New charter school could land at Mills: Design Tech High School previously wanted to end up in Burlingame

“Burlingame is a built-out site,” said Liz McManus, deputy superintendent of business services. “There’s a bubble going through the Burlingame Elementary School District. We have to look at our long-term projections with our capacity. In the 2014-15 school year it will flow into our schools and continue to grow for the next 15 years. We don’t anticipate the growth pattern to be as strong at Mills and it’s a beautiful campus.”

Meanwhile, Ken Montgomery, the school’s director and current assistant principal at Capuchino High School, said the school has not officially accepted the offer at this time, but there is a very strong likelihood that it will be located at Mills.

“We continue to have a very collaborative relationship with the [district] and share a common mission of more quality schools for [district] students,” he said in an email to the Daily Journal. “At this time our board has not yet reviewed the most recent [district] offer.”

The 520-student school will open with a freshmen class in August, then add on classes each year following. The educational model of the school emphasizes “knowledge in action and extreme personalization.” The school contended that a majority of the school’s students will reside in the Burlingame High school attendance area, so that is the appropriate comparison school.

“Given the geographical complexity of such an analysis, which your submission does not show was undertaken merely in determining that ‘a majority of students would otherwise attend Burlingame High School,’ we continue to believe the entirety of the comprehensive high schools is the appropriate comparison group for this purpose," according to the letter approved by the district and signed by Superintendent Scott Laurence last week.

Proposition 39, passed by California voters in 2000, requires districts to make “reasonably equivalent” facilities available to charters. Mills also contains eating facilities, a gymnasium, a library, a courtyard, a theater, playing fields, equipped science classrooms and administrative and teacher lounge space. School districts are allowed to charge charter schools for use of district facilities under Proposition 39. In its preliminary proposal, the district declined to charge a per-square-foot pro rata share of facilities costs for this facility, and instead offered to provide the facilities substantially rent free in order to instead recoup the cost of supervisorial oversight, not to exceed 3 percent of the revenue of the charter school pursuant to section 47613(b) of the California Education Code.

“Please advise me immediately if you secure facilities other than those offered at Mills High School,” Laurence wrote in the letter. “I will bring before the board any request you might have for an exchange of facilities use costs in lieu of the use of the Mills High School facility offered herein.”

School board members are enthusiastic about the new school.

“I think complies with district’s Prop. 39 obligations,” said Trustee Peter Hanley. “I’m excited about the high school. They’re offering to bring something that’s innovative and new to the district. It’s an additional choice for parents to access in this community and it will be exciting to see it develop over the next few years.”

In July 2013, Design Tech received $100,000 in planning grant funding from Next Generation Learning Challenges for help with costs associated with opening the new high school.

For more information visit designtechhighschool.org.

angela@smdailyjournal.com

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