First of 11 Meetings For Schools Task Force Kicks Off Tuesday Night

Can a 12-member community task force help solve the intractable problems facing the Los Altos School District? They are getting their first inkling Tuesday night.

The simply named Superintendent's Task Force on Enrollment Growth has the Herculean task of helping Superintendent Jeff Baier wrestle with the question of whether the district needs a 10th campus, and if so, how could that be accomplished?

Los Altos School District educates public school children in most of Los Altos and portions of Los Altos Hills, Palo Alto and Mountain View.

The group, comprising representatives chosen by the Los Altos City Council, the Los Altos Hills Town Council, the school district, the district staff, Bullis Charter School, the Mountain View Chamber of Commerce They will meet twice a month through April 16.

Besides Superintendent Baier and Assistant Superintendent for Business Randy Kenyon, the group includes: LASD: Nancy Gill, Liz Henry, Rachel Michelson (selected by the LASD board); Jeremy Minshull (superintendent's selection); Sandra McGonagle (Blach Intermediate School Principal); Superintendent Barry Groves (Mountain View-Los Altos Union High School District selection); Fred Gallagher (Bullis Charter School selection); Ken Rosenberg (Mountain View Chamber of Commerce selection); Steve Fick (Los Altos Chamber of Commerce selection); Duncan MacVicar (Los Altos City Council selection); John Swan (Los Altos Hills Town Council selection).

Last week, the Los Altos City Council held a study session to prepare MacVicar and an alternate for representing its interest. Noting that she is one person among five, Mayor Val Carpenter had prepared a two-page memo of her input, including her belief that the "most appropriate location" for Bullis Charter School is in Los Altos Hills, "based on the origin of the charter school as well as their admissions preference for students living in Los Altos Hills." She also wrote she believed the district needs "an additional school north of El Camino Real in Mountain View or Palo Alto, due to a significant and growing percentage of students living in this area."