Upfront
Goal $350,000 As of Jan. 12 491 donors $381,386
Districts asks: Could middle school expand?
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capacity in ways that building a fourth middle school would be considerably more expensive and difficult to find.� Current enrollment in Palo Alto’s three middle schools, at 2,733, is fast approaching full capacity — without portable classrooms — of 2,950. Portable classrooms could expand that by several hundred students, officials said.
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Buying private land adjacent to Terman could stem immediate need to build a new middle school, officials say t’s far from a done deal, but Palo Alto school leaders agreed Tuesday, Jan. 15, that expanding Terman Middle School through purchase of an adjacent parcel is an idea worth pursuing. The 1.67-acre Arastradero Road property in question is owned and occupied by the independent Bowman International School, which reportedly is in the market for a larger site. Any deal with Palo Alto would depend on Bowman securing an al-
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Local news, information and analysis
by Chris Kenrick ternate location. “We’re in preliminary discussions with Bowman School leadership, and there are issues certainly around price,� Superintendent Kevin Skelly said. “Land in Palo Alto is not inexpensive, but when you consider the ability to acquire a piece of property that’s next to our smallest middle school, that has a value to the district. It gives us the ability to expand our middle school
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Bowman International School
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WASTE MANAGEMENT
Palo Alto to test collection of food scraps from homes Black garbage bins would be eliminated in zero-waste experiment by Sue Dremann tarting in April, some Palo way to reach that goal, staff said. Alto residents will be putting Approximately 6,000 tons of food their food scraps out on the scraps and food-soiled paper could curb for pickup by the city’s waste- be diverted from the landfill annumanagement trucks. ally and turned into commercially The pilot, residential compost available compost. program, unanimously approved by The pilot program will cover apthe City Council Monday night, Jan. proximately 700 homes on a single 14, will add food to the list of items garbage route. The neighborhood taken away for composting. will be selected based on various The program will last for one year criteria, including that it is a mix and involve a neighborhood that has of single-family and multi-family yet to be selected by the city’s pub- homes. lic-works department. If successThe green and blue carts would ful, the program could be expanded will collected by the city’s waste citywide by 2015. hauler, GreenWaste, once weekly Currently, the food that people as required by the California State throw out ends up in the landfill. health code, staff said. The pilot program will eliminate the Councilwoman Karen Holman black trash carts, and all waste will on Monday questioned whether be placed in either the green, com- people would comply with one of posting bin or the blue recycling bin. the program’s stipulations: bagging Food scraps will need to be bagged, items such as foil beverage pouches, according to staff. diapers, bathroom products such as The project’s goals are four- dental floss and hygiene items, and pronged: to divert food waste from pet waste. City staff said that, for the landfill, thus aiding with the city’s most part, residents already comply Zero Waste goals; save money by with that requirement. eliminating separate garbage colHolman said she supports a stronlection; reduce the number of gar- ger backyard composting program, bage-truck trips each week and thus which she said the city has not emissions of greenhouse gases; and pushed. simplify the sorting of waste for The pilot program is consistent residents, city staff said. with the city’s Zero Waste OperaThe project was developed out tional Plan and Climate Protection of the council Finance Commit- Plan. Both were adopted in 2007 to tee’s request to reduce costs to the provide for the collection and diverrefuse fund through less-frequent sion of all compostable material. N Staff Writer Sue Dremann can garbage pickup. The collection of food waste and compostable ma- be emailed at sdremann@paweekterials is considered the optimal ly.com.
S Veronica Weber
Reporters invited this week to visit the Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve look out at the Searsville Dam, left and Searsville Reservoir, right.
ENVIRONMENT
Stanford officials look to solve Searsville conundrum 120-year-old dam created lake that is nearly full with accumulated sediment by Sue Dremann
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tanford University officials are facing a mountain of decisions regarding what to do with Searsville Reservoir, which is slowly filling up with silt, in addition to dealing with a federal investigation for possible violations of the Endangered Species Act.
Officials took reporters on a tour of the dam and reservoir Wednesday afternoon, Jan. 16, to demonstrate the complexities they are up against, with probably 20 years left before the lake might dry up. The lake is currently about 90 percent full of silt that has washed down from the creeks that feed
into the reservoir west of Interstate 280. Roughly two-thirds of the lake area is now forested wetlands that have been reclaimed by trees and plants after 120 years’ worth of silt has filled the valley. Searsville is located in what is (continued on page 9)
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