Cupertino Courier 09-14-2005, Volume 58, Number 34, Gold as Gold Grove's test of time Union wants results Help for pocketbook CommunityClassifieds
Forum resident is feisty as ever CE_A endorses candidates it Energy conservation yields tax The West Valley's Hometown
as she celebrates Io5th birthday believes will hear teachers breaks to contractors, consumers Classified Advertising Section
page 5 page 11 page 13 page 36
School's API •
upertrno
scores tell a fe••• ..fe ou
RIER
tale of close
community
O nslaught of hate di stop Volume 58, Number 34 • September 14, 2005 • Cupertino, CA • Est. i947 • www.cupertinocourier.com
Stevens Creek from excelling COAAMEA \ORATIVE SERIES • ISSUE NUMBER ONE OF FOUR
By ANNE WARD ERNST °
T hree Cupertino elementary '� ` ` `
... "`� " .....3 s
schools saw a dramatic increase , "r. :
in API test scores this year. I , .,,,
Stevens Creek raised its score by 26 • w '•w
points, while Lincoln's increased by ` I ' A ; a4 ' ° r ` ... o s
23 points and Meyerholz' score went , '" `t ,� `' •
up 52 points. A Z. t!
While all three improvements are • .. `°
notable, the increased test scores at "°
Stevens Creek emerge as a positive
outcome for the school community. •
At just the time when teachers were •
focusing on preparing students for r °
the tests, one of the instructors filed a ' ' " r .
i-
lawsuit charging the school's princi- .F;e tui� ,,,
:_ •mod
pal with discriminating against him " ' CON
because he was a Christian. r -.
The lawsuit became a flashpoint i
for conservative talk shows, and a l ,. -
the school hate mail swirled around i
� - -,
s. t
When fifth grade teacher Stephen t
wry 1 - -- Williams decided, with the backing of r -_ w - .... –. ---
the Alliance Defense Fund —a con- *w ., .�
servative Christian organization —to " ;' ; . ,-
w .r
sue Cupertino Union School District ,
and Stevens Creek's principal
Patricia Vidmar, no one expected the k 4 A
4 a ,. 44�
" ra: °+44,,,w r �un,44 a „ I , 4 44 44 w, .r4�a4 . F a,4 i... 4.A ra re , - .ex,s ^rn v, AK i �, ,
1 , ,, . W .
storm that followed. This was in late
November 2004.
The Alliance Defense Fund put a • ' �. n r l - $'
headline on its website that said the 4 " max y i r .
school would not allow the -2 t X
Declaration of Independence in the
classroom because it had the word
God in it. Conservative radio talk 1
• show hosts such as Rush Limbaugh , „> = ' `
picked up on the issue. And Fox tele- -
i urno !„
vision show Hannity and Colmbs Cupertino Is tip w
televised a special show here at Flint p g 5
Center about the Williams case.
Some 3,000 hate emails flooded the his year hails Cupertino's golden anniversary as ration and has recorded much of its history. To get
school over the Thanksgiving break. an incorporated city. In celebration of this 50th some perspective on what it was like when commu-
School secretaries Kathleen Garfield year, the CUPERTINO COURIER is publishing a nity leaders struggled with incorporation, we've
and Leann Block took the brunt of series of stories over the next four weeks to highlight decided to reprint an article from Cupertino Monta
the storm when the phones started , thy''• city's history— including a look at business, Vista Courier's Oct. 13, 1965 issue. The article ran 10
ringing. Angry people called the schriols, the city's ever changing diversity and a taste ” years after the incorporation in a Special Anniversary
school from across the country and of 'what if and what it was like growing up in Edition of the paper and chronicles the city's effort to
from as far away as Ireland, saying the Cup rtino long ago. The COURIER, although with dif- keep San Jose, Sunnyvale, Santa Clara and Los Altos tTM r
school shouldn't ban the document. ferpnt owners and variations of its` name, has been from annexing Cupertino land and the sujeessfull •
It hurt,” Block said say runiiin g continuously since before the city's incorpo- effort of city leaders to incorporate. * p. ; p
Garfield and Block both sa the . +
dr API, page 9 t,, _ • M
'955 • UPERTIINTO .2005 . : : i
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... .
