By Kathleen Acuff
The Los Altos School District sent Bullis Charter School a preliminary offer of space at the Egan Junior High School camp for the 2005-2006 school year March 8.
Charter directors were asked to respond by March 14 so that the district can take requests for changes into account before making the final offer by the April 1 deadline.
Space for the charter has been allocated by the same formula used for district schools. Because the charter projected in-district enrollment of 143 students when it applied Oct. 1, the preliminary offer is based on that number.
The offer is for exclusive use of six regular classrooms, one kindergarten classroom with interior restrooms, one flex room, a library, one full classroom for a computer lab, a multiuse room, a small group area and resource specialist space.
Also for the charter’s exclusive use are an administration building with a workroom and staff lounge with interior restrooms, one set of separate restrooms for boys and girls, storage and custodial space, a kindergarten playground and a blacktop area. Charter students will have exclusive use of a turfed area during regular school hours.
Peter Evans of the charter’s governing board told trustees at last week’s meeting that the school now expects 170-180 in-district students next year and will require nine classrooms and two flex rooms. The charter reports about 40 more kindergarten registrations than anticipated in the fall.
In a letter to the board March 3, Evans restated charter directors’ belief that only the Bullis-Purissima Elementary School site meets Proposition 39 requirements for charter school facilities. The lawsuit the school brought against the district in late September argues the same point. The suit remains open.
Evans’ letter also argues that the district “cannot make a unilateral determination” that Bullis is not “reasonably equivalent” in condition to district schools and cannot exclude the site from consideration in fulfilling the charter school’s facilities request.
The charter school’s directors have again offered to take Bullis “as is.” District trustees have said they fear future litigation from disgruntled parents of charter students if they locate the school in the unrenovated Bullis facility.
Financial outlook
The spending increase is attributed to the purchase of books and supplies, replacement of teachers on long-term leaves, and consultant and legal costs. The district has been involved in two lawsuits - the first brought by Bullis Charter School and the second by the town of Los Altos Hills - for most of the school year.
District staff have consulted the Citizens’ Advisory Committee for Finance about cutting $1.6 million from the budget and increasing the reserve from 2.5 percent to the required 3 percent. The committee will hold a study session for the district board March 28.
Superintendent search
Roy Lave and facilitator Geoff Ball presented the Community Process for Reconciliation committee’s report to Los Altos School District trustees and staff last Monday. The report made no recommendations, and the school board asked no questions in the brief session open to the public. Lave and Ball plan to make the same presentation to the directors of Bullis Charter School and to the Los Altos Hills City Council.
