BCS too exclusive to sustain
Regarding the article “County warns BCS over enrollment disparities” (Town Crier, May 12), I have two questions:
1. Why has it taken so long for Bullis Charter School’s failure to adequately enroll certain underrepresented student groups to be questioned by the Santa Clara County Board of Education when it has been a “given” for years to anyone paying attention?
2. How can BCS possibly feign surprise when they have consistently allowed the situation to exist and be sustained?
This could possibly be viewed with a bit of candor if it hadn’t impacted the excellent Los Altos public schools so deeply. BCS has often been referred to as a private school funded by the public schools.
Schools Briefs for May 26
Students raise funds for local nonprofits
Mckayla Kao, an eighth-grader at Bullis Charter School, and her brother Marcus Kao, a fifth-grader at the school, are raising money for two nonprofit organizations by selling products with their own original designs online.
The siblings are selling water bottles, T-shirts, laptop sleeves and other items that feature their own art, including drawings of a sleepy sloth, an elephant with a basketball and a pig eating ice cream.
Proceeds will be donated to the Boys and Girls Club of the Peninsula and Pets In Need, the contract provider of animal services for Los Altos and Los Altos Hills.
by Shawgi Tell / May 13th, 2021
Anyone who has carefully followed charter school news and analysis in recent years knows that privately-operated charter schools are not only segregated but actually increase segregation in the sphere of education. It has become common knowledge that charter schools are notorious for consistently under-enrolling English Language Learners, students with disabilities, homeless students, and other groups of students. Even though they are ostensibly public and “open to all,” most charter schools do not serve all students, let alone equally. Privatized education has never paved the way for all students to have an education.
But even when non-profit and for-profit charter schools are publicly exposed, cited, and rebuked for discriminatory enrollment practices, they are usually allowed to operate with impunity and to continue to siphon enormous sums of money from public schools that accept all students at all times. Many are frustrated by this persisten
County warns Bullis Charter School over enrollment disparities
Zoe Morgan/Town Crier
Bullis Charter School, above, isn t enrolling enough students from certain underrepresented groups, county official contend.
Bullis Charter School is failing to adequately enroll certain underrepresented student groups, the Santa Clara County Board of Education warned last week. If the imbalance isn’t addressed, the school’s charter could be at stake, which it requires to operate.
The board voted 6-1 at a May 5 meeting to authorize issuing a notice of concern to BCS, laying out the alleged violations and giving the school a chance to remedy the situation. The school’s charter is due to come before the county board for renewal next school year.
Three local middle schoolers qualify for robotics world championships
Courtesy of Nathan Sandland
Ben Sandland, from left, Aaron Kang and Philip Oberhart recently qualified for the VEX IQ Robotics world championships.
Three local boys recently participated in the middle school VEX IQ Robotics competition in Dublin and emerged victorious, earning a Create Award at the state championships and a ticket to the world championships.
“So when we qualified for states, I was just really proud, and I was quite surprised that our team was able to beat most of the other teams in California because we had only come together for about a few months, and this was our first time doing VEX,” team member Philip Oberhart said of the March event.