You've seen the overhead view. Now look at it from the ground.
Los Altos Patch decided to do a short walking tour, just from the outside, of the new facilities space offered to Bullis Charter School on the Egan Jr. High School campus. We'll do a walk on the Blach School campus for Tuesday.
If you have your own photos, feel free to upload them here.
Most of the 1000+ children attending or trying to attend BCS come from Los Altos and Mountain View. What do their parents have to be spiteful about? All they want is the best education they can get for their kids. Why do you have a problem with that? Why do you think you know whats best for their kids. Perhaps you have some special skills you haven't let on?! Please tell us!
Why does Lynn Reed and the other BCS thugs want to know my true identity? So they can profile me and harass my family as they have others? So they can make veiled threats to my personal life as they made above? If this sounds really, really creepy to honest folks judging this situation, it's because it is. Having no more recourse in rational debate to defend their indefensible "school", they resort to personal attacks and hardball tactics. I encourage others who wish to speak out against this "school" and are not ready for these sorts of tactics to use the power of the Internet and anonymity to do so. Please do as I do, and keep a single pseudonym and make it your own consistent "brand". Here's an excellent Cato.org write-up on the importance of anonymous dissent. (Hint: that little pyramid on the US dollar bill is a tribute to... anonymous dissent): http://www.cato.org/pubs/briefs/bp-054es.html
Oh, actually BCS's incoming kinder who were NOT siblings this year are going to be... 18 kids--9 kids outside of the "special" LAH area. But yeah, 9 kids is a lot like 1000...
That will be resolved with the second campus, when BCS takes all applicants. Should be soon :)
The only person around here attacking other people is you.
Just because you continue these allegations, it doesn't make them true. IMO, the reason you don't reveal your true identity is that you are embarrassed by your POV. I certainly would be. But I'm sure that monthly CTA check helps ease the conscience a little :)
We know where you are coming from. No need to elaborate!
1.some parents are clearly spiteful of the "raw deal" they have been dealt for so long, when referring to the facilities....yet BCS accepted them when founding the school and found those same facilities good enough in the beginning. 2.I have no problem with providing the best possible education, but it need not be at the expense of others..That seems obvious. 3.Perhaps my "special skill" that you haven't recognized is the pragmatism that you are lacking in this debate. Now for my question Ron, if the facilities offered to BCS in the beginning were sufficient and "reasonably equvalent"....why couldn't BCS remain the same sized student body (at its inception), upgrade the facilities and not displace/rip apart this commmunity?
Redistrict, put BCS on its own campus (es), and LASD can have all of Egan. I have a child at Egan - I'd like to see BCS housed somewhere else, as would most Egan parents.
Who said the initial facilities were sufficient? They were not. BCS tried over a number of years to get LASD to provide reasonably equivalent resources. There was no prop 39 lawsuit early because they are incredibly expensive. In the end, BCS saw no other alternative than to take LASD to court. Regarding growth - LASD parents want to send their children to BCS. There is no "displacement/ripping apart in this commmunity". Every child that goes to BCS leaves LASD. A zero sum gain - or it should be. LASD has chosen to steal facilities and money from children that attend BCS. Now that the courts have caught them out, LASD and its parents still want to keep these ill gotten gains. And then there is Superintendent Jeff Baier crying because of all the kids trying to leave LASD for BCS. "Pleace SCCBOE of education, don't let the go". Perhaps Jeff should issue a ball and chain for each kindergartner on their first day of school so they can't leave. "Bah bah bah" - what a baby! Improve the schools Jeff, then they won't want to leave!
I am more than happy to field your rhetorical attacks but again, I respectfully request that you focus those attacks on me and me only.
BCS had 18 kinder slots open after sibling preference, 9 of which we open to the non-rich area. In other words, the broader LASD school area that you said Jeff is going to "cry about" will lose exactly 9 students to BCS this year. As to how many of the rest of the 90-some odd applications were tire-kickers and how many were serious, we'll never know since BCS actively hides these numbers even though the community has asked (nicely, so far) for them. I wonder what they are hiding?
I have done my best to use these forums to put forth and evolve an argument that involves two fundamental questions: (1) as a matter of public policy, is it rational and/or productive for a county board to grant a charter to a school knowing that it will adversely impact an exceptionally high-performing school district; and (2) in that BCS exists, is it compliant with its full set of legal obligations in regards to the diverse set of students and needs that are part of our community? These are legitimate and important questions that should be publicly debated with all the passion, energy, and occasional rhetorical over-reach that characterizes all public debates.
