I'm curious - does the District have to supply the space in Menlo Park or can it supply space elsewhere?

[Post removed. Editor's note: Carol Cunningham said the school is not seeking funding from the Chinese government.]

According to a recently published report of findings by the MPCSD board, there are only 44 in district students who are eligible to attend the MMICS (NOT 84). The report also outlines that there are only 14 eligible students from outside the district, so the charter at 58 students total will not even meet MMICS required 100 students to enroll. This finding was only one of many outlined short-comings of the petition in the report. I believe this fact renders the filing for facilities and Prop 39 by MMICS to be invalid.

The board summarized in a 56 page report, with "The leadership team has concluded that the petition to form MMICS does NOT appear to contain a reasonably comprehensive description and does NOT appear to be demonstrably likely to succeed in the following areas: curriculum, STEAM, special education, class schedule, professional development, assessment methods, governance by BALIS, charter school principal, charter school administration, staffing ratio, recruiting of teachers, sufficient staffing for child safety, creating racial and ethnic balance, meeting enrollment growth targets, properly calculating funding, and sufficient budgets. Aren't these all the key areas of quality 21st century education?

WE thank and greatly appreciate the efforts of MPCSD board members, however it is very unfortunate that the district has had to spend so much time, energy and cost on a petition that has many failings and very little merit. Our in district children need NOT to have more resources taken from them. This charter petition needs to be denied.

If you feel strongly in support our MPCSD board and wish to show your support of these findings, there is a very important meeting on Wednesday, Nov 12 at 6:30, Encinal Multi Purpose room for public comment and final vote on whether to accept or deny the charter school. In order to help prevent an appeal of this decision to deny the petition, we kindly ask that you participate in this petition against the charter, Sign & Share Petition Against Proposed Charter School: Web Link

I wish all parties well in these discussions. For a look at how contentious the "reasonably equivalent" issue can become, look no farther than your neighboring community, Los Altos. Multi-year, multi-million dollar lawsuits have been filed back and forth between Los Altos School District and Bullis Charter School over the question of "reasonably equivalent". The Los Altos issue is complicated by the fact that Bullis Charter is chartered by the County of Santa Clara, and not Los Altos School District, but nonetheless, this is an example of the difficulties that can arise.

The question of "outside the district" arose in Los Altos as well.

I find it amazing that this law allows a charter proposal (not even school yet) demand facilities from the district on 9 months notice.

Having been through the chaos with the German American International School over the past couple of years, it is clear that acquiring school property and getting through the extensive entitlement process is a multi year process for private schools. How is this (or any other) charter entitled to such an 'on demand' process.

For those unable to attend the meeting of the District's Board on Wednesday, November 12th at 6:30 p.m. in Encinal School's Multi-Use Room at 195 Encinal Avenue in Atherton, you can email your comments to the individual MPCSD School Board Members and School Superintendent, as follows:

MPCSD BOARD MEMBERS:
jlambert@mpcsd.org
mhilton@mpcsd.org
jchild@mpcsd.org
shinshaw@mpcsd.org
tthygesen@mpcsd.org

MPCSD SUPERINTENDENT:
mghysels@mpcsd.org