Stuart, we are impressed that you attended one meeting a few years ago, but we are disappointed that your blog post is so weak. Instead or repeating Ranella's reasons why a merger was impossible, you could have instead described the details of how a neighborhood off Willow Road recently moved out of Ravenswood to MPCSD.

Stuart, I confess to being naïve in this area. But it does seem that efforts like the one you describe spark a counter reaction. I am intrigued to hear that a Willows neighborhood made the move on its own. I wonder if there\'s more in the Almanac archives about this. Meanwhile, for me, I would like to see the Belle Haven moved into more of my consciousness. I have barely been there and lived in this area for three decades. It seems up to me to get more involved.

Moving Belle Haven from one school district to another under the rationale of unifying Menlo Park does not actually unify Menlo Park unless you also merge Las Lomitas into the mix. Also, there will be a huge loss of state revenue if Belle Haven moves out of Ravenswood, and MPCSD's current property tax revenues alone could not even come close to making up for that loss (most people don't realize that Ravenswood actually has comparable per student funding to MPCSD because it gets so much state funding -- take it out of Ravenswood, lose a LOT of state funding). Also, taking Belle Haven out of Ravenswood would devastate that district, so if you are going to move out Belle Haven, you really need to take all of Ravenswood district. But doing that would result in an even larger loss of state revenue. There is no silver bullet here.

Interesting assumption that the problem is the Ravenswood district itself, and that any school could migrate from that district to the MPCSD and suddenly become a high-performing school.

Ravenswood receives comparable funding to other districts, as already noted. Since ousting its long-time corrupt superintendent, the district has employed competent, professional management. Teachers are no less dedicated than at MPCSD schools.

If the impetus for this article is the fact that new Belle Haven residents are concerned about their local school, well, they have the power to make it better. The only real difference between the MPCSD and the Ravenswood district is the level of parental involvement and commitment. In fact, the #1 complaint I've heard from the Ravenswood management is that parents refuse to take any responsibility for helping educate their kids. If that mindset changes, then we will see very different results. But simply transferring one school into another district is not going to fix that problem.

Thank you all for considering the issues and responding.

Several items were mentioned. I knew of the earlier transfer of a Ravenswood district to the Menlo Park District but not the details (I was informed yesterday that this was before 1981).

Regarding the loss of funding, I proposed above the concomitant move of some Atherton into the MPSD. That could offset the disparity in property tax revenues. It could have a double effect since ? as friends in Atherton have suggested ? so many Athertonians send kids to private schools that the MPSD would have the benefit of the increased property tax without the increase of head count to educate. Speculative ? but what if?

Not so easy ? no, it isn?t easy ? and if someone wants to sit on their hands there are many reasons to choose from. Of course I?d like positive results from Ravenswood administration. I am still concerned that Belle Haven kids are being shortchanged. Perhaps blogger Martin Lamarque would offer his observations as he?s lived in Belle Haven for 16 years.

I believe the reference to a Willows neighborhood changing districts pertained to the 600 Willow Road townhouses transfer from Ravenswood to MPCSD in 2011: [I tried to link to the Almanac's own story, but it wouldn't let me! Anyway, it is easy enough to find via google.]

Most of the rest of the Willows moved from Ravenswood to the MPCSD in the 1980s. However, several public schools west of 101 remained in the Ravenswood district, thus requiring Belle Haven/EPA children to walk over the freeway to get to and from school.

Thats' a very brave suggestion, Stuart.

But given how obsessed we have become about home values, I can already hear people panic from the possibility of having their real state treasures downgraded if children from lower socioeconomic class were to join their headed-to-Ivy-League-colleges kids.

Thank you Stuart for supporting our Kids...I would hope that we can clearly see what the real important issues of life are...in my opinion, our Children are the most important, and we must make other decisions around their well being. After all, we cannot take our real estate or the increase in value with us when we leave this earth...our children's education should not depend on real estate values!

Since the Ravenswood School district will lose a sizable amount of funding without keeping the schools in the MP area, perhaps we should consider having the Ravenswood School District and the MP School District join to become One Unified School District? This may be the change we need...