A preference that BCS go to the 10th site, wherever it might be.

The Bullis Charter School LASD agreement  was, for the third time in a row,  the big draw to the LASD board meeting Monday night, May 21.  Sentiment of the public speakers suggested that every school in LASD should be on the “list” for closing, not just Santa Rita, Almond, Covington and Bullis Gardner.  Speakers pointed out that threatening EVERYONE with the loss of a neighborhood school was a better way to insure support for a bond.  Speakers seemed to prefer that BCS go to the 10th site, wherever it might be.

threatening EVERYONE with the loss of a neighborhood school was a better way to insure support for a bond

Doug Smith said, “The draft long-term agreement does include language that could locate BCS on the 10^th site.  I have  had a lot of concern that the community would not pass a bond wherein BCS gets the new campus.  It polled dead last on the list.  That poll was done before everybody understood where we stand.  Hopefully that realization will drive some people to action. My plea is  very simple. If you don’t want us to close one of  the neighborhood  schools, then we need somebody to step up and say they are willing to lead the bond measure.  Tell me point blank, I’ll do it IF you can get BCS to agree to locate on the 10^th site.  I’ll take that. Ok. We’ll work hard to get that in the agreement. If that’s what the community wants then we need some people to step up to make that happen.”

Mark Goines said the goal was to conclude a long term agreement by the June 4 LASD board meeting.

Hillview in Play Again –  Facebook Petition to City

LALAPOLITCO:  In other words, Doug Smith would like BCS to agree to locate on a 10th site. We wonder where? This could be substantial rewrite of the “framework” of the tentative agreement. Unless of course 1) the 10th campus specifics are declared before June 4 AND 2)  BCS likes the 10th campus.  We note that there is a petition on Facebook requesting the City of Los Altos to lease or sell Hillview to LASD for BCS to locate there.  LALPOLITICO wonders if  this might not even be a lease, but more of a extensive city-school facilities sharing. And the City has seemed determined to ensure the city properties are operated for the benefit of the whole community – tots, students, seniors.

Agenda Item –
Tentative LASD BCS Agreement

Mark Goines announced, “The first draft of the agreement is now out in the public.”  This is an LASD authored draft. Initial informal feedback from BCS suggests BCS has some concerns. Goines say, “We are waiting to hear back from the BCS team in the next couple of days.”

He reminded the audience, “The current active plan [since this tentative long term offer is not yet signed] is  the Egan plus Blach [one year ] offer for 2012-2013.  Our hope is to conclude [ the long term agreement]  by our June 4 board meeting.”

“Time is short to get the facilities prepped in time for the next school year.”

 

Here are excerpts from the public speakers on this item.

 Speaker A:

“If you close Almond why would I want to live in the area…Who in their right mind would want to buy a house in a location with no elementary school? There needs to be a bond.  There needs to be some kind of discussion.”

 

Speaker B:

“We live right next to Almond…If you are doing the bond, push BCS into the new school. Leave all our neighborhood schools as they are. I think I can get behind a bond measure like that. Why are these four schools being chosen?  The whole district’s schools could be chosen. I’d be interest to hear the critera for how you’re going to decide which school BCS gets.”

 

Speaker C:

“You are using alarm tactics to engage some of the parents… You are forcing us to support the bond.  The implicit threat is that if we don’t do what you say, you will give away one of our neighborhood schools.  At Oak Loyola and Springer, if you said you were giving away their school they’d be out there in force.”

 

Speaker D:

“What caused this [8 years of litigation] in the first place was closing a neighborhood school. We need to resolve giving them proper space. Don’t rush, take you time…just to rush to get ready for an August 9 deadline to file a bond for this year does not give sufficient time for feedback.”

