LASD Board Highlights

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You can find a full video of the December 12th meeting here and the January 9th board meeting here.

Ever on the cutting edge of educational instruction, LASD is piloting new initiatives this year to continue academic excellence in the district.

The first is focused on strengthening academic alignment in programs from preschool through 3rd grade. LASD plans to do this by building partnerships with local preschools, launching a fellowship in early education and providing training opportunities for our staff.

Another has been LASD’s build out of its STEM+ program over the years to a robust educational experience across all grade levels and schools. The program includes STEM experiences in all elementary classrooms, many district and school wide events and activities, Makerspaces at all schools, as well as computer science and robotics. We will continue to build and iterate on these programs to stay relevant as the field evolves.

You may also have read the wonderful story in the Town Crier about the Virtual Reality Math pilot in our junior high schools. This exciting pilot gives students hands-on experiential learning within real world contexts, with one lesson requiring algebra to solve a pandemic related word problem.

Finally, we are planning to expand our junior high STEM elective offerings. This year we added drone building and esports elective (combination of entrepreneurship and video games) pilots. For the coming school year, we will be asking junior high staff, students and parents to complete a survey to provide their interests in new potential electives.

For more information, please check out item H.2. on our online agenda.

At its January 9th meeting, the Board unanimously approved an agreement to contribute to the construction of affordable teacher and staff housing right here in our community.

Thanks to our County Supervisor Joe Simitian, Mercy Housing California (MHC) and Abode Communities are working in conjunction with the County of Santa Clara, Meta, the City of Palo Alto, and participating school districts in Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties to develop new housing on a county-owned site in Palo Alto near California Ave.

This collaboration of local entities plans to build high-quality rental housing, focusing on affordable homes for teachers, school employees and their families. The new community at 231 Grant Avenue in Palo Alto will include studio, one- and two-bedroom apartments, amenity spaces, and landscaped gardens near the heart of a thriving downtown community.

LASD’s participation in this new affordable housing collaboration will not only benefit our school teachers and staff, but will also benefit our students and community as a whole.

For more information, please check out item H.3. on our online agenda.

In 2014, the Los Altos School District community passed a bond measure to provide a new school site. With 10 schools on 9 school sites currently, the new school would provide more educational opportunities for our students by avoiding school site sharing and placing Bullis Charter School on its own site. By law, LASD is required to provide school facilities for Bullis Charter School, which is currently housed on the Egan and Blach Junior high school campuses.

Due to an innovative agreement with the City of Mountain View, LASD was able to purchase a school site at an affordable price. At this stage, LASD is taking the necessary steps to prepare the site for a new school, a park and community recreational facilities, including countless collaborative meetings with City of Mountain View staff and commencement of a CEQA (California Environmental Quality Act) process to seek environmental approval of a school site.

At its December 12th meeting, the Board heard a presentation from LASD staff and the district architect regarding two possible configurations for a school: one K-8 school with 900 students and one K-5 with 600 students. The Board reviewed schematic drawings of the sites, as well as potential costs for the construction. Due to historic inflation, the costs for school construction have escalated in recent years, leading the Board to discuss alternatives for additional funds to complete construction of the school.

For more information, please review item J.4. on the online agenda.

On December 12, 2022, after winning hard fought re-elections on November 8, 2022, Trustees Ivanovic, Johnson, and Sirkay were sworn in by Superintendent McGonagle for another four year term on the LASD Board of Trustees. After the ceremony, the trustees appointed Jessica Speiser as Board President, Bryan Johnson as Vice President, and Vladimir Ivanovic as Clerk.

Our next meeting of the Board of Trustees is on Monday, January 23 at 7:00pm. Los Altos School District Board of Trustees meetings are open to the public at 201 Covington Road, Los Altos in our Board Room. To attend meetings remotely, please visit our Board web page and use the provided zoom link. Please note: public comment can only be provided in person at the Board meeting or via email at trustees@lasdschoos.org, but cannot be made online.

If you would like to stay updated regarding upcoming Board meetings, please email mbirnie@lasdschools.org, providing your name, email address and a request to be added to the email list for Brown Act updates, including upcoming meetings and agendas.

Website: www.lasdschools.org
Location: 201 Covington Road
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LASDK8/