Neighborhood
Neighborhood Schools Matter
Wikipedia - A neighborhood is a geographically localized community within a larger area. Neighborhoods are often social communities with considerable face-to-face interaction among members. Neighborhoods are the spatial units in which face-to-face social interactions occur - the personal settings and situations where residents seek to realize common values, socialize youth, and maintain effective social control.
Neighborhoods:
form communities and are the places where the everyday practices of life occur
help build a community that connects people
provide safety for all members of the community
provide a safe environment for children to socialize outside the family
Supportive Neighborhoods are where people help each other, watch out for each other’s children and know where to go for help in the community. Residents feel as though they can trust their neighbors, that everyone is watching out for the neighborhood kids and that, should something happen, there will be an adult nearby that will help. This concept, also referred to as neighborhood cohesion and social capital, describe communities that work together to create safe and orderly environments. Positive relationships and social connectedness within neighborhoods are important for both social development and the physical health of children and teens.
Parents who have the resources to select the neighborhoods in which they raise their families often spend substantial time and energy checking out schools, housing options, parks, children's programs, and other elements of communities that they believe will affect their children's safety, achievement, and friendships. This reflects a belief that community and neighborhood conditions are important determinants of children's experiences and opportunities, and hence, life chances.
Over the next few years, Stanford will invest hundreds of millions of dollars in creating 10 to 14 physically intact residential neighborhoods. The residential housing transformation is driven by three student-oriented goals:
Student health and well-being
Student belonging and community
Student intellectual and personal growth
The New Urbanism movement, in the field of architecture and urban planning, seeks to revive traditional sociability in planned suburban neighborhood housing. Real estate developments advertise (e.g. billboards on 580 and 208 near Tracy) the link between a new school and the surrounding neighborhood.
Los Altos Was Architected as a Series of Neighborhoods Centered Around Schools
In 1947, a pivotal decision was made by community leaders. To accommodate the expected growth, to ease transportation pressures, and at the encouragement of the State, the decision was made to create a network of elementary schools which would become the core of various neighborhoods. Bond measures were passed, state aid was provided, and in 1948 multiple future school sites were purchased. Subdivisions were created, houses built, and families moved into the area. Los Altos was one of the fastest growing communities in the area.
In the 1960’s, the post WWII baby-boom students were finishing their elementary school years, and many of their parents chose to live much of the rest of their lives in the area. During the 1970’s, the LASD school population declined almost 50 percent, from 5,900 in 1966, to under 3,000 by 1980. The declining student population led to the closure of six LASD public schools. Each closure was a very difficult time for the surrounding neighborhood.
Neighborhood Schools are different from Commuter Schools
Neighbors surrounding each LASD school deeply value the nexus role their school plays in their local neighborhood. This value was indicated by the passage of a $150,000,000 bond measure to develop a 10th school site, with a widespread belief that the new school would be for Bullis Charter School (BCS).
BCS is a commuter school, NOT a neighborhood school. Approximately 75% of the enrolled students commute to the school.
Although BCS is not transparent regarding the residential areas of its students, BCS has been committed (since its 2008 Charter Petition) to serving all of LASD, an area of over 20 square miles. This district-wide focus was adopted after Los Altos Hills’ neighborhood school, now called Gardner Bullis School, was finally renovated and reopened after being closed for several years due to a financial shortfall. The reopening caused BCS to reinvent itself and focus on serving the entire district. The vast majority of the families BCS serves have opted for an educational experience centered around a commuter campus and a commuter community.
The BCS Board recognized this and in the 2016 BCS Charter Petition, they formally changed the section, WHOM THE SCHOOL IS ATTEMPTING TO EDUCATE, from “preserving a neighborhood school environment” to “maintain a community school environment.”
The BCS Board has also chosen to recruit students from outside the LASD district. In 2008, 2011 and 2014 petitions, 1/3 of the BCS applicants were from outside of the district and the most recent facilities request indicates that 50% of the BCS applications are from out-of-district. The BCS Snapshots in SCCOE Annual Charter Schools Data Book indicate that over the last five years, BCS out-of-district enrollment has averaged 6%.
The Role of Neighborhoods: Four Viewpoints
What follows are four views about the importance of neighborhoods. Two were written by Los Altos residents—one a parent of young children and the other an older resident whose family moved to Los Altos in 1951. The third piece discusses a major initiative at Stanford University to embrace communities in its student housing. The fourth piece summarizes key points made throughout this document. It also poses a question: Should the neighborhood school framework of Los Altos School District be abandoned to accommodate Bullis Charter School?
