Winners = lawyers for both sides. Losers = every tax-paying resident who DOESN'T work for Bullis.

I have to say that this drawn out battle is a tribute to incompetence on the part of the LASD trustees. Last night I listened to Tammy Logan say this all took so long because it was necessary to get here. What perverted logic that is. This is the same agreement that Bullis proposed 18 months ago. In the months following that, it was LASD which broke off the talks with Bullis. However you look at it, the talks then could have continued and they could have put in their 11 hour negotiating sessions at that point. This would have resolved things a full year earlier and saved LASD $ 2 Mlllion in legal fees they then spent after refusing to continue negotiations. These board members need to be held accountable.


Similarly recently it was Doug Smith obviously who dragged use of Hillview into their plans for the Bond. The bond is going to fail. The reason LASD finally compromised wasn't because of some concern for SDC students. It was because they realized that there really is no new land where Bullis can be located, and continuing to have them share the Jr High sites is the best option possible. It's a tribute to Bullis that they accepted such a small site over at Blach.

That will be 700 students next year and 900 before long, making much more efficient use of land space that the rest of LASD does.

I believe this saves taxpayer money for ALL taxpayers. LASD is not exempt from the laws that require continuing to provide classrooms and other school space to students who split off into a charter school, for whatever reason.

An additional factor is that LASD has collected from all sources $12,000 per enrolled student this year plus about $6,000 for each student enrolled at Bullis. LASD only passes on the $6000 amount to support the students at Bullis. This leaves them more money to pay for their overhead services like special education, district administrators, curriculum development, operating Parkland for use by Los Altos residents, etc.

LASD Trustees are the big losers here. They really wanted an end to BCS and this agreement means that the funny business has to stop. Tax payers are the real winners. No more tax dollars going to Mr. Smith's father's law firm is a big win for everyone.

The true losers are the people feverishly trying to point out who "won" and who "lost"
EVERY tax payer has lost, but now the bleeding has stopped. That's not a win. Of course the lawyers did rack up piles and piles of billable hours, so nobody won except them, and even then, only financially. I'd bet the lawyer's families feel they lost as well: "When is daddy coming home?"

Egos drove this, and as you can see, many egos are still wrapped up in it.

De-certify and dis-band the charter school to re-consolidate the district. That will save a lot of space that is wasted by having all the extra administrators duplicating LASD work.

How can we get this done?

Joan Strong: On a related note, do you have any numbers to show the legal costs incurred by LASD to fight off the BCS onslaught?

[Post removed due to disrespectful comment/personal attack]