BCS Lockout at Blach School Rehashed

Aug. 6, 2013, BCS parents protest lockout of staff at Blach

Are you new to the news about LASD locking out Bullis from Blach School in August, or just need a refresher? Read on about the BCS Lockout at Blach School.

The 2013-14 LASD Facilities Final Offer (FO) to Bullis Charter School placed virtually all of BCSs enrollment expansion at Blach Junior High, not at Egan Junior High, their home campus. Last school year the facilities also involved this split campus – 5 portables were provided at Blach, but BCS did not use them except for an occasional visit. This 2013-14 school year is the first year the split campus is really biting into BCS operations, because there was virtually no new facility capacity at Egan.

Aug. 6. Workers finish BCS at Blach. Show are the 5 portables from last year. More portables and black top were added this year.

Aug. 6., 2013 Workers finish BCS at Blach. Shown are the 5 portables from last year. More portables and black top were added for exapansion this year.

BCS Ken Moore Proposed a Split Campus of 250 k-8 Students

Back in February, BCS Board President Ken Moore made a “concession” to accept a split school arrangement without litigation, provided that the capacity at Blach School would be enough for a “minimum size school” which he argued was 250 students. That would be large enough to accommodate the BCS integrated k-8 program he explained. {See our post here}

LASD Provided for 150 Students and Assumed Only 6,7, and 8

LASD rejected that request for a minimum school and instead offered to provide portables to accommodate almost 150 students. The reasoning was that it would be expensive to duplicate all the special teaching spaces that are at BCS on Egan over at Blach. Furthermore, the trustees said it was in the “best interests of all the students” to minimize cost. So the district planned the space with the assumption it would be for BCSs 6, 7, and 8 grades, and that those students would have shared, part-time access to teaching spaces like: labs, music rooms, home economics kitchen, gyms, etc. {However Los Altos School District did supply some special spaces in portables for BCS at Blach: teachers’ stations for example.}

BCS has of course filed a lawsuit about the Final Offer, calling the forced split campus an unlawful interference with its curriculum of integrated k to 8. BCS has a buddy system where seventh and eighth graders mentor younger kids. Also, their popular all school special events feature collaboration and contributions from all grades. Some teachers – Mandarin and music for example – teach several grades. The district program does not run this way.

Bullis has dubbed the Blach campus BCI-Bullis Center for Innovation. It has installed 3d printers and other cool tech.

BCS Makes Lemonade at Blach – the MakersLab and Grade Rotation

In addition to filing another lawsuit, BCS “made lemonade out of lemons” as the BCS board like to say about the split campus. You may have already seen in the local papers, that BCS converted some of the portables at Blach into a Makers Lab with 3D printers and other cool, trendy gear. BCS now calls the Blach campus BCI, Bullis Center for Innovation.

Over the summer, BCS teachers and parents devised an ingenious schedule and curriculum modules that would split the parental and teacher inconvenience of two campuses more equitably across all grade levels. In contrast, Los Altos School District’s assumed design meant that if a family had a 4^th grader and a 7^th grader, the family would be driving to two campus for the entire school year. With the BCSs plan, all grades rotate to Blach for 3 week visits. That way every family will have to commute to Blach some of the year. And of course, it keeps the BCS cherished 7&8 grader buddy system in place. The BCS year has started with 5^th and 6^th graders rotating to Blach.

The Facilities Use Agreement and the Blach Lockout

BCS says a Facilities Use Agreement (FUA) attached to the Final Offer paperwork has not been part of the Prop 39 Final Offer since 2008. The FUA language BCS objects to includes caps on total enrollment at each campus and a restriction on which grades can use Blach – k to 3 is entirely barred. BCS trustees say they tried to schedule meetings with the Los Altos School District board all summer to discuss the FUA without success due to “summer travel schedules.” A July 19 version of the FUA added a doubling of the rent and a clause that forbade new litigation. When BCS still had not signed by Aug. 2 ( when BCS was slated to gain access to Blach portables ) Los Altos School District apparently changed the locks.

Joe Seither of Huttlinger Alliance, a pro LASD marketing and litigation support non-profit, videos pro-BCS protestors.

August 6, 2013. Joe Seither of Huttlinger Alliance, a pro-LASD public relations and litigation support non-profit, videos pro-BCS protestors.

BCS teachers who had returned to work from summer break could not perform their classroom set up as scheduled. Some BCS parents demonstrated, protesting the lockout, at the Los Altos School District staff offices on August 6. About 60 or more jammed the August 12 Los Altos School District board meeting to bemoan the lockout. {Lalahpolitico: It was interesting that almost no LASD parents/supporters were there to say BCS deserved it}.

August 12 – LASD Doug Smith Hands over Keys with Strings

At the August 12 Los Altos School District meeting, there was quite a surprising opening event. President Doug Smith started the meeting by walking to the edge of the audience and thrusting the Blach BCS keys and a revised FUA into the hands of John Phelps, a visiting BCS trustee. Smith gave notice to Phelps and the assembled public that to use the keys meant signing the FUA. He explained that negotiation about the restrictions could occur only after signing.

August 19 – BCS Principal signs FUA “under duress”

According to BCS documents, the lockout continued till August 19 when Wanny Hersey signed the amended FUA “under duress.” This final FUA was like the one attached to the April Final Offer–it did not raise the rent or stipulate no litigation, but did have the enrollment caps on Blach and Egan and the k-3 grade restriction at Blach.

Here are press reports about the lockout and its resolution so far.