After nearly 15 years of disputes, the Los Altos School District Board of Trustees will review a proposal for a long term agreement with Bullis Charter School at its April 8 Board meeting at 7:00pm at the District Office.  

The proposed agreement arose from a mediation process, in which two members of the Los Altos Board of Trustees and three of the Bullis Charter School board members met over the course of several months.  The proposal will now be shared publicly, offering an opportunity for public input and a transparent community conversation before both boards vote on the proposal.

With extremely complex circumstances and limitations on public school districts due to existing California charter school law, no solution to the problem could be achieved without difficult compromises on both sides.   

The broad parameters of the proposal are as follows:

• By no sooner than 2023, BCS would have exclusive use of 16 of the 18.83 acres that comprise the Egan Junior High Campus.
  • LASD would preserve 2.83 acres of the Egan campus for affordable teacher housing
• Bullis Charter School would cap its enrollment at 1,111 students, roughly equivalent to its projected enrollment for the 2019-20 school year.
• LASD would construct a new Egan Campus at the new 10th school site located at the Kohl’s Shopping Center site in Mountain View, which we will acquire this year.  The new school would open for the 2023-24 school year, at the earliest.
• Until the new Egan Junior High is constructed, Bullis Charter School would stay at its current locations at Egan Junior High and Blach Intermediate, and would not expand to Loyola or any additional LASD campuses.
• The proposed agreement would be in place for at least 10 years and end the divisive Prop. 39 process that resulted in millions of dollars spent on lawsuits and disputes with BCS.

Potential benefits to the proposed agreement for LASD include:

• No shared campuses and no divided schools:  10 schools on 10 sites
• Protection of LASD’s award-winning neighborhood school model
• No additional campuses impacted
• Stops unchecked BCS enrollment growth with a cap at 2019-20 levels
• A 10-year agreement between LASD and BCS, which would end the Prop. 39 process that resulted in disputes and costly lawsuits
• A cost-effective plan to acquire a new Egan campus, with over $100 million in funding from local developers and the City of Mountain View

At Monday night’s meeting, the Board and the community will have the opportunity to review the proposal from the mediation team, as well as ask questions and provide feedback.  Additionally, the LASD mediation team members and Superintendent Baier will visit all schools to hear from parents and staff to ensure that our community’s voice is heard through this process.  

We hope to achieve a long term agreement that both boards would vote to ratify after a transparent and thorough public input process.   Any final plan would require a process to envision building a successful educational future for our students and we invite our community to be part of that process.

To review the proposed agreement in full, please click here.  Click here for the presentation that will be shared on April 8, which includes dates for upcoming meetings at school sites, where public input is encouraged and appreciated. The public may also share their views with the Board of Trustees by emailing trustees@lasdschools.org.  To view a history of facilities sharing with BCS here.  

The Los Altos School District believes the most important part of any agreement is that our children continue to receive the excellent education our teachers and academic programs provide.  We hope our community will come together to share concerns, ask questions and provide input on this proposal to reach an agreement that provides stability and certainty into the future so all children continue to excel.

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