Bullis passes on litigation ‘pause’

Litigation won’t stop while negotiations over school facilities continue between Bullis Charter School and the Los Altos School District.

Shortly after officially countering the district’s 2013 facilities offer, the chair of charter school’s board of directors sent an open letter to the president of the Los Altos School District’s board of trustees. In it, he turned down a request to hit the pause button on litigation so that the two organizations might work toward a long-term resolution without having to simultaneously fight multiple lawsuits.

The district and Bullis are embroiled in multiple lawsuits over the facilities the district is required to provide to the grades K-8 charter school.

“We understand the LASD board of trustees’ … position regarding our continued legal issue,” the letter says. “Put simply, we view the … request to stay litigation … as an attempt to avoid spending additional time working through the difficult allocation issues and further delay working together to make a split campus a workable alternative for the next school year.”

The letter should come as no surprise to the LASD board. BCS Chair Ken Moore told the Voice in mid-February that he did not support the idea. Still, district board member Mark Goines said he was “deeply” disappointed with the charter school’s decision. “Either you want to collaborate, or you don’t,” Goines said. “And clearly they don’t want to collaborate. They just want what they want.”

Had the charter school obliged the 90-day pause in litigation as proposed by Doug Smith, president of the LASD board, Goines said the district would have happily worked with the charter school toward a multi-year facilities agreement. But given the refusal to stall litigation, Goines said the district will only do what is “legally required” under Proposition 39 — the law which governs how districts must allocate facilities to charter schools.

“Prop 39 is very specific,” Goines said, noting that the law only requires districts to negotiate one year at a time. “I’d be highly flexible on a solution if we didn’t have litigation. Without that tenet being met, it will be one year at a time.”

In a previous interview, Goines explained the rationale behind the request to pause litigation. He said he believes the legal battle is making it hard for the two parties to work together in earnest, as both sides are preoccupied with and embittered by the dark cloud of litigation. Taking a break from the courtroom could help lift that cloud, Goines said.

Moore could not be reached for comment, but the open letter he signed indicates that Bullis officials feel that the current litigation is not considered to be a distraction by charter school officials.

“Suspending litigation over the district’s previous actions has nothing to do (with) now in order to avoid potential future litigation,” Moore wrote (with italicized emphasis). “Parties talk during lawsuits all the time — that’s how suits get settled. We would be more than willing to stop legal action when it is clear that BCS students are afforded reasonably equivalent facilities.”