By Kathleen Acuff

Montessori School of Los Altos will not move into rented classrooms at Bullis-Purissima Elementary School but remain at the YWCA in Palo Alto for the academic year, its director informed school parents last week. Trustees of the lessor, Los Altos School District, discussed possible litigation against Montessori in closed session Oct. 18.

Hannelore Engelman, signed a 10-month lease Sept. 14. At press time, Engelman had not returned phone calls or replied to e-mail from the Town Crier as to why she withdrew from the contract.

Said Superintendent Marge Gratiot: “I do not believe they will pull out of their lease, as they have no legal grounds to do so.

“If they were not to be at Bullis, I would be disappointed as they have an exemplary program and I’d like to have it on the same site as our preschool students.”

The security fence around the preschool area at Bullis was still going up Friday morning. However, threats of picketing made several weeks ago by persons who said they support Bullis Charter School had not been acted on, according to Susan Cretekos, whose J.B. Preschool has been on-site about three weeks.

Charter directors have requested space at Bullis next fall. Early this month, the charter school and the town of Los Altos Hills each requested a temporary restraining order to prevent the district from renting space at Bullis to other entities.

Attorneys for the school district won denial of the requests by arguing that Montessori, which had terminated its prior lease, would suffer irreparable harm if they were granted.

In a Sept. 30 letter addressed to the directors of the charter school and sent simultaneously to the Town Crier, the San Jose Mercury News and the Palo Alto Daily News, Engelman stated she would not have pursued a lease had she been aware of the possibility that Bullis Charter School would require the entire campus if it moved to the Bullis site. She wrote:

“From the time members of your board first approached me with the idea of partnering on Bullis campus in early June 2003, we have been in agreement that such a partnership would be both feasible and beneficial to the children of our communities.

“Discussions about sharing Bullis campus have been ongoing … Since the closure of Bullis campus I have time and again informed the LASD of my interest in leasing one wing of Bullis campus, always with the desire and intent to partner with BCS.

“If, at any time during these months, your board (had) informed me that BCS would need the entire campus, I would not have pursued a possible lease for classroom space on the Bullis site … I was unaware of your intent to move BCS to Bullis campus this school year when the LASD offered me a lease for the wing that we had agreed would be ours to use for the next couple of years if we shared the campus with BCS.”

Bullis Charter School is a public school under the supervision of the Santa Clara County Office of Education. It leases the portables on the Egan Junior High School campus, but only for the current academic year.

School officials hope that at some point the charter school will be able to move to the Bullis-Purissima Elementary School campus in Los Altos Hills.