Meet your representative
Congressman Sam Liccardo is coming to Palo Alto on Aug. 17 for a meet-and-greet sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Santa Clara County.
Liccardo is a Saratoga native and served as San Jose mayor from 2015 to 2023. He represents the 16th District in California, which includes Saratoga, Los Gatos and Monte Sereno.
The event will be held at the El Palo Alto Room of the Mitchell Park Community Center at 3700 Middlefield Road in Palo Alto. Doors will open at 2 p.m., and the program will run from 2:30-4 p.m. Registration is required to bit.ly/Dist16.
School board meetings
The Los Gatos-Saratoga Union High School District is changing when it holds it board meetings as of the 2025-26 school year.
The meetings will now be be held every three weeks on Thursdays. There is also a staff recommendation to hold closed session at the end of meetings instead of the beginning that was due to be considered for approval at the first meeting of the school year on Aug. 7.
“Our goal is to make board meetings more accessible, respectful of people’s time and aligned with our values of openness and inclusion,” said Superintendent Heath Rocha in a release. “By starting meetings with open session, we’re hoping for less confusion, and ensuring that those who want to speak or listen to key discussions don’t have to wait into the evening.”
The district will also be providing an after-meeting summary to the community. Previously, the update was provided as part of the school district’s monthly newsletter.
“We want our community to feel informed and connected to the decisions being made,” said Public Information and Engagement Officer Tanya De La Cruz.
Wildfire protection funding
Santa Clara County will be receiving a portion of state funding to continue a program that helps communities in fire hazard areas, according to the Santa Clara County FireSafe Council.
The 2025-26 state budget will provide $9.5 million for the Wildfire County Coordinator Program, established in 2021 to encourage and develop countywide community collaboration and coordination among wildfire mitigation groups. Fifty-two of the 58 counties in California use funding from the program to plan and implement wildfire resilience strategies.
Next year’s funding allocation will go toward continued operation of California’s Wildfire and Forest Resilience Action Plan at the county level; accelerated home hardening, defensible space implementation and public education, as well as standardizing data collection to track local and statewide wildfire resilience progress.
Lyrical event
Lyric Theatre is celebrating its 55th anniversary this weekend with “The Great Gilbert & Sullivan Sing-Off.” The fundraiser will feature three fictional theater companies competing in a Gilbert & Sullivan festival, performing musical numbers drawn from the Gilbert & Sullivan canon. One company adheres to traditional interpretations, while another flips these scripts on their head with gender-swapped characters, updated lyrics and modern references. The third company is plagued with bad luck, with either a forgetful lead singer or slip-ups in choreography. The audience choses the winner.
The performance will be at the Saratoga Civic Theater, 13777 Fruitvale Ave., at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. on Aug. 9 and 2 p.m. on Aug. 10. Tickets are $35-$55 at https://www.lyrictheatre.org/offerings-2025.
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