Bullis Charter School’s enrollment lottery for the 2020-2021 school year is no longer set to include a preference for students who live in what was the Bullis-Purissima attendance area.
In an Oct. 11 letter, charter school board president Joe Hurd told the Santa Clara County Board of Education that the charter school will “continue the suspension” of the enrollment preference, while also objecting to claims by the Los Altos School District that the preference is discriminatory.
Hurd’s letter comes after Los Altos School District officials wrote to county leaders last month, urging them to block the preference.
For years, the charter school had an enrollment preference for students who lived within the former attendance area of Bullis-Purissima School. However, the five-year facilities agreement the charter school and district signed in 2014 called for the preference to be decreased for incoming kindergarten classes starting in 2015-2016, until it reached zero in 2019-2020.
Over the summer, charter school officials said the enrollment preference would return for the 2020-2021 school year. The Los Altos School District Board of Trustees wrote the county in September, arguing that the preference is exclusionary, drawing from the wealthiest areas of the district.
County response
County Office of Education Superintendent Mary Ann Dewan responded Oct. 2, sending letters to both the district and charter school requesting more documentation.
In her letter to the district, Dewan asked for additional evidence of any discrimination by the charter school, saying that the county takes all such allegations seriously and will investigate accordingly.
However, she also objected to the “unnecessarily aggressive and confrontational tone” of the school district’s letter and said it misstated the county’s position and actions. In particular, she said the county “diligently” fulfills its role in overseeing charter schools.
In her letter to the charter school, Dewan said the county is “concerned” the Bullis-Purissima enrollment preference could run afoul of a state education code prohibiting charter school enrollment preferences that limit enrollment access for certain groups of students, including those who are socioeconomically disadvantaged.
Dewan wrote that the charter school either must not implement the enrollment preference or provide an explanation of why the preference won’t violate the education code.
Charter school officials responded Friday, stating that the preference is lawful and hasn’t caused “discriminatory impacts,” but that they are choosing to hold off on bringing it back.
“LASD’s allegations are demonstrably false and misleading,” Hurd wrote in the letter. “We would rather, however, focus our resources on educating students rather than arguing with LASD; healing rather than dividing. … We shall continue the suspension of the geographic preference formerly applied to students seeking to enroll in kindergarten at BCS from the former Bullis-Purissima attendance area.”
The letter doesn’t state how long the preference will continue to be suspended. Hurd said in an interview that he didn’t think the charter school’s board explicitly discussed how long the suspension will last. However, he said he expects the preference to be on the table in future negotiations with the district.
District board president Jessica Speiser said the district is glad the enrollment preference won’t return next school year, but would prefer for it to never come back.
Enrollment disparities
In its letter, the charter school objects to the school district’s claims of discrimination. Instead, Hurd argues that the school district itself is segregated because certain schools have a disproportionate number of underserved students. For instance, 38.6% of Santa Rita School students were English language learners in 2018, compared to 7.1% of Oak Avenue School students. At Bullis Charter School, 10.1% of the students were English language learners, which is a higher proportion than five district schools.
“If LASD was truly concerned about ‘discriminatory impacts,’ LASD would change its attendance boundaries to address its own enrollment disparities,” Hurd wrote.
Speiser said that the school district is committed to giving students an equal and equitable education, while also maintaining neighborhood schools.
However, she said the charter school needs to reflect the average of the entire district, rather than separating out individual schools.
“They can’t pick schools to compare to,” Speiser said. “Because they are drawing from our entire district, they have to mirror our entire district.”
Hurd writes in the charter school’s letter that extra outreach is done to help attract special-education students, English language learners and socioeconomically disadvantaged students. But because parents choose whether to apply to enroll their children in charter schools, the letter says there is no way to guarantee a “reflective balance” will happen.
“We can’t control who applies,” Hurd said in an interview. “As the letter says, we go out of our way to (put up fliers) throughout the entire district.
We go out of our way to prepare materials in languages other than English to encourage people to apply, but at the end of the day, it’s really up to the parents to decide to apply.”
In contrast, Speiser said the fact that the charter school’s population doesn’t mirror the school district’s is a problem that speaks for itself. She said the school district plans to respond to the county’s letter with additional evidence and explanation of the data.
The county asked for the response by Oct. 23, but Speiser said the district has told the county it may not meet that deadline. The district’s next board meeting is scheduled Oct. 28 and Speiser said she expects the district’s response will be sent soon after that.
