Mountain View City Council and Los Altos School District
Move Forward on 10th Site

Tuesday night, the Mountain View City Council voted unanimously to approve a joint use agreement to finalize a collaborative deal to purchase 9.5 acres for a school, park and recreational facilities in the North of El Camino neighborhood.  The landmark partnership will build a shared community asset, including a school, park and recreational facilities in the North of El Camino neighborhood.

“We have all worked hard to get here and to ensure that this project meets the needs of all of our residents.  Let’s move forward tonight, approve the agreement and build this project.  This is a huge win-win for our communities,” Los Altos Board President, Jessica Speiser, stated before the Council took its vote.

Through a unique and collaborative funding plan, the school district would purchase the property and sell development rights to offset the cost of land by up to $79 million.  In addition to creating this Transfer of Development Rights program, the City of Mountain View will also contribute to $23 million towards the project in park in-lieu funding in exchange for joint use of recreational facilities.  

With thousands of homes to be constructed in the next 10 years and a rapidly growing student population in the North of El Camino area of the district, the Los Altos School District Board of Trustees determined that the new school must serve children in the North of El Camino neighborhood.

“The reason for this decision is clear.  As you can see, the North of El Camino area of our district has a very high concentration of students and is growing rapidly, but has no school to serve it.  We will build a school to serve the neighborhood’s students,” Speiser explained.

To shape the plan to address the ongoing issue of school site sharing and enrollment growth in the northern portion of the district, Los Altos School District engaged in a multi-year process to determine the best solution to address its school facilities needs.  First, the district sought public input that determined a 10th school was the best solution.  Community-led committees then reviewed and analyzed every possible piece of property for acquisition.  Through committees, task forces and surveys, the district sought public opinion regarding the type of school to site on the property.
 
“The Board has worked tirelessly over the last several years to resolve our long term facilities needs and protect academic excellence for all students.  It has been a challenging and complicated process.  We collaborated with the City of Mountain View and put our heads together to meet the needs of all of our constituents.  I’m proud of our work in achieving this huge win-win for our kids,” said Superintendent, Jeffrey Baier.