Speaking of the Hillview Recreation Center, the Los Altos Civic Center and LASD

To introduce myself – I am a former member of the Los Altos Library Commission (2005-2013), and a member of the Community Center Master Plan Advisory Committee. I’ve also attended most of the LASD (Los Altos School District) Superintendent’s Enrollment Growth Task Force meetings as a member of Duncan MacVicar’s support team.

We in Los Altos have an important issue to resolve – finding new school sites for both Bullis Charter School (BCS) and a new school to accommodate the growth in the Los Altos Elementary School District. The Superintendent’s Committee has studied the issue exhaustively for almost six months, recommending two sites for two schools. There’s a committee of school folks working on possible sites not advertised to the public near the San Antonio Center, where a concentration of LASD students have no neighborhood school, and elsewhere within the district.

The Hillview Recreation Center and Park is not the ideal choice for one of these schools. The LASD schools are small, neighborhood schools of about 560 students, a size that makes for a supportive educational community and outstanding success in educating the district’s students. When necessary, the elementary schools draw attendance from other areas in the district. The Los Altos civic center campus will not provide a site sizeable enough (10 plus acres) for BCS and its anticipated growth of 900 students.

The Los Altos civic center campus, an 18-acre site, is a vital asset, benefitting the entire community – children, adults, teens, and older adults. These 18 acres house the city services, the library (439,041 annual visitors in 2012), the history museum, the Bus Barn Theatre, playing fields, Little League baseball diamond and the Hillview Recreation Center. Together, the civic center campus and the downtown are the core of the community. It would be difficult to relocate some or all these services to other areas in the community. It would also be expensive.

Sharing school-community resources is not practical either. In fact, it’s difficult if not impossible. Rightfully so, schools are concerned about security and closed to outsiders during school hours. Any visitors have to check-in at the front office. So, use of the shared resource, such as a recreation center or swim center would be off limits during school hours, the very time when many would wish to use these facilities.

The Hillview Recreation Center itself is home to the city’s Parks and Recreation Department, senior center, adult education, Los Altos Youth Theater, and assorted rooms used by numerous groups. The surrounding park area houses public park amenities such as picnic tables, playing fields, children’s play area, and public rest rooms. There is also an opportunity to build a swim center, sorely lacking in our community.

Resources like the library, recreation center, and local museum are synergistic and thrive best near each other and near downtown. The consulting architects who guided the city through the master plan process gave this advice: “Don’t ever split up that precious site. Other cities would give anything to own such a site. You never know what you will need 50 years from now.”

I envision a civic center campus connected to downtown. Folks come to the library or the new recreation center or even the swim center and then walk to downtown for lunch or dinner, or back to the civic center campus for theater attendance. It all works together.