By Lauren McSherry

The Los Altos Hills City Council voted this month to designate the former Bullis-Purissima School site a “public elementary school” in a decision that may be related to the city’s lawsuit against the Los Altos School District, which owns the site.

The council amended the town’s general plan to add the word “public” to the description of the Fremont Road site. City Planning Director Carl Cahill said the amendment was a clarification because the plan specifically denotes private schools. Narrowing the use provides greater consistency in the plan, he said.

The new designation won’t affect the district’s plans to use the Bullis site for five extended-day kindergarten classes instructing 100 children in August, according to the district superintendent.

“It’s going to be a public school next year,” said Marge Gratiot. “What they call it doesn’t really matter.”

Los Altos Hills sued the district last fall to prevent it from leasing the Bullis site to three preschools. The city argued that the district had violated city zoning ordinances that require the site be used for public education. The district contends that the state educational code does not require it to comply with city zoning ordinances and that leasing the property was determined to be an appropriate use of the site.

A letter from the school district’s legal counsel objected to the town’s recent action. “Designating whether a school is public or private is designating type of ownership, not the character of the use” of the property, the letter says. “It is not an appropriate part of the use designation on the land use diagram.”

The letter noted that it is unusual for a municipality to change the general plan when the property owner has not made the request.

The letter added that the council’s action “appears to be directly contrary” to several sections of the state education code.

The general plan would have to be amended again if the district wanted to sell the property for use other than as a public elementary school.