Dear Los Altos School District Community,

As you know, within the last year, the Bullis Charter School (BCS) unilaterally increased its enrollment by nearly 25%, or 220 in-district students.  Because Los Altos School District is required by law to provide facilities to in-district charter students, BCS’s unilateral action raises considerable challenges to accommodate its sudden growth for the next school year and beyond.  

To try to address those challenges, negotiating teams from LASD and BCS met in multiple confidential mediation sessions to discuss proposals for a long term facilities agreement.  Throughout such negotiations LASD made it clear that any proposal the mediation teams negotiated behind closed doors needs to be fully aired in public with the community to determine whether there was community support, and that this public process would need to occur before LASD’s board voted whether to approve any agreement.  This mediation process yielded a proposal for a 10-year agreement that the Board is considering.  For more information on this proposed agreement, click here.

The Board of Trustees and I firmly believe that your voices and opinions are essential when it comes to an issue of intense community interest such as this.  As publicly elected officials committed to making a decision that benefits our community as a whole, we have appreciated each and every one of the many comments, questions and ideas we have received to date.

I learned yesterday evening that the BCS Board of Directors voted unanimously to approve the proposed 10-year agreement.  While BCS moved quickly to a vote before the community could be fully heard, LASD’s Board will complete its scheduled public input process that it values tremendously and deems essential before it votes on the proposed agreement.   

Click here for dates of remaining school site forums, Board Office Hours and Board meetings.  We have scheduled two more Board meetings to receive feedback on the agreement, one which will be held tomorrow evening, Thursday, April 25 at 7pm.  The other meeting will take place on Monday, April 29 at 7pm, in which the Board plans to receive feedback and vote on the proposed agreement.  Both meetings will be held at the District Office. 

As always, you may also email the Board of Trustees at trustees@lasdschools.org with any thoughts, questions or concerns.

Sincerely,

Jessica Speiser
President, Los Altos School District Board of Trustees