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The Bullis Charter School Board of Directors voted Dec. 1 to defer the addition of a junior high school program to no later than fall 2010.
In October, the charter school petitioned the Santa Clara County Board of Education to authorize a seventh-grade program beginning in 2009 and received the county’s approval in November.
Charter school parents who opposed the expanded program introduced an online petition that garnered 77 signatures between Nov. 28 and Dec. 2. They presented the results at the Dec. 1 board meeting.
The petition stated concerns about the distribution of funding for the K-6 program if seventh- and eighth-grade programs were added, the complications of running a middle school on the same campus and issues about the current K-6 program.
“We petition the board to take action on unresolved issues within the existing K-6 programs,” the document stated, “including hiring science and math specialists and bringing a curriculum-based foreign language to all students (not just the lower grades), before moving forward with a middle school proposal.”
Approximately 10 minutes after the Town Crier attempted to contact parents who signed the petition, access to the online list was withdrawn. Within a day, the petition was removed from the Internet. Contacted parents either did not respond or declined to comment.
“I think there is a group of parents concerned that opening a seventh and eighth grade will take resources away from the K-6 program,” Board President Ken Moore said, “resources such as administrative and teaching attention.”
The Dec. 1 meeting was the first time parents had publicly opposed the proposal. The board, based on results of a survey on the potential expansion, already realized that approximately 50 percent of the school’s parents had questions.
“We are still responding to those parents,” Moore said. “We are aware of them and want to respond to their needs.”
Moore said that many of the parents who signed the petition wanted to perfect the K-6 program before extending it.
“Every parent’s definition of ‘perfection’ in a school is slightly different,” Moore said. “There will be some variance in people’s perception of that vision’s being realized.”
The Los Altos School District’s request not to begin the program in 2009 also influenced the postponement decision, according to Moore. Under education law, the district is required to provide adequate facilities for the charter school, which currently shares a portion of the Egan Junior High School campus in Los Altos.
“We have an interest in working with LASD trustees to continue an ongoing dialogue,” Moore said.
The charter school will use the additional time to cooperate with the district to locate a permanent facility.
Contact Traci Newell at
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