After a few laughs, Ranii kicked into a more serious mode, informing board members that on the March 2004 ballot they'll see an initiative that will require only a 55-percent vote by the state Legislature to adopt a budget and related tax legislation, rather than the two-thirds vote now needed. Currently, Rhode Island and Arkansas are the only other states to require a vote of two-thirds or more to pass a budget.

In these fiscally challenging times, Ranii said the initiative would prevent legislators from becoming stalemated, while holding them accountable for passing a responsible budget on time.

Ranii also informed the board that Gov.-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger recently named his finance chief, Donna Arduin, and secretary of education, Richard Riordan, the former mayor of Los Angeles. The California Teachers Association has expressed that it is not pleased with Riordan's appointment, Ranii said.

Movie director/producer Rob Reiner and the CTA are planning to file a ballot measure for the November 2004 election that would raise commercial property taxes. The proposed initiative, announced Oct. 29, would increase the statewide tax rate on commercial property from the current 1 percent rate to 1.55 percent. The initiative would generate about $3 billion annually for K­12 education and $1.5 billion for preschool education. Ranii said the funding would aid in areas such as reducing class sizes and providing in-service training opportunities and resources for teachers, while not raising taxes for homeowners.

The district may also be submitting a grant application to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for additional funding, Ranii said, along with other school districts.

"It is an exciting opportunity to enhance our revenue stream at a time when that looks really good to me," Ranii said.

Assistant Principal Kathleen Eaton presented board members with a senior class profile of the Los Gatos High School graduating class of 2003 as well as an overview of the school's guidance and counseling services. Assistant Principal Gail Wasserman also gave a similar guidance and counseling services report of Saratoga High School.

Board President Phil Nielsen was concerned that Advanced Placement (AP) history test scores, at a 65 percent passing rate at Los Gatos High School, were lower than the bandwidth of scores in other AP categories. Eaton explained that unlike other AP classes, history is not exclusive of who can be accepted and what prerequisites students must have to enter the class. Even students who have not taken the AP history class are allowed to take the AP test.

Saratoga High School, in comparison, had a 79 percent passing rate, said Wasserman, adding that AP history always has the highest number of kids taking the exam. And like Los Gatos High School, Saratoga High School allows any student to take the AP history test.

While Ranii said she had no doubt that the AP history classes were rich learning environments for students, she encouraged Eaton and Wasserman to have conversations with those students who didn't receive high scores on the AP history exams. She said the experiences students have on the exams should be compared to their experiences in the classrooms.

Eaton also pointed out for board members a useful aspect of the Los Gatos High School website, which has kept in-line with current technology updates, called Parent Connect.

"Parents can find out their student's attendance record, tardies and grades at each six-week grading period," Eaton said.

Student board representative Marissa Byrne said Saratoga High School is sponsoring 150 children in Mexico as part of the Comunidad program.