Los Altos School District Superintendent Tim Justus spoke at the Los Altos Hills city council meeting Thursday, touching on controversial issues for the town: the Bullis-Purissima school site and the Bullis Charter School.
Justus said the district intends to open the Bullis-Purissima site as “one of our regular elementary schools” for the 2008 school year. “Things change in a school district,” he said. “It’s a new administration coming in and … the new board, that have a leadership role in our district.”
The exact nature of the curriculum at the school and the grade levels included are under discussion, according to Justus. He said the district’s core curriculum would be taught but perhaps delivered in a different manner from other elementary schools. He had previously discussed a technological orientation for the new school.
Since the public elementary school’s closure at that location in 2004, the site has been considered for a multitude of uses, including private preschool, public pre-kindergarten, private elementary school, Bullis Charter School or a reopened public elementary school.
The site’s use was the subject of a lawsuit between the city of Los Altos Hills and the Los Altos School District, which was dismissed in October. The suit cost the district nearly $50,000 and the city close to $97,000. The district currently uses the site for public extended-day kindergarten and private preschool.
Justus drew protest from the city council when he cited demographic changes as one reason to reopen the site.
“The history of school districts is that schools get closed for two reasons: a cut in the budget or a cut in enrollment. The schools had had an increase in the parcel tax, and enrollment was flat,” Councilman Craig Jones said.
He was referring to the 2003 parcel tax that Los Altos Hills residents and the city council helped pass under the impression that the district would keep the Bullis-Purissima school open, given an increase in funding.
Justus said, “I’m not going to criticize the decisions that were made before me … (but) this part of the district should have an elementary school.”
Jones, Councilman Mike O’Malley and Mayor Breene Kerr all expressed displeasure with district decisions regarding the site and the chartering of the charter school. Kerr asked for confirmation that the school’s charter, up for renewal this year, would be smoothly reapproved. The school’s charter had a rocky beginning in 2003 when the
district declined to serve as
the governing agency for the school.
Justus said the renewal of the charter should be a “straightforward” process and that “the charter school I have been involved with so far is a wonderful school.”
The council also asked Justus to work with the Palo Alto School District Superintendent Mary
Callan on possible interdistrict management of the charter school.
