Five apply for Portola Valley school board appointment

Keep your eye on who gets appointed. The remaining current board members are all very much in favor of the Masters Facility Plan, with its already enormous cost overrun for the yet-to-be-finished playgrounds.

Ask yourself this: who is likely to be appointed? Someone who agrees with the current board, someone who is in favor of development, or someone who is cautious about spending, and concerned about cost overrun? That second someone would make it more difficult for rubber stamping the plan, and that looming “Big Ask” for the additional 70-100 million dollars.

I wonder, does anyone other than the board know about the $200,000 transferred from the Deferred Maintenance Fund last summer, to cover the cost overrun for the playgrounds? I know I didn’t hear about it. The entire board but one voted for this to happen. The board member who voted “no” is no longer on the board. While in CA, it is not required to have a separate Deferred Maintenance Fund, and so, nothing unethical was done, still...as a parent and member of the PVSD community, I would have liked to have known about this. I would have liked to have had a chance to say “Hey, instead of using this money, which we obviously need for Deferred Maintenance, how about we reduce the scope of the playground work for the time being, and stay within our original budget?”

Being a school board member is certainly a thankless job, and it requires vast amounts of time and dedication. I am grateful to them, and I am positive that all board members are acting in what they see as the absolute best interest for our schools and children. What I would like to see, though, is an overabundance of clarity, transparency, and CAUTION about the handling and use of funding. When in doubt, please come to us, the public. We gave that money. We deserve to know EXACTLY how it is being spent, and what the reasons are for any cost overruns in any projects. If you wouldn’t allow it to happen on a project for your own home, please don’t let it happen with the school projects.

Sad that this school board is historically, and currently, so out of touch with what parents of kids, and kids, in this district actually want, like good teachers, better peer to peer relationships, ability to spend within its means/budget, and zero tolerance on bullying, cyber or physical. Throw money at that rather than buildings and structures, which round here are obsolete as soon as they're built. Invest in the kids, hearts and minds.