By Torre Peña
An imaginary line running through Saratoga is the focus of SB 1258, a bill that has been introduced in the state Senate. The line divides the Los Gatos-Saratoga Joint High School District and the Campbell Union School District; it also divides opinions.
The Santa Clara County Committee on School District Organization has been inundated with petitions to transfer property from the Campbell district to the Los Gatos-Saratoga district. Saratoga residents living in an L-shaped area around the north and east of the city are angry that their children attend school in the Campbell, Moreland or Cupertino districts. They want the line changed to be contiguous with city boundaries.
Campbell school officials have said that a district reorganization would create a financial burden on the district because tax base would be lost. The county committee, which decides the fate of transfer petitions, has hired a consultant to study potential district reorganization scenarios.
Introduced by state Senator John Vasconcellos, who represents the 13th District, SB 1258 would amend sections of the state education code dealing with district property transfers and reorganization of boundaries.
The bill has already been rewritten twice in as many weeks and may undergo further changes before it hits the floor of the state Senate for a vote.
Santa Clara Office of Education planner Larry Shirey said the bill won't have much of an impact on the county committee's study. "It puts into words what most committees do already," he said.
Saratoga residents in the Campbell school district, like Herb Radding, are not so sure. "I don't think the law needs to be tinkered with," he said.
Existing law requires that a school property be incorporated into the new district it falls within if there is a district reorganization. This would happen if district boundaries were redrawn along city lines. Schools within the city limits of Saratoga that are now in the Campbell district would then be incorporated in the Saratoga Union School District or the Los Gatos- Saratoga district. SB 1258 specifies that the district losing property must be compensated at fair market value by the district acquiring the property.
The following schools could be affected: Prospect High School, Marshall Lane Elementary, Blue Hills School and Christa McAuliffe School.
Shirey said the county committee already bases decisions on an equitable distribution of resources.
Saratoga residents hoping to be a part of the Los Gatos-Saratoga district point to the bill's origin. They see the bill as a deterrent to changing district lines or petitioning for property transfers.
Vasconcellos was approached by the Campbell district with the bill, according to Rand Martin, the senator's chief of staff.
"This bill was prompted by concerns about moving parcels from Campbell to Saratoga," Martin said.
The bill would also make appeals to the state Board of Education more difficult by requiring a two-thirds approval rather than a simple majority to overturn the county committee's decisions regarding petitions to transfer property. In the past, the state board has overturned county committee denials of requests to transfer property from the Campbell district to the Los Gatos-Saratoga district.
"The senator is attempting to ensure that the county committee is not arbitrarily overturned by a state board up in Sacramento," Martin said. "The senator's goal is to keep these kinds of issues local."
Martin hopes some middle ground can be found to ease the disagreements of the people caught between the borders.
"There are very strong emotions on both sides," he said.
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This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, April 30, 1997.
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