The Lakeside Joint School District board unanimously decided in a 4-0 vote on March 29 to pursue an action plan with Rolling Hills Middle School for Lakeside's future seventh- and eighth-grade students. Board member Brent Schwager was absent from the meeting.

As part of the motion, the educational services at Rolling Hills will be provided to Lakeside under a feeder school status, rather than regarding Lakeside's students as inter-district transfers. The board also plans to give due consideration, at a later date, to have Lakeside's sixth-graders attend Rolling Hills as well.

Rolling Hills, located at 1585 More Ave. in Los Gatos, is about 15 to 20 minutes away from Lakeside school, situated in the mountains on Black Road. It's also part of the Campbell Union School District. Students from Rolling Hills feed into high schools in the Campbell Union High School District. But Lakeside's seventh- and eighth-graders will feed into Los Gatos High School.

Campbell Union School District board president Janet Johnson and District Superintendent Johanna VanderMolen gave a presentation about Rolling Hills to about 20 Lakeside parents and community members in the audience. The presentation highlighted minimum days, special education services, academic performance, after-school day care, summer school enrichment programs, extracurricular activities, electives, dances, technology and sports.

Rolling Hills has about 980 students in attendance this year, said VanderMolen, and is facing a projected declining enrollment with only 963 students for next year. She said the declining enrollment the school has faced in the past appears to finally be stabilizing this year.

Rolling Hills is a revenue-limit district, meaning the majority of the school's funding comes from average daily attendance. School officials described adding Lakeside students to the Rolling Hills campus as a win-win situation for both districts.

"Why are we here?" VanderMolen questioned. "It's a match for us. We're not going out soliciting kids and school districts."

Lakeside is also facing both declining enrollment and a shrinking budget reserve. Lakeside is a basic aid district, meaning the majority of its revenue comes from property taxes. VanderMolen said she doesn't expect the Campbell Union School District to become a basic aid district anytime soon.

Lakeside parents and teachers in the audience who had previously visited Rolling Hills for tours commented on the welcoming middle school staff and happy students they saw while on the campus.

The motion passed on March 29 does not preclude Lakeside officials from considering merger or annexation with another neighboring school district. Lakeside serves grades K­6, but is obligated to provide educational services for grades K­8. Lakeside Board President Parker Stokes said they can't continue to send seventh- and eighth-grade students to Fisher Middle School, in the Los Gatos Union School District, since that agreement comes with a price tag of approximately $4,900 per student each year. This would exhaust Lakeside's reserve budget in two years or less.