You are obviously passionate about this issue so I encourage you to put forth your arguments, step into the public arena with your full identity, and productively engage in an issue you clearly care about.
Sure you can pick issues with the existence of the Charter or with the realities facing the district that constrain them. Charter schools are a reality in the state. Each Charter is different but there are laws that govern them and the districts. Why was a lawsuit necessary to get the LASD to even provide this last rushed facilities offer, the best one they ever did? Why were they wrong in saying BCS would not be able to mount a good program? Why did they reject the charter to start, when state law clearly *requires* the County Board to then take it on? It's a waste of money to ignore the law. If you want to take action, look wider and work to change the law. Don't burn money trying to work around the laws in the courts. Charter schools have a very prescribed limited claim on district resources. Seems to me BCS existence has caused LASD to change for the better. If BCS were to disband it would really shock the district, because so many of its students live in the same geographic area. Watch out what you wish for...
On average, the 4500 some-odd sets of LASD parents donate $550. Out of 4500 some-odd sets of parents, only about 40 of them in LASD donate at the $5000 or greater level. If BCS disbanded, typical LASD students would have MORE MONEY to spend on their programs. Please see: http://bullisCharterScam.org/bullis_charter_money.php
149 kinders applied to BCS - only 60 were accepted due to facilities constraints. Get it yet ? Oh, so LAH is not considered part of the "broader" LASD. LAH the "rich area? Again, the politics of envy! As to names and addresses of applicants,the last thing these parents want is to be berated by some of the kooks at LASD. If they want to let LASD know they applied to BCS, they can do so themselves
Parents that attend BCS donate $5K because they see the benefit. These same parents, when they send their children to LASD, do NOT donate $5K. In fact, most donate very little. Anyone who expects these BCS parents to donate substantial funds to LASD are delusional.
Your wife's actions as a LASD PTA president seem to coincide with your stated opinions.
Not the politics of envy, the facts of reality. Anyhow, of the 60, 42 or siblings, leaving 18 slots--9 slots for one small area of our town (and yes, the richest one) and 9 slots for the rest of the District. Your point was that JeffB was very sad that 1000 of our incoming kinders are all going to go to BCS. No, it's 9. That is, unless many of those applications refuse enrollment because they can't afford the $5000/year/child tuition or don't want to go to a school which is a pariah. BCS could certainly provide this data (3rd party audited of course) in aggregated form--but that would probably prove all of your huff completely wrong, and certainly BCS wants to do everything they can to make a defacto spokesman like yourself look their best...
State law allows any group to form a charter and designate a priority to current attendees of say Almond School. or Oak or Loyola. Each student in LASD has a perfectly equal chance to get the exact same resources in a Charter school. They just don't have the same precise chance to claim admittance to the value added by the "great accomplishments" or "evil works" of the BCS founders. The public resources at BCS also are clearly less than those received dollar wise at any district school despite wierd math used to try to argue otherwise. Not to mention that within LASD students are each restricted to a SINGLE choice from available schools, and even this is sometimes non-obvious requiring them to pass by one or two other LASD elementary schools on their way to the one they are designated to attend.
Our LASD spends almost 20% of its budget on special needs kids alone--BCS spends 0%. Etc. Etc. BCS has argued for years that public school "waste" is the difference--apparently all the money goes to lavish parties for big-wig union reps or some other nonsense told by typical anti-union scare-mongering conservative fanatics. They also tell stories of how we're "not allowed to turn the lights on at the library" (as I've done a thousand times) or that a certain long-dead Teacher's Union leader said he didn't care about kids (which as weak as that reference is, it too is actually false and made up). Meanwhile, BCS's teachers are, as BCS is a newer school, much younger than typical LASD teachers. Younger means cheaper benefits and lower salaries in the aggregate. Does BCS plan on simply firing teachers the minute they turn 30? I don't think so--so any advantage they might have in that regard is temporary at best. This "waste", then, are the things public schools have been asked to do by the voters. By implying that BCS is "more efficient with its money" you are implying that special-needs kids are "waste". Most honest people would never agree with that. So it's not "funny math" -- CHOICE COSTS MONEY.
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