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 Bullis Charter School Board of Directors discussed their potential growth for the 2013-2014 school year at their Monday (Oct. 29) night meeting. To serve more families in the community, the board agreed to add an additional kindergarten, first, second and third grade (a 15 percent growth) in addition to their normal growth of an additional sixth and eighth grade sections.
While the board's initial discussion included the possibility of two kindergartens and one additional K-3 strand, after discussing with Superintendent Wanny Hersey, the Proposition 39 committee returned with the new agreement.
The only action taken on this item was to approve the Proposition 39 committee to make their enrollment request to the Los Altos School District by Thursday (Nov. 1), without any specifics to the discussed growth plan.
The enrollment request is the first step in the 2013-2014 Proposition 39 facilities offer, which requires that the district provide reasonably equivalent facilities for Bullis Charter School's in-district students. The charter school board members assured that all the new classrooms would be filled with in-district students.
To read more, pick up the Nov. 7 edition of the Town Crier.
10 Comments
1Comment
at Tuesday, 30 October 2012 09:33
It is interesting that BCS started out as a small school with a goal of personal attention to each child, and now they are growing to being larger than any LASD school.
2"BCS over the cliff"
at Tuesday, 30 October 2012 10:30
Existing BCS parents are not served in any way by this move. This will exacerbate the school's facilities issues and will put its financial model--which depends on getting an average of $5000 per child from every single parent--at risk. Existing parents could be required to pay thousands more. BCS will no longer be a small, intimate school community where the principal knows everybody's name--that school is long gone.
The school that remains is no longer a school, it's a cause, and that cause is clear: annihilate our public schools. The worse it is for our public schools, goes the BCS leadership mantra, the better it is for them and their political objectives. These objectives, as proven by this latest move, have absolutely nothing to do with children or education.
Citizens need to put a stop to this. Please urge your friends and neighbors not to apply to this school. Please attend the BCS info night on Nov 13th at 7pm at the BCS campus.
3"disappointed"
at Tuesday, 30 October 2012 10:30
I'm disappointeed that BCS board ignores parents inputs. How much money do you ask from us next year?
4"why?"
at Tuesday, 30 October 2012 11:21
Remind me again exactly how this helps my child and my child's education? Does this mean my son will have better teachers as a result? Will adding more kids improve or worsen the facilities problem in the short term (this year or next 2-3 years)? Who's listening to us?
5"BCS needs a math class"
at Tuesday, 30 October 2012 12:25
Only 15%? Nope - it's over 25%.
Currently there are 515 students.
Next year they add 20 kids/k-3 = 80 new kids
Next year they also add 25 kids in 6th and 8th = 50 new kids
80 + 50 = 130 additional/515 current = 25.2% growth
The BCS board intentionally failed to include the upper grades in the growth.
6"Math Class"
at Tuesday, 30 October 2012 14:00
The "needs a math class" post is mixing two sets of numbers.
It's not 25% if you look at the total. Their goal is to meet more of the demand. Their last meeting had them growing from a target of 600-615 to a target of 900 minimum. That's a growth of 50%. This time if you extend the growth as the students age, 20 kids/k-3 (one class) grows into that plus another class 4-8 of 25 kids = 80 new kids + 125 new kids. So the new target is reduced to only 805 versus the previously mentioned 900. That's a growth of 35% versus the possible 50%. But it is subject to further growth because they aim to come closer to meeting the demand.
What they did was drop a possible additional class in each of K-3 for now. That would have added 80 more students and got them to a model of 5 classes of 20 K-3 and 4 classes of 25 4-8. It would change things so the only grade level most students get in would be K whereas now a group of students enters in 4th grade when the classes get larger.
7"No Need Applying"
at Tuesday, 30 October 2012 14:00
As BCS is a county charter, aren't they supposed to serve the county? But, they already seem to know who their new students will be as the board members are quoted as saying they will be "in district". Seems rigged to me.
8"County vsDistrict Charter"
at Tuesday, 30 October 2012 16:01
There are two kinds of county charters. You are thinking of county-wide charters which originate with the county in the first place.
BCS applied first for its charter to LASD which passed the Charter on to the County. As such it is basically a district charter supervised by the county. The county actually tried to get LASD to take it back, warning them essentially that they were about to approve it and LASD would have no control. But LASD left it for the county to supervise, as a charter for the students of LASD.
9"more confused"
at Wednesday, 31 October 2012 09:38
Only 25.2% Nope - it's over 95%.
I found some discarded papers in the BCS dumpster after last night's board meeting that proves this.
Joan is absolutely right. This move will put an unsustainable amount of pressure on our school system and must be stopped at any cost.
However Joan is actually understating the case for this. My own financial analysis puts the true cost of each child attending BCS at $51,432.37 per year. This is based on actual financial statements obtained through the Freedom of Information act and wikileaks.
I suspect (but can't prove) that this money is being silently deducted from the
checking accounts of all LASD parents and funneled into a secret Swiss bank account to be used at the discretion of the so-called "BCS Shadow Board", an unsavory group of BCS "insiders". So LASD parents, please scrutinize your bank statements carefully.
It's amazing they can get away with this.
10"51K?"
at Wednesday, 31 October 2012 10:11
Is $51,432.37 the amount of money the judge just FINED Bullis Charter School for predatory litigation? I don't remember the exact figure from the filing Monday but that seems about right....
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