Charter organizers pleased to work with county

By Bruce Barton, Town Crier Staff Writer

The Los Altos School District board’s move last week to let the county administer Bullis Charter School made the best financial and logistical sense, according to officials. The board is still considering day care a priority for the former Bullis-Purissima School site, to the dismay of charter supporters.

The board voted unanimously to allow the county to oversee charter school operations after the county board of education approved the charter school application at its Sept. 3 meeting. County board members gave Los Altos officials 40 days from that action to decide whether they wanted to administer the charter school.

But Superintendent Marge Gratiot said handing over control to the county saves the district staff time and costs for providing special education. In addition, board member Margot Harrigan noted crafting a memorandum of understanding with charter supporters could take a lot of staff time that the district can ill afford.

“We just don’t have the staff to do it — plain and simple,” said Harrigan, noting the district has four full-time administrators.

“Our district staff will be able to focus on working cooperatively with the charter on the one area where we still have an obligation, which is to provide classroom space for in-district students who attend the charter,” Gratiot said. “The county has no jurisdiction whatsoever on a site for the charter; that remains our responsibility.”

“We are pleased to work with the Santa Clara County Office of Education,” said Craig Jones, who is leading the Bullis Charter School effort. “It is a tribute to the objective and non-politicized county superintendent’s office and board of trustees that they were willing to work with us to negotiate an acceptable charter. That is what state law requires and what should have happened at the district level. Unfortunately, there was a tremendous amount of misinformation concerning fiscal impact, which made objectivity at the district level impossible.”

Beset by a large budget deficit and a lack of money for needed renovations to the Bullis campus, the district board voted in February to close Bullis. Los Altos Hills parents looking to retain their neighborhood school embarked on the charter effort amid controversy that the district would lose more than $5,000 for every child going to a charter school. Charter supporters have vehemently refuted this assertion.

The district has an obligation to provide classroom space if the charter school’s student enrollment exceeds 80.

“The petitioners have expressed a preference for the Bullis site but have stated publicly (at the county board meeting) that their charter petition is not site-specific, and that if Bullis is not offered, they may temporarily accept space on another campus until they find a site in Los Altos Hills,” Gratiot said. “With the enrollment preferences removed, the charter will receive students from throughout the district, not just from Los Altos Hills.”

Last week the school board directed Randy Kenyon, in charge of the district’s business services, to continue to refine the process for leasing to child-care providers, and also asked the staff to look at the “big picture” — “to make sure we can meet all of our space obligations for next year,” Gratiot said.

District officials said the Bullis property, declared surplus, must be considered first for day care, followed by county special education uses, then district uses, before a charter is considered. “The board stated that it is following the 7-11 Committee’s recommendation to lease the site according to provisions of the Education Code,” Gratiot said.

Jones of the charter school group sees it differently. “The Ed Code provides a specific set of affirmative requirements on the district to provide comparable educational facilities as enjoyed by other district elementary school students,” he said. “The district cannot rent out available space if a charter school has made a request for that space and there is no other comparable space available. The former Bullis site is the most appropriate space for a seventh elementary school in the district. Let’s first resolve where Bullis Charter School is going to be located, then see whether there is any surplus property.”