League of Women Voters of California Education Fund
Santa Clara County, CA November 3, 2009 Election
	Douglas J "Doug" Smith Answers Questions Candidate for Board Member; Los Altos School District

The questions were prepared by the the League of Women Voters of Los Altos/Mtn. View Area and asked of all candidates for this office.
Read the answers from all candidates (who have responded).

Questions & Answers

1. What ideas do you have for handling Bullis Charter School's request for a junior high school?

The District is legally required to provide facilities for a Junior High should BCS choose to offer this program. In order to provide reasonable equivalant facilities, we would likely need to co-locate those students with an existing LASD Jr. High.

The overarching question is really, "how do we reach a truce with the Charter School?" The ongoing litigation filed by BCS against the district is not healthy for either group, and diverts precious resources from where they are most needed. We need to work openly with the Charter School to establish a truce and start behaving more like neighbors in the same community. I believe this could be accomplished through joint Board meetings where we can discuss their program requirements and work together to develop a reasonable solution that respects the objectives of the Charter School and also the needs of the LASD student population.

2. Would you support an election for an additional parcel tax? Please explain why.

At this time it simply isn't feasible to try to pass an additional parcel tax. I was part of hte Parcel Tax Survey Committee last fall. The voters were clear in their lack of support for an additional tax. Once the economic climate improves, we may consider an additoinal tax, but it is just not appropriate at this time.

3. Basic aid districts are recommended to maintain a higher reserve due to the volatility and unpredictability of property tax revenues. The LASD Citizens Advisory Committee on Finance recommended to the Board of Trustees building reserves up to the 8% to 10% range. This will be difficult as the district is facing decreasing revenues. Do you agree with building the reserves and how would you go about it?

I have been an advocate for larger reserves for several years. The recently passed District reserve policy is a step in the right direction, but it could go further in articulating how we'll build reserves and how we'll spend them.

In order to build the reserves, we need to "pay ourselves first". That is, we should take the cost of the existing program and set that as our baseline. AS revenues exceed the current level, we should have an agreed opolicy for the amount of money that will be directed toward reserves. If we don't state a clear policy on how we'll save, we will consistenly spend first and be left with little to improve our financial stability.

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Responses to questions asked of each candidate are reproduced as submitted to the League.  Candidates' responses are not edited or corrected by the League.

Read the answers from all candidates (who have responded).

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Created from information supplied by the candidate: October 20, 2009 12:10
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