Bullis Charter School

Bullis Charter School (BCS) is a public charter school located in Los Altos, California for grades kindergarten through grade six. As of 2006, the school's enrollment is about 230 students and has a stated limit of 310. [cite web | url = http://www.bullischarterschool.com/aboutus.asp | title = About Us | work = Bullis Charter School | accessdate = 2006-06-19 ] As the Santa Clara County Office of Education has chartered the school, BCS operates independently of the Los Altos School District (LASD).

On September 3, 2003, the Santa Clara Office of Education approved the school charter and became the sponsoring agency of BCS. On March 15, 2004, the LASD offered the portable classrooms at [http://maps.yahoo.com/beta/#mvt=m&tp=1&tt=egan&gid1=21295746&q1=100%20w%20portola%20ave,%20los%20altos%20ca&trf=0&lon=-122.116492&lat=37.39667&mag=3 Egan middle school] to the BCS. [ cite news | first = Kathleen | last = Acuff | url = http://www.latc.com/2004/03/17/news/news02.html | title = LASD trustees offer Egan camp to charter school | work = Los Altos Online | publisher = Los Altos Town Crier | date = 2004-03-17 | accessdate = 2007-02-24 ] BCS accepted and has been located there ever since.

At the end of 2006, Bullis Charter School was the highest-scoring California charter school and ranked among the top 1 percent of all schools in the state. [ cite news | url = http://www.latc.com/2006/11/29/schools/schools6.html | title = BCS chosen for public awareness campaign | publisher = Los Altos Town Crier | date = 2006-11-29]

On February 21, 2007, the Santa Clara County Board of Education approved the renewal of the BCS charter for five more years in a 6-0 vote. [ cite news | url = http://www.sccoe.k12.ca.us/supandboard/agendaminutes/2006-07/02-21-07minutes.pdf | title = February 21, 2007 minutes | publisher = Santa Clara County Board of Education | date = 2007-02-21]

Controversy

The origin of Bullis Charter School (BCS) has engendered its share of controversy. BCS was founded in an effort to establish a public school within Los Altos Hills. It continues to exist to offer innovative programs and a curriculum that differs from what is offered in other LASD elementary schools.

Bullis Charter School was established by a group of interested parents and other parties meeting in Los Altos Hills in response to the decision of Feb 10, 2003 by the Los Altos School District (LASD) Board to close Bullis Elementary School in Los Altos Hills. The reasons given for the closure were low attendance and budget. What compounded the frustration of the Los Altos Hills parents was that they had worked hard to campaign to pass a $100M bond measure to upgrade all seven of the LASD schools. The bond measure included a dollar amount and plans for the renovation of the Bullis Elementary School campus. Two weeks after the bond measure passed, LASD announced that there wouldn't be enough money for the renovation of the Bullis campus, and that Bullis would have to be closed. First on the list of construction projects funded by the bond measure was the conversion of the closed Covington Middle School into a new $5M District office, and a new seventh elementary school, Covington Elementary School. The opening of Covington Elementary School was a mystery, because Bullis was said to be closed because of not enough students, yet there were enough to warrant opening Covington in the middle a district containing six other elementary schools.

Early meetings (e.g., October 19, 2003 and October 26, 2003) of the Bullis Charter School Board took place at the Los Altos Hills Town Hall and in the multi-purpose room of the closed school. The initial motivation of the founding members was to bring a public school back to the Town of Los Altos Hills. All four school sites that the town had donated for public education to the neighboring school districts were no longer used for that purpose. One had been sold and developed as housing. One was leased at sub-market rents with the option to purchase for $1 after 30 years. One is still leased to the private Pinewood School. Without the closure of the last public school in Los Altos Hills, the BCS would have never come into existence. The parents of children from the closed school consisted of Silicon Valley professionals, many of whose jobs was to start, run, finance, or staff startup companies.

Many committees were formed to explore the options for bringing public education back into the community, including curriculum development, Principal search, site search, and legal issues. The idea of pursuing the formation of a public charter school was suggested, ironically, by Margaret Gratiot, the superintendent of the neighboring LASD. This was ironic, because she was the one who had closed the school, and she would have to approve the charter, which she fought bitterly. A further appeal to the county proved successful. The LASD superintendent still had some say in the formation of the charter, notably, removing a pro-family "sibling preference" for attendees, a preference that is in all of the LASD schools. A sibling preference is one in which the incoming siblings of an attending student have attendance preference over other new students. (This preference is important for keeping the family nature of elementary schools.)

After the school had been in existence, the actual benefits of a self-selected school in an already highly-affluent school district created demand for the continued existence of the school regardless of the absence or presence of a public school in Los Altos Hills. With the planned reopening of a public Bullis Elementary School by the Los Altos School District at the Bullis site in Los Altos Hills in August 2008, this evolution will probably continue. If it does not, and the vital philanthropic financial support needed for BCS to exists turns out only to be present for the purpose of returning an elementary school to Los Altos Hills, then the Bullis Charter School will cease to exist. BCS distinguishes itself from the LASD schools by providing Individual Learning Plans, national best practices for academic excellence, and an enriched curriculum during school and in optional after-school activities.

