Dear Menlo Park City Council,
As a member of our school community and a past President of the MPAEF I am writing to encourage the City Council to consider the proposed housings impact on our school district. These are a few points of consideration:
The proposed development does not include housing for teachers. One major hindrance to recruiting teachers and staff is the cost of living in Menlo Park. This new development is below teacher level income (not mixed use housing), therefore, does not help to make Menlo Park more affordable for teachers (or other community workers such as fire fighters, police, etc).
Our campuses are at capacity and Measure U does not provide new classroom space. Currently our campuses are at capacity. Specifically Laurel and Hillview. The recently passed Measure U provides campus upgrades, but does not provide additional classroom capacity. The proposed development could increase the student population by approximately 450 students. A roughly 15% increase in our total student population. Our campuses cannot support this large increase in student population.*source:EdData
The MPAEF raises approximately $4M annually and has reached a threshold that cannot support more students. The MPAEF has raised approximately $4M annually for the past 3 years by asking for a donation of $2,000 per student. Around 65% of our parent population supports our campaign. Our efforts have proven we have reached a threshold with our community and cannot raise more money. We would need to raise an additional $900,000 to support the increase in student population. Therefore the level of education and resources in our school district would decrease.*source: MPAEF Annual Report
Suzanne Yonkers
Parent and Community Member
Past President of MPAEF (Menlo Park Atherton Education Foundation)
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Suzanne C. Yonkers
