By Neil Gonzales A dark cloud has lifted from Taft Elementary School in Redwood City after hovering over it for several years. Taft finally shed a label as a campus needing to improve under the federal measuring stick, the Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) program.

By T.S. Mills-Faraudo, STAFF WRITER EDITOR'S NOTE: The first in a two-part series on affording our education. Tuesday's story looks at the rising cost of college. TEACHERS in Menlo Park's Las Lomitas School District don't complain much. There's no reason to.