10th School Site Committee Reports 17 Possibilities, 'None Easy'

An ad-hoc committee charged with identifying and investigating possible school sites for a 10th campus makes its first progress report to the Los Altos School District Board Monday night. 

The Ad-Hoc 10th School Site Committee has looked at 30 and kept 17 in play, according to the report that is attached to this article.

The report notes that the area within district boundaries has been built out, and surrounding districts do not have surplus land, and there are "no obvious or easy options."

Nevertheless, the group kept under consideration ten sites inside LASD boundaries (three north of El Camino Real, four in Los Altos or elsewhere in Mountain View and three in Los Altos Hills. Outside of LASD boundaries, it kept seven under consideration (three within a 1.5-mile radius, three within a 5-mile radius, and one outside a five-mile radius).

They also kept in mind state guidelines for school sites, ranging from topography to public services.

To protect its negotiating interests, the committee has only named sites that have been mentioned publicly before, such as the Hillview Community Center site in Los Altos, Grant Park in south Los Altos (but out of district) or the Raynor Center in Sunnyvale.

The group established criteria, and found it had to revise down its space criterion of six-to-ten acres to four-to-five acres to provide additional flexibility. It set its ideal location as one that was inside the school district, then within a 1.5 mile radius, and lastly, within Santa Clara County.

The group looked at former school sites, public property, commercial property, church sites, and residential property, to a lesser extent.

The group consisted of LASD trustees Tamara Logan and Steve Taglio, Tom McGovern, a LASD parent and commercial real estate broker, Nancy Morimoto, a parent from the north of El Camino side of the district, Tom Campbell, a representative of the Citizens Committee, and Randy Kenyon, LASD Assistant Superintendent for Business.