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Publication Date: Wednesday, August 27, 2003

Back to School 2003: Menlo Park City School District

By Marjorie Mader
Almanac Staff Writer

Despite $1.1 million in budget cuts, the Menlo Park City School District still aims to improve teaching and learning for the 2,040 students in the district's four schools.

"We're working as best we can to minimize the impact on kids, but it's essential to find ways to restore at least a portion of what's been cut due to the loss of state funding." said school board president Terry Thygesen.

Last spring, the community mobilized to help defeat the so-called "local property tax grab" from Sacramento. As a result of contributions by parents and community members to the Menlo Park-Atherton Education Foundation, a record $1 million grant was given to support school programs.

The district still faces financial challenges and uncertainties. The cost of education has gone up, while property tax revenues are down. There are 10 to 12 fewer teachers in the schools this year due to retirements, leaves and resignations. And about 100 more students are expected this fall, increasing the enrollment to a recent high of 2,040.

Parcel taxes

There will be two parcel-tax proposals on the November 4 ballot. Measure A will renew the $97 annual parcel tax to fund small classes from kindergarten through eighth grade at the four schools: Laurel, Encinal, Oak Knoll and Hillview Middle. The current tax generates about $742,000 a year, but expires in June 2004. Without these funds, the district would have to increase class sizes to over 30 students and lose 21 teachers, tax advocates say.

A new parcel tax of $73 a year, Measure B on the ballot, would restore 50 percent of the $1.1 million in cuts that the district made last June, primarily due to state-funding cuts. Passage of Measure B would generate about $547,500 annually to restore remedial programs in math and reading, and restore funding for textbook and classroom supplies to last year's levels. The money would also restore programs designed to train teachers in effective teaching techniques.

Both tax proposals require two-thirds voter approval for passage.

A campaign committee, called Committee for Excellence in Education, is at work under the leadership of parents Jeff Child and Nancy Kessler.

Superintendent Ken Ranella says a major next step is to develop a "comprehensive action plan" to carry out the district's mission and goals, adopted last spring. The plan will include specific areas of finance, personnel and instruction.

"We're focused on training teachers to meet the needs of all kids in the classroom," said Mr. Ranella.

Teachers are receiving training to implement the new language arts program, using the updated Open Court Reading and Language Arts series. They're developing skills and abilities to provide "differentiated instruction," which calls for presenting the same information in different ways to students with different learning styles.

Eighteen teachers -- from each grade level at each of the four schools -- returned to school this summer for training in differentiated instruction so they can provide leadership to teachers at each grade-level at each site.

A major change for both the Menlo Park and Las Lomitas districts is the proposal to separate the joint business office that the two districts have shared for decades. The job of the business manager has grown considerably in recent years with construction projects in both districts and the deluge of state accounting reports that must be filed. Both superintendent Ranella and Mary Ann Somerville, superintendent of the Las Lomitas district, agree the job of serving as business manager for two districts is more than one person can do. This change could take place by January or February. The two districts will continue their joint agreement for special education and maintenance.

On the facilities front, Superintendent Ranella is working with an architect on a plan to replace the portable classrooms at the four schools with permanent classrooms, probably modular buildings. He sees this option also as a budget issue. He thinks the $200,000 the district spends yearly to lease the portables would be more effectively spent on a loan.

Following are reports on each of the district's four schools, where classes will start Tuesday, August 26.

Laurel

95 Edge Road
Atherton
Phone: 324-0186

Nancy Hendry, principal

Grades: K-2

Enrollment: 417

More students. Early enrollment shows 14 more students than last year. There will be 144 kindergartners, 138 first-graders and 135 second-graders, but no additional classes.

Small classes. First- and second-graders will be in classes of 20 or fewer students as part of the state's class-size reduction program. Kindergartens are staffed at a ratio of 24 to 1.

Teachers. Two new teachers have joined the Laurel team. Mary Beth Andolina, who has taught second grade at Laurel previously, returns to teach kindergarten after teaching at Woodside School. Barbara Porro, a former teacher at Oak Knoll School years ago, returns to the district fulltime, teaching second grade. Linda Globus shifts to second grade after teaching first grade last year.

Facility update. New arbors for the first-grade and kindergarten areas are scheduled to be completed this fall. Bathrooms across from the multi-use room are being remodeled.

Back-to-school night: Parents will head back to school on Thursday, September 4, at 7 p.m. to meet their children's teachers and learn about the classroom programs. The first PTA meeting will be on Wednesday, September 24, at 7 p.m. in the school library.

"Quarter Gourmet." A favorite event back for another year is the "Quarter Gourmet," to which families bring dishes to share, paying a quarter for each serving and getting to know each other. The first one is Friday, September 12, at 5 p.m.

Oak Knoll

1895 Oak Knoll Lane
Menlo Park
Phone: 854-4433

David Ackerman, principal

Grades: K-5

Enrollment 630, up from 580 when school closed last June.

