In Mountain View public elementary schools the class size ratio is 20.4 students per full-time-equivalent teacher, while that of the neighboring Palo Alto Unified School District is 16.9. The Mountain View-Whisman district is a "Revenue Limit" district, meaning that the state provides additional funding to bring per-pupil spending up to a certain minimum limit, while the Mountain View High School District and neighboring Palo Alto's school district are "Basic Aid" districts, meaning that no additional funding is required to meet the state's per-pupil spending minimum, and the district keeps any excess above it. Mountain View taxes a large portion of its most valuable commercial and industrial properties in the Shoreline Regional Park Community at very low relative levels, and until the creation of a joint-powers agreement (JPA) in 2006, none of those property taxes reached any local schools. After the creation of the JPA, the Shoreline Regional Park Community will be sharing less than $1 million per year with the elementary and high school districts.

Private Schools

• [http://www.gissv.org/ German International School of Silicon Valley] - provides bilingual education for PreK-12
• [http://www.ycis-sv.com/ Yew Chung International School of Silicon Valley] - provides bilingual Mandarin and English education for PreK - 12
• [http://girlsms.org/ The Girls' Middle School] - an all-girls middle school (6-8) with specialization in technology and entrepreneurial education

• Saint Francis High School - a Catholic high school

Usage of Slater Elementary by Google

Because of declining enrollment, and after a long decision process, Mountain View-Whisman School District opted to close the Slater Elementary School. Google has leased the former Slater Elementary for use as a private preschool and corporate daycare.

Library

Mountain View has one central public library, the [http://library.mountainview.gov/ Mountain View Public Library], offering video, music, books, self-check out, and access to the Internet. During fiscal year 2006-7: 810,589 customers visited the Library. Circulation was more than 1.4 million, 105,870 reference and information questions were answered, 36,693 children listened to stories and participated in children's programs and 27,342 new books and media items were added to the collection which includes holdings of 300,000, including 210,000 books and 423 periodical subscriptions. The library also provides valuable outreach services through the bookmobile and S.O.S. volunteer program to those in Mountain View, who are unable to come to the main branch. The building was built in 1997. The second floor of the library has a special collection in a room devoted to the history of Mountain View, next to a portrait of Don Mariano Castro, for whom the downtown main street is named.

Transportation

Mountain View is served by the Caltrain rail system, which runs from San Francisco to Gilroy. It also served by the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, including various bus lines and the Mountain View - Winchester light rail line.

Moffett Federal Airfield is located just north of Mountain View, but its use is restricted to aeromedical, government and military users. The nearest major airports are Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International Airport (SJC) and San Francisco International Airport (SFO). The nearest general aviation airport is the Palo Alto Airport of Santa Clara County.

Communications

In late 1997, as part of a major area code relief in the Bay Area, Mountain View's area code was switched from (415) to (650).

On August 16 2006, after over a year of test deployments, Google declared, as planned, that its implementation for free IEEE 802.11g wireless service for all of the City was fully operational. Mountain View is the first city in the United States entirely covered by a free wireless Internet access network provided by Google.

Notable features

• Shoreline Park runs along the bay north of U.S. Route 101. It includes Shoreline Amphitheatre as well as historic Rengstorff House.
• Stevens Creek runs through Mountain View from the south. A lengthy paved pedestrian and bicycle path, the [http://www.stevenscreektrail.org/ Stevens Creek Trail], runs alongside the creek for nearly its entire distance in Mountain View.
• Moffett Field is a Federal Airfield near the bay; that is home to NASA Ames Research Center.
• Castro Street is at the center of Mountain View’s downtown. It features a large number of restaurants, particularly of the Asian (Chinese and Indian) and Italian variety. It also features many retail shops, including four bookstores.
• The Adobe Building, on Moffett Boulevard, is on the National Register of Historic Places.
• The Jehning Family Lock Museum is located on Castro Street.
• The Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts (MVCPA) is located at [http://www.ci.mtnview.ca.us/mvcpa/mvcpa.html 500 Castro Street] in Mountain View, adjacent to City Hall. Highly acclaimed local theatre companies [http://www.pytnet.org/ Peninsula Youth Theatre] and [http://www.theatreworks.org/ TheatreWorks] are among the Home Companies for the MVCPA
• San Antonio Shopping Center is a popular shopping mall in Mountain View.
• The Computer History Museum is located at [http://www.computerhistory.org/bldg/shoreline/ 1401 North Shoreline Blvd] in Mountain View, just north of Highway 101.
• The historic [http://davisfields.com/huff/ Huff House], built by the first postmaster of Mountain View in 1929, is located on Diericx Drive.

• Famous Los Angeles Radio DJ Rodney Bingenheimer was born in Mountain View. In addition to recently receiving a star on the walk of fame, he is credited for being the first DJ in America to break bands like No Doubt, The Donnas, Oasis, Coldplay and many others.
• Scenes from the movie Raising Cain, starring John Lithgow, were filmed at Mountain View City Hall.
• Mountain View was home to the World Famous St. James Infirmary Bar & Grill. Opened in 1967, it was known for its kitchy decor, notably a 30-foot-statue of Wonder Woman and great Buffalo Wings and burgers. Sadly, The Infirmary was destroyed by an arson fire in 1998.