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Photograph Courtesy of California History Center at De Anza College
Cupertino's first city hall was a room in the firehouse on Stevens Creek Boulevard. A clanging fire bell and firefighters stomping through city hall proved to be too much
for the city's tiny staff, so the office was moved into a former dress shop in this building on what was then called Highway 9 (De Anza Boulevard). Next door was a
beauty shop. The building is still on De Anza, just south of Rodrigues Avenue, with a beauty parlor still occupying the left side of the building and a television repair
shop on the right.
H un gry Jose, S
incorporation .
f orce vote
This story was published in the posed of Cupertino and Monta Vista about for more territory. All three quick- Creek Boulevard the mutual boundary.
`Cupertino Monta Vista Courier' orchardists and ranchers with large land ly spotted the undeveloped Cupertino as Seeing the defense of the past no
Oct. 13, 1965 holdings who found it necessary to the ideal place for their much needed ' longer holding the tide back, the
ncorporation of the City of Cupertino band together in a sort of united stand bedroom community, demanded by the Improvement Association started a study
was the greatest accomplishment the against the forces from without. population increase created by the and survey to determine what action to
community has achieved. Some con - Defenses industrial explosion in the valley. take to keep Cupertino's identity.
.
Soon the Cupertino ranchers saw the The group ran into many obstacles,
I cider it a miracle, considering the many The association and the use of green- three cities moving in from all sides— including squabbling among its own
obstacles which had to be overcome belting zoning helped the Cupertino even Los Altos was becoming a threat. ' members to the course of action best
before that eventful incorporation elec- ranchers to preserve their way of life Behind such annexation strategists as suited for Cupertino.
tion day in 1955. until about 1950 when the cities of Sunnyvale's city manager Ken Hunter Finally determining that incorpora-
Many groups were formed to study Sunnyvale, Santa Clara and San Jose and San Jose's city manager A. P. tion was the only alternative, the associ-
and promote the incorporation project. started feeling the post war boom, which Hamann, these two cities started running ' ation started to set the machinery in
The main force was the Cupertino- ' would zoom to a peak in the next 10 strip annexations into the Cupertino ' motion for incorporation, only to be hit
Monta Vista Improvement Association, years in Santa Clara. community, slowly chewing their way to by a setback decision from the Monta
a group with a history dating back to the As industry started locating in these ' Cupertino's heartland and quarreling ' Vista group that didn't want to be
early 1900s. The association was com- ' three cities, they in turn started looking among themselves over making Stevens included in the incorporation.
14 THE CUPERTINO COURIER SEPTEMBER 14, 2005
1 .CUPERTINO CUPERTINO .200
......... .............................._ 955 ...................................................................................................................................................... ............................... 5
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
&e C i ty of Cupert fi rst off enactments y
?.
The paper also printed mayor of the City of er lots of 6,000 square from 10 a.m. to noon. o
, • _ a short capsule of history Cupertino feet. s
that immediately
DEC. 27, 1955
NOV. 17, 1955 DEC. 1, 1955
_,,
' in i ltf t T p z incorporation: followed Cupertino's The three -acre proper-
1 �. ii The new city council's First city hall of ty of the Cupertino De
fi first major issue —lot Cupertino was Oro Club and its club-
OCT. 20, 1955 major p
size standardization. The established in a room house on Homestead
' .' , Ralph Lindenmeyer council backed 10,000- in the Fire Station on Road at Highway 9
R srs,- ',° ` ' ' '4, was elected by other to 8,000- square -foot lots. Stevens Creek become the first
.*
,- , L councilmen as first Developers urged small- Boulevard with hours annexation by the city.
Photograph courtesy of Wes Morse
In 1955 the city considered using the old Cupertino Union School building (pictured above) at Stevens Creek Boulevard and Vista Drive as the offices for city hall.
Councilman Norman Nathanson said the school would make a fine community center with the auditorium available for social activities and the Spanish style court-
yard an ideal place for outdoor gatherings. He said the athletic field could become a park. But state officials had condemned the 30- year -old building, afraid it
would not withstand a large earthquake. The city decided it was too expensive and complex to retrofit the building, and developers later tore it down.
