Schools

Bullis Chairman's Letter Signalling Intent to Accept Split Campuses

The letter, written in late January, from BCS chairman Ken Moore to Los Altos School Board president Doug Smith, described a need for 'self-contained' campuses at Egan and Blach schools.

 

Editor's note: Patch is posting a letter it belatedly received, from Bullis Charter School's chairman to Los Altos School Board President Doug Smith. In it, BCS Chairman Ken Moore announced that BCS would accept a split-campus solution for the 2013-14 school year if it could attain critical mass on both Egan and Blach schools, and have what it needs to run "self-contained" campuses, among other things. Patch had earlier posted the reply of Smith. so Bullis representatives could ask questions about the district's facilities offer and LASD representatives could collect those questions for its staff to provide specific answers after the winter break. The intent was so  BCS can incorporate that information in crafting its March 1 response to the facilities offer, according to Smith.

 

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January 23, 2013

Doug Smith

Find out what's happening in Los Altoswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

President, Board of Trustees

Los Altos School District

201 Covington Road

Los Altos, CA 94024

Dear Doug,

Today, in a continuing effort to seek compromise, I announced our intent to accept a possible split of our school between sites at Egan and Blach for the 2013-2014 school year, as your Board has proposed.  While the details of any such compromise need to be worked out, we have determined certain necessary parameters of such a solution.  I now write to respectfully request that the Los Altos School District (“District”) Board of Trustees join the Bullis Charter School (“BCS”) Board of Directors in appointing working committees to conduct a series of bi-weekly study sessions (starting as soon as practicable and open to the public) over the coming weeks prior to the District’s final offer to devise a split campus facilities configuration meeting the key parameters below.

While BCS’ preference for a permanent home remains a single contiguous site that can accommodate all BCS students, we believe that by both school boards embracing this proposal for the short-term, we can allow the time and build the mutual trust needed to together find an acceptable more permanent solution to facilities issues.  Further, we see the following current benefits for the District and the community:

• Does not require a single District student to change schools• Does not require the District to close any program at any site• Does not require any immediate spending of public funds to acquire additional land 

• Allows time to see if the District prediction of a large increase in student population occurs. 

• Does not require land swap with City of Los Altos

• Does not require further land or facilities at Egan for BCS 

• BCS will agree to District’s position that all sharing of middle school facilities be at Blach, not Egan

I hope you recognize this offer for what it is; a major effort by BCS to address your Board’s stated concerns in the hope that you will likewise seek to meet the necessary parameters below.  This is a substantial compromise - BCS would be the only school program in the District forced to operate across two non-contiguous school sites.  Further, a workable split BCS campus is more costly than a single site at Covington for both the District and BCS. The District will need to provide additional facilities since the two sites are not contiguous, and BCS will incur substantial additional costs for staffing, logistics and program.  There will also be real daily impacts to our families and staff that need to be mitigated.    

The following are necessary broad parameters for such a solution:

• Exclusive use of Egan camp site and similarly useable rectangular configuration at Blach by BCS

• Self-Contained Sites – Given the distance between Egan and Blach, each must provide BCS students with access to all standard facilities on-site like all other District schools 

• Critical Mass of Students at Each Site - To create a comparable experience for BCS students, more fairly equalize the impact on Egan and Blach campuses, and justify the costs to both the District and BCS of this option, a critical mass of students must be located at each site 

• BCS to Decide How to Split its Students Between Sites – In order to best meet the goals of the unique and innovative BCS educational program and mitigate issues for BCS’ parent community, the District will work with BCS to accommodate whichever classes BCS believes are best housed on each site, subject to the understanding that shared access to middle school facilities will only be made available at the Blach site as the District has requested

• True Equitable Sharing of Middle School Facilities at Blach – Each BCS middle school student should enjoy access for the same number of periods/hours as Blach students to middle school facilities, and the sharing schedule should be set through a joint process that provides equal weight to the scheduling concerns of both Blach and BCS

We stand ready now to work with urgency and transparently with the District between now and April 1st to design a mutually viable short-term solution.  It will take time and planning to implement such a solution effectively by August 2013 when school opens, so we ask you to join us at the table now.  It is our hope such a joint solution for the coming year would also reinvigorate the effort to find a more permanent solution we all understand is needed.  

I look forward to hearing from you shortly.

Sincerely,

Ken Moore

Board Chair, Bullis Charter School


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