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WEEKEND | 15
GENERAL EXCELLENCE
California Newspaper Publishers Association
JANUARY 13, 2017 VOLUME 24, NO. 51
www.MountainViewOnline.com
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MOVIES | 18
Local hospitals brace for Obamacare repeal CHANGES IN HEALTH CARE LAW COULD LEAVE MILLIONS UNINSURED legislation to the Senate Budget Committee by Jan. 27. Immediately after the Novemhe inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump ber election, Santa Clara County is still a week away, but officials got to work assessing congressional leaders are wast- just how much they stand to lose ing no time delivering on one of if congressional Republicans suchis major campaign promises: ceed. At a gloomy Nov. 9 Health the repeal of the Affordable Care and Hospital Committee meetAct. And while details are scant ing, Deputy County Executive on what kind of replacement Rene Santiago said Santa Clara legislation will be offered, local County is likely going to have to county and hospital officials are bolster its relationship with the state on health voicing deep care funding, concerns that and prepare gutting parts of the landmark ‘How do you plan for for a Trump health care law a replacement that administration committed to could force mildown lions of Ameridoesn’t exist yet?’ cutting on federal cans to lose BURT MARGOLIN, obligations. their health HEALTH CARE CONSULTANT Based on precoverage. vious RepubliLast week, can proposals, the Senate voted 51-48 to start the process of Medicaid could be doled out to creating a budget resolution that states through a block grant or would defund and eliminate per-capita allotments, each of key parts of the Affordable Care which have the ultimate goal Act, also known as Obamacare. of reducing federal spending. Since then, Republican lawmak- This, in turn, would mean less ers have moved at breakneck coverage for those currently speeds to dismantle the law, and are planning to report the repeal See OBAMACARE, page 6 By Kevin Forestieri
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MICHELLE LE
Ken Rosenberg will serve as Mountain View’s mayor in 2017, after a unanimous vote by his fellow City Council members on Jan. 10.
New mayor pledges civility and courtesy in 2017 COUNCIL COLLEAGUES GIVE MAYORAL GAVEL TO KEN ROSENBERG By Mark Noack
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n January of 2014, Ken Rosenberg was hit by a revelation — he had become a politician. The investment adviser and
family man was in early stages of preparing for his first City Council run. He already had plenty of government experience under his belt, starting out as a worried father wanting to do something about
his neighborhood’s speeding cars and later joining the city’s Chamber of Commerce, the Downtown Committee, the Human Relations Commission See ROSENBERG, page 8
Squeezing in a new school on a small campus NEW SLATER DESIGN INCLUDES TWO-STORY CLASSROOMS AND COULD ELIMINATE SOFTBALL FIELD By Kevin Forestieri
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he Mountain View Whisman School District is still hammering out the details on what Slater Elementary will look like when it reopens in 2019, but one thing is for certain: the campus is going to look a whole lot different from the rest of the schools in the city. That’s
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because space is tight at the 8.8acre campus, and sharing space with Google’s preschool means the district is going to have to build up. Last week, the district’s architect revealed four designs for a new school at Slater Elementary, showing how 18 classrooms, a library, a multipurpose room and the front office are going to fit on
a 4.5-acre portion of the campus. Each plan includes two-story buildings for most of the classrooms, and a new traffic signal is likely at the T-intersection of North Whisman Road and Pacific Drive for pick-up and drop-off. The school district opted to close Slater Elementary in 2006, but decided in late 2015 to
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commit to re-opening the school for the hundreds of families with school-aged children living in the northeast corner of Mountain View. The problem is that during the years the school was closed, the district agreed to lease out the existing classrooms to Google for what is now its largest day care center. District officials don’t want to displace Google,
which make constructing a new school more complicated. “Quite frankly, we’re trying to squeeze in an elementary school onto what’s left of an elementary school,” said Richard Terrones, the school district’s architect, at the Jan. 5 board meeting. At 8.8 acres, the Slater site is See SLATER DESIGN, page 7