SCHOOLS: Parents contest Sequoia plan

Some North Fair Oaks parents say they want to stay at M-A

Parents in the North Fair Oaks neighborhood turned out Feb. 4 to voice opposition to proposed changes that would move them out of Menlo-Atherton High School's attendance area. At the Sequoia Union High School District school board's first public hearing concerning the proposal, parents from North Fair Oaks, an unincorporated area between Redwood City and Atherton, gave a resounding "no" to the changes, which would offer their children a choice of attending any of the other three high schools in the district: Sequoia, Woodside or Carlmont.

These students would be moved to make room at M-A for students from East Palo Alto who are currently being bused 45 minutes to Carlmont. M-A is near its enrollment capacity.

"I do support the right of East Palo Alto students to have the choice of going to M-A," said Martha Poyatos, North Fair Oaks resident and mother of an eighth-grader. "I also support the choice for my own child. I was alarmed and frustrated when I read in the newspaper that we might be excluded from attending M-A."

District officials believed that North Fair Oaks was a good choice to move out because it is the only community in the Redwood City School District to be sent to M-A instead of Sequoia or Woodside high schools.

Susan Berghouse, director of student services for Sequoia said the district had spoken to North Fair Oaks community leaders, Redwood City School District officials and members of the bilingual program who all were in favor of the switch. But she acknowledged they had missed a group.

"There is a group of people in North Fair Oaks who send their kids to private middle school, and sometimes private elementary school, who come back for M-A," Berghouse said.

No one from the East Palo Alto community voiced their opinion about the proposed change.

Berghouse said the school board would have to reconsider. The possible options, Berghouse said, would be to continue as planned; continue, but give North Fair Oaks the M-A option; or to delay the plan for a year.

A second public hearing will be held at 7 p.m. on Feb. 18 at district headquarters at 480 James Ave. in Redwood City. The board of trustees will vote on the proposal at its March 4 meeting.

Charlie Breitrose

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