San Jose Mercury News
3/10/2006

MOUNTAIN VIEW

Google to rent part of school for child care, preschool

Slater School in Mountain View next year will house a child care center
and preschool for Google employees, trustees of the Mountain
View-Whisman School District agreed Thursday night.

The board approved negotiating a five-year joint-use agreement. The
lease would begin in July for the administrative office and one wing of
the school, and includes another wing the second year and a third wing
in the third and subsequent years. Rent will escalate each year, and
average $690,000 annually. Both Google and the school district would
have options to use the rest of the site.

``That's quite a plus for us,'' board President Ellen Wheeler said. Amid
much controversy, the board voted a year ago to close Slater, a K-5
school, because of declining enrollment and a shrinking budget. The
district had estimated that it could rent out the site for $500,000
annually.

In addition, Google ``has demonstrated that they've been a good neighbor
at the Theurkauf site,'' which the company leases for a child care
program, Wheeler said. That lease runs through December.

Details, such as whether the child care center will be open to others
besides Google employees, will be negotiated. A state-funded preschool
at Slater will remain there.

-- Sharon Noguchi