Produce to fall for WEEKEND | 14
SEPTEMBER 29, 2017 VOLUME 25, NO. 36
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MOVIES | 17
Google throws North Bayshore housing into uncertainty By Mark Noack
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MICHELLE LE
Dalia Gamez, a special education instructional assistant, tells the crowd how the DACA program opened the door to her career at Tuesday night’s march and rally organized by Los Altos High School students in support of immigrants and Dreamers.
Students march against DACA repeal LAHS TEENS DEMONSTRATE AGAINST TRUMP’S IMMIGRATION POLICIES By Kevin Forestieri
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ore than a hundred student protesters marched through Mountain View on Wednesday with a clear message: the immigrant community — documented or not — needs to be protected, even if it means
fighting President Donald Trump’s administration every step of the way. The student march, which began at Los Altos High School and ended with a rally at Eagle Park, was a direct rebuke to an announcement earlier this month by U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions calling for an
end to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. The Obama-era policy granted temporary legal status and work permits to some 800,000 U.S. residents who were brought to the country illegally as children, an See STUDENT MARCH, page 8
hrough all the talk of transforming North Bayshore into an urban neighborhood of tomorrow — of Google and Mountain View partnering to bring schools, mass transit and 9,850 homes to the heart of Silicon Valley — that vision now seems to be in limbo. As a grueling Sept. 26 City Council meeting on North Bayshore stretched into the early morning hours of Sept. 27, the city’s relationship with Google became suddenly strained as the company’s representatives made clear that their offer to cooperate with the city’s ambitious housing plan was very conditional. Google representatives dropped a gauntlet, saying they needed 800,000 square feet of additional office space in North Bayshore beyond what the city was planning. If the city denied that bonus, it would be a dealbreaker for any housing getting built, warned Joe Van Belleghem, senior design director at Google. “Just to be clear: no new office; no new residential,” Van Belleghem told the council. “We’ve been very clear all along that we needed this extra office space to make this work.” At that moment — about 1 a.m. — Mountain View’s years
of planning for North Bayshore turned into a big game of chicken. Was the city really asking too much from one of the world’s wealthiest companies? Would Google really pull out of building housing even though it would benefit the company’s own workers? Some council members made clear they thought they should call Google’s bluff. “I think the housing will get built,” said Councilman Lenny Siegel. “Adding more offices doesn’t make any sense to me. Once Google looks at this, they’ll realize they need the 10,000 homes to add even a portion of what they want.” The Tuesday night study session represented one of the last steps before the city finishes its precise plan for the North Bayshore area. For years, Mountain View has drafted its plans around adding 3.6 million square feet of new offices to an area already packed with corporate offices and clogged with traffic. Following a series of approvals and property swaps, Google was able to obtain most of this new development allocation. After a political swing in 2015, Mountain View’s City Council voted to change course and See NORTH BAYSHORE, page 9
School district struggles to keep special education staff REPORTS SHOW MOUNTAIN VIEW WHISMAN IS ON A PERPETUAL HIRING SPREE FOR TEACHING AIDES By Kevin Forestieri
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undreds of California school districts are grappling with an everworsening shortage of special education teachers, paying out big signing bonuses and increasingly hiring under-prepared candidates to fill classrooms. But in the Mountain View Whisman School District, that’s
INSIDE
only part of the problem. Special education instructional aides — essential support staff for the district’s most vulnerable students — are frequently leaving the school district after less than a year, according to district reports dating back three years. The high attrition rate forces the district into a year-round recruitment spree to replace staff, and puts an additional burden
on change-averse students with disabilities. The school district has had to hire 82 special education instructional aides since August 2014, according to personnel reports dating back to the start of the 2014-15 school year. Of those aides, more than half have already left the district — most resigning within one year of when they started. The average
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tenure among those who have left the district is 10 months. Special education aides help classroom teachers with the important task of accommodating students with disabilities, working one-on-one with students and ensuring that the school is doing its best to fulfill each students’ Individualized Education Plan (IEP). The aides help out in mainstream
classrooms as well as so-called special day classes for students with more intensive needs. Manny Velasco, who served for 10 years as an instructional assistant for the district, said the job requires a huge amount of flexibility and talent in order to accommodate every student’s individual needs, and provide an See SPECIAL ED, page 10