Posted by Former AAAG Member, a member of the Palo Verde School community, on Oct 26, 2012 at 9:42 am

I was on the AAAG several years ago. This group spent a lot of time discussing boundaries at all schools and all levels. We ended up burnt out and had very few recommendations. Part of the trouble was that trying to sort out each school level within the same group was too difficult, and another part was because we had so many people involved to get all different affected groups involved.

I am pleased that there will be a group doing this at just the elementary level. It means that there will not be people who know very little or have little interest in the elementary decision involved.

I wish them all the best, I have a pretty good idea what it wall involve. Good luck.

Posted by Ducatigirl, a resident of the Old Palo Alto neighborhood, on Oct 26, 2012 at 12:28 pm

I don't know how anyone could do this job! There are so many groups to please: new immigrants, learning disabled, gifted, Asians, Latinos, Blacks, new money, old money, etc. Someone is bound to feel disaffected or left out.

Posted by Former AAAG Member, a member of the Palo Verde School community, on Oct 26, 2012 at 2:54 pm

DG

Not sure exactly about all the groups who you think want input. The groups we had represented included, parents from each school site, teachers, teachers union, after school care, school board (previous school board member), various other similar groups as well as the demographers. The average meeting had 30 people plus the occasional interested member of the public who wanted to find out what was going on. When the local press leaked a few of the suggestions made about an idea to change an existing boundary, loads of parents from that area came with banners saying why they didn't want to change school.

Posted by Mike, a resident of the Professorville neighborhood, on Oct 27, 2012 at 1:44 pm

Why the need to decide so quickly and open new facilities by 2014 - 2017 if there's not a need for extra space until 2020? Surely the demographic projections (and therefore the decision) will be much better in a year or two or three.