We believe that the board of the Menlo Park City School District is not being responsive to the communities which it serves.
The board is currently making critical decisions on new school boundaries which will affect the children who attend Laurel, Encinal and Oak Knoll schools.
In October 2006, over 100 residents from Atherton’s Lindenwood neighborhood signed individual letters or petitions, requesting that Lindenwood be kept intact and that there not be a school boundary division within our neighborhood. Despite our effort to proactively alert the school board and Superintendent Ken Ranella, the school boundary committee chose to disregard these requests and presented no visual option of an undivided Lindenwood at the Nov. 26 board meeting.
School board member Laura Rich spoke up at the meeting and said that she gave “no weight” to the petition and letters from over 100 Lindenwood residents because her polling of three of her friends who did not, in her opinion, know what they had signed. Has she spoken to the other 106 people to see how they feel and the fact that they did comprehend the issues of the petition?
How does a community work with a school district when the board members are not willing to work with their constituencies and do not respond to letters and petitions? Aren’t these elected officials supposed to listen and respond to community input? No rational argument has been made by the board that supports dividing Lindenwood and it is offensive that an outside organization would patronize the neighborhood by saying it’s not a neighborhood and attempt to divide it.
One of the main reasons cited for sending certain Lindenwood families to Laurel School is the proximity to the school and the ability to reduce traffic due to walking or bicycling. However, the board is not considering the fact that many families who live very near Laurel School will also be commuting to Encinal School, thereby actually negatively impacting traffic when these families drive to two schools.
The number of impacted families is tiny, well within the error rate of forecasted potential student attendance in 2012, which has been identified as the anticipated peak. The school boundary committee has projected that dividing Lindenwood would result in only five kindergarteners attending Laurel School in 2008. In the year 2012, the committee has projected a possible peak of 17 students in four grade levels. Of those projected five incoming kindergarteners, five families have written to the board and asked to attend whichever school the rest of Lindenwood will attend.
Why does the board insist on dividing our neighborhood against our will? Aren’t they supposed to be representing the voters who elected them?
Lindenwood homeowners
Veronica Kogler, Edge Road
and Ying Chang, Lupin Lane
Atherton
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