Proposed Findings of Fact (PDF)
The Bullis Charter School has again filed a lawsuit against the Los Altos School District.
The lawsuit claims the district has not provided reasonably equivalent facilities to
Bullis students in accordance with Proposition 39. Proposition 39 is the state law that calls for school
districts to offer reasonably equivalent facilities to a charter school’s in-district students. The charter
school has filed similar suits against the district on no less than three previous occasions. In each of those
cases the court ruled in favor of the district.
The district has always met the needs of the in-district students who elect to attend the
charter school with reasonably equivalent facilities. The district has always followed and implemented the
Proposition 39 regulations in allocating facilities to the charter school’s in-district students. In fact,
the district has gone beyond the Proposition 39 facilities formula and is currently providing square footage
beyond what BCS is entitled to under the Proposition 39 regulations.
In the fall of 2008 the charter school applied to their chartering authority, the Santa
Clara County Office of Education, for a revision to their charter to expand instruction to seventh and eighth
grade students. The County Office of Education granted this amendment. BCS claims that it is entitled to an
allocation of classrooms for the seventh grade for the 2009-2010 school year. However, BCS had informed the
district that the charter school did not intend to offer seventh grade classes in 2009-2010. The district does
not believe that Proposition 39 requires the district to provide classrooms for a grade level that the charter
school does not intend to serve, nor does it believe that the charter school is entitled to extra space for
grade levels it does not intend to serve. If the charter school determines in the spring of 2010 that they
wish to offer seventh grade instruction during the 2010-11 school year the district will present a facility
plan that recognizes a K-7 program.
The facts are very clear:
- The district fully complies with the Proposition 39 law and is providing reasonably
equivalent facilities for BCS’s in-district students.
- There is a regulated procedure and framework in place that is being followed each year
to determine BCS’s allocation of facilities.
- The district has been fair in its determination of the facilities required for the
charter school students.
- This is a frivolous lawsuit that causes district and charter school funding to be
directed away from educating our children. At a time when funds are scarce and student programs are being
reduced we need to be focusing our time and dollars on our children, not on a court hearing and attorney fees.
Related Articles:
Town Crier, December 10, 2008
Town Crier, December 17, 2008
Town Crier, June 10, 2009
Town Crier, June 17, 2009
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