Craig et al. -
The only business of the County Committee, until we showed up, has been to approve/disapprove completed petitions based on the 9 criteria. Our Council's resolution was asking them to create a completed petition which would then be evaluated against the 9 criteria. Not one committee member, and staff did not provide much guidance, indicated that they were aware that this was the case. They were in their County Committee mindset.
Part of the job that we were asking them to take on was to define the territory. Different definitions would result in different student head counts. Since no territory definition was specified, no one knew what the actual head count was. The head count argument at this point was, at best, a red herring.
One committee member said that the Council's resolution was too narrow. Hogwash. The Council's resolution merely included the Council's preferences. In my opinion the resolution's contents, other than the request for reorganization, in no way constrained the County Committee, contrary to what that member said.
My overall take was that the members of the County Committee did not want to take on this legally defined, yet novel, task. It appeared that "Any excuse to sink it!" was their motto.
- Steve
P.S. The best reason that was presented for voting us down was that there were no signs that the students were being underserved educationally. If we want success going forward we have to strongly demonstrate that they are being underserved by the current arrangement. This is not new information.
Saturday, January 27, 2007
Friday, January 26, 2007
Ladies and Gentlemen of the Committee:
In observing the presentations and discussions at the last meeting on this subject held in November, numerous competing factors operating in the decision process became abundantly clear:
1. Many citizens of Los Altos Hills are outraged over the treatment received at the hands of the Los Altos School District trustees over a period of thirty years. These citizens feel a loss of community that comes from absence of a neighborhood school.
2. Many other citizens of Los Altos Hills, not affected by the past and recent closure of the schools, are quite satisfied with the existing school district.
3. The citizens of Los Altos Hills cannot cure the problem themselves because they hold only 15% of the total district voting power. Even a Trusteeship, while helpful, would provide only one vote on a five person board.
4. The LASD seems to feel that reopening Bullis school in some form will cure the dissatisfaction problem. The outraged citizens no longer trust the LASD to keep its promises.
5. The affected school districts oppose any redistricting, fearing loss of revenue or loss of control over district boundaries.
6. The Committee is reluctant to add a new district, preferring to consolidate districts rather than spinning off new districts.
7. Some committee members question the metrics behind the formation of a new district. Los Altos Hills believes the metrics are sound.
Given these competing forces at work, a rational decision to redistrict or not to redistrict seems almost impossible to achieve. Any definitive decision will leave at least one party, and possibly more, very unhappy. The committee is being asked to figuratively cut the baby in half, almost like King Solomon of biblical times.
While I strongly support the redistricting request if it can be achieved, a negotiated solution agreeable to all parties seems to be more achievable. Such an agreement must be binding and not rescindable in a year or so at the whim of any party. A rudimentary draft of a "Good Outcome" (GO) Plan is now in existence, and should be built upon.
My plea to you, the Committee, is to take an active role in fixing the very real school problems facing the citizens of Los Altos Hills. Whether the fix is redistricting or a negotiated agreement, the results of the past four years have proven that we need your strong hand to achieve a good outcome. Please do your duty to the good citizens of Los Altos Hills. Thank you for your conscientious duty and for your support.
Sincerely yours,
James W. Steiner,
PresidentHILLS2000/Friends of the Hills
In observing the presentations and discussions at the last meeting on this subject held in November, numerous competing factors operating in the decision process became abundantly clear:
1. Many citizens of Los Altos Hills are outraged over the treatment received at the hands of the Los Altos School District trustees over a period of thirty years. These citizens feel a loss of community that comes from absence of a neighborhood school.
2. Many other citizens of Los Altos Hills, not affected by the past and recent closure of the schools, are quite satisfied with the existing school district.
3. The citizens of Los Altos Hills cannot cure the problem themselves because they hold only 15% of the total district voting power. Even a Trusteeship, while helpful, would provide only one vote on a five person board.
4. The LASD seems to feel that reopening Bullis school in some form will cure the dissatisfaction problem. The outraged citizens no longer trust the LASD to keep its promises.
5. The affected school districts oppose any redistricting, fearing loss of revenue or loss of control over district boundaries.
6. The Committee is reluctant to add a new district, preferring to consolidate districts rather than spinning off new districts.
7. Some committee members question the metrics behind the formation of a new district. Los Altos Hills believes the metrics are sound.
Given these competing forces at work, a rational decision to redistrict or not to redistrict seems almost impossible to achieve. Any definitive decision will leave at least one party, and possibly more, very unhappy. The committee is being asked to figuratively cut the baby in half, almost like King Solomon of biblical times.
