BCS Appeal of Lawsuit

Yesterday after the Charter School Summit, I was chatting with a neighbor about the BCS appeal of the Nov ruling from Judge Kleinberg. You'll recall that the Judge ruled in favor of the district on all but one count. In a 28 page ruling, the Judge took pains to point out that "to the extent that some of the [BCS] supporters cannot reconcile themselves to the policy decisions made by elected bodies such as a school district board their energies might be better directed at the ballot box than the courthouse."

Despite this unambiguous direction, the Charter School has chosen to appeal the ruling. I find this disappointing. It will force the District to spend yet more money to defend what the courts have already ruled on -- that the district has complied with our legal obligation to provide "reasonably equivalent facilities" to BCS.

I have mentioned that I've reached out to BCS Board members. I have been polite but firm with my own personal thoughts on this matter. That is, since the courts have already ruled (4 times!) that the district is in compliance with Prop 39, litigating this further is a waste of taxpayer money. To the extent that they'd like to get something better than facilities that the courts have already ruled are "reasonably equivalent", litigating with us isn't the way to reach that goal.