The initial offer would split the charter school program between two campuses, with space at Egan Junior High School for the K-6 program and space at Blach Intermediate School for the charter’s seventh- and eighth-graders.
More than 200 parents and community members gathered in the Covington School multipurpose room Monday (Jan. 30) to give feedback on the details of the offer and express the need to move ahead.
Many district parents said they valued their small, neighborhood school and were happy the district was not considering closing a school at this time.
“I support this resolution; it preserves our small, neighborhood schools,” said Jen Denebeim parent of two Gardner Bullis School students. “I have a lot of friends at Bullis Charter School and there are some incredibly creative thinkers at both BCS and the district, and I know we can come up with a solution.”
Charter school parents agreed with the need to work together to find a solution.
“This is not an us-versus-them battle,” said Millie Gong, Bullis Charter School parent. “This is about the parents in this room uniting behind the enemy, which is the school budget. I ask you to look at out-of-the-box solutions.”
While many district parents were pleased with the offer, charter parents and board members spoke against it.
“This offer is even more egregious than the offer made in 2009-2010,” said Andrea Eyring, Bullis Charter School board member. “The Egan camp school was ruled non-compliant then for 327 students; how can it be compliant today for 439 students? We would really like to move on. We don’t want to waste time and money on litigation.”
After two hours of public comment, the board approved the offer 5-0.
Visit the district website for the paperwork on the offer.
For more responses and details on how the boards plan to move forward, pick up the Town Crier’s Feb. 8 print edition.