Small classes. Class sizes will continue to be small again this year with 20 or fewer students in grades 1-3, an average of 24 students in grades 4-5, and 20 to 23 students in the six kindergarten classes.

Teachers: Jacqueline Lindsay joins the teaching team as the new K-2 reading specialist. She is returning to California from teaching in the Chicago area. Lynn Murphy, formerly the school's K-2 reading specialist, will teach third grade, taking over from Christine Heilman who resigned. Sara Kew moves from second to fifth grade. Joan Von Der Linden, the district's mentor for beginning teachers, returns to Oak Knoll to join the fifth-grade team.

New field. A new baseball field has been built on the school's upper playground near Vine Street. The work was completed last week as part of a joint agreement with the city of Menlo Park.

Back-to-school night. Parents will head back to school on Thursday, September 4, at 7 p.m. to meet teachers and learn about the education program.

Encinal

195 Encinal Ave.
Atherton
Phone: 326-5164

Stacy Marshall, principal

Grades: 3-5

Enrollment: 346

New principal. Stacy Marshall is the new full-time principal at Encinal. She comes from the Larkspur School District in Marin County, where she was principal of Neil Cummings Elementary School, a K-5 school, and special education director for the district. Her first day on the job was August 6. Mrs. Marshall takes over from Tami Girsky, who was interim principal part-time last year and is now on maternity leave.

Classes. Class sizes are 20 or fewer in third grade again this year as part of the district's participation in the state's class-size reduction program for primary grades. Fourth- and fifth-grade classes average 24 students. There are 113 third-graders, 112 fourth-graders and 121 fifth-graders.

Teachers: New third-grade teachers this year are Liz Markos, who was a third-grade teacher at Oak Knoll School, and Susan Koh, formerly a seventh-grade teacher at Hillview. Lori Friedman, an experienced fourth-grade teacher, comes from Bakersfield to join the fourth-grade team. Maria Clemo, lead teacher and student activities director part-time last year, returns to the classroom to teach fourth grade.

"Community Read." Students, staff and parents again this year will read the same book at the same time as part of an Encinal program that won a countywide award this year from the San Mateo County Reading Association for significant contributions to reading instruction and literacy efforts. This year's book is being selected. Last year, everyone read "Esperanza Rising" by Pam Munoz Ryan.

School garden. Tall sunflowers bloom in the school garden along Middlefield Road, where each class will decide what to plant and tend in the raised beds.

Back-to-school night. Parents are invited to return to school on Thursday, September 11, at 7 p.m. to meet teachers and learn more about school programs.

Fall family picnic. Families will bring a picnic supper or purchase food for this annual get-together on Friday, September 19, at 6 p.m. under the arbor.

Hillview Middle

1100 Elder Ave.
Menlo Park
Phone: 326-4341

Michael Moore, principal

Grades: 6-8

Enrollment: 640, about the same as last year.

Class size: Classes will average 24 students in keeping with the district's goal of reducing class sizes in the upper grades.

Teachers: New to the district this year are Joshua Walker, sixth-grade core; Teresa Sutton, seventh-grade core; Gary Conder, in technology/computers/video production. Shirley Reed will teach a new county special education class on campus. Bruce Hicks moves from Encinal to teach seventh-grade core, and science specialist Nancy Rankin from Oak Knoll and Encinal will teach middle school science. Shalann Kunkel and Lexy Keller will teach French in addition to their other assignments. Willy Haug will be part of the eighth-grade core team. Robin Watts will serve as counselor for sixth grade, and Debbie Devoto will counsel all seventh- and eighth-graders. Lynn Eisner joins Willy Haug and Mike Rogers on the team of student activities directors.

Leaving Hillview. Due to retirements, leaves, reassignments and resignations, the following teachers will not be returning this year: Caren Pearlman, Sarah Koh, Margaret Appenheimer, Lesley Martin, Linda Hambrick, Angela Paolini, Carole Rosenberg, Jana Perkins and Pamela Ranganath.

Campus TV station. Funding from the Menlo Park-Atherton Education Foundation will build, outfit and run a school television station on campus. Plans call for having the program and station up and running by February.

Trimester schedule. Hillview moves from the four- quarter system this fall to the trimester schedule. Grades will be given about every three months. Electives will remain on the semester basis. This change aims to provide a slightly more relaxed rhythm for the school, said Principal Moore.

More modifications. Work is moving ahead on installing acoustic modifications in the new multi-use room and storage cabinets in the music room.

Camp Hillview. All incoming sixth-graders will participate in Camp Hillview, a three-day orientation program at school designed and carried out by the Hillview staff. The program provides a common academic and social experience for the sixth-graders. The camp takes place September 10, 11 and 12, concluding with the Hillview Community Festival for sixth-graders and their parents on Friday, September 12.

Back-to-school night. Parents will head back to school on Thursday, September 18, for this annual opportunity to meet their children's teachers and learn more about the school program. The event starts at 7 p.m.