Bullis Charter School Letter to LASD, Oct. 10, 2013

BULLIS CHARTER SCHOOL

102 West Portola Avenue
Los Altos, CA 94022
Tel: 650.947.4939
Fax: 650.947.4989 www.bullischarterschool.com

October 10, 2013
Dear LASD Board of Trustees,

We appreciate the Los Altos School District’s (“LASD”) willingness to discuss long-term solutions with Bullis Charter School (“BCS”). While these discussions have at times been contentious, we are interested in continuing to explore options to solve the issues that divide us. It’s evident through our recent conversations that your vision for a long-term solution (a large taxpayer-funded school bond) and our vision for a long-term solution (equitable distribution of public resources among public school students) are still very different, though a bond could be one means to that end.

In general, as a board, we agree there is a need for additional public dollars to improve our public schools. You have asked for BCS Board support for a school bond, which we’re happy to provide. What the bond is - and more importantly what the bond isn’t - concerns us a great deal.

BCS does not seek to be the major beneficiary of a new school bond, and we would not support a bond positioned that way. More particularly, BCS has never said that we want the taxpayers of LASD to purchase and build a new campus for students at the charter school.

Our only ask is that public resources (e.g., school facilities, school bond proceeds, parcel taxes and the Basic Aid benefit) be shared fairly and equally among residents attending BCS and residents attending other public schools in the district.

LASD has found it has a shortage of school sites and facilities, yet by design you have placed this burden almost entirely on local charter school families year after year. The surest way to solve this problem is for everyone to share the burden more fairly now. That will build support for acquiring more land and/or facilities for public education for all residents.

We stand ready to work with you and others to achieve that outcome. Successful or not, our ask remains the same -- fair and equal sharing of whatever public school resources exist among all resident public school students.

Over the last 10 years, district students who have chosen to attend BCS have been deprived of all taxpayer funded parcel taxes, excess property taxes, and other funds for public school students. Each year many millions of dollars have gone exclusively to LASD students, forcing BCS to mount considerable fundraising efforts to close the public funding gap. In addition, BCS families continue to annually pay for school bonds that remodeled every local public school other than the one their children attend.

The time to fairly and equitably share the public facilities and taxpayer funds under your trusteeship is now. Ten years is long enough. Your power to allocate facilities, to tax and to raise bonds, and to fairly share these among all public students holds the solution the community needs and deserves.

Public school resources should fairly benefit every in-district public school student. This is the path forward. We look forward to working with you on the next steps toward a permanent solution.

Sincerely,

Ken Moore
Board Chair
Bullis Charter School