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Seventy kids from Mountain View and Los Altos had no trouble fending off the summer brain drain this week, jumping into everything from science and engineering labs to outdoor activities at the tuition-free Bullis Boosters Camp.
The camp, now in its sixth year, was created by Bullis Charter School parents as a good faith effort to bring summer camp activities to lower-income families unable to send their children to a structured day camp. The week-long camp in Los Altos has seen a rise in popularity since its inception, mostly among families from the Mountain View Whisman School District.
Though the summer camp relies on four credentialed teachers to guide instructional activities, the children are also supported by two-dozen teenagers designated as “counselors in training,” some of whom attended the camp program in prior years, according to Bullis parent and camp co-founder Grace Yang.
Among the activities this week, camp attendees were scheduled to go on field trips to Google’s tech campus and the Los Altos History Museum. The camp has also partnered up with the San Francisco 49ers Education Foundation for fitness- and nutrition-focused activities during one of the days.
Most of the funding for the camp comes from philanthropic organizations, the charter school’s parent association and small individual donations. Counselors in training also pay a tuition fee.
Though not directly related to the camp, the charter school also works with Foothill College on a six-week Stretch to Kindergarten program, aimed at preparing the children of underserved families for kindergarten free of charge. Yang said the charter school is exploring opening another charter school as soon as fall of 2019.
Why, yes, Kim. It is a PR stunt.
Kim, the article says 70 students + 2 dozen teens (some of which were former campers) so my math says 94 kids. Over 6 years, that’s over 550 kids. Seems like quite a bit of effort for just a PR stunt. Hats off to the community members that care so much about disadvantaged youth to be doing this for 6 years. I applaud BCS and the parents. Thank you for working tirelessly to serve this community.
Congrats to all involved. This is an example of the best of what the area can offer. Must have been so awesome for these kids to get exposure to Google, the 49ers and other organizations. It’s clear that this kind of program is needed and cherished in our community – I was surprised to read how large the camp has gotten. And hats off to Bullis families for helping our MV kids (vs just servicing Los Altos kids).
A PR stunt? Surely you’re joking. Between Bridge Camp and Stretch to Kindergarten, BCS and it’s parent organization provide 7 weeks of summer camp to underserved students and they have been quietly doing so for years. More than ten local organizations donate food and services to these non-profit camps, which is helpful because LASD actually charges the program rent to use the BCS facilities during this time!
Let’s take the politics out of all this and just appreciate a good thing has happened here. A bunch of kids from the Whisman district got to take part in a free, fun and intellectually engaging summer camp, full stop. I wish there were more outlets and opportunities like this. Would love to see other organizations, schools, groups or parents take the initiative and do their own version of this as there are a bunch more kids who could benefit from this. You can only tip your hat to the parent organizers at Bullis Charter School for putting this together and running it for 6 years. 6 years, people. And we haven’t seen anyone else – not 1 single person, take the mantle and do something similar. So stop whining, stop complaining, stop critiquing because you have no basis of doing anything other than applauding such a great thing in our community.
Thank you to all the volunteers and teen counselors. You are making a difference in the lives of these kids! I love hearing about community efforts like this. Please keep the naysaying and politics out of kindness. As they say, what goes will eventually come around.
LASD charges for the use of the facilities? Really? That just seems so wrong given the nature of the camp. Well done to all who participate — campers, CIT’s, parent volunteers, teachers and business that assist.
We need more community based programs like this…
How many children are in the camp and other BCS PR programs?
This is a fine public student program from BCS (a public charter). It would be even greater if the MVWSD organization spent 100% of the money supposedly for this subset of students (Economically Disadvantaged) on it’s own supplementary education programs. However, this last budget diverted about $1.6 M to a program for “All” students at “All” schools. A crying shame that MVWSD uses over half of it’s LCFF grant funding for General Fund (all students) new programs and short changes the poor families of the district.
We need more public school based programs like this, that last all summer. That’s where the research shows long-term academic gains can come from. Let the community based programs supplement 100% funding from the LCFF Supplemental Grant.
ED100 “Every California child deserves a great eduction. You can be part of the solution”, LCFF policy details
https://ed100.org/lessons/lcff