At the board meeting for the Los Gatos­Saratoga Joint Union High School District on March 1, several parents were taking notes and stepping up to the microphone to voice their opinions on Los Gatos High's approach to transportation for students to their upcoming prom in San Francisco and the recent changes to grading policies at Saratoga High.

Diane Judson, a parent of two Los Gatos students and one of the sponsors of the website www.LGHSparents.com, addressed the board regarding the recent controversy over transportation to the prom. Judson said she had conducted an extensive survey, contacting all 39 schools in the county to gain information on their policies and to find out whether organized transportation such as buses is mandatory, optional or not at all offered.

"I was shocked to learn that in 2005, Los Gatos High is the only public school in the county that allows its students to drive to a prom in San Francisco. Six other schools have proms in San Francisco, and all of them have mandatory transportation," Judson said.

Since the recent controversy arose, Los Gatos High School has offered optional bus transportation to the prom, but Judson said that, in her research, she was told this option had been offered in past years and virtually no one opted to take the bus because it was not mandatory.

Lisa Liu, the parent of a Saratoga student, approached the board to present her feelings about the recent changes to the Saratoga High School grading policy.

"I want to thank the board for recent communications on the grade policy changes. People now have a more comprehensive understanding of what the situation is," she said.

However, Liu is apparently unhappy with how the decision came about.

"I would like more guidance from the board about why this was handled differently than the recommendations from the WASC committee. Regardless of what I feel, the decision really undermined the process," she said.

Harry Bettencourt, interim principal at Saratoga High School, said he is working hard to answer the questions of every student and parent that comes across his desk and that he is preparing additional information to be sent out to families soon.

Trudy McCulloch, principal of Los Gatos High School, was asked about her school's grading policy, since it has long recorded both weighted and unweighted GPAs on students' transcripts. In response to a question about whether the weighted GPA is used to rank students internally, she said, "We have never ranked our students, period. We do use the weighted GPA for valedictorian, salutatorian and magna cum laude and other honor graduates."

Another parent submitted a concern to the board in writing.

Also at the meeting, Cindy Ranii, district superintendent, reported that the search for new principals for both schools is going well.

"We're on target in terms of our timeline; our committees are set and are now developing rubrics and questions for actual interviews," she said. She reported that the "paper screening committee" would be checking résumés to determine candidates to be interviewed within the next couple of weeks and that in-person interviews would be conducted in April.

"So far we have 23 applications, and in my experience a lot of applications come in the last day or so," she said. "So to have 23 applications already is very encouraging."