By Kathleen Acuff

The Los Altos School District is considering Covington, Springer and Loyola schools as a possible co-location site for Bullis Charter School next year.

Superintendent Marge Gratiot reported at the Nov. 17 board meeting that the district principals on the administrative council have agreed those schools meet all requirements of Proposition 39 and could share space “fairly easily” with the charter school in 2004-05.

All three schools are “reasonably close” to Los Altos Hills and can house 600 students. Covington has enough space to share, Springer can hold another 150 students, but Loyola’s boundaries would have to be adjusted, she said.

The council found “no negative educational impact for the noncharter students at a shared school site,” Gratiot reported.

The council considered only the educational impact of co-locating the charter school as “a completely separate entity,” sharing space but not programs, at one of the six district elementary schools. As board president Duane Roberts pointed out, “That was a very narrow question we asked Marge to research. There will be others.”

Enrollment data uncertain

Board members have agreed that they need more-solid enrollment data and financial projections from the charter school group before they can decide where to locate the school.

Roberts said, “I’m not in favor of co-location, because we don’t know how many children there will be.” He said that he is “leaning toward the Egan camp school, at least for the first year-at least till we know how many students there will be.”

Victor M. Reid III said, “We don’t need to be moving (the charter students) from place to place for the next three years. We wouldn’t want that for ourselves. Covington is the best campus for its location. It’s the closest to being centrally located and has the most classrooms.”

David Casas, who leaves the school board for the Los Altos City Council Nov. 25, called co-location “the least desirable option for all concerned” and called the charter group’s assertion that a camp site is illegal “baseless.”

“All students in the camp schools have succeeded-the API scores show that,” he said.

Roberts noted that enrollment projections are legal under Proposition 39, but that the district is facing uncertain enrollment trends and tough financial decisions across the board. “This is a difficult area of the law … Before making a decision, we need sound financial projections,” he said.

Financial questions unanswered

Jay Thomas said, “All discussions keep coming back to the financial impact. I want to see the budget done for the 2004-05 school year with and without the charter school so we can see the full budget picture.”

Reid remarked that both the Citizens Advisory Committee for Finance and Randall Kenyon, assistant superintendent for business services, are “superb” with financial analyses, but added, “I’m a little concerned when the CACF has one number and Randy has another … The staff needs to spend time evaluating the budget … Let (the staff) come back to our January meeting and present information.”

As for budgets developed with or without considering the impact of the charter school, Reid said, “Whatever happens, there will be cuts.”

Roberts said, “The charter school will cost the district over time, period. It’s not revenue neutral, it’s revenue negative.

“There are so many variables that we don’t have a handle on that my decision will be based on flexibility. We only have projections to base our site decision on.”

Roberts also said that, while projections are legal under Proposition 39, “The day after we make a decision, some other numbers will come out.”