Residents of Los Altos Hills have begun speaking up about their displeasure with the absence of a school district in their city.

Los Altos Hills parents currently send their children to one of two districts—Mountain View-Los Altos School District (MVLA) or Palo Alto Unified School District (PAUSD). The parents are hoping to create a whole new school district in the city, which would require all new classroom equipment as well as administrators.

These parents have been holding many meetings to resurrect the old schools in Los Altos Hills, which have been abandoned for three years. These meetings sparked legal matters when a member of the Palo Alto Chair Board questioned whether it was legal for residents to belong to two independent school districts.

Parents claim that sending their children to schools in other cities impacts the children negatively, and they hope public school systems will be a part of their city once again.

If schools do open up in Los Altos Hills, Palo Alto schools will be greatly affected. PAUSD and MVLA will each lose up to $6.2 million in tax money as well as hundreds of students.

Some Gunn students living in Los Altos Hills oppose the proposed new schools. “I think it’s good that residents here go to schools in Palo Alto,” freshman Los Altos Hills resident Cosmo Sung said. “We get the opportunity to meet new people of different backgrounds.”

Gunn faculty members agree that the institution of a new district will be hurtful to Los Altos Hills students. “It will hurt them more than us,” social studies teacher Rich DiGiacomo said. “They’ll lose the resources that a bigger school offers.”

Other staff members have doubts regarding the time until the new district opens up, and the percentage of residents that are actually against the proposal of having a new school district. “I think it’s a long ways away,” Principal Noreen Likins said. “There is a sizable proportion of people in Los Altos Hills that oppose the idea of a new school district.”