Merging school districts is a good idea

I liked reading the headline, "To reduce inequality, locale school districts need to merge" in the May 5 issue!

During the time that I served on the Redwood City Elementary School District Board of Trustees (1974-1988), we struggled with one of the lowest revenue limits in San Mateo County. Ravenswood Elementary District was also at the bottom of the list. During that time our Superintendent Kenneth Hill suggested that all elementary districts within the Sequoia Union High School District (Belmont, San Carlos, Redwood City, Woodside, Portola Valley, Las Lomitas, Menlo Park, Ravenswood) should merge, creating one large unified K-12 district.

As a result, all elementary school children would have the same resources (revenue limit) spent on them, no matter where they lived. I appreciated the concern expressed in the guest opinion by Henry Donald and want to thank him for his good idea. Ravenswood merging with Menlo Park would be a good start to a larger unified district.

To further the idea, local school boards would need to begin the discussion about the advantages and disadvantages of such a move, etc. It could be a model for other California districts that also suffer from inequitable funding.

Thanks for including his opinion on your editorial page. I don’t hold out much hope for interest in the idea to be overwhelming, but it certainly needs to be considered. Mr. George writes that merging districts is not easy, but is necessary and the right thing to do.

Margaret Marshall,

Redwood City

SB 9 cannot increase affordable housing

Senate Bill 9’s take over of local zoning authority has hardly produced any new housing. It is time to recognize that the lack of housing here is due to the high cost of land, construction and infrastructure needed to support it.

But housing could be built within commute distances to outlying areas where housing costs are 1/3 the cost here. Highways and rail transit could be improved and built to speed commuters to these less costly housing areas. HSR funds could be re- prioritized to first build from city centers out instead of through vacant farm land.

Ed Kahl,

Whiskey Hill Road, Woodside