 

Speaker E:

“It doesn’t give enough people who live here an incentive to vote for the bond.  The BCS people probably won’t go for it because they get a school whether it passes or not. People in south Los Altos won’t vote for it, because they are unaffected [ by a giving away of a neighborhood school ]. That leaves some fraction of the community, and not all of that fraction will go for it either.   That makes if very difficult to get it approved.  I prefer it [the agreement ] would say the new property goes to BCS. PERIOD. If it doesn’t pass they don’t get it.  So they have an incentive. If you are going to give away a school, which I strongly object to, please make it all of them. You have to give the whole city an incentive to vote for it. Otherwise I think it will fail no matter what we do. Not that I like giving away a campus or building one.  If we need 10 campuses … and I trust you we do …   let’s not make it so it can’t work.”

 

Speaker F: ( David Casas, City Council )

“On the agreement.  I just received it this afternoon.  LASD reserves the right to place the charter school at a location other than the four sites noted. To avoid additional litigation, I encourage the inclusion of  negotiated methodology for the site. …. There needs to be clarification of terms used.

In no event shall the district be obsligated to build out the site in excess of 615 students.  Yet in another section …During the term, the district shall bear the cost of one additional portable for 25 seats above the 615.”

 

Speaker G: 

“I’m a real estate agent. Interested home buyers have walked away. They wanted the assurance of a neighborhood school.”

 

Speaker H: 

“A Petition is circulating  on Facebook about  Hillview, to ask the City to use a portion of that for the 10^th site.”

 

TAMARA LOGAN: 

“People here tonight who are new to this, look into charter law.  We have no real way to vote on whether there is geographic preference for BCS enrollment.  The county approved it; they say BCS has to initiate a change.

We have had  lawsuits since 2003. What happened this last year is that we finally lost.  It does put us in a very hard place. The risk is we could have a judge telling us which school to close.. .. Not explicitly a risk, we could spend millions and millions.

If this long-term agreement falls through, we would  split BCS between Egan and Blach. Egan would continue to be encroached upon. The kids can’t get out and play tennis, and they lose part of their gym. Also that raises the potential for another lawsuit.  That’s because the law says that under certain circumstances you can split a school,  so we believe our offer is a legal one.  But I’m certain that if we don’t have this agreement, they will take us to court on it [the split schools offer].

I agree every school in our district should be on the “list.”  However, we have a negotiated agreement.  That means both sides think they’ve given something up.

I’ve heard rumors, that the BCS board will walk away.  If they do we will need millions.  And we will need that every year.   I support this agreement.  Doing it with the 10^th school is preferred.

At least 95% of emails I received, say don’t give Bullis one of our schools.

What is the best thing for unity?  We could have $3million for our kids programs, rather than sending it to the lawyers.”

 

COOPER:  

“I am totally opposed to 1) naming any specific school [if we relocated BCS);  2) it’s a moral issue – you do not offer a facilty that has boundary ties.

All the other upsides to this long-term agreement are there. I look to our negotiating team to crack the whip.

I don’t know if I can support this or not.  But if you address those two issues, it makes a lot of sense.”

DOUG SMITH:  “The draft long-term agreement does include language that could locate BCS on the 10^th site.  I have a lot of concern that the community would not pass a bond wherein BCS gets the new campus.  It polled dead last on the list.  That poll was done before everybody understood where we stand.  Hopefully that realization will drive some people to action. My plea is  very simple. If you don’t want us to close one of  the neighborhood  schools, then we need somebody to step up and say they are willing to lead the bond measure.  Tell me point blank, I’ll do it IF you can get BCS to agree to locate on the 10^th site.  I’ll take that. Ok. We’ll work hard to get that in the agreement. If that’s what the community wants, then we need some people to step up to make that happen.”

 

MARK GOINES: “June 4 is very soon. I look to all of you to help us make the right decision by then.  This is just the 1^st inning in a long 9 inning game……We need your support, and engagement and help.  We will be working with BCS, our community … our surrounding city councils…We all need to pull together.  If we just keep disagreeing about things. Or saying I don’t like this I don’t like that, or not my school, not my community,  I can’t support this, I can’t support that, I won’t pay for that, THEN the courts will decide.  I don’t want the courts to decide what,  I want us to decide.  This is the path we are on.

