At this point in time, the preliminary offer to BCS is to share sites with Egan, Blach, and Loyola. Though we have a preliminary offer, it may not be the final offer.

(Nonetheless, Loyola families have strong thoughts and feelings about this outcome, and you can see their reactions on this recorded Livestream on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LoyolaElementarySchool 

Most importantly, we still do not have a long-term solution. 

Until we have a long-term solution, our community will continue to have this issue persist. In order to have resolution that is long-lasting, I think our community needs to consider doing work in these areas:

Longer-term solutions:

• Call for 20- or 30-year agreements: Before the last 5-year agreement, I hear that the situation was very acrimonious and probably more so than today. I don’t think we want to be dealing with Prop. 39 requests every year. And, every year, we are shuffling students around trying to figure out how to share campuses. I also don’t think we want to deal with potential school shutdowns looming over our heads as we await Prop. 39 requests.
• Call for enrollment caps: Along the lines as above, we also need to manage capacity. Just as much as I can’t plan a birthday party if I don’t know how many people are coming, we also can’t manage facilities without having some sense of enrollment numbers. We need to have planned growth that is agreed upon by the community and authoritative bodies.
• Call for equity in treatment within LASD and reject the LASD vs. BCS dichotomy: Much of the attention has been on how we need facilities equity between BCS and LASD. I agree that our children needed to be treated fairly. However, I reject the LASD versus BCS dichotomy. Even within LASD, facilities quality is uneven and needs are not met (e.g., Oak has repeatedly asked for a functioning multipurpose room at LASD School Board meetings). Fairness to LASD families need to be brought to everyone's attention. 
• Promote what is great about LASD: I hear a false meme that, categorically, charter schools are better than neighborhood schools. This meme feeds the growth. I personally think that different types of education work for different children. Both my girls go to LASD, and they’re doing great. The teachers at Almond are the highest caliber you can imagine, and I’m so grateful for them. I think we need to acknowledge and promote the things that LASD is doing right in terms of our children’s education. Reject the notion that one form of education is categorically better than another.

Root-cause and real long-term solutions:

• Advocate for Prop. 39 policy change: As Ice-T has taught me, “Don’t hate the player, hate the game.” I respect all families in our community--LASD or BCS. I blame the system for the place we are in today. I believe that Prop 39 is flawed, and it’s implementation has not served it’s original intent. I think we need to capture this moment in time when many others are also questioning the impact of Prop. 39 on our communities. (Example: See Los Angeles: https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2019/01/30/major-step-los-angeles-school-board-calls-moratorium-new-charter-schools Who wants to go to Sacramento with me?! :)
• Advocate for governance and oversight of charter schools: As I have said time and time again, I support people having choice in education and I do not have anything against charter schools or the people who attend them. We are lucky to live in area with so many choices. However, choice doesn’t mean options that are unchecked, particularly when they are funded by the public. One root cause I see in all of this is that BCS unilaterally increased enrollment as the 5-year agreement came to an end. Because of this unilateral decision, we are looking at 3 and potentially 4 campuses that have to share and deal with increase in traffic, classroom density, and other negative impacts to our schools. Whereas some charter schools that work well are chartered by the school district and thus have some level of oversight from a publicly elected entity, I don’t see that here. From a pure fairness perspective, publicly funded entities that have such big impact on all of us need to have transparency and public contribution in their governance.

Next steps: I’m only one person, and we need to work together to be effective. Please reach out if you want to:

• Bring attention to the need for long-term (20- or 30-year agreements) with enrollment caps. We need to be flooding our local papers (Town Crier, Mountain View Voice, etc.)
• Advocate for police change, such as governance over charter school and, more broadly, changes to Prop. 39. Road trip to Sac-town!
• Promote LASD education and bring attention to all that is good in our schools and reject false memes. What if we made an amazing video of our families at all the LASD schools?!

I imagine we need to start getting groups together and reach out to other schools in a more coordinated effort. Again, I’m one person and I’d love to have a little group to figure out what we should do in terms of tractable work. Time is of the essence, as we only have a couple of weeks before the next milestone where BCS responds. 

Find updates and resources at peipei.pollmann.net/prop39.