Schools

Will County Put Appointee on Bullis Board?

The Santa Clara County Board of Education is mulling how to place an 'objective' representative on the Bullis Charter School Board. Meanwhile, the parents' group, LASD Voices, urges residents to write directly to the county and the BCS boards.

 

The Santa Clara County Board of Education asked its superintendant to come up with a list of potential candidates who could serve as a county representative on the Bullis Charter School board, the Palo Alto Daily News reported Wednesday night.

Board President Joseph DiSalvo asked Superindent Charles J. Weis to come up with a list of potential representatives, Daily News reporter Jason Green reported, as the board debated whether such a county-appointed representative to the charter school board could be found who was objective.

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Board members referred to the tensions that have hovered over the school community, heightened over the question of whether extending facilities to the charter school would mean giving an existing campus to BCS and dispersing that campus' students around the district.

Meanwhile Wednesday, Los Altos parents leading the group called LASD Voices put out a call for district parents to weigh in with the county Board of Education while the Santa Clara County Office of Education (SCCOE) is still negotiating a memorandum of understanding with Bullis Charter School (BCS) that would outline agreed-upon expectations in the renewal its charter.

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"We know that some of the SCCOE Board members still believe that only a few parents in Los Altos are concerned about the BCS issues facing our district," wrote Michelle Sturiale, Molly Black, Kelly Toshach and Linda Baxley in an email.

The group asked parents to write to the Bullis Charter School board, as well, to express concerns about access. The group's goal was to get 400 letters to both the county Board of Education and BCS board sent by April 23.

"We believe that LASD families want to see all public schools in Los Altos provide an education for any student living within the LASD school boundaries," the email read. 

They also urged parents to become more informed by going to BCS board meetings, along with district board meetings and the county board meetings.

Besides the impending memorandum of understanding, other decisions are looming. The BCS board is reviewing the final offer for 2012-13 facilities space from the Los Altos School District, and must, by state law, reply by May 1. 

BCS board members at the beginning of the month indicated they were not happy with the offer, which splits the K-8 school junior high school campuses. 

- Los Altos Patch Editor L.A. Chung contributed to this report


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