Back to School

and kicking off the new school year

Charles DiFazio
August 20, 2025

Welcome back, everyone! I hope everyone had a relaxing, refreshing summer. Since my last post, I went to two separate weddings with my family, back home in New Jersey and locally, and we visited my in-laws in Utah. Like many families, my kids went to a variety of camps over the summer, and we spent a lot of time swimming in the neighborhood pool. KPop Demon Hunters also took over our household for a bit.

Before I dive in to the work ahead of us this week, I want to thank everyone who came out for the Mountain View Whisman School District’s Back to School Celebration last weekend! I was delighted to see so many families walking around, meeting our teachers and staff, and learning about all the great resources available at the schools and our community more broadly. Thank you to the many people I met and took the time to chat with me, and thank you to the district staff, city staff, community organizations, and volunteers who made it all happen.

Board Meeting

The Mountain View Whisman School Board’s first regular meeting of the school year on Thursday, August 22, 2025 begins at 6:00PM with closed session until 7:00PM. It’s a relatively short agenda compared to our meetings at the end of the school year, but there are some important topics to discuss. Here are some items on the agenda:

FCMAT Extraordinary Audit Findings

In November 2024, the Santa Clara County superintendent of schools and the Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team (FCMAT) agreed for FCMAT to conduct an extraordinary audit of the Mountain View Whisman School District to determine if fraud, misappropriation of funds or other illegal fiscal practices may have occurred in relation to the former district superintendent. […] Dr. Toston will present a report containing the study team's findings and recommendations.

Item VIII.A

FCMAT has completed their extraordinary audit of the district, and the next step in the process is for the county superintendent to report its findings to the Board within 45 days. I look forward to hearing the findings directly from the county superintendent, and I am eager to hear recommendations they have to continue to improve our operations as a district. After that, by the Education Code, the Board “shall, no later than 15 days after receipt of the report, notify the county superintendent of schools of its proposed actions on the county superintendent’s recommendation.”

MVW Residences Corporation Board Interviews

A lot has happened over the summer with regards to the district’s Staff Housing at the Sevens. Under negotiation for much of the first half of the year, the district approved the purchase of the land beneath the staff housing building at a special meeting during the summer. Earlier this week, we announced that the Mountain View Whisman School District is in negotiations to sell some of the homes in the building to the Foothill-De Anza Community College District to be used for their staff members.

MVWSD sought applicants to serve on the MVW Residences Corporation Board of Directors this summer. Applications were due to MVWSD by July 21, 2025.

[…]

We are grateful that these qualified individuals would consider volunteer service to benefit our schools and students for years to come.

Item VIII.B

Aligned with the goal of making the project sustainable and attractive while allowing staff and the Board to focus on our core mission of educating students, we formed a non-profit housing corporation earlier this year to which we will delegate some governing authority. This item presents the applicants to serve on the Board of Directors of the MVW Residences Corporation.

Summer Review

The Board will review some of the events over the summer between our regular board meetings. This includes contracts and payments made under the delegated authority to staff and updates on Measure T Construction. While I’ve had the privilege of seeing the changes made to the Vargas campus first-hand, I am glad other board members and the public will be able to see photos of the amazing changes, along with other Measure T projects.

Upcoming Events

Next week, many schools will be having their individual Back to School Nights. I encourage parents with students to attend. It’s a great way to meet your children’s teachers, learn about what lies ahead during the school year, and meet fellow families in you children’s classes.