POLL: Should County Ed Board Come to Los Altos May 22?

Is it a go? Will it happen?

On Wednesday night, they'll talk about it.

After some starts and stops, a subcommittee of the Santa Clara County Board of Education (SCCBOE) has convened and re-identified a date and a location for a forum in Los Altos: May 22, Eagle Theater.

The board will discuss whether that date and that forum can go forward, to Los Altos parents' entreaties for the board to come to the community and engage in dialogue about its role in authorizing the Bullis Charter School and community expectations.

The main difference now is that a tentative long-term agreement has been reached between Bullis Charter School and the Los Altos School District, that has the potential to bring a decade of "litigation peace."

The county school board memo is attached; parties to the discussions about the forum mention that the county board wanted to hold off a such a meeting in April as mediated talks looked like they might bear fruit. When they agreed upon a facilitator, Dick Henning, schedules and venues did not match up until after June. , there was succinctly detailing the past five months' of meetings about holding the forum.

During the May 2 board meeting, Los Altos School District parents told the county school board that that they wanted to meet before school ended, not wait until fall.

Los Altos Patch has posted a copy of that memo, as well as correspondence received after the May 2 meeting. Some of the correspondence refers to testimony made by parents with special needs, and by parents who wrote to express their appreciation for the time spent by the board.

One note is from Mayor Val Carpenter, who advises that in looking for a county representative for appointment to the Bullis Charter School, that citizens from Mountain View, Los Altos Hills, Palo Alto and unincorporated Santa Clara County could be considered, since the Los Altos School District boundaries encompass those.