By Sara Ballenger

Bullis-Purissima School Principal Dave McNulty is looking forward to the challenge of building a new school and community as principal of Covington School next year.

McNulty is a familiar face to the majority of the Bullis student body, who will also move to the K-6 school on Covington Road in Los Altos.

McNulty has served as principal at Santa Rita and Oak schools, and helped develop and implement the Facilities Master Plan as the district’s construction manager from the summer of 1999 until last June.

Covington was renovated in the 2001-02 school year with the idea that it would be used as a seventh elementary school. Unable to open a seventh elementary school, the Los Altos School District voted Feb. 10 to close Bullis-Purissima School in Los Altos Hills and relocate students to Covington.

With that decision, also came the vote to redraw the attendance boundaries within the district in an effort to balance the numbers of students at each school. As a result, some students from Springer and Almond schools will also attend Covington.

“Both the Bullis teaching staff as a whole and many parents asked for him to be selected as principal,” said Superintendent Marge Gratiot. “He also knows many of the future Covington parents now attending Springer, because he worked closely with them in designing the new Covington School.

His appointment should make the transition for the Bullis students and teachers into the new facility an easier one.”

While the issue of closing Bullis has been a devisive one within the district, McNulty hopes they will come together in the spirit of creating a new school at Covington.

“It will be fun having the kids help to pick out a new mascot and new school colors for Covington,” McNulty said. “If we bring the Bullis Bear to Covington and are the Covington Bears, how would the Springer students feel about that? I think having a new mascot is part of being a new school.”

McNulty hopes that he and his staff of about 35 people can begin moving into Covington around July, once Springer School, which has been using Covington as a camp school while its campus was being renovated this last year, has moved out.

McNulty expects all of the current Bullis senior teachers, aides and office staff to move to Covington, along with possible additional staff since the new Covington School will have more students than Bullis.

The summer will be a busy one for the district. Bullis, Almond and Springer students will move into Covington; Loyola and Santa Rita schools will move into camp school at Blach Intermediate and Egan Junior High schools.

Students and staff of the new Covington School will move into a state-of-the-art facility, with a new library and media center, art center complete with a kiln room and a mutiuse room with a stage.

“The kids are going to love it there,” McNulty said.