I'm confused-- what did Mayor Keith do to deserve this attack by Superintendent Hernandez-Goff? It is not at all clear based on my read of this article.

Seems to me that the Ravenswood sup has enough challenges already without picking fights.

I am also confused by this article. It sounds as if Superintendent Hernandez-Goff is livid, but I'm not sure why her anger is specifically directed at Mayor Keith. That is not clear in this article. What is clear is that Mayor Keith is being attacked and accused of a lot of things that I don't imagine she has control over.
What I do know is that people pay dearly to send their kids to the Menlo Park Schools because they are excellent schools. So, if that's unequal then what is Superintendent Hernandez-Goff's solution to make it ALL EQUAL for everyone?? I'm not sure what she is suggesting --

Mayor Keith gets what she wants: Name recognition and press. She announced the meeting at least three times in the last City Council meeting. This is a "look at me stunt". She is holding a meeting about a school district outside of her jurisdictional power, with a staff member from an entirely different County. She has made comments insulting the Ravenswood District repeatedly in the press and in Council meetings for years but has never offered any real plan. This has all become a spectacle. It might help Keith politically in the short term but doesn't help the kids at all. Not surprised the school district has had enough of it.

Superintendent Hernandez-Goff's letter and anger is unbelievable. Obviously she has not paid a lick of attention in the past 20+ years to Belle Haven residents and other City of Menlo Park residents who have indeed showed up to City Council meetings asking and at times demanding that these schools be taken out of the Ravenswood School District. The fact that she has unleashed her anger on the Mayor is quite juvenile. Superintendent Hernandez-Goff truly should have done her homework before writing this letter.

It is also quite amazing that she would sound off on the release of these two schools, that are in Menlo Park, as the district does have its hands completely full with all of its other schools. Seems the only power grab here is on the behalf of the superintendent.

Kirsten does deserve this lambasting. If lots of the kids are homeless, then it would benefit them to have the better education that MP could provide that is missing in Ravenswood.

Wow, I didn't see folks directing this level of anger at Councilmember Mueller last year when he brought up the same issues.

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Mayor Keith is going to Belle Haven to have a conversation about educational equity. Regardless of any political benefit that she may derive from this leadership, the fact remains that as a community we have uneven access to educational opportunity and our educational outcomes reflect that fact. It is appropriate to wrestle with this challenge and take community input and I'm glad the mayor and other councilmembers are paying attention.

Superintendent Hernandez-Goff's reaction seems overblown and premature.

It is time for a unified school district that includes Sequoia Union High School District and ALL of the elementary schools that feed into SUHSD.

There is enough political influence in all of the included school districts to get the State legislators to solve any funding issues that result from such a consolidation of elementary school districts.

Every child deserves the same quality of education and the quality of that education should not be determined by property values.

@Shameless writes, "Mayor Keith... has made comments insulting the Ravenswood District repeatedly in the press and in Council meetings for years..."

We are not aware of any comments by Keith, insulting or otherwise, in regards to the Ravenswood District.

Shameless: Please get your facts correct [part removed]. What meetings and what date did the mayor make her comments? Easy to make false statements. Also, Ravenswood Schools are still in San Mateo County.

Sounds like Sup. Hernandez-Goff needs some anger management help.

Hernandez -Goff should be looking at the $3,000,000 plus which Sequoia Healthcare District(SHD) grants to the school districts within it's boundaries,(excluding Ravenswood) and seek annexation to the SHD.

Another thing ALL government school districts should do to increase their per pupil funding is to support property tax exemptions for taxpayers who would support the education of children whose families could find alternatives at a cost to the taxpayer half that spent now.

Um, Ms. Hernandez-Goff, Belle Haven IS Menlo Park. Belle Haven, Menlo Park, California is a traditionally blue-collar community. Homeless Belle Haven students are homeless Menlo Park students. You CANNOT accurately draw a distinction between Ravenswood CSD students and Menlo Park students unless you want to eliminate the Belle Haven schools from the Ravenswood CSD.

To quote from the article above: "We are a blue-collar community ... unlike students in Menlo Park, half of our students are homeless because they cannot afford to live in the Silicon Valley."

I think the fact that she even forgets that Belle Haven is part of Menlo Park illustrates the extreme disconnect between the neighborhood and the rest of the city. It's not just a freeway that separates it.

I would love to see Willow Oaks and Belle Haven Elementary improve. If they can do that by being taken out of the Ravenswood district, then I don't see why this is a bad thing. How can we expect the "cycle" of poverty and poor education to end if we don't give the youngest the same chances as people on the other side of the freeway? It's an important area to start.

"the quality of that education should not be determined by property values."

I totally agree, though in fairness it should be pointed out that in this case (MPCSD and Ravenswood) property values are not really germane to the issue of educational equality: despite the difference in property values within their respective districts, Ravenswood has more revenue per-student than MPCSD.

In fact, the quality of the education, by all objective measures, correlates with property values and not revenue per student.

To create equality of outcome all of the students should be in the same system and all of them should share ALL of the same resources.

"the quality of the education, by all objective measures, correlates with property values"

This is a logical fallacy: Correlation is not causation.

Train Fan - I did NOT claim causation but speciFically stated correlation.

"To create equality of outcome all of the students should be in the same system and all of them should share ALL of the same resources."

And, all the children should reside in the same "kibbutz".

In one generation, a quality education can transform a family's situation. I know of nothing else, in one generation, that has that kind of impact. So, it's no wonder that Belle Haven parents want the kind of education that will bring opportunity to their children. I see nothing wrong with Mayor Keith's actions in organizing a meeting on the topic of educational quality. However, setting up and attending meetings is an easy matter compared with the hard work of actually doing something about the problem. So, I hope that participants will not leave the Sep 18 meeting without a road map of sorts towards fixing the problem. I would also love to read a follow on story that gave specific details on the reforms that the Superintendent referred to when she stated, "our district has implemented major reforms that are beginning the process of completely transforming the educational experience of students in our district." Many would d like to know more about the reforms, their impact, and how we can help via supporting these efforts as volunteers.