Court will decide on remaining requests in August

By Kathleen Acuff, Town Crier Staff Writer

Bullis Charter School’s request that the Santa Clara County Superior Court order the Los Altos School District to house the charter in Bullis-Purissima Elementary School was denied by Judge William J. Elfving June 7, according to John Yeh, an attorney for the school district.

The school district filed a demurrer May 6 to dismiss the charter school’s second amended complaint, filed April 1.

In addition to requesting that the district be required to provide the Bullis site to the charter school, the charter school’s second amended complaint asked for declaratory and injunctive relief that the two parties negotiate facilities allocation in good faith, that the district give priority to the charter school in leasing the Bullis site, and that the district pay reparations to the charter school for the camp school’s “substandard and/or nonconforming conditions.”

The complaints remaining to be heard are that the district is violating the joint-use provisions in state education code in allowing preschools to lease space at Bullis, that the district improperly required the charter school to accept a proposed Facilities Use Agreement as a condition for being allocated a facility for the 2005-2006 school year, and that the district did not properly conduct its “reasonable equivalency” analysis before offering the charter school the Egan Junior High camp site for the coming school year.

The school district reserved its right to a jury trial early in the process, which began when the charter school filed its first complaint Sept. 30, 2004. As it turns out, a hearing by a judge is appropriate, and the case will not go before a jury, Yeh said last week. The case is not on the fast track but is scheduled for a hearing Aug. 15.

Robert P. Andris, the charter school’s attorney in the case, did not return phone calls by press time.