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Minimum days at Fisher spill over to King's Court
By Jason Baker
It's 12:30 on Friday afternoon. Do you know where your children are?
If your youngster happens to be a Fisher Middle School student, and the school has scheduled a minimum day, your precious one could be hanging out in the parking lot or lounging near the stores of King's Court Shopping Center at Blossom Hill Road and Los Gatos Boulevard. Hundreds of students invade the area each time Fisher schedules an early release, some with skateboards and cigarettes in hand, all with youthful exuberance that has led to problems for merchants and property owners alike.
Phyllis O'Shea of Federal Realty Trust, which owns King's Court, said she began fielding complaints from merchants in the shopping center shortly after the company assumed ownership in September of 1998. Reports ranged from smoking and skateboarding to food fights in the food court areas and cases of shoplifting by students from several stores. Other complaints included tales of skateboarders running into elderly residents from The Terraces next door.
"The parents of these kids may drop their kids off at school and give them $20, and they go have a gay old time. Chances are they probably would never do that at any other time, especially at night," O'Shea said. "Many of the parents are customers of the merchants in the center. And these are basically good kids. We just want their parents to be aware of their behavior. Some of the children are terribly rude."
To remedy the situation, O'Shea obtained a school calendar detailing each day Fisher had a scheduled minimum day. Her company then hired two security guards to patrol the area. But unfortunately, the guards had no effect on the kid's behavior. That is until O'Shea brought out the video camera.
"We've had good luck with filming. Having a camera present tends to check their behavior. We've found that to be a tremendous help," she said.
O'Shea described the extra security cost, $22 an hour for two guards, as pretty minimal. She also owns the camera the guards use on patrols.
"We have no more security in the shops than is necessary. But the loss of inventory has been very distressing to our merchants. And our janitor is very stressed out because of the extra garbage," she said.
O'Shea said calls to Fisher administrators have had no effect on the situation.
"[Administrators] can mention it to the students, but once they leave campus, it's out of their hands," she said.
At least one Fisher parent is aware of the chaos of minimum days. But Kathy Winkelman said she is not sure other parents are.
Reports not only of thefts, but also of drug and alcohol use by young teens during minimum days should have parents worried, she said. A youth worker for 16 years, including six with Fisher, Winkelman said the problems have stemmed primarily from a small number of students.
"The majority of these kids are absolutely fine," she said. "We think it's great that [other area merchants] are letting kids skateboard on their property. But we are concerned that the message isn't getting to parents that [King's Court on minimum days] sometimes is not a safe environment."
Winkelman said it is not right for merchants to incur additional expenses because of student behavior.
"The community has been wonderful. It's not fair for merchants to have to babysit these kids," she said.
Los Gatos school administrators also are aware of the problems. In fact, district superintendent Mary Ann Park said the district is proposing that minimum days be altogether eliminated from Fisher for the 1999-2000 school year. Students instead will have "late start" days, beginning the school day at 9:45 a.m. and going until 3 p.m., rather than beginning school at 8:25 a.m. and being released at 12:25 p.m.
"We're assuming that students will not be out early in the morning if classes started a little later," Park said. "We're trying to provide time for staff inservice but without the impact to community and parents."
Three minimum days remain on Fisher's schedule this year. The school's nearly 1,000 students will be released early June 8, 9 and 10 during final exam week, Park said.
"When students reach middle-school age, they really don't want to go to day care," she said. "We do know we don't want to cause a situation by our scheduling. The community has been very supportive of us. We want to be a good neighbor and work with the community and businesses. That's why we've looked very carefully at scheduling these days."
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Los Gatos, California Since 1881