LAH Council Member Radford is right. Pull the bandaid off. We’ll take a little pain.”

 

Agenda Item – Bond Measure & Real Estate

LALAHPOLITICO: As the council moved on to the bond measure  item about half the people left room!

 

Tamara Logan Report – Los Altos and Los Altos Hills

 This is a non- scientific parent poll…But first let me express frustration that nearly half of the people that came here  tonite … have just walked out. I’m sad about whether the community is up to solving this problem without closing a school.  You might want to talk to your friends. If we can’t get enough support to pass a bond, one of the schools is going to close.

 

 [Audio microphone quality was poor, but we heard Logan report some ideas about real estate:]

There is a site in the hills. Put the Bullis Gardner folks in the 10^th site.  Swap.

Integrated community with Egan is possible.

Hillview would be doable if you are Covington or an Almond Family.

BCS move could move to Gardner Bullis.  GB moves to a new site in the hills.

Taglio & Cooper Report – Conversations with Mountain View

COOPER: “The Mayor said we had to create a “political need” in Mountain View.  There wasn’t one as far as the Mayor could see. He didn’t seem willing to reszone.  The mayor seemed to say, ‘Don’t bother me, Go talk to City Manager.’

Given that ¼ of our students come from Mountain View, we should have a closer relationship with Mountain View.  Next step:   We will speak with the City Manager next.  As for Los Altos Hills: Council member Radford was not aware of any properties.

We’re 0 for 2.”

SPEAKER  1:  “I too am disappointed to see that half the people left the room.

 

When you put one or 4 schools on a list, lets assume you pick one those schools, what do you think? You will have just demolished support for a bond measure with those schools.

 

Are we thinking about this the right? Are we selling this the right way? We are going to be stretched for campus space  Irrespective of Bullis we will be growing.  We need another campus.  So can we do this planning a little more methodically? Think about it as to where the growth potential is. Where are going to be in another four years?  So as to not have to go out for another bond measure.  And put all this effort into another bond.

 

Back to the sales piece.  You have to go out and tell  people at  Oak and Loyola what the consequences of not passing the bond measure are.   Say I’m my friend from Oak. I’m standing at the ballot box, and I don’t know what I’m thinking yet, and I don’t know what the consequences are.  So he’s going to stand there and think – This doesn’t affect my school, so NO.   The bond measure doesn’t carry.  And he’s going to get affected, he just doesn’t know about it.  You [ LASD Board ] throw the coins up in the air. [coin toss picks a school ]  And he is going to get affected.  He just didn’t know. You have to put out what the consequences are. So till they understand this, you aren’t going to get enough community support [for a bond].”

Tamara Logan: “We are working on it.  You just haven’t see it yet.  We are working on the education program. We have grown 25% in the last 10 years.”

 

Joint City -LASD Agenda for May 29

Board member Cooper asked the the agenda for the May 29th Joint City-LASD be tweaked. He asked that discussion of 10^th site be confined to discussion of sites in Los Altos.  Unless there was some earth shattering good news about the search results in other cities.

 

Curtis Cole’s 6 Year Forecast

Curtis Cole presented the Financial Committee’s six year forecast. Deficits look likely.

“There will be a deficit of 2 million dollars a year.   Therefore, please make progress each year in the next few years in controlling  retirement and healthcare costs.   Teachers recognize this and have raised their contributions. In two years the district could be below its minimum reserve requirements.”

Property tax is forecast to grow 2% a year over the period. [LASD Board member Tamara Logan wondered if that was too conservative an estimate. ] The report forecasts about 100 additional students because of new multi-family housing,  Additional property tax revenues from the new multi-family housing would just cover the enrollment increase costs.  A speaker worried that the demographers are wrong and the housing would bring in more families with kids than assumed.