Tonight the Los Altos School District trustees heard from 30 or 40 members of the public. Over the last three weeks, they’ve heard from several hundred at the 14 or so Q&A meetings held at all the nine schools. One message that came out strong and clear is WAIT. Many people felt the decision was being rushed. Many said three weeks were not long enough for the public to understand how LASD could have come to this agreement.
How was this really the “least bad” agreement? “What about all these other options… like xyz? Did the Los Altos School District Trustees look at them? If so why were they inferior solutions.”
Public speaker sentiment ran the gamut from “Die Charter die” to “ Defend our public school system” to “Maybe this is the best arrangement but you need to explain it better to us and bring us along.”
Speiser: The Public is Right – Let’s Wait
LASD Board of Trustees President, Jessica Speiser at the April 8, 2019 board meeting.
After the public speakers, Los Altos School District Board President and mediation team member – Jessica Speiser – lead the board response. There had been 3 weeks of public comment at meetings, at homes, and via emails. She started off by agreeing with the notion gleaned from all this public input was that the process had moved too fast. She said she thinks the Trustees must not approve the agreement at their next board meeting Monday, April 29. Instead, she proposed that the Los Altos School District Board of Trustees direct staff to outline a plan for a longer public engagement period to discuss the details and rationale behind the Move Egan Agreement and to possibly re-evaluate some of the other alternatives that were rejected as inferior.
The outline of next school year’s 2019-2020 school engagement plan would be discussed at the upcoming April 29, 2019 meeting. The engagement process would begin shortly after the start of the next school year and continue till the winter holidays, TBD. The aspiration is to include not only LASD and BCS parents, but singles, empty-nesters…private school parents.
Most of the board members seemed to want to include members of the Bullis Charter Community in the process next year. However, Los Altos School District Board of Trustees member Vladamir Ivanovic demurred. He said all the land belonged to LASD, and he didn’t want any input from the Bullis Charter School board.
Hey Los Altos School District,
But now what do we do about BCS Facilities
for the Next School Year?
Los Altos School District Trustees Speiser and Johnson alleged during the meeting tonight that because the BCS board had voted YES on the agreement last night, they must be ok with the Agreement’s “interim facilities arrangements for the first 4 years.” They suggested those facilities [and the enrollment cap!] should be the ones on offer for a one year Prop 39 offer.
Lalahpolitico: But wait. LASD already sent Bullis Charter School a Prop 39 offer around Feb. 1? In broad brush strokes it included Loyola classroom space for around 100 students?, 30% sharing of Loyola common areas, Egan with the same classroom space but upped to 50% sharing of common facilities, Blach classroom space to include several of the vacant classrooms not just portables, and upping to 50% the sharing of common areas. There was NO CAP ON ENROLLMENT.
Lalahpolitco: And now LASD trustees think BCS will accept a new and inferior Prop 39 offer? It is the bitter pill part of the 10-year Move Egan Agreement — keeping facilities the same as this 2018-2019 school year, AND capping enrollment — while leaving out the yummy chocolate dessert of having a single-site of 16 acres after 5 or 6 years of construction on the Kohls 10th site. I am skeptical this will fly. Wouldn’t BCS just accept the prior Prop 39 offer from Feb. 1? Why would they put up with non-reasonably equivalent facilities for a year?
Resources:
Find on this Agenda the slides from the LASD Presentation for the Egan Agreement Item