While I strongly support the redistricting request if it can be achieved, a negotiated solution agreeable to all parties seems to be more achievable. Such an agreement must be binding and not rescindable in a year or so at the whim of any party. A rudimentary draft of a "Good Outcome" (GO) Plan is now in existence, and should be built upon.
My plea to you, the Committee, is to take an active role in fixing the very real school problems facing the citizens of Los Altos Hills. Whether the fix is redistricting or a negotiated agreement, the results of the past four years have proven that we need your strong hand to achieve a good outcome. Please do your duty to the good citizens of Los Altos Hills. Thank you for your conscientious duty and for your support.
Sincerely yours,
James W. Steiner,
PresidentHILLS2000/Friends of the Hills
Monday, December 11, 2006
Bullis-Purissima Soccer Fields
KEEP LAH FIELDS FOR COMMUNITY AND KIDS ALERT
From Scott Vanderlip
December 10, 2006
Dear Los Altos Hills Residents –
I am concerned about potential loss of community school field space at the Bullis Purissima school site. Although the final LASD plans and any use agreements for the Bullis Fields from LASD are still not finalized for their remodel phase, I think it is important for concerned members of the community to be involved of various options they are proposing since they are under a very tight deadline to submit plans to start construction changes in June 2007. It is important to stress that we don’t know what LASD and LAH Town council will determine for the fieldsm but discussions are certainly underway and it would be helpful if the LAH community was well informed and involved in this important community asset. I hope that I am not too early with this alert but I don’t want to be too late either and be stuck with a decision that Los Altos Hills residents will be sorry they were not better informed about for the next decade or two. This item is planned to heard on the December 14th LAH council meeting agenda.
The Los Altos School District (LASD) is considering significant changes to the community playing fields at the Bullis-Purissima campus and potentially offering exclusive use of those fields for high school aged club soccer organizations as part of the planned remodel project starting in June 2007.
Although this is still in the proposal stage, the only real proposal on the table right now includes:
(1) Extensive grading of the two top Bullis fields into one large field to enable creating one large, artificial turf field that is big enough to support year round high school aged competitive soccer or even possibly a NCAA sized field.
(2) MY-LA Youth Soccer Association (club soccer) has offered to help fund the redevelopment of the fields in exchanged for exclusive use of them during non-school hours. (See emails and plans below)
A big lose for our community
This would be a significant lose-lose for our community and our kids. The Bullis site is the last of the LAH public and accessible community fields (other than the Purissima Little League fields where general public access is limited ) where the community can use the fields after hours for everything from playing catch to flying a kite or organized sports and community uses. This proposal could potentially change the field use from a community field area to primarily a highly used field for out of town high school aged competitive soccer leagues. Big fields (110 Yards) for high school aged soccer activities are hard to find and this field would likely be highly used by these older players.
High School Size or NCAA astro-turf field not needed for K-6 School
The Bullis elementary school site does not need a high school sized (110 Yards by 65 Yards) or NCAA sized artificial turf soccer field for it own K-6 school purposes. This larger field is not necessary to accommodate school PE program, or the younger AYSO soccer organizations games and practices that currently serve more LAH community members than the older MV-LA Youth Soccer organizations or even other organized sports and community activities.
The Town of Los Altos Hills and Los Altos School District should not allow our last precious field and park space to be redeveloped into a high school or adult size all weather/high use soccer field that gives club soccer organizations exclusive use of the fields while limiting community use of the last remaining community field and park space.
Schedule for field redevelopment
LASD is currently moving quickly to submit remodel plans to the state architects office by January 2007 and part of the plans they will be submitted will include this field re-grading project necessary to create this larger soccer field. The field redevelopment project could start as early as June 2007 along with the proposed site redevelopment . This item is suppose to appear on the Los Altos Hills Council agenda on Thursday December 14th since the town may be involved in some of the permitting process. Other financial and use agreements are being discussed between LASD and LAH concerning use of the fields although they have not been made public at this point yet.
Other proposals and costs:
No other proposals are on the table currently that look at simply restoring the top two fields to regular turf fields or proposals that look at other creative uses of the field sites to benefit Los Altos Hills park and recreation community uses. The extensive cost to re-grade the two fields into one field level to create one large soccer field is part of the 10 million dollar site renovation plan using school bond monies. These limited school bond funds should be used for school or fields improvements that can benefit primarily the school aged children during school hours and the local Los Altos Hill community after-school hours. Using our tax dollars to help create a regional club soccer center is not an appropriate use of our school tax dollars.
