Issue date: April 08, 1998
EDITOR:
The Woodside School Board has placed Measure A on the April 14 ballot, asking us to support a $10.2 million bond issue for construction of new classrooms and a new multi-purpose room. While it's hard to imagine that people would jump at the chance to part with more of their money, this issue deserves our attention and support. The request is necessary because Woodside School has outgrown its current facilities and because most of the structures on campus are nearing 50 years old. And our school is not alone in asking your support for facility funding. Menlo Park and Palo Alto voters have already passed similar (and larger) bond measures, and the Portola Valley School Board currently is asking voters to approve a $17 million school facility bond. In keeping with its dismal record of school funding, the state legislature has just voted not to place Gov. Wilson's highly touted $9 billion bond issue on the ballot. We learned long ago not to rely on state funds or state promises to educate our kids. The positive outcome of that has been the impressive degree of local control the school has achieved through community support.
It's time once again to assert that control. The school has done its homework: structural engineering reports, site plans, comment from teachers, parents, students and community, architectural drawings, strategic planning, cost analyses, and an endowment provision for programs. The bond will accommodate student growth and allow for small class size. It will provide more opportunity for community activities at the school site. It will continue to sustain, and increase our property values.
About a decade ago, the staff, administration and board of Woodside School made a commitment to the district's constituents to do those things necessary to make it an outstanding school. They delivered on their promise. Now, they need our support in order to build the kind of campus that allows us to extend that commitment into the next century. We know that education happens in all sorts of ways, in all sorts of environments. We know, too, that what goes on inside the classroom is more important than what the classroom looks like. But it would be unwise to think that the classroom itself is not important.
Join us in voting "yes" on Measure A on April 14 as Woodside School builds for the future.
Ann P. Nolan
Woodside School Board
Bonds pay for better schools
Our children need classrooms, our town needs community facilities and we need your support. Measure A must pass on April 14 in order to preserve Woodside School and its reputation for excellence in education.
Measure A is a thoughtful, well-defined plan. We have been neither expedient nor extravagant in proposing new school buildings. Over one hundred people have worked thousands of hours over the past 3 1/2 years to develop strategic and facilities plans that meet the needs of the school and the community. Since the School Board first announced plans to build a two-story facility in April 1997 (see April 2, 1997 Almanac) the Construction Committee has worked with architects to develop designs that reflect the community's desire to maintain a rural character on campus and to preserve open space.
We have met with members of the Town Council, Planning Commission, Recreation Committee and Architectural Site Review Board to underscore the importance of Measure A and to show them our plans. We do understand the importance of being good neighbors. We have worked, and will continue to work diligently to reduce the impact that our construction will have on those nearby. But, above all, we will work to ensure the success of Measure A. The cost of failure is too high for our children, for Woodside property owners, and for our community.
Maureen Brown, Heidi Brown
Chairpersons,
Committee for Yes on A
Concerned about school project
We are longtime Woodside residents, temporarily living in Virginia. In December we will return to our home next door to Woodside Elementary School. We were very eager about our return until a few days ago.
We have just learned that the school is planning a major new 42-foot, high, 22,000 square foot, multi-purpose room not far from our Skyline -facing property line. Our neighbors will have a two-story classroom building constructed just 40 feet from their fence. Neither family had been included in the planning process at the school and had not known about the April 14 bond election until recently. Both families have been strong supporters of Woodside Elementary School through recent decades. Specific issues that concern the families are height, noise, existing and future drainage problems, privacy, view and sunlight. By going ahead without us, the school has communicated to us a sobering indifference.
When Marna called the school to seek information about the proposal, she was told that the school would like first rights of purchase if we wanted to sell our home. Our neighbors had been told the same thing.
Despite our dismay at this entire situation, we believe that all concerned wouId be willing to come together to search for wiser, more restrained and civil solutions to the design and other problems if one condition existed: That condition for progress is that Measure A must fail to get a two-thirds majority on April 14. Please vote no. A yes vote will be wiser the second time around.
Given the failure of the bond measure on April 14, the school powers will have sufficient cause to reconsider their proposal in the company of those not included before, and with sensitivity to concerns not faced before. In time, tolerant, inclusive, self-searching group-processes will succeed. Voters would then find, whenever the bond measure is resubmitted to them, a more finely tempered plan and price tag. By contrast, if the present bond measure passes on April 14, the school powers will have no reason to reconsider. They will sense your acquiescence, and the full measure of their enormous insensitivity and haste will cast a shadow on us all.
Marna and Bob Page
3125 Woodside Road, Woodside
Take another look at proposal
It is our natural inclination to support public school financing proposals, and we planned to support the current $10 million bond issue until we came to know what the district plans to put on its 14-acre site. We are astounded at the proposed extensive coverage of the site, the adverse impact some of the buildings would have on neighbors' properties, not to speak of the adverse impact the entire proposed layout and building height would have on the Woodside Road Scenic Corridor.
The vote on the bond issue came along much sooner than we had expected. In the interest of what should be of the greatest importance to the board of trustees ---- promoting good relations with the town government and all residents ---- the plans could have been submitted to the Planning Commission and Town Council for comment with respect to land usage and esthetic impact. It would have been courteous and wise to have the plans on public display for several months, and to solicit comment from the public through public hearings. We are confident that if such established procedures had been followed, the school district would have considered making extensive modifications to their building plans.
Because none of these steps necessary to building widespread public support and approval were taken, we regretfully cannot vote for the bond issue, and we urge all residents of the town to take a look at the plans and analyze them relative to the school site before April 14, when the vote is scheduled.
Abby and Gus Klein and Sheila and Dick Conners
Woodside
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