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Published on 05/26/1999 All articles from this issue

LASD continues school boundary discussions

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By Linda Taaffe / Town Crier Staff Writer

School boundaries topped the agenda at the regular meeting of the Los Altos School District Board of Trustees May 17 as board members further reviewed attendance reconfigurations submitted to them May 10 by the boundary committee.

The scenarios, which have some students commuting to their second closest schools in order to keep populations at each school below 480 students, have piqued concerns over traffic patterns and the splitting of neighborhood communities.

Board members considered the possibility of allowing some students to choose to attend either their old school or their newly-designated school under a grandfather clause.

Board member Victor Reid said the board should consider open enrollment for anyone within the district who wishes to attend Covington School, citing the school could be attractive to some families living outside of its boundary since it will be new; students won't have to move off-site for construction; and there's a good possibility the student-teacher ratio will be low in grades 4, 5, and 6 during the first few years after its opening.

Reid also suggested busing the approximately 120 students living in the northern boundary area in Mountain View to Covington School in order to allow those within walking distance of Almond School to remain there.

The district's boundary committee has worked since February to develop ways to redistribute student populations when Covington School is reopened as the district's seventh elementary school in 2001.

All but about 8.5 percent of the boundary areas - or the placement of about 237 K-6 students - closely mirror one another in each of the four scenarios.

The board is scheduled to set up a field trip and walk those neighborhoods with the most differences in the scenarios.