Myerholz strongly supported the
„� �, incorporation alternative. "We will lose
° our identity and control by annexation
IIIPMOI
to another city," he warned the audi-
Val ppi
ence. "We would probably be represent-
4 ed by one councilman."
k
b *. a t. A petition to incorporate was filed with
.a 3 the county board of supervisors, but even
while this progressive step was finally
T 1 being taken, the community of Cupertino
t „ ,, _ llt.�.. )F ° _ was hard hit again by San Jose's huge
annexation of about 550 acres deep into
,, - , the community. The annexation, known
. . 1- 1 ? . today as the famous Johnson Annexation,
c r reached into Cupertino in two spots, from
I
Doyle Road to Highway 9 along Bollinger
Road and south to Prospect Road.
i Shaken Cupertino leaders charged San
Jose with cutting through Cupertino's
backyard to try and annex Permanente
m4 and its nice tax revenue.
Meanwhile, seven candidates filed for
miliii4iiiiiii .r the five council seats to be decided in the
. incorporation election. They were Ralph
* Lindstrom, Lindstrom, Tony Lillo, Don Bandley,
., Norman Nathanson, John Saich, Warner
Wilson and R. Ivan Meyerholz.
They all supported the incorporation,
pointing out the self government advan-
tages and the low tax rate proposed.
Cupertino leaders planned about a
25 -cent rate per $100 of assessed valua-
tion, compared to Santa Clara's $2.19,
San Jose's $1.72, and Sunnyvale's $1.38.
They argued that under this tax rate a
home worth $12,500 and assessed at
Illustration by Brendon Peters $3,500 would cost in taxes $8.75 if in
This map is the 'Courier's' effort to delineate the city of Cupertino's current boundaries. It's not exact but shows the big Cupertino, $76.65 in Santa Clara, $60.20
chunk of Cupertino land that San Jose took over (lower right corner) in the so- called Johnson Annexation. This annexed sec- in San Jose and $48.30 in Sunnyvale.
tion included the area from Doyle Road to Highway 9, along Bollinger Road and south to Prospect Road and was one of the On Tuesday night, September 27, 1955,
events that caused Cupertino residents to move toward incorporation. the City of Cupertino was born as the
election results that day showed a 231 to
185 vote in favor of incorporation.
First Step lag and finally in March of 1954 another Cupertino Chamber of Commerce; and About 75 percent of the registered vot-
Finally in February of 1954 an intent group composed of representatives from Burt Curto, Garden Gate Village ers in the area to be incorporated turned
to incorporate Cupertino with or with- different organizations throughout the The first project launched by this out at the polls to also elect as their first
out Monte Vista was filed with the coun community was formed to investigate t he committee was to successfully seek con- City Council Ralph Lindenmeyer,
ty boundaries commission under the situation. Calling itself Fact Finding tributions for a $700 incorporation sur- Warner Wilson, John Saich, R. Ivan
ty
sponsorship boundaries
the Cupertino -Monte Committee, R. Ivan Meyerholz was named vey by the Coro Foundation of San Meyerholz and Norris Nathanson, who
chairman; Mrs Irving Marcotte, secretary; Francisco, experts in the field. just edged Tony Lilo.
Vista Improvement Association. Harry Gelse, in charge of publicity; and On July 17, 1954, 121 persons gath- Write -in candidates were Shelly
Association spokesman Tony Lillo other committee members were Dick ered in the old Cupertino Union School Williams, George Stover, Charles Baer,
hailed the action as the first preliminary Doyal of Loree Estates Improvement to hear the Fact Finding Committee's Helen White, Sydney Jarvis, C. B.
step to incorporation. Association presi- Association, John Ford, agricultural repre- final report. The report, recommending Connor, Lyle Davis, Edward O'Grady,
dent Don Hartman declared at the filing sentative, Eli Gasich, IOOF; Burrel incorporation, gave four alternatives: do Berkeley Gilson, and Jim Aveni.
of the intent that incorporation is neces- Leonard; Mrs. Rachel Lindholm, nothing and be annexed piecemeal; The new city included about four
sary as a defense measure against annex- Woodland Acres; Bernie Caughey, Lincoln organize a community service district or square miles and 2,000 residents. Three -
ation and self government is the most PTA; George Voss, farm bureau; Warner county service area; incorporate; or per- quarters of its land was in agricultural
important reason for incorporation. Wilson, Cupertino -Monta Vista mit annexation as a whole community to use and it had an assessed valuation of
But the incorporation drive continued to Improvement Association; Boris Stanley, San Jose, Sunnyvale, or Santa Clara. about $4 million. But it was a beginning.
SEPTEMBER 14, 2005 THE CUPERTINO COURIER 15