Bullis Charter School LASD Prop 39 Request – Covington or Else?

By now you’ve heard from the media that the Bullis Charter School LASD Prop 39 Facilities Request document contains a “startling” statement of location preference. Yes, as required by the Prop 39 process, BCS is supposed to express such a preference.  This year BCS says it prefers “the Covington, site, with exclusive use of approximately 14 acres of said site during the entire BCS school day. “  BCS reasons that 1) with it’s projected enrollment increase of almost 25% from 517 students to 644 students, it will be the largest school in the district and 2) with the Court of Appeals math that indicates a site size of 13.79 acres….Covington at about 14 acres would be a fit. [Page 20]. As the BCS pioneer enrollees graduate from 8^th grade, the percent of all students who are in-district would rise from 92% today to 95.5% next year.

 

with 644 students BCS would be the largest LASD school,
and Covington at 14 acres provides the amount indicated by the Court of Appeals

 

The document goes on to ask for access to at least some of the many specialized non-teaching spaces that other Los Altos School District students enjoy – nurse’s office, psychologist’s office, CHAC office, PTA room, Teacher’s workroom, Teacher’s lunchroom, kitchen facilities, custodial room, PE equipment storage. [Page 17].  It points out that other 7^th and 8^th graders in LASD get a student store, a study loom, locker rooms, dedicated 7-8 restroom, gymnasiums, teachers’ science preparation rooms, tennis court, track , outdoor exercise equipment. [Page 18]

 

student store, a study loom, locker rooms, dedicated 7-8 restroom, gymnasiums, teachers’ science preparation rooms, tennis court, track , outdoor exercise equipment

 

The document also says, “ BCS notes that both the Egan and Blach middle school sites are of course larger than Covington, and therefore also physically capable of housing a contiguous BCS k-8 if the required acreage discussed above were provided.  Therefore the district possesses at least three sites that could clearly accommodate the entire BCS K-8 program on a single site. “

 both the Egan and Blach middle school sites could work physically too

[On Page 10] “BCS acknowledges that as a K-8 school BCS has a different grade configuration than any of the schools currently operated by the District. The regulations limit the District’s obligation to pay for modifications to a reasonably equivalent existing k-6 site needed to accommodate BCS’s entire k-8 program on a single contiguous site, but anticipates that the charter school may make reasonable facility modifications by mutual agreement with District at the charter school’s own expense. Of course, it is possible that if the parties cannot agree on appropriate modifications, the District may be obligated under the law to provide access to certain facilities at its junior high campuses to BCS middle school students.

the charter could make modifications at its expense…or the District could share junior high facilities

On Page 16, “ The district may choose alternatively to provide access to certain existing District specialized classroom space in an equitable and legally compliant manner. Sharing certain specialized classroom or non-teaching station facilities in a legally compliant manner could save the district considerable expense. However, any restrictions on BCS access to such facilities, including sharing arrangements imposed, must still result in the allowed usage being reasonably equivalent to the usage offered to comparison groups students. If the district is contemplating such sharing arrangements it is required to negotiate in good faith with BCS to “establish time allocations and schedules so that the educational programs of the charter school and the school district are least disrupted. “ 5CCR Section 11969.3(b)(c). It is also required to detail them in specificity in the final offer, so such proposed sharing must be negotiated with BCS prior to the issuance of the final offer.”

  proposed sharing must be negotiated with BCS prior to the issuance of the final offer

Elsewhere in the document, it is mentioned that the agreed sharing of the Egan gym for the current 2012-13 year was reneged on at the last minute before the start of school.

 

LALAHPOLITICO COMMENT: Yeah, they are asking for Covington. So the Los Altos School District staff and Board are going to move out of their digs?! Ha, Ha! But for openers, you might as well ask for the whole bag of cookies. It sounds to me like BCS  would really settle for working out some realistic facility sharing schedule.  Although last year’s failure to be able to do the simple logistics of sharing the Egan gym is mystifying to me.  Any techy types out there that can take a look at the district’s resource scheduling software and figure out why this is so hard for them?

 

So the Los Altos School District staff and Board are going to move out of their digs?!
Ha, H! Ask for ALL the cookies.

 

LALAHPOLITICO PREDICTION: A lot of theatre starting tonite starting at tonite’s LASD Prop 39 parental input meeting. An attempt to get SCCBoE to command  BCS not to grow will largely fail. An attempt to get SCCBoE to change the partial geographic preference for  kids living in Gardner district will fail, but will get a lot of sympathy. (28% of BCS kids live in the Orange Ave. University Ave. Edith Ave – LAH area.) Then a Final Offer in the spring by Los Altos School District will be for more portables on Egan, and I suppose more unused ones at Blach, but this time with more promises of sharing Egan specialized spaces and Blach specialized spaces. The Superintendent’s Task Force will stalemate.  Online anonymous personas will continue to wreck havoc not just in cyberspace, but also out in meat space, without being denounced by the establishment.

Then a Final Offer in the spring will be for more portables on Egan and Blach,and more elaborate promises of sharing some Egan and Blach specialized teaching and non-teaching spaces

 

Some interesting Data was in the Bullis Document

 

PROP 39 PROCESS TIMELINE AS DESCRIBED BY LASD

BCS is required to provide a preliminary facilities request to LASD by November 1, 2012. LASD will hold a public session on Monday November 5, 2012, in the Covington multi-purpose room to which BCS has been invited to provide a presentation on their facilities request.  The LASD staff will also provide a presentation on the options we are considering.  Finally, LASD will be providing ample time for public input.

 

LASD will hold a second public meeting on December 3, 2012, also in the Covington multi-purpose room. In this meeting LASD will have the LASD staff provide a presentation on some refined options and take additional public input, with hopes that LASD will be able to provide staff and board with more refined direction.

 

LALAHPOLITICO COMMENT: The district could do a better job of telling the greater community about this. Patch only blasted it the same day.  That means the only attendees are parents again.

 

pdf of BCS Document for download here.  Excel file by request.