Saratoga News

Photograph by Robert Scheer

Richard Anderson's property, while located in Saratoga, falls within Campbell Union High School District. His next-door neighbor is in the Los Gatos-Saratoga High School District.

School district boundaries are reduced to battle lines

By Torre Peña

The Santa Clara County Committee on School District Organization has moved forward with its plan to examine the organization of school district boundaries in Saratoga and Los Gatos by selecting a consultant to put together a study of the issue. However, when consultants from Caldwell Flores Winters Inc., scrutinize the situation, the lines dividing school district boundaries in Saratoga and Los Gatos may more closely resemble battle lines.

The increasing numbers of petitions from individuals and neighborhoods asking the committee to transfer their property into the Los Gatos-Saratoga Union High School District prompted the study. The complications arising from the issue are as convoluted as the boundaries. And before any changes in the current alignment can be made, there are political hurdles to overcome.

Many residents living in an L-shaped area around the north and east perimeter of Saratoga are angry that their children attend school in the Cupertino, Moreland or Campbell districts while they pay taxes in Saratoga.

"What we're talking about is an inequity between the city and the district," said Richard Anderson, a Saratoga resident who lives off Quito Road. Anderson falls within the Campbell Union High School District; the house next to his is in the Los Gatos-Saratoga Union High School District.

"We're paying Saratoga taxes; we expect to receive equal treatment as other Saratogans, but we're not," he added.

The boundary lines meander aimlessly along fence lines, across back yards and through the middle of houses. The boundaries were formed before records were kept, making it impossible to determine when they were created, said Santa Clara Office of Education planner Larry Shirey.

The invisible boundaries create real problems by fragmenting communities, according to Tricia Hoffman, a Saratoga resident living in the Moreland School District.

Hoffman successfully petitioned to have her children attend Argonaut School in Saratoga Union School District, where they could ride their bikes to school every day. When the school became too crowded, her children were squeezed out, and she couldn't renew the petition. Rather than have her children attend a Moreland school three miles away and across the intersections of Prospect Road and Lawrence Expressway, Hoffman opted to put her children in private school.

"Here, we don't get a sense of community anymore," she said.

Bristling at the suggestion that she lives on the "fringe" of Saratoga, Hoffman said that differing vacation schedules among the districts make it difficult to plan events with neighbors or church youth groups, and Saratoga events are often centered on schools in the district.

A new trend involving joint-use agreements between cities and schools to maintain recreational fields or upgrade facilities favors residents living within Saratoga's school district, pointed out Jennifer Crotty, a Saratoga Parks and Recreation commissioner.

Crotty uses a proposal to build an Olympic-size swimming pool at Saratoga High School as an example. If built with the aid of Saratoga tax dollars, the new facility would benefit families within Saratoga's school district more than Saratogans in other school districts. Saratogans attending Lynbrook High School in the Freemont Union High School District, for example, would not have the same access to the facility.

"Nine months out of the year, it will just benefit the Saratoga district," said Crotty, who lives outside Saratoga's district border.

"We just want to be part of the community," she said. "We want the same benefits as everyone else."

Marlene Duffin, a member of the county committee, supports redrawing the district boundary along city lines, but she said political realities must be taken into consideration. She said the county committee will look at what's politically possible and in the best interest of education and students.

"You're going to alienate people no matter what you do," Duffin said.

Maintaining the financial validity of districts is a major concern. Duffin added that redrawing boundary lines could create a tax burden on some districts.

"We might be adversely affected," said Richard McCann, deputy superintendent of administrative services for the Campbell Union School District.

Although Campbell schools receive about 97 percent of their funding from the state, future bond issues would be affected if there were a Saratoga exodus from the district, McCann explained. Bond money is raised by a tax on assessed property value.

The potential of shuffling schools between districts also presents difficulties with teacher contracts and attendance, McCann said.

Mike Winters of Caldwell Flores Winters Inc. encourages community input while he studies boundary organization. With neighborhoods mobilizing for a fight over the dispute, he won't have far to look.

"We're not going to roll over on this issue," Anderson said.