Supposedly the big news is that Bullis Charter in its 15 page Nov. 1 Bullis Charter Prop 39 Facilities request asked for exclusive use of Egan School… And that set off a wave of panic among LASD parents and sympathizers. Probably as many as 2000 have signed a petition, that objects to giving the entire campus to BCS, aka ‘closing a high performing school.’
Los Altos town Crier misreports that the petition objects to’ moving BCS to Egan.’ But of course, BCS has been on the “temporary camp” portion of Egan for 15 years now! And in the Prop 39 request, BCS does not presume to offer a suggestion that LASD should move Egan students to any particular place next year or ever.
The real news is that LASD purposely misstated the BCS Bullis Charter Prop 39 Facilities request in its press release AND lied by the omission of important facts. Furthermore, it used the fake news for last minute election campaigning.
So why didn’t BCS wait till after Nov. 6 to send its Prop 39 request? Surely BCS could anticipate LASD might exploit the contents for election propaganda? Yes. But State Law requires a charter to submit it’s Prop 39 no later than Nov. 1, or it gives up its right to share in facilities for the whole following school year. BCS had no choice.
Please realize that Title 5 CCR Section 11969.9(c)(1)(E) of a Charter Prop 39 Facilities request REQUIRES the applicant – BCS – to state a site or a location “where they wish” to operate. BCS wrote that they “request to operate” on Egan campus on an exclusive basis. LASD wrote in its press release that BCS “demands to operate” on Egan on an exclusive basis.
Lalahpolitico: Do you see a big difference between a demand and a request?
A pro forma “request” on a Prop 39 template gets twisted into a scary-sounding “demand.” Also, LASD claims the two groups are charter students vs. ALL public school students, but legally the two groups are Charter students vs. district school students. LASD should not pretend to represent to ALL, as it refused to authorize the charter twice. The Charter belongs to Santa Clara County Board of Education.
Fear-mongering
The LASD press release states that the “Egan students would be evicted imminently from the Egan campus.” It omits that every annual Bullis Charter Prop 39 Facilities request BCS ever submitted over the past 15 years included a request for a school. The District omits that the requests were NEVER granted.
So the probability of this request being granted this year, p = 0. Nothing is imminent. Shameful fear-mongering.
Until about 2012-2013, BCS always requested Gardner Bullis with 10 acres. But thereafter as it grew to over 600 in-district students, it started requesting Covington with 16 acres. And now as it grows to 1058 in-district students onward to 1200, I guess every year it will be requesting Egan with its 19 acres.
The Prop 39 process REQUIRES an applicant charter to state a preferred site or location. For 15 years, BCS has always requested some specific school site.
The LASD press release went on to portray BCS as the aggressor. The Town Crier quotes this press release rhetoric, ” In LASD’s view the request [now not a demand?] is a step back from the collaborative and community-embracing approach the five-year facilities agreement adopted.”
As we discussed, actually the request for a specific site is a formal requirement on the Prop 39 template! Lalahpolitico: Silly time. What would have been “community-embracing?” Suddenly offering to cap growth at 900 and stay split in exactly the same facilities they have now at Blach and Egan? Even though the plan to grow to 1200 has been public for at least 2-years! How about BCS seppuku? Is that collaborative?
Many people think BCS accepted too hard a bargain in the 5-year agreement. And LASD has not kept its Measure N promises.
The press release includes this assertion, an opening salvo: “While BCS’s demand for exclusive use of Egan would favor BCS students, LASD must also equally consider the needs of all public school students when responding to Proposition 39 request.”
Lalahpolitico: No, No, No, LASD must equally consider the needs of District-school students. Not the needs of this A+B group, all public school students. LASD does not represent “all” district public school students because they chose not to authorize BCS. They represent District students.
And by this logic, the inverse is true as well. Leaving Egan students in place would favor district-students…LASD must also equally consider the needs of charter students.
And the BCS Prop 39 Facilities request boilerplate, used by all charters, includes this legal reminder about the Prop 39 law and subsequent case law….a returning salvo.
“You are aware of the appellate and trial court decisions holding that school districts must give the same degree of consideration to the needs of charter school students as it does to the students in the district-run schools. Courts have held that “accommodating a charter school might involve moving district-operated programs or changing attendance areas” and that providing a contiguous facility to a charter school might require the disruption and dislocations among district students, staff and programs. [Page 13 of 15].
Lalahpolitico: The LASD assertion that permitting the exclusive use of Egan would mean trustees were favoring BCS students, not merely giving them the same degree of consideration as District school students is a canard. The law does not speak of “all public school students.” LASD made that up. The law speaks of the same degree of consideration between two distinct classes of students – charter students, district-school students. This is just more word-twisting and deception by LASD.
Election Exploitation
Several trustees took the opportunity to exploit the Prop 39 angst by using Trustee Peruri’s VoterCircle software to blast out ‘fake news’ and ask for the recipient to vote the union ticket – Ivanovic, Johnson, and Sirkay.
It appears the emails were sent by candidates Sirkay and Ivanovic, and by exiting trustee, Peruri. No one has reported that Bryan Johnson joined the fray.
LASD candidates incumbent Vladamir Ivanovich, newcomer Sirkay Shali, and existing trustee Sangeeth Peruri amped up and exploited parental and teacher fears.
But Sirkay Shali had the most incendiary email of them all. She is apparently now attuned to the so-called ” national level attacks” on public schools. Such a sweet person, but I fear she soon she will be smoking the stuff that ex-trustee Tamara Logan smokes. Showing up for the CTA union at the County, State and perhaps NATIONAL level, to “save us from charter schools”. Oh, and did you know that charters really screw Hispanics? Haha. Check out the Los Angeles School District and California Superintendent Marshall Tuck to see how charters have helped Hispanics down there. And look up how wonderful it was for New Orleans black kids to have Hurricane Katrina destroy the terrible public schools. They got 5 plus years of charter schools and did wonderfully. Last time I looked the bureaucrats were being reinstalled there. Sad.
And how sad to see Shali go down this rabbit hole.
Sirkay has some pretty incendiary language here. She seems poised to assume the mantle of the infamous lady LASD trustee – Tamara Logan. We all cower before Tamara’s ferociousness! Charter school assassin extraordinaire.
Attacks on Alt Candidate
Ying Liu
Since the LASD press release, the alternative LASD candidate has been subject to uncivil attacks.
The LASD press release is inciting some members of the public to become uncivil– bordering on creepy dangerous.
The alternative candidate seems to have closed her nextdoor.com thread that details some of the incidents coming her way. A particular heart-wrenching one was one her 7-year-old asking why attending BCS elicits such negativity. {parahrasing.}
Coordination with the City of MV?
Some members of the public think the Charter is silently cooperating with Mountain View Margaret Abe-Koga and other council persons who want the Kohls 10th site to be used for a District-run school – either a new 8th elementary or a move of the Junior High to the Kohls 10th site {Egan}.
Lalahpolitico: I think this is speculative at best.
Sign the Corrigan Petition–
Stop the vilification of BCS
and find a solution
Corrigan says: Please do not donate to the “Promote Petition” option that Change.org is going to ask you to do. The money goes to advertise the petition and doesn’t go to this cause. I have not set up fundraising for this petition. If you’ve donated and want your money reimbursed, please email their help center.
The Corrigan petition is here.https://www.change.org/p/courtenay-c-corrigan-stop-the-vilification-of-bcs-and-find-a-solution
The interface asks you to EITHER DONATE OR to SHARE OR to SIGN 10 petitions from a stack of cards with innocuous sounding petitions. To be allowed to sign, you should be willing to do some of those things.