Field Design:
The current proposal involves a year round, high use artificial-turf solution rather than natural turf. This type of surface is specialized for certain sports and yet it often limits other uses and the original proposal submitted over a year ago included a fence around the field to control access and protect the fragile artificial-turf surface. This is not a field for the Sunday afternoon fly your kite in the neighborhood with your son or daughter.
Other Options:
Field space and flat park space is very scarce in Los Altos Hills, and the BP site is uniquely situated to develop multi-purpose field space and even other natural community park environments. One proposal might be to first restore the lower level turf field to a level acceptable for both soccer practice and games and other field sports and then develop the upper field into both a smaller turf field and other natural wild park / recreation area. We need to explore alternatives for the fields and how to make the best possible school and community use of the fields.
Call to Action:
If you feel the last remaining field space in Los Altos Hills should be better utilized for our school aged children and the Los Altos Hill community, then please stay informed. Most of the decision will rest within the LASD school board but certain permitting issues maybe within the control of the Town of Los Altos Hill.
For additional information, please contact Scott Vanderlip at (650) 948-6455 or by email at scott@inet-sciences.com. This item is suppose to appear on the Los Altos Hills Town Agenda on December 14th, 2006.
References:
To further provide credibility for this current proposal, I have listed two references articles. The first is an email exchange that was obtained from the Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) requested from the LASD school district. The email shown below is a forwarded email from Rodney Robinson (President of the MV-LA Youth Soccer Association to Randy Kenyon (LASD) and then the forwarding and notating that email to the LASD board of trustees. The second is the current set of plans for the Bullis site remodel that shows the high school sized field and optionally the NCAA sized field after grading the top two fields into one larger field.
Reference 1: Email From Rodney Robinson to Randy Kenyon to LASD board of Trustees
--------------
FROM: Randy Kenyon
Sent: Wednesday 7/12/2006 1:27 PM
Subject: FW: Bullis Field development
Fyi: Rodney is the president of MV-LA Youth Soccer Association (club soccer) who presented a proposal to us about a year ago. They would renovate and remodel the fields at Bullis in exchange for exclusive use of them during non-school hours.
Randy Kenyon
Los Altos School District
---- Original Message -----
From: Rodney Robinson
Sent: Thursday, July 6, 2006 7:24 AM
Subject: Bullis field development
Randy –
I am checking in to see if it is a good time to move our Bullis soccer field redevelopment proposal forward. I understand that LASD is reopening Bullis in 2008, we would be delighted to donate funds to redevelop the field.
Let me know if the district is open to working with us. We can be flexible on the use agreement, as we are simply trying to increase the field capacity in the community which will benefit us as well.
Rodney Robinson
------
Reference #2 – Bullis Elementary School (Preliminary Grading Plan: Phase 1- November 8, 2006) This is one document scanned into two graphics.
Figure 1 – Western side of Bullis Site showing fields – The text in the field says “ HIGH SCHOOL SIZED SOCCER FIELD AT 65YD x 110 YD [DASHED]
Figure 2 – Easterly side of Bullis
From Scott Vanderlip
December 10, 2006
Dear Los Altos Hills Residents –
I am concerned about potential loss of community school field space at the Bullis Purissima school site. Although the final LASD plans and any use agreements for the Bullis Fields from LASD are still not finalized for their remodel phase, I think it is important for concerned members of the community to be involved of various options they are proposing since they are under a very tight deadline to submit plans to start construction changes in June 2007. It is important to stress that we don’t know what LASD and LAH Town council will determine for the fieldsm but discussions are certainly underway and it would be helpful if the LAH community was well informed and involved in this important community asset. I hope that I am not too early with this alert but I don’t want to be too late either and be stuck with a decision that Los Altos Hills residents will be sorry they were not better informed about for the next decade or two. This item is planned to heard on the December 14th LAH council meeting agenda.
The Los Altos School District (LASD) is considering significant changes to the community playing fields at the Bullis-Purissima campus and potentially offering exclusive use of those fields for high school aged club soccer organizations as part of the planned remodel project starting in June 2007.
Although this is still in the proposal stage, the only real proposal on the table right now includes:
(1) Extensive grading of the two top Bullis fields into one large field to enable creating one large, artificial turf field that is big enough to support year round high school aged competitive soccer or even possibly a NCAA sized field.
(2) MY-LA Youth Soccer Association (club soccer) has offered to help fund the redevelopment of the fields in exchanged for exclusive use of them during non-school hours. (See emails and plans below)
A big lose for our community
This would be a significant lose-lose for our community and our kids. The Bullis site is the last of the LAH public and accessible community fields (other than the Purissima Little League fields where general public access is limited ) where the community can use the fields after hours for everything from playing catch to flying a kite or organized sports and community uses. This proposal could potentially change the field use from a community field area to primarily a highly used field for out of town high school aged competitive soccer leagues. Big fields (110 Yards) for high school aged soccer activities are hard to find and this field would likely be highly used by these older players.
