By Lauren McSherry and Kathleen Acuff
Los Altos Hills City Council members said they will not meet with the Los Altos School District about the Bullis-Purissima Elementary School site until the district presents a plan for bringing public education back to the Hills.
“At such time as the district has a plan, we will have a joint meeting between the two bodies,” Councilman Breene Kerr said Thursday.
Councilmembers Emily Cheng and Dean Warshawsky aired concerns Thursday when they reported to the Los Altos Hills City Council on their meeting with the representatives from the Los Altos School District.
The councilmembers met with district board members Jay Thomas and Duane Roberts Sept. 22 to discuss options for bringing public education back to the former Bullis-Purissima school site.
“I’m not sure there is any point to another meeting (between the city and the district). We really don’t think they want to cooperate,” Cheng said. “We are even too far apart to negotiate.”
Warshawsky said the district “wouldn’t budge”; it won’t support opening Bullis Charter School at the Bullis site.
“They are not not willing to have any negotiation with the charter school, period,” Cheng said.
Warshawksy said he suggested a waiver to get around Proposition 39, which requires school districts to provide charter schools facilities “reasonably equivalent” to their own schools. He said the waiver would allow the charter school to lease the Bullis site, which the district has classified as unsuitable for charter school use. Bullis Charter School could live with the site as is, but the district refuses “to work around the issues,” Warshawsky said.
The two councilmembers voiced dissatisfaction with the district’s offer to reopen Bullis next year, starting with a kindergarten class and adding one more class each year.
Leasing the Bullis site to Bullis Charter School seems like the right thing to do politically, Warshawsky said.
Bullis Charter School is a public school under the supervision of the Santa Clara County Office of Education. Although it is leasing space in portables at Egan Junior High for the current academic year, the charter is not a district school.
Warshawsky said Thomas and Roberts are concerned about losing control of the Bullis site if the charter school leases space there.
“The district would have to spend a considerable amount of time and money to get that site up to snuff,” Warshawsky said Friday. “They’re going to stick to their own plans that they so delicately and diligently formed for this school year, so they won’t lease to the Bullis group.”
Roberts said by e-mail, “We do not want to get the district into a year-by-year repeat of this year’s contention. The only way to do this … is to discuss the possibilities, including reopening, … for the use of the site by the district. (See related story on the issue, Page 19.)
“We did not take the 7-11 committee recommendation and declare the site surplus; thus we have to either use it for the benefit of the district, or declare it surplus. The charter school’s offer to lease the whole site cannot happen unless we do declare it surplus. Right now all leases to the three preschools and the town are joint-use leases, like we had at Covington before we reopened it.”
All the preschool leases began Oct. 1 and will expire July 31. Creative Learning Center Preschool is paying $3,360 per month for two classrooms and shared use of the kindergarten play area, basketball court, lawn and field. Montessori School of Los Altos is paying $6,120 per month to use three classrooms and share the kindergarten play area. J. B. Preschool is paying $1,680 per month to use one classroom and share the play area.