The Role Neighbor Schools Play for a Recent Los Altos Parent
As a parent of young children, my sense of community and appreciation of its merits has tended to revolve around my two kids. I was drawn to Los Altos by the notion that my kids could grow up in a comfortable home, next to respectable folks, and within close proximity to formative institutions, namely great K-12 public schools, but also neighborhood parks, a great downtown, and other city resources.
To me, it is important that my kids stay safe while being able to independently explore their community, taking themselves to and from school, over to friends’ houses, to team practices, to library study sessions, or to dance lessons.
The Los Altos community offers my children the invaluable opportunity of “freedom with responsibility.” And beyond shaping my children’s experience, Los Altos has helped me appreciate the value of making strong community relationships based on shared experiences (e.g., block parties, parent dinners, watch groups). I now feel as though my community supports me, just as I want to support it; a rewardingly healthy symbiosis.
The Role Neighbor Schools Play for a 68-year Resident of Los Altos
Background & Backyards—Schools & BBQ’s
Spurred by the end of WWII and the realization that the orchards were rapidly being converted to family housing, leaders in our area decided to create a network of public neighborhood elementary schools. I am a fortunate benefactor of this important 1947 decision.
My family moved to Los Altos in the summer of 1951. Our brand new 3 bedroom/1 bath home was surrounded by many construction sites where similar homes were being built. The smell I most recall from early childhood was of the freshly-sawed lumber used to feverishly build the homes that became my new neighborhood.
I was bussed to Hillview School for 1st through 3rd grades. Then in 1954, I was “moved” along with all the neighborhood kids to freshly-opened Springer School where I attended 4th through 6th grades. Looking back, it seemed like a new neighborhood public school was opening every year throughout the 50’s to accommodate the population boom of young and growing families. Springer, Oak, Almond, Portola, Carmel, Egan, Emerson (now Blach) and Purissima Hills were added to existing Loyola, Portola, Covington and Hillview.
The neighborhood kids (and their families) were central to my young life. We would play after school until called in for dinner. These were the fifties and there were tons of children in the community. As we all realize, things do change.
The seventies produced a dramatic reversal of School District growth. Children grew up and most moved away, resulting in sizable reductions in the LASD student population. The passage of California Proposition 13 in 1978 resulted in a significant reduction in tax revenues for the District. Parental concerns were being voiced in neighborhoods and at School Board meetings about the ramifications of decreased per-student spending and a projected growth in class size. What effects would this have on the morale of teachers and staff? Additionally, substantial school renovations were required by new earthquake and safety standards. School facilities were aging and there was a generalized need for maintenance & upgrading. This combination of factors resulted in a perfect storm of School District challenges.
By the 1980, as a parent of young sons, I well-remember this period. Schools were closed, either permanently or shut down for renovations. In 1982, I became a founding member of the Los Altos Educational Foundation. Donated money was primarily spent to off-set budget-balancing program cuts, especially in P.E. and the Arts.
It was an extremely difficult period, but we pulled together and made it through, confident that our children were still getting exceptionally fine educations. As a 68-year resident, I see that we must pull together again to address current LASD challenges. I have dear friends at Bullis Charter School whom I refuse to regard as “the other.” We must not allow ourselves to live out the pitiful polarization we are currently witnessing in other arenas. We are still and always a community of friends and neighbors. We must truly listen to each other. There has to be a solution to our current facilities challenges, as well as those being predicted for the future. Creativity and compromise are required. No group can be completely accommodated. The time is now. We are ALL being called to engage strenuously and to advocate wisely on behalf of ALL of our students.
Stanford has Embraced the Importance of Creating Physically Intact Neighborhoods
Summary: Today, virtually all Stanford undergraduates reside on campus in more than 70 communities including traditional dormitories, theme houses, cooperative houses, self-operated houses, fraternity and sorority houses, and more. Over the next few years Stanford will invest hundreds of millions of dollars in creating 10 to 14 physically intact residential neighborhoods. The residential housing transformation is driven by three student-oriented goals:
Student health and well-being
Student belonging and community
Student intellectual and personal growth
Community Definition: Whereas belonging considers the individuals’ sense of connection to and personal identification with the whole, “community” articulates an individual’s participation and belief in something larger than themselves. Creating a thriving community involves collectively establishing a group’s values and norms, and respecting the importance and responsibility of every individual in contributing to a shared vision of the collective good. We need to create communities that facilitate respect and interaction across differences as well as across institutional hierarchies.
Why neighborhoods: Students are missing-out from a lack of community. The neighborhood concept prioritizes community and belonging. Through living and learning together in the residences, students can grow in their ability to understand and negotiate differences and can prepare for the complexities of global citizenship. As they interact substantively and regularly with other students of differing backgrounds, interests and beliefs, they can develop increased self-awareness, enrich empathy, deepen appreciation for community and broaden intellectual perspectives.
