Written by L.A. Chung
The Sunnyvale City Council will begin negotiations with the Stratford School over the purchase of the Raynor Activity Center, likely ending Los Altos School District's pursuit of that site outside the district to house Bullis Charter School.
Sunnyvale Vice Mayor Jim Griffith announced the decision shortly after the closed session ended about 7:30 p.m.
"We have directed staff to commence negotiations with Stratford School," Griffth said in a single sentence. There was no further elaboration.
Prior to the closed session, Los Altos School District President Doug Smith spoke in favor of the district's proposal to purchase it. BCS board member Janet Medlin spoke against LASD's bid. Two other entities spoke, including Fremont Union High School District, which is headquartered in Sunnyvale, and the San Jose-based Morgan Autism Center, whose supporters included many anxious parents, who said their kids would essentially age out of the center because it is squeezed for space and cannot expand. Stratford School did not send a representative to speak.
Medlin said she spoke against LASD's proposal, describing the "baggage" of six years of Prop. 39-related litigation, and the fact that Bullis Charter School parents "do not want to get in cars and come here, as lovely as your community is." She contended that LASD would not improve the property and invited the council to view the portables at the BCS campus at Egan as proof.
Whether the comments had any impact is hard to assess, since the city's deliberations took place in closed session.
Sunnyvale's first choice, the private Stratford School, started in Danville in 1999. It says on its website that its second school, in Sunnyvale, filled to capacity rapidly shortly after opening. The K-8 school focuses on a core subjects curriculum and has schools in Fremont, San Jose, Palo Alto, Santa Clara, Morgan Hill, San Francisco, and Pleasanton.
"Obviously I'm disappointed, but we wish the City and the Stratford School well," Smith wrote in an e-mail Tuesday night.
Smith said the district will still proceed with its request for the court to rule on "the much broader question of 'Can we locate BCS on any site outside of the LASD boundaries?" The question is not limited just to the Raynor site, he elaborated.
In the meantime, the district will continue to evaluate other options, he added.
Bullis Charter School Board member Joe Hurd responded with a prepared statement Wednesday.
“This is a public relations, legal, and fianancial disaster fo LASD’s own creation. Doug Smith owns this. Rather than meet with the BCS board to discusss long-term options for everyone’s benefit, LASD persists in maintaining this lawsuit."
Hurd contended the LASD bid did not win because "the only interest served are those of the trustees—not the Los Altos taxpayers, not Sunnyvale residents, and least of all, not the children of Los Altos...”
Of course, only the Sunnyvale City Council knows why one bid prevailed over the others, and where the others stacked up in comparison. Vice-Mayor Griffith said Wednesday that he could not discuss closed session deliberations, as a matter of law.
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The Request for Proposals that the city of Sunnyvale sent to the qualified parties outlined its objectives as: obtaining market value for the property, finding a buyer who will invest in the site and upgrade the facilities, and to provide an economic and public benefit to the Sunnyvale community.
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