BCS Site Pondered, Transitional Kindergarten on Track

The search for a long-term location for (BCS) dominated the board meeting Monday night, where trustees talked about a timeline, potential capital costs, and community support.

The board also reviewed plans to comply with a new state law requiring a transitional kindergarten program, set achievement goals for each school, and were briefed on next week’s special board meeting called to interview interim board member candidates and make a selection.

During the BCS discussion, board members mulled over a timeline with a May 21 date to decide what path it should take: a new BCS site, a shared site or swapping a site.

“I think the community has been patient enough with this and that patience is wearing thin,” said board member Margot Harrigan. “You’re not going to get to anywhere unless you decide to decide on a decision by a certain date.”

The board was discussing the matter in accordance with its educational blueprint, and a presentation by the Citizens Advisory Committee for Finance, which identified the need as a top priority this year.

It also comes less than two weeks after a state of appeals court ruled that LASD had failed to comply with a state law that requires the district to offer Bullis Charter School (BCS) .

School district staff introduced a timeline for the district to choose between three main options–a new BCS site, a shared site or swapping a site–and specify which approach it preferred by a May 21 board meeting.

Several board members felt more information was needed from outside sources, as well as from BCS before considering any of the options.

Mark Goines, school board vice president, suggested having a demographer do a traffic analysis.

“For example, if we decide to move them to Santa Rita, a block and a half away, that's less of an impact on the community and suggests and lesser traffic impact or change.”

Goines also said a definitive student population number is needed from BCS in order to move forward with a plan, whichever it may be.

“The last thing I’d want to do is purchase land and build a school that is not up to capacity after three years,” Goines said.

Each plan would cost a large chunk of money, with the biggest being if a new school is built entirely, which Harrigan estimated could be as much as $100 million.

“Every single option requires fund commitment from some new source of capital. Therefore, we’d need some community support to do that,” Goines said.

School board trustee Tamara Logan suggested a subcommittee possibly be formed in order to address the various issues, like what the district is looking for, what BCS is looking for and what the community will support.

“If we tried to pass a bond that would essentially be used to house the charter school, I don’t think, unless I’m missing something, that that would have a prayer of passing,” said Bill Cooper, president of the board. He added that he would not be against a two or three year extension to deciding the long-term location and continuing to house the charter school at a temporary one.

Parent Ron Haley said during the meeting that the school is planning on adding more classes to each grade in the next few years. The charter school has .

“There is a lot of demand,” Haley said. “My expectation is the demand will grow significantly. All I’m saying is when you’re looking at this as a plan, remember that you’re not necessarily looking at this as one site.”

No action was taken on the BCS location but the board will take it up at a future meeting.

Kindergarten Readiness Act

Also that night, trustees looked at the district's plan for a transitional kindergarten program. A new state law requires schools to offer a “kindergarten readiness program”, known as a transitional kindergarten class for children whose birthdays fall in the last quarter of the year.

California was one of the few remaining states that accepted children for kindergarten whose fifth birthday is as late as Dec. 1. Educators have long said that such children often have difficulty academically because they have not yet developed the needed skills at that point. That's because kindergarten is much more academic than in decades past.

Under the new law, children turning five in November through December will have the option to join the transitional class next school year. For the full breakdown, see the attached PDF.

Gallagher added that initially there will be only one transitional class, at Almond, and students will return to their neighborhood school after that class is over.

“We’re definitely creating a program knowing it’ll have to expand but it’s a question of when,” Gallagher said.

School achievement plans

The board also approved "single plans for student achievement" Monday night, which set very specific goals for each school. For example, one goal for is to “increase student awareness, engagement, and ownership of their learning and school experience as measured by annual parent survey and teacher input.” For more details on each school, see the attached PDF.

Interim trustee selection

Next week’s special board meeting will consist of interviewing four candidates who applied to fill the remaining term of Harrigan.

Mark Boennighausen, Robert Dinneen, Vladimir Ivanović, and Steven Taglio turned in applications for the position. Applications were due November 4.

Boennighausen has in the past been a member of CACF and on the board of LAEF. Dinneen is the current president of the Oak School PTA and has served as an LAEF ambassador. Ivanović recently was appointed to the CACF and has been co-chair of Gardner Bulli’s technology committee for the past two years. Taglio has been president of the Covington PTA for the past two years head of the technology committee, and is a member of the school site council.

Each applicant has or has had children attend the Los Altos School District and mentioned the applications the importance of finding a permanent site for BCS. For the full applications, see the PDF attached.