The final word on Measure EE
Yes – Let’s keep our schools safe and strong
All nine of the LASD Parent-Teacher Associations (PTAs) and the Los Altos-Mountain View PTA Council have endorsed Measure EE, and we hope others in our community will join us and our families by voting YES on EE.
Measure EE is the Los Altos School District’s (LASD) bond measure to fund essential repairs and upgrades to our aging facilities.
LASD is in the top 1% of California schools. All LASD schools are California Distinguished Schools, and three are National Blue Ribbon Schools. The caliber of our school district is a top reason families are attracted to living in Los Altos, Los Altos Hills and Mountain View.
The condition of our facilities does not match the quality of education we offer. It’s time to repair and upgrade our aging facilities. We need local funding for basic repairs like fixing leaky roofs and windows and for upgrades to our HVAC, plumbing and electrical systems. Some facilities are over 25 years old and deteriorating. Our facilities are inadequate for the current student population, as many classes are held in portables that are past their prime.
As our educational programs evolve, our facilities need to keep pace. For instance, with kindergarten now full-day and transitional kindergarten on campuses, our 4- and 5-year-old students need age-appropriate classrooms with attached and appropriately-sized bathrooms, rather than the aging one-size-fits-all portable buildings many of their classes currently occupy.
Like all school bonds, Measure EE includes strict accountability measures. All funds would be controlled locally and could not be accessed by the state or used for administrators’ salaries. An independent citizens’ oversight committee would regularly review district use of bond funds and mandatory annual audits would ensure all funds are spent as voters intended and for the specific uses outlined in the measure.
We need to repair and upgrade our buildings and replace dilapidated portables with permanent classrooms – providing learning spaces that are safe, useful, accessible and appropriate for our children, teachers and staff.
Please help keep our schools strong by voting YES on EE.
Los Altos School District PTA leaders Uyen Nguyen, Laura Gao, Jessica Shambora, Kathy Lyon, Abigail Mortimore, Jim Malone, Jenny Peck, Christine Corbett, Marvin Pena, Jocelyn Jackson, Herb Marshall, Kelly Sanders Lo, Brandon Stroy, Brooke Lopez, Brittany Stevens, Katie Schmidt, Peipei Yu
No – Proposal is expensive, vague and unnecessary
If you believe our community deserves the best public schools in the state/nation, I urge you to vote no on Measure EE.
Remember this is a $350 million bond added to the existing $150 million bond passed in 2014.
I was on the Los Altos School District’s 2014 Bond Oversight Committee for the $150 million bond measure. The bond money was squandered, in my view. There were many other sites available that could have been purchased for far less money and were more conducive to an elementary public school site.
I will not go into detail regarding the shortcomings of this new bond but will just list the following:
• This bond proposal is out of scale for the district’s size.
• The LASD Facilities Master Plan calls for $708 million of bond spending (see p. 79 of pdf at tinyurl.com/LASDFacilMasterPlan). But that plan doesn’t even mention Bullis Charter School or the 10th site, even though they have separately said they’ll need to spend $125 million to $145 million to build a park and gym they promised to the city of Mountain View, plus a new campus on the tenth site.
• The bond “project list” (tinyurl.com/BondResolution-ProjectList) is vague, and the district has not provided any clarity about what this bond will actually be spent on, or how they will prioritize projects.
• They have a 10th site that no one wants, but no new building or permanent facilities for BCS.
If BCS and LASD were to collaborate, and become partners with the larger community, they could become thought leaders in public education for California.
Let’s take a step back and come up with a plan to make our local public schools leaders in the state/nation – and then fund that plan.
John Swan
Los Altos Hills
10th site will delay improvements
Supporters of Measure EE are being misled. They are looking for enhancements at their school sites. They aren’t going to see much of anything for 5 to 10 years if the San Antonio project is built ahead of need. Bonds for EE can’t all be issued for 8 to 10 years. That’s why the $350 million is described as not being paid back for about 37 years. San Antonio (the 10th site) will soak up all available initial Measure EE bond money if built as that huge 900 student junior high style school. The design should be for an elementary school when the area there adds housing. Bullis Charter School has said they don’t need it. Scaling down, delaying or skipping San Antonio allows about $120 million to $150 million to go quickly to older schools, versus maybe $30 million with San Antonio being done.
The total need they identified at the traditional schools was $475 million. They showed zero expenditures for the San Antonio site in the Facilities Master Plan. Measure EE only works for the wish list in the master plan if San Antonio doesn’t burn any funding.
David Roode
Los Altos
