Schools Roundup
The Mountain View School District Board of Trustees met Aug. 30 to reevaluate the pros and cons of combining the Mountain View School District with Whisman School District.
Top concerns included how a merger would serve the educational needs of students in a better way than each district is capable of currently doing independently; how a merger would impact resources, grants, community partnerships, staffs; and whether a merger would create any financial benefits through federal aid and categorical funding.
A merger could pose financial complications: Both districts recently passed bonds for school renovation work. Whisman's bond is at fixed rate and Mountain View's is at floating rate.
"I think we have a good list of reasonable things we want to know before we make a decision to proceed or not to proceed," said board member Rose Marie Filicetti.
School officials said the meeting was a basic step in the process of reassessing some key questions of a possible merger.
"Everything being discussed are issues that have already been raised in the past," said Mountain View superintendent Trish Bubenik.
Although talk of combining the two districts has continued over past years, school officials said both districts have recently completed long-term strategic plans, which brought the issue to the forefront again.
Both districts have reported dropping enrollments over the past five years. The enrollment at Mountain View, which opened a sixth elementary school last year, has remained relatively flat with about 3,150 students expected for this school year, Bubenik said.
School officials attribute low enrollment to the area's skyrocketing housing market, which has pushed many families out of Mountain View. Fewer students means less district funding for Whisman and Mountain View, which are revenue limit districts and receive state funding on a per student basis. Basic aid districts, such as the Mountain View-Los Altos Union High School District, receive funding set by local property tax values.
If Whisman and Mountain View combine, the district would include two middle schools and seven elementary schools.
A merger could provide a single school district the opportunity to balance school and class size, generate more funds by increasing enrollment and pool more resources.
A merger would also mean one less superintendent and a possible name change for one or both districts, according to school officials.
"I think it's kind of interesting that there's not a ground swell of people out there pushing this," Filicetti said. "Our first job is for the children. This has to be right for the children."
The board named Carol Fisher to the merger committee along with Filicetti and Bubenik. The committee will meet with Whisman as the next step of the process.
"This is a slow-moving process," Filicetti said, adding, a merger could take as many as two to three years if approved.
Santa Rita secretary 'Employee of Year'
Marilyn Arnett, school secretary at Santa Rita School for the past 21 years, was recently named the Los Altos School District's Classified Employee of the Year.
School officials said Arnett has held the school together through several principals, enrollment fluctuations and changes in teachers. For many Santa Rita families, she is "the glue that holds the school together."
Arnett is known for her ability to know all of the students at the school, their families and their situations. If a child is not picked up after school, for example, she knows which relative to call on which days, said superintendent Marge Gratiot.
"When I was the principal at Santa Rita, the students thought I worked for Mrs. Arnett. It was quite clear to them who really ran the school," Gratiot said.
Prior to being the Santa Rita secretary, Arnett worked as a teacher and a counselor. She graduated from Arizona State University and has a master's degree from Stanford University in guidance and counseling.
A Los Altos resident, she and her husband Tom have three grown sons.