Hi Terry!
So awesome you're trying to coordinate this. I know this has been talked about before in our community, but not sure who was involved. I personally was in contact with Karen Gauss when she worked with the City of Mountain View with the Safe Routes to Schools initiative that is coordinated by Priyoti Ahmed (I think she's still there?), but Karen has recently accepted a position with the City of Palo Alto :( I had sent her the route my children take to Crittenden Middle School from the far east side of Mountain View. I can forward those emails to you if that's helpful, just let me know.
I have three children, two of whom currently attend Crittenden Middle school (6th and 8th grades), and one who goes to JA Vargas (he bikes but we live very close since it's a neighborhood school and a bike bus isn't feasible since the distance is so short). I currently bike most mornings with my middle schoolers, but not all mornings (depends on my schedule and theirs, and I can't commit to biking every day with them). We have a group of about 7-8 regulars (again, depends on kids' after school schedules how many bike), and we communicate via a WhatsApp group. We take a particular safe route to Crittenden from our area (near Whisman Station), not along Middlefield (as many other students do). I do not like Middlefiled because even though it does have bike lanes, the cars go too fast (above 50 miles per hour), and there are frequently cars illegally parked in the bike lane. A lot of kids do bike that route, however.
An additional barrier to getting a bigger group of middle schoolers biking together is kids wanting to bike with their friends, and not be seen biking with other people. That's been our experience anyway. I frequently let other parents know that their kids can join our group, but their kids are too cool and don't want to join.
Karen had also met with another parent that bikes with a small group of kids from the other side (west side, Rex Manor neighborhood) of Mountain View to Crittenden Middle. His name is Evan, and I have Cc'd him on this email.
Thanks for all the biking advocacy work you're doing!
Eleanor