The neighborhoods will be a place for students to develop personal and social responsibility, while building understanding across all kinds of differences. Such associations can lead to the growth of mutual respect and support, collective commitment through shared experiences, collaborative obligations, and communal objectives for shared norms.
Cultivating personal and social responsibility through opportunities to learn and practice civic engagement, ethical decision making, interaction across difference and collaboration to understand the broad stakes of citizenship and community membership.
Stanford would like help students get to know each other. Creating a coherent experience will help students build friendships across a broad spectrum of backgrounds, academic interests, beliefs, ethnicities, races and economic circumstances.
Background: The task force has determined that the guiding concept for the Stanford residential experience shall be the “neighborhood.” Consisting of a well-defined and coherent cluster of housing units and related programmatic approaches, the neighborhood will become the central locus for a Stanford undergraduate residential experience.
Each neighborhood will foster continuity during students’ four years at Stanford, allowing them to deepen friendships and enrich relationships, as well as offering the creative challenges and rich learning opportunities that come from citizenship in a diverse community.
The neighborhood model represents a distinctly Stanford approach to the residential experience that will both take advantage of the University’s existing housing stock and provide a blueprint for the future. This vision will guide future construction and growth, create and enhance housing, connect residences and provide shared facilities for learning, arts, recreation and dining.
Campus housing would be divided into approximately 10 to 14 neighborhoods, largely based on existing communities. The residential house size needs to be small enough to allow for students to know others and to be known. Each neighborhood would have about 700 undergraduate students. Students would be citizens of one neighborhood throughout their time at Stanford. First-year students would receive their neighborhood assignment before they arrive on campus. Most will reside in all frosh dorms, with options to reside in a small number of thematic multi-class dorms.
As Stanford renovates and builds campus neighborhoods, they will be different from one another. A valuable hallmark of our current housing is its quirky nature that makes Stanford, Stanford, and our idiosyncratic elements live on for decades. These combine for unique Stanford experiences, qualities and traditions that encourage and expand, not control, as we develop neighborhoods and their character.
The residential experience, therefore, is one that encompasses and incorporates mind, body and spirit; individual and collective responsibility; and self-awareness and community-mindedness.
Each neighborhood will foster continuity during students’ four years at Stanford, allowing them to experience deepening friendships over time, as well as offering the creative challenges and rich learning opportunities that come from citizenship in a diverse community. Neighborhoods will also provide intensive support for well-being and belonging, which are essential for students to thrive and become powerful learners, both on campus and beyond.
The “Cost” of Too Much Choice: The task force weighed many important considerations in arriving at its neighborhood recommendations. One of the greatest challenges of moving to a neighborhood model may be the reduction of choice, or the perception of choice. Choice and the ability to craft one’s own education are considered by many to be hallmarks of a Stanford undergraduate experience.
A fundamental question for the University is, “What is the value of choice?” Choice merely for the sake of choice has little value unless it is relevant for students to develop a sense of agency over their own educational experience and to have the ability to chart educational programs that best fit their evolving interests and aspirations. This sense of agency and self-authorship can be amplified in the neighborhood model proposed by the task force.
The next important question is, “What is the cost of choice?” The current system allows students to choose from 10 options of housing before they are on campus and more than 100 options of housing during their sophomore, junior and senior years. Students have indicated that this level of choice had significant costs. These are the concerning consequences of offering too many choices. The task force gave deep consideration to the tradeoffs of providing or reducing choice, and to how we can create a neighborhood system that allows for enough freedom for students to choose a personally meaningful path but within a stable community that offers an abiding sense of belonging.
Comments by Stanford President Marc Tessier-Lavigne on the goals of the ResX plan:
Increases academic enrichment - Academic enrichment is not just about excelling in a particular field, it is about being a part of a diverse community that supports each other.
Establishes consistency in residential experiences
Build diversity on all levels, ethnic, race, economic academic discipline, etc.
Neighborhood community will encourage students to support each other.
Builds accountability and shared responsibility
Why Damage a Los Altos Neighborhood Community for a Commuter School?
Los Altos was architected on neighborhoods built around schools.
Each of the remaining nine (of the original fifteen) schools are the nexus of the surrounding neighborhood communities.
A key appeal of Los Altos is the intact neighborhoods.
Architectural and urban planning movements are striving to create the kind of neighborhoods Los Altos already has.
Stanford University has committed hundreds of millions of dollars to create intact residential neighborhoods.
Los Altos citizens value their neighborhood schools enough to the approve a $150,000,000 bond measure to develop a 10th school site, with a widespread belief that the new school would be for BCS.
BCS IS A COMMUTER SCHOOL, NOT a neighborhood school. After over a decade of presenting themselves as a neighborhood school, a few years ago they acknowledged they are not, and have dramatically increased their out-of-district registrations.