes vote count was up 67 percent, the campaign committee decided Measure H was victorious. She said, "Once they started counting, it went up ahead and kept going."

Campaign co-chairwoman Tania Granoff said getting the needed two-thirds majority vote would be tough considering that less than 15 percent of the community includes parents with children currently enrolled in district schools. She said to win with a 75 percent majority was "glorious. This just indicates how supportive our community is of the school district. We would not have won unless we had such broad-based support."

From the start of the campaign in early August, campaign manager Larry Tramutola had said the campaign committee would work to win the election one vote at a time, which volunteers did until the polls closed. "That's how we won. We knew the support was there, it was just a matter of getting people out of the kitchen and workplace and into the polling place," Granoff said. "We called people reminding them to vote until we infiltrated every home. Sometimes we called three times."

Funds raised through Measure H will be used to repair and renovate the district's nine schools and add permanent classrooms to handle increased enrollment and to replace portable classrooms.

The plan will take about six years to complete, according to school officials, and will cost property owners about $55 a year for the next 25 years for each $100,000 in assessed property value.

Measure H was among the three school construction bonds to pass in the Santa Clara County Nov. 3. It was the first construction bond measure in the Los Altos School District to be put before voters in almost 40 years.

Gratiot said the district plans to begin minor construction by summer 1999.