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Los Altos: Bullis, district approve truce [Palo Alto Daily News, Calif. :: ]
[July 29, 2014]

Los Altos: Bullis, district approve truce [Palo Alto Daily News, Calif. :: ]


(Palo Alto Daily News (CA) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) July 29--A draft agreement that resolves years of acrimony and multi-million dollar court battles between Bullis Charter School and the Los Altos School District was unanimously approved Monday night.



The charter school will drop four lawsuits, most filed over what facilities the district has offered Bullis in previous years, and the district will drop one suit. The agreement also provides the charter school with specific terms -- down to numbers of portable classrooms and days its students may use the playground, gym, tennis courts and fields -- for five years.

How each board arrived at its decision was a study in contrasts.


The district's Board of Trustees followed a roughly hour-long closed session with a public vote at about 7:15 p.m. The charter's Board of Directors, on the other hand, reached consensus during a predominantly closed-session meeting that ended just before midnight.

First announced on July 2, the agreement was fleshed out by a handful of members from each board over the past month. Monday marked the first time it had been shared with all board members.

"We're working our way through these documents," Jennifer Carolan, vice chairwoman of the charter's Board of Directors, said during the portion of the meeting that was open to the public.

"This is the first time we have seen some of these because of the Brown Act," she added, referring to the state's open meeting law. "We need to make sure we do our job and closely review them." Across town, district Board Member Doug Smith said he was "very happy" about the agreement. The conflict between Bullis and the district has been an issue during his five years in office.

"I'm excited about the prospect of putting that to bed, so our staff can spend all of our time focusing on the kids," he said.

According to Smith, the district spent $1.7 million on Bullis-related legal fees in the past school year alone.

The agreement was nurtured in part by both sides' desire to pass a $150 million bond measure in November to fund more schoolrooms. The district is grappling with enrollment that has increased 25 percent in 10 years. And short of building its own facility, Bullis must rely on voter goodwill to realize its goal of having its own standalone campus.

Los Altos Hills Mayor John Radford, who stopped by the Bullis board meeting, called the agreement "historic." He said the conflict, now a decade old, has turned neighbor against neighbor.

"It's been a long, long time coming, but I think it's a great agreement to have," Radford told The Daily News.

"Initially, it was just about the kids, but it's now become a much broader community issue and the community needs to heal and move on," he continued. "Thank God we have this in place." Bay Area News Group Staff Writer Sharon Noguchi contributed to this report.

Email Jason Green at [email protected]; follow him at twitter.com/jgreendailynews.

___ (c)2014 the Palo Alto Daily News (Menlo Park, Calif.) Visit the Palo Alto Daily News (Menlo Park, Calif.) at www.paloaltodailynews.com Distributed by MCT Information Services

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