BCS is a California Distinguished School. Since its inception, BCS has consistently been the highest-scoring charter school of over 650 in the state of California. BCS serves as a model of success and impetus for others interested in the creation of other Charter schools in Silicon Valley. Just as the parents of Los Altos Hills felt disenfranchised by the lack of responsiveness from the Los Altos School Board to their needs, other similarly educated, affluent parents in Silicon Valley have begun to feel the same. In particular, grass roots efforts are now occurring for the establishment of a Chinese Language immersion Charter School in Palo Alto, and for other neighborhood-specific Charter Schools in the Los Altos School District as ongoing redistricting of the LASD negatively affects some communities with loss of neighborhood schools and altered demographics.

Those who believe BCS was created to establish a public school in Los Altos Hills present the following evidence:
# BCS was created immediately after the LASD announced it was closing the Bullis-Purissima site. [cite news | first = Sara | last = Ballenger | url = http://www.latc.com/2003/03/12/schools/news01.html | title = Bullis Charter School hopes to open in fall of 2004-05 school year | publisher = Los Altos Town Crier | date = 2003-03-12 | accessdate = 2006-12-01 ]
# BCS specifically asked the LASD for the Bullis-Purrisima site as soon as they reached their enrollment requirement. [cite news | first = Kathleen | last = Acuff | url = http://www.latc.com/2004/01/21/schools/news01.html | title = Charter school board formally requests Bullis-Purissima facility | publisher = Los Altos Town Crier | date = 2004-01-21 | accessdate = 2006-12-01 ]
# Craig Jones, the head of BCS, said," the charter school group is determined to open a school at Bullis and is prepared to appeal the matter to the county and the state if it gets that far." on 03/28/2003. [ cite news | first = Julie | last = O'Shea | url = http://www.mv-voice.com/morgue/2003/2003_03_28.bullis.html | title = Charter school scuffle continues | work = MountainView My Voice | publisher = Embarcadero Publishing Company | date = 2003-03-28 | accessdate = 2006-06-19 ]
# BCS sued the LASD after they were given portable classrooms on the Egan school grounds instead of the Bullis-Purissima. [cite news | first = Kathleen | last = Acuff | url = http://www.latc.com/2005/11/02/schools/schools1.html | title = Charter school lawsuit saga continues | publisher = Los Altos Town Crier | date = 2005-11-02 | accessdate = 2006-12-01 ] The charter claimed these portables did not meet the "reasonably equivalent" requirement described in section 6b of [http://vote2000.ss.ca.gov/VoterGuide/text/text_proposed_law_39.htm Proposition 39] .
# LASD determined the unrennovated Bullis-Purissima site did not meet Prop 39's "reasonably equivalent" requirement. However, BCS offered to drop the lawsuit and waive the requirement if they were given the Bullis-Purrisima site. [cite news | first = Kathleen | last = Acuff | url = http://www.latc.com/2004/10/13/schools/schools3.html | title = Hills wants Bullis plan before meeting with Los Altos School District | publisher = Los Altos Town Crier | date = 2004-10-13 | accessdate = 2006-12-02 ]
# BCS offered to lease the site from the LASD, and also attempted to buy the site outright. [cite news | first = Lauren | last = McSherry| url = http://www.latc.com/2005/06/08/news/news4.html | title = Hills council and charter school to pursue buying Bullis site | publisher = Los Altos Town Crier | date = 2005-06-08 | accessdate = 2006-12-02 ]
# The Los Altos Hills city council considered spending $2.5 million to help BCS purchase a site in Los Altos Hills. [cite news | url = http://www.latc.com/2005/07/27/community/community4.html | title = Bringing the Bullis Charter School to Los Altos Hills subject of forum | publisher = Los Altos Town Crier | date = 2005-07-27 | accessdate = 2006-12-01 ]

In June 2006, LASD unanimously voted to re-open the Bullis-Purrisima site as a public school in the district for the start of the 2008 school year, [ cite news | first = Traci | last = Newell | url = http://www.latc.com/2006/06/21/news/news2.html | title = Los Altos School District votes to reopen school at Bullis site | publisher = Los Altos Town Crier | date = 2006-06-21 | accessdate = 2006-12-01 ] eliminating the possibility that BCS will gain access to the site.

Some of those who support the school base their support on the following information:

They believe that the BCS educational offering is significantly different from what is currently available in the LASD and that it provides unique and innovative programs and curriculum. Because BCS is a small school and is supported by a highly unified and motivated group of parents, teachers and administrators, it offers the perfect environment for testing innovative teaching techniques and does so in a way that isn’t practical in a larger public school environment. In 3 years BCS has used this opportunity to achieve much. Many supporters find the following information about the school important:

# Nationally recognized for best practices in education and has been named the "number 1 charter school in California"
# WASC accredited
# Tailored learning plans meet the needs of every individual child
# Art, music, drama, technology & P.E. classes as part of the standard class week
# In-depth age-appropriate environmental studies at all grade levels ranging from sustainable cooking practices to the conservation of Leatherback sea turtles
# Weekly elective classes allow children to pursue their special interests and interact with classmates from different grade-levels
# Focus on the long-range learning, rather than on the immediate A or F on a report card or on test scores
# Character development curriculum for all grades

References

External links

* [http://www.bullischarterschool.com/ Official site of school]