A tale of two schools

The Los Altos School District is pledging to reopen Bullis-Purissima Elementary School in 2008, after a unanimous vote Monday. It may not be enough to satisfy leading Hillspeople, though. Only four days earlier, Los Altos Hills leaders decided to move ahead with a plan to pull out of LASD and form their own district.

This morning, on the other side of the tracks, Slater Elementary is holding its last day of class. Much like Bullis parents, Slater parents have organized well and argued forcefully and emotionally against the decision. Mountain View residents are even readying a charter school petition, although they say they would have done so even if the board had not closed Slater. The essential difference between the two situations is that while one group of parents lives in one of the richest communities in the country, the other lives near a Superfund site. Guess which one got its way.

As a sidenote, I can't help but feeling like the reopening of Bullis somehow makes me less cool. Yes, I know many of you will say that's impossible. After all, I live with my parents, wear a bandanna and maintain a local news blog (ostensibly) about Mountain View and Los Altos. But consider the bitter, "I've-forgotten-more-about-this-town-than-you-will-ever-know" sort of pride that some graduates of old Mountain View High School have when they talk about their alma mater. We are all going to miss out on the chance to be like them.