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Letter: Dreading the traffic logjam at Hillview School

I wonder if others who live or work in Menlo Park are dreading the return of students to school, as I am. From now until June, twice a day, Santa Cruz Avenue will be log-jammed.

The number of students enrolled at Hillview School is, at present, 659. (The school was originally designed to hold 550.) With this school population, I have seen traffic backed up along Santa Cruz from University Drive downtown, west to Lemon. The cars, bikes, walkers and students are in jeopardy of a serious accident with kids late to school and drivers rushing, or attempting to rush, to work.

I believe this is a serious problem. But, with the school district's decision to make Hillview the only middle school in the city, Hillview's population is anticipated to rise to near 1,000. I can't imagine how any increase in traffic around the school is remotely feasible, and with the huge number of students who will come from east of El Camino to this one middle school, it's an alarming picture.

The tragedy of the school district's decision is that there are other choices to handle the increase of children in the district. Encinal School, which is a larger campus than Hillview, could be returned to its original status and be a second middle school. And the district also owns Willow School, currently rented out to non-district pupils. This campus could be returned to a district elementary school, and thus the cross-town commute for many children could be avoided.

The problem is not just at Hillview School. Oak Knoll Elementary School has a dangerous traffic issue too, and the expected enrollment increase there is as large as the one at Hillview.

Surely the school district can see that, in addition to the traffic congestion and safety issues, cramming 1,000 children onto acreage designed to accommodate 550 cannot be good for the students. Limited outdoor space combined with ever-increasing pollution does not lead to the standard of education and quality of life that we are known for in Menlo Park

Nancy Montague

Hillview Drive, Menlo Park

Posted by clarification, a resident of the Menlo Park: Linfield Oaks neighborhood, on Sep 4, 2007 at 4:15 pm

A couple of notes with respect to this letter - Hillview has been the Menlo Park City School District's (MPCSD) only middle school for at least 15 years. This means that children who live within the MPCSD boundaries on the east side of El Camino have been crossing that town divide for that whole time - so this crossing is not a new development.

Secondly, Willow Oaks School (on Willow Road) and East Palo Alto Charter High School (it's neighboring campus on Pope St.) are Ravenswood City School District schools and have never been a part of MPCSD (ref: Web Link).

The campus east of Middlefield that owned by MPCSD and rented to the German-American School is on Elliot Dr. and is the district's smallest campus.

Posted by cassandra, a resident of the Menlo Park: Linfield Oaks neighborhood, on Sep 4, 2007 at 6:55 pm

Nancy, I apologize for the fact that our grubby middle schoolers are frolicking on the pristine west side. If it's any consolation, we would much rather keep them on our side of the tracks. There is simply no space. Encinal School, which will soon house grades K-5, is going to double in size and does not have room for older kids.

A couple of points:

* The school board has been an inbred, self-selected group of volunteers who are generally trying to do their job the best way they can, without a lot of praise or kudos. Everyone in town ignores them until something happens that gets people riled up. You don't have to have kids in the schools to care about what's happening with our district. If you take an active role in the process, the outcome might prove more palatable.

* You think the growth is bad? It's going to get worse. And part of the reason is that west siders have been ignoring a lot of the developments on the east side of the tracks. "100 new housing units in Linfield Oaks? And another hundred+ on Derry Lane? Not my neighborhood! Why should I care?" Well, maybe now you understand why you should care.

Anything that happens in Menlo Park affects all of us who live in this city and many of our neighbors too. Pay attention and don't wait until it's too late to speak up.

Posted by free O'connor school, a resident of the Menlo Park: The Willows neighborhood, on Sep 4, 2007 at 10:13 pm

some hillview neighbors got the city council to recognize the urgency of the school district getting O'Connor school back for the Willows.

The lease with German American school expires in 2011, and sooner would be better. Measure U school bond construction of $91M that passed last JUne provided for a 5th campus (O'Connor) if enrollment increases dictated that. The school board is clueless about the severity of the situation and has the overbuild attitude on the existing 4 campuses, instead of looking at the big picture. The east of ECR area desperately needs O'Connor school back. Go to the school board mtg. on Sept. 11 and let them know that their present course is unacceptable.

Posted by middle, a member of the Hillview Middle School community, on Sep 6, 2007 at 7:31 am

I think the point the first author was trying to make was the traffic problem due to school starting again...not the students themselves.

I think a school bus system would help solve this problem in the short run.

Posted by traffic control, a resident of the Menlo Park: Central Menlo Park neighborhood, on Sep 8, 2007 at 10:27 am

the school district should be required to pay for 2 new signals, one at Elder/Santa Cruz, the other at Olive/Santa Cruz, with turn restrictions/timing to give a break to kids on bike/foot crossing Santa Cruz, and a break for residents trying to get out onto Santa Cruz during peak hours. It's just an endless caravan of cars, some signalization is long overdue. Side streets could be protected with signal timing management to minimize cut through traffic. Just go look at Sand Hill and see how the cross traffic is managed with signals.