News Worth Knowing: Ballots Arrive for Parcel Tax For Schools, Renewable Energy Bill Signed

It's busy, and we know it's easy to miss news.  Now that it's Sunday, give yourself a short respite for few minutes. Pull up a chair, pour yourself a cup of coffee or tea, and get caught up.

1. 

Did you know there is a special election on May 3? For those who live within the Los Altos School District boundaries, there is only one item on it: Measure E, a new school parcel tax.

The Los Altos School District approved the $193  proposal in February that asks voters to decide via mail-in ballot. The deadline is May 3.

The school district urges voters to approve the tax, which would stay in effect for six years, to help with its budget crisis, according to Randall Kenyon, assistant superintendent of business services.

Los Altos is not alone. Years of difficult budget straits have school districts successively turning to the ballots to make up the shrinking money from Sacramento. Districts around the Bay Area closely watched last month's successful passage of the Alameda School District's parcel tax proposal, which will levy 32¢ for every square foot of building space, capped at $7,999.

Los Altos School District is one of four in Santa Clara County that have voted for special mail-in ballots elections on the May 3, which include Los Gatos-Saratoga Joint Union High School District, Cupertino Union School District and Sunnyvale School District. At $193 per parcel, Los Altos school district's six-year proposed tax is the highest, followed by Cupertino, whose residents are being asked to approve a $125 tax. At the other end is Sunnyvale School District, which is asking for its first parcel tax of $59, and Los Gatos, at $49.

Residents of south Los Altos are served by the Cupertino Union School District and will receive Measure C ballots in the mail, as well.

2. 

Can Los Altos add restrooms and a play structure downtown—and, perhaps, finally find space for a skate park elsewhere in the city?

Inching toward a master plan for its parks, City Council members added  some of those ideas to a list of features that consultants highlighted in their presentation Tuesday night.

Consultants Royston, Hanamoto, Alley & Abey, who are helping the city craft a parks master plan, gave results of an August 2010 phone survey and noted some of the things people think are missing from the parks they love.

Those items include enough public restrooms, not enough access for the disabled, no skate park after years of thinking about it, no off-leash dog park and no community pool, to name a few.

After listening to the presentation of the 204-page draft parks master plan, the council told the consultants to come up with a concise summary for the public and parks commissioners, and for others for future planning purposes. 

3. 

If monthly home sales statistics are good market indicators, we may be seeing the beginning of a return of the high-end market in Los Altos Hills.

The latest released data, show home sales jumped by a whopping 300 percent in Los Altos Hills in March, over the previous month. And it was six times that from the same time last year. The Los Altos Hills median home price was also up by 29 percent from last year.

Home sales in Los Altos also more than doubled from the previous month, although it was down by 13 percent from last year.

The median home price was $2.38 million in Los Altos Hills and $1.59 million in Los Altos, representing a 5 percent and 29 percent increase, respectively, from last year.

There were some down indicators in the length of time properties stayed on the market, but the rise in sales is the best testimonial that demand for housing has experienced a solid increase in Los Altos and Los Altos Hills.

4. 

The Los Altos City Council says the Santa Clara Valley Water District has some explaining to do.

Water rates are likely to go up for residents in North Santa Clara County by 9.4 percent next year, while residents in the South County will see only a 3.6 percent increase.

“North County users already pay nearly twice as much per acre-foot as south county users, and in five years, we’ll pay 2½ times as much,” Mayor Pro Tem Val Carpenter told the council Tuesday night.

Council members said they want answers from the Santa Clara Valley Water District by the April 26 council meeting. But by then, the district’sboard of directors is expected to have already decided the proposed increases at its own meeting, earlier that same day. 

Next year’s rate increase will mean the average North County household—residents living in an area from South San Jose north to Palo Alto—will pay $1.69 more per month, according to Darin Taylor, district senior project manager. South County households—including Morgan Hill, San Martin and Gilroy—will pay only 34 cents more per month.

He said the district's rate increases, once approved, would be passed on to area water companies, which would then pass on the increase to property owners. Los Altos and parts of Los Altos Hills are served by California Water Service Company, while another area of Los Altos Hills is served byPurissima Hills Water District.

5. 

A Mountain View man who turned his tutoring lessons for his cousins into a not-for-profit educational program is now piloting it with Los Altos schools.

Khan Academy is a free educational website with videos, virtual lessons and other resources for learning various subjects. It's gotten a lot of buzz in the past year, because of its accidental beginning that has burgeoned into a full-time enterprise.

Salman Khan, the founder, has talked about the 's pilot program at his appearances.

The Los Altos School District began a pilot program with Khan in November in five classrooms across two elementary schools, Santa Rita and Covington, and at , according to Alyssa Gallagher, assistant superintendent of instruction.

Mark Goines, vice president of the school board, brought the program to the attention of the district’s staff after he had used the resource for his high schooler and sixth-grader for the past two years.

6. 

State Sen. Joseph Simitian's renewable energy bill was signed into California law at the dedication of a new solar-panel manufacturing plant April 12. 

The law requires all public and private utilities in the state to obtain a third of their electricity from renewable energy sources by the end of 2020.

Simitian, along with Gov. Jerry Brown, U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu and state legislators, toured the new manufacturing plant in Milpitas that employs more than 100 workers. The plant is a partnership between Flextronics and San Jose-based SunPower Corp.

The law aims to spur jobs, investment and technology in the renewable energy industry, while addressing global warming. 

In addition, the new law raises the requirement for electricity retailers to increase their share of renewable energy sources from 20 percent to a third.