High School Size or NCAA astro-turf field not needed for K-6 School
The Bullis elementary school site does not need a high school sized (110 Yards by 65 Yards) or NCAA sized artificial turf soccer field for it own K-6 school purposes. This larger field is not necessary to accommodate school PE program, or the younger AYSO soccer organizations games and practices that currently serve more LAH community members than the older MV-LA Youth Soccer organizations or even other organized sports and community activities.
The Town of Los Altos Hills and Los Altos School District should not allow our last precious field and park space to be redeveloped into a high school or adult size all weather/high use soccer field that gives club soccer organizations exclusive use of the fields while limiting community use of the last remaining community field and park space.
Schedule for field redevelopment
LASD is currently moving quickly to submit remodel plans to the state architects office by January 2007 and part of the plans they will be submitted will include this field re-grading project necessary to create this larger soccer field. The field redevelopment project could start as early as June 2007 along with the proposed site redevelopment . This item is suppose to appear on the Los Altos Hills Council agenda on Thursday December 14th since the town may be involved in some of the permitting process. Other financial and use agreements are being discussed between LASD and LAH concerning use of the fields although they have not been made public at this point yet.
Other proposals and costs:
No other proposals are on the table currently that look at simply restoring the top two fields to regular turf fields or proposals that look at other creative uses of the field sites to benefit Los Altos Hills park and recreation community uses. The extensive cost to re-grade the two fields into one field level to create one large soccer field is part of the 10 million dollar site renovation plan using school bond monies. These limited school bond funds should be used for school or fields improvements that can benefit primarily the school aged children during school hours and the local Los Altos Hill community after-school hours. Using our tax dollars to help create a regional club soccer center is not an appropriate use of our school tax dollars.
Field Design:
The current proposal involves a year round, high use artificial-turf solution rather than natural turf. This type of surface is specialized for certain sports and yet it often limits other uses and the original proposal submitted over a year ago included a fence around the field to control access and protect the fragile artificial-turf surface. This is not a field for the Sunday afternoon fly your kite in the neighborhood with your son or daughter.
Other Options:
Field space and flat park space is very scarce in Los Altos Hills, and the BP site is uniquely situated to develop multi-purpose field space and even other natural community park environments. One proposal might be to first restore the lower level turf field to a level acceptable for both soccer practice and games and other field sports and then develop the upper field into both a smaller turf field and other natural wild park / recreation area. We need to explore alternatives for the fields and how to make the best possible school and community use of the fields.
Call to Action:
If you feel the last remaining field space in Los Altos Hills should be better utilized for our school aged children and the Los Altos Hill community, then please stay informed. Most of the decision will rest within the LASD school board but certain permitting issues maybe within the control of the Town of Los Altos Hill.
For additional information, please contact Scott Vanderlip at (650) 948-6455 or by email at scott@inet-sciences.com. This item is suppose to appear on the Los Altos Hills Town Agenda on December 14th, 2006.
References:
To further provide credibility for this current proposal, I have listed two references articles. The first is an email exchange that was obtained from the Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) requested from the LASD school district. The email shown below is a forwarded email from Rodney Robinson (President of the MV-LA Youth Soccer Association to Randy Kenyon (LASD) and then the forwarding and notating that email to the LASD board of trustees. The second is the current set of plans for the Bullis site remodel that shows the high school sized field and optionally the NCAA sized field after grading the top two fields into one larger field.
Reference 1: Email From Rodney Robinson to Randy Kenyon to LASD board of Trustees
--------------
FROM: Randy Kenyon
Sent: Wednesday 7/12/2006 1:27 PM
Subject: FW: Bullis Field development
Fyi: Rodney is the president of MV-LA Youth Soccer Association (club soccer) who presented a proposal to us about a year ago. They would renovate and remodel the fields at Bullis in exchange for exclusive use of them during non-school hours.
Randy Kenyon
Los Altos School District
---- Original Message -----
From: Rodney Robinson
Sent: Thursday, July 6, 2006 7:24 AM
Subject: Bullis field development
Randy –
I am checking in to see if it is a good time to move our Bullis soccer field redevelopment proposal forward. I understand that LASD is reopening Bullis in 2008, we would be delighted to donate funds to redevelop the field.
