By Lauren McSherry

Los Altos Hills won’t take no for an answer in its effort to bring Los Altos officials on board in support of opening a charter school at the former Bullis-Purissima campus.

The Hills council requested last week that a discussion of public schools be added to the May 3 agenda of a joint meeting between the two bodies. Last month, the Los Altos council voted not to issue a proclamation of support for the Bullis Charter School on Fremont Road that Hills Mayor Mike O’Malley asked for on behalf of his council.

Los Altos Hills lost its last remaining public school in 2003 when the Los Altos School District closed Bullis, transferring about 218 students to schools within Los Altos city boundaries.

The school district has declined to lease the closed school site to the new charter school formed in response. Were a district school to be opened at the site, it would most likely not serve students from south Los Altos Hills.

Hills councilman Craig Jones, former chairman of Bullis Charter School, suggested the agenda item.

“I’m more interested in having us explain our position,” he said. “It remains a critical issue. It remains an issue of conflict.”

Jones said he believed the Los Altos council might be misinformed about the issue and that he would like to address councilmembers to educate them on why a school within the Hills is important, how the issue could lead to redistricting and “why (having a Hills school) is important for the greater community, which includes Los Altos.”

Councilman Breene Kerr responded, “It would be a little awkward hearing you, Craig, at the podium telling them why it’s important to have public education.”

Los Altos recently created new guidelines that essentially ban the council from approving potentially controversial proclamations. The Hills’ request for support of the charter school was the first proclamation Los Altos denied under the new guidelines.

Los Altos Mayor David Casas recommended that, under the new guidelines, the council not support the request, saying such a proclamation would inject Los Altos into the school district’s affairs.

Hills councilman Dean Warshawsky expressed doubts about addressing the public school issue during the meeting following the Los Altos council’s decision last month. “Although I think the issue is worth discussing, … we have already heard from them with (their denial of the proclamation),” he said.

The Hills council agreed to have the city’s public education committee make a presentation to the Los Altos council at the meeting.

Earlier this year, Councilman Jean Mordo said the request for a proclamation was “in the same vein of trying to put the maximum pressure on the school district to do the right thing - the only thing.”

At the April 21 meeting, the Hills council agreed to add discussions of playing fields for youth sports, a sewer agreement between the two cities and Los Altos’ cell tower ordinance to the agenda.

The joint meeting is scheduled to be held May 3 at the new Los Altos Hills Town Hall.