This story was originally published in the Daily Post’s Jan. 8 print edition. Sometimes our competitors lift our stories without attribution. But this is the original. To get all of the important local news stories, pick up the Post in the mornings at 1,000 Mid-Peninsula locations.
By Braden Cartwright
Daily Post Staff Writer
Kohl’s in Mountain View is going out of business to make way for a new park and a school.
The store at 350 Showers Drive will close for good on Jan. 18, a Kohl’s representative said in an email.
It’s the latest exit of a large retailer from Mountain View after REI, Bed Bath & Beyond and Best Buyleft Charleston Plaza off Highway 101.
The Los Altos School District purchased the Kohl’s property in 2019 with plans to build a new campus so that Bullis Charter School would move there.
But the district didn’t have enough money to build the new campus until voters approved a $350 million bond in November.
Mountain View City Manager Kimbra McCarthy put the district on notice for taking too long to build a new campus at the San Antonio Shopping Center.
The new campus is supposed to include a four-acre park with a track, a soccer field and a baseball diamond open to residents, McCarthy said in a letter to Superintendent Sandra McGonagle on Nov. 12.
The district agreed to build the park by Sept. 30 but has yet to begin construction, McCarthy said.
“These circumstances constitute a material breach of the agreement by LASD,” McCarthy said in her letter, which the Post obtained on Dec. 23 using the California Public Records Act.
In surveys, Mountain View residents have routinely put parks as a top priority, and the city relies on fields shared with the Mountain View Whisman School District.
The Kohl’s property is in the middle of the San Antonio Shopping Center, where there’s a Target, Walmart, Safeway, Trader Joe’s and new apartments.
McCarthy said she wants to resolve the dispute amicably by negotiating an update to the city’s April 2019 agreement with the district.
“It remains the city’s desire to achieve an outcome substantially similar to that described in the agreement,” McCarthy said.
The district plans to use the Kohl’s site for Bullis Charter School, which is currently split into portable classrooms at Egan Junior High School and Blach Intermediate School.
By moving Bullis, the district could bring its sixth grade students from elementary school to middle school, where students are offered more electives like foreign language, music and robotics, board member Bryan Johnson said in August.
A new campus could open for Bullis before the 2027-28 school year, Johnson said.
Bullis doesn’t want to move and says the new campus would be too small for its 1,000-plus students.
“LASD continues to exclude us from conversations about facilities, resulting in unworkable and counterproductive proposals,” Superintendent Maureen Israel said in an email.
This story was originally published in the Daily Post’s Jan. 8 print edition. Sometimes our competitors lift our stories without attribution. But this is the original. To get all of the important local news stories, pick up the Post in the mornings at 1,000 Mid-Peninsula locations.
By Braden Cartwright
Daily Post Staff Writer
Kohl’s in Mountain View is going out of business to make way for a new park and a school.
The store at 350 Showers Drive will close for good on Jan. 18, a Kohl’s representative said in an email.
It’s the latest exit of a large retailer from Mountain View after REI, Bed Bath & Beyond and Best Buyleft Charleston Plaza off Highway 101.
The Los Altos School District purchased the Kohl’s property in 2019 with plans to build a new campus so that Bullis Charter School would move there.
But the district didn’t have enough money to build the new campus until voters approved a $350 million bond in November.
Mountain View City Manager Kimbra McCarthy put the district on notice for taking too long to build a new campus at the San Antonio Shopping Center.
The new campus is supposed to include a four-acre park with a track, a soccer field and a baseball diamond open to residents, McCarthy said in a letter to Superintendent Sandra McGonagle on Nov. 12.
The district agreed to build the park by Sept. 30 but has yet to begin construction, McCarthy said.
“These circumstances constitute a material breach of the agreement by LASD,” McCarthy said in her letter, which the Post obtained on Dec. 23 using the California Public Records Act.
In surveys, Mountain View residents have routinely put parks as a top priority, and the city relies on fields shared with the Mountain View Whisman School District.
The Kohl’s property is in the middle of the San Antonio Shopping Center, where there’s a Target, Walmart, Safeway, Trader Joe’s and new apartments.
McCarthy said she wants to resolve the dispute amicably by negotiating an update to the city’s April 2019 agreement with the district.
“It remains the city’s desire to achieve an outcome substantially similar to that described in the agreement,” McCarthy said.
The district plans to use the Kohl’s site for Bullis Charter School, which is currently split into portable classrooms at Egan Junior High School and Blach Intermediate School.
By moving Bullis, the district could bring its sixth grade students from elementary school to middle school, where students are offered more electives like foreign language, music and robotics, board member Bryan Johnson said in August.
A new campus could open for Bullis before the 2027-28 school year, Johnson said.
Bullis doesn’t want to move and says the new campus would be too small for its 1,000-plus students.
“LASD continues to exclude us from conversations about facilities, resulting in unworkable and counterproductive proposals,” Superintendent Maureen Israel said in an email.
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