Let me know if the district is open to working with us. We can be flexible on the use agreement, as we are simply trying to increase the field capacity in the community which will benefit us as well.
Rodney Robinson
------
Reference #2 – Bullis Elementary School (Preliminary Grading Plan: Phase 1- November 8, 2006) This is one document scanned into two graphics.
Figure 1 – Western side of Bullis Site showing fields – The text in the field says “ HIGH SCHOOL SIZED SOCCER FIELD AT 65YD x 110 YD [DASHED]
Figure 2 – Easterly side of Bullis
Neighbors need to be aware of this possibility
Absolutely, this requires some close scrutiny, neighbors need to be aware of this possibility.
There are major off road pathways that connect this parcel to our community as well that could be of concern if this field were used for professional sports.
Sandy
There are major off road pathways that connect this parcel to our community as well that could be of concern if this field were used for professional sports.
Sandy
I am avidly against anything like this moving forward!
Hi ----
I DEFINITELY agree that this MUST be a Hills 2000 Issue!!!
1) The district has been arguing that this area is not large enough to house both a local school and a BCS school. Then they consider bulldozing the upper fields to turn into an exclusive playing field for High School students. This is beginning to sound like more doublespeak! By using the blacktop area for the classrooms, there is plenty of open space for playgrounds for schools!
2) We have always addressed opening Bullis as a school for young children. It simply does not make sense to open a large playing field BEHIND this school site, for the exclusive use of older students and adults----for many reasons, including traffic (parking would be a nightmare), and for interruption of lower grade school activities.
3) The Los Altos Hills Council has already proposed that we will develop this land as an open sports area, not devoted to a single sport, but available to all persons in the town. This proposal would limit the number of hours, as well as the types of sports that can be played in this area.
4) Access to this area is through the grade school, but also through many off-road paths. I am very certain that our citizens would be vehemently opposed to having this use made of their easements. It is difficult enough to have the residents agree to open their properties to the citizens of the towns. We are DEFINITELY not interested in opening up these routes to not only a large number of players (most of whom are most likely not from this town), but also non-resident spectators. That certainly would happen once the Bullis parking lots are filled.
5) We have strict limits on the amount of grading that is suitable within this town. I am confident that the amount of grading being suggested far exceeds anything that is allowed within this type of topography. (The neighbors should be quite anxious about this!)
6) Not only should we notify the entire townspeople, but definitely the neighbors who will be directly affected by the traffic, noise and unpredicted use of this area should be involved. (Put Courteney Corrigan on this issue!)
7) I am appalled that the LASD is making decisions that are based only on their own myopic vision. Clearly, the needs, wishes and requirements of the LAH community are not only being ignored, they are being flaunted as unnecessary noise!
Anyway, you get my gist! I am avidly against anything like this moving forward!
Ginger
I DEFINITELY agree that this MUST be a Hills 2000 Issue!!!
1) The district has been arguing that this area is not large enough to house both a local school and a BCS school. Then they consider bulldozing the upper fields to turn into an exclusive playing field for High School students. This is beginning to sound like more doublespeak! By using the blacktop area for the classrooms, there is plenty of open space for playgrounds for schools!
2) We have always addressed opening Bullis as a school for young children. It simply does not make sense to open a large playing field BEHIND this school site, for the exclusive use of older students and adults----for many reasons, including traffic (parking would be a nightmare), and for interruption of lower grade school activities.
3) The Los Altos Hills Council has already proposed that we will develop this land as an open sports area, not devoted to a single sport, but available to all persons in the town. This proposal would limit the number of hours, as well as the types of sports that can be played in this area.
4) Access to this area is through the grade school, but also through many off-road paths. I am very certain that our citizens would be vehemently opposed to having this use made of their easements. It is difficult enough to have the residents agree to open their properties to the citizens of the towns. We are DEFINITELY not interested in opening up these routes to not only a large number of players (most of whom are most likely not from this town), but also non-resident spectators. That certainly would happen once the Bullis parking lots are filled.
5) We have strict limits on the amount of grading that is suitable within this town. I am confident that the amount of grading being suggested far exceeds anything that is allowed within this type of topography. (The neighbors should be quite anxious about this!)
6) Not only should we notify the entire townspeople, but definitely the neighbors who will be directly affected by the traffic, noise and unpredicted use of this area should be involved. (Put Courteney Corrigan on this issue!)
7) I am appalled that the LASD is making decisions that are based only on their own myopic vision. Clearly, the needs, wishes and requirements of the LAH community are not only being ignored, they are being flaunted as unnecessary noise!
Anyway, you get my gist! I am avidly against anything like this moving forward!
Ginger
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