High school: Spending profile seems lean, but not mean High school: Spending profile seems lean, but not mean (May 25, 2005)

** District asked to pay rent for Menlo Park charter school.

By David Boyce

Almanac Staff Writer

It seemed incongruous, but there she was, Linda Darling Hammond, the Charles E. Ducommun professor of education at Stanford University and a national expert on school reform, asking for rent money -- specifically, $130,000 for East Palo Alto High School to continue its use of the Menlo Oaks School campus in Menlo Park for two more years.

That should be a drop in the bucket for the Sequoia Union High School District and its $75 million budget. But Ms. Darling Hammond's request at the May 18 school board meeting triggered a 30-minute discussion on which budget fund would take the hit, whether further requests were coming, and even a proposal to split the payment into two installments.

The district has been cutting back for the last couple of years, and the 2005-06 school year seems set for more of the same.

"It's a very, very tough budget environment," said board president Gordon Lewin, adding that he did not want to see the rent money coming out of the catch-all general fund.

The Sequoia district expects a $3 million jump in property tax revenues in 2005-06, but about $1.2 million is being diverted to comply with provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act.

And the San Mateo County Board of Education just approved a one-year charter for High Tech High, a new Redwood City-based charter school.

The district will have to pay ongoing operating costs, $720,000 or about $6,000 per student, said Jessica Schackne, an associate superintendent in the county Office of Education. The school's current enrollment is 120.
Under new management

Ms. Darling Hammond spoke to the board on behalf of the nonprofit Stanford Schools Corporation, which recently took over management of EPA High, a four-year-old charter school located at 475 Pope St. in the Willows area of Menlo Park.

Stanford's School of Education has been a working partner since school's founding, but the K-8 Ravenswood City School District owns the campus and sponsors its charter. The school's total rent for two years is $200,000; the corporation is paying $70,000.

Enrollment is 296 students, of whom 54 percent are Latino and 30 percent are African American, according to state data. Among the students' parents, two-thirds lack a high school diploma, said Ms. Darling Hammond.

In the class of 2005, 90 percent of the seniors have been accepted in two- or four-year colleges, she said, noting that the proud parents have each invited 50 guests to the graduation ceremony, planned for June 17 at Memorial Auditorium on the Stanford campus.

"Those are our kids, in a way," said Sequoia Trustee Don Gibson. (The students would otherwise go to a district high school, such as Menlo-Atherton.)

"We have been getting off pretty light over the years," he said, referring to the state's paying the school's operating costs. But Mr. Gibson raised the question of splitting the payment into two installments.

Trustee Olivia Martinez suggested finding a way to use earmarked state money -- called categorical funding -- so as to protect the general fund.

Sequoia Trustee Sally Stewart queried Ms. Darling Hammond on what the district would receive in return for its $130,000.

"We learn a lot of things about what works and doesn't work and we'd be delighted to share that," she replied. "I think there's a lot of sharing -- in a sense, it's part of accountability -- to be had."

The board may act on the request at its June 1 meeting.

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