Real Estate Update in Palo Alto & Los Altos

The district needs to make adjustments to its school attendance areas for two reasons - 1) size of schools and 2) reopening of Bullis-Purissima School in 2008-09.

Two schools, Santa Rita and Almond, currently have enrollments that are close to the district maximum target size of 580 students. Enrollment projections show these two schools going well above that maximum size in the near future. Because the district is committed to having small elementary schools that promote wonderful learning environments, we need to address this issue. Because of the reopening of Bullis-Purissima we need to address the issue now.

To accomplish this task the School Board directed staff to put together an Attendance Area Advisory Committee to work with the district’s demographer, Jeanne Gobalet. The Committee is composed of twenty-two members. The members are parents, teachers, community members, School Board representatives and administration.

The Committee began its work on February 8, 2007 and has held eight (8) meetings that have been open to the public. Working with the School Board’s criteria and the demographer’s data the committee developed as many as twenty-four (24) scenarios. The group refined that to eleven (11) and at their meeting held on April 19, 2007, identified four (4) possible attendance area scenarios to recommend to the School Board. Click here for a PDF file of the four scenarios for your review. The Committee realizes that there is not a perfect scenario that addresses each area of concern for everyone. However, after three months of analyzing data and listening to parent input these four scenarios address as many of the relevant issues as possible.

Now that the Attendance Area Committee has presented their findings and recommendations to the Board, the opportunity for additional public input can begin.

The following School Board Meetings will have time on the agenda for public input:

• April 23, 2007
• May 7, 2007
• May 21, 2007

All meetings will begin at 7:00 p.m. and will be held in the Covington School Multi-purpose Room.

After listening to input, the School Board will make a final decision on changes to Attendance Areas some time in June 2007.

The implementation of the new attendance areas will not go into effect until the 2008-09 school year.