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Schools across the Midpeninsula ended the 2024-25 academic year and entered the next with lots of excitement for future developments and new beginnings as well as some anxiety around school district administrator positions.
In January, Las Lomitas Elementary School District Superintendent Beth Politio went on leave immediately after the District Attorney’s office launched an investigation into LLESD’s credit card spendings. Polito walked out of a closed session meeting on Jan 15. in advance of her August retirement date and never returned. The district hired Erik Burmeister in February to serve as the new superintendent for the 2025-26 school year.
The local community also mourned the loss of Dylan Taylor, a Menlo Park youth coach and educator who died after a collision with a garbage truck near Encinal Elementary School. The incident in May sparked serious considerations for increased bike safety and traffic enforcement from local school districts and law enforcement officials.
In June, The Almanac highlighted the graduation of hundreds of students from Midpeninsula high schools across Redwood City, Menlo Park, Atherton, Woodside and Portola Valley. Students walked across the stage to obtain their high school diplomas, stepping into the summer months as high school graduates.
Throughout the year, lawsuits and claims made against the Sequoia Union High School District began to pile up. The district is now facing at least six active lawsuits made by parents and former staff.
Legal actions made against the district allege wrongful termination, racial and disability discrimination, retaliation and harassment. Legal claims were filed by former Menlo-Atherton High School secretary Ofa Taimani and former M-A basketball coach Mike Molieri. This year lawsuits were filed by former Woodside High School counselor Sharlett Downing and Molieri. A complaint was filed by former ethnic studies teacher Chloe Gentile-Montgomery.
In August, students returned to school and saw construction workers on campus as many campuses were wrapping up or continuing projects for modernized classrooms, expansions and facilities improvements.
Ravenswood City School District celebrated its reopening of Los Robles-Ronald McNair Academy in November and look forward to another reopening for Belle Haven Elementary School next year.
Menlo Park City School District had been proactive about teaching bike safety to its students all year long. In preparation for the first day of school, Safe Routes to School parent volunteers hosted a practice bike ride for incoming middle school students. Later in November, fourth grade students at Encinal learned biking fundamentals on the school blacktop.
The district also became the first in the area to approve a policy addressing e-bikes on campus. The rising popularity of e-bikes, many of which are illegal for riders under 16, became evident at Hillview Middle School. The policy prohibits students under the age of 16 from bringing Class 2 and Class 3 e-bikes, e-motos, e-scooters and eboards to campus. Class 1 e-bikes with a throttle or ability to travel over 20 mph is also prohibited. Within its first week of implementation, Hillview Middle School reported that no prohibited e-bikes had been brought on campus.
The month of December has some students, parents and teachers of the Sequoia Union High School District on edge as they face the potential closure of TIDE Academy, a small STEM-based high school in Menlo Park. Tensions were high at the December school board meeting as the community spoke up and asked for the district to save the school. The conflict between the district and TIDE Academy remains unresolved as the school waits to learn more information during district meetings in January before a final decision is made in February.
La Entrada Middle School and Philips Brooks Elementary School were placed on a lockdown after reports were made to the Menlo Park Police Department that there was a man with a firearm on Dec. 16. The suspect died at the scene from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, the department told this news organization, and police lifted the shelter-in-place order in the afternoon. The alert came during lunchtime for La Entrada students, who were moved to their homerooms to eat. Many parents came to pick up their children from school, following the lockdown.
