Out-of-District
Out-of-District Registrations and Enrollment
This article examines out-of-district lottery registrations and actual out-of-district student enrollment for Bullis Charter School based on available public records. It also explores the charter school’s possible motivations for continuing to recruit large numbers of out-of-district publications when these applicants are “practically ineligible” for admission.
Summary
Although the BCS Board has chosen not to routinely disclose the home district of the students registering for its admissions lottery, the registrations accepted and the students enrolled there have been periodic disclosures which, when stitched together, suggest the following:
Out-of-district lottery registrations are approximately 33% to over 50% of all registrations
Annually, out-of-district applicants are “practically ineligible” for selection in the lottery as admission priorities severely limit out-of-district enrollment to 1% to 2%
Cumulative out-of-district enrollments are approximately 5% of the student body
BCS receives ~$8,000 funding from LASD for each out-of-district student as follows:
~$8,000 funding from LASD to BCS for each out-of district student
~$3,000 of this is reimbursed to LASD from other districts or the state
The remainder, ~$5,000, comes from in-district LASD student funding, which is redeployed to BCS for each out-of-district student
The 2019-20 BCS facilities request indicates LASD transfers approximately $235,000 to BCS for 47 out-of-district students. These funds were no longer available to support in-district LASD students.
BCS has concentrated enrollment of out-of-district students in the 7th and 8th grades, in an effort to fill-in for under-enrollment of in-district 7th & 8th grade students. In the 2019-20 facilities request, approximately $135,000 (of the $235,000) was to fund out-of-district students recruited by BCS to fill in for under enrollment of in-district 7th & 8th grade students.
Out-of-district students are not provided facilities by LASD (per Proposition 39), although BCS leadership seems to have found ways to:
Forecast higher in-district enrollment and then recruit out-of-district students to fill the in-district enrollments that are below forecast, particularly for the 7th and 8th grade classes.
Increase class sizes.
The 47 out-of-district students required the one-time deployment of approximately $400,000 (preparation and installation of two portable classrooms) and an annual lease expense of $20,000 per year.
Why has the BCS Board devoted resources to consistently recruiting, reviewing and managing so many out-of-district applications when so few are admitted?
There are number of potential reasons:
A Tool to Manage and Build Perceptions, including:
Perception of Regulatory Compliance
Perception of Scarcity
Perception of a Failure of LASD
Perception contributing to building the BCS “Brand”
Negotiation Leverage for Facilities
A Precursor to a Broader Strategy:
Does the BCS Board have aspirations to increase the ratio of out-of-district enrollment in LASD facilities?
Control a LASD campus, and then lock-in perpetual use, by having BCS Foundation fund facilities investments.
Form multiple legal entities, in various school districts, which could be merged to create a combined race, ethnicity and economic profile which might satisfy the legal expectations set forth in the charter act.
Detailed Discussion and Analysis
BCS seems to get 1/3 to over 1/2 of their applications from out-of-district
The lack of routine public disclosure necessitates stitching together periodic public disclosures.
An examination of related public data begins with two BCS filings with the Santa Clara County Office of Education (SCCOE). BCS disclosed in SSCOE petitions the following information on out-of-district registrations.
By January 27, 2008, applying "students came from twenty-four (24) different school districts, seven (7) surrounding towns, and one hundred thirty-five (135) schools both public and private." (page 80 of the 9-24-18 Material Revision Request). These BCS figures suggest that approximately 34% (135 divided by 394 applications) are from outside of the LASD district.
The August 4, 2011 Renewal Petition states "Applying students come to us from twenty-six (26) different school districts, twenty-two (22) nearby towns, and over two hundred and twenty (220) schools both public and private." (page 5). These BCS figures suggest that approximately 32% (220 divided by 680 applications) are from outside of the LASD district.
These two data points suggest out-of-district applications of are approximately 1/3 of total applications.
Two set of facilities requests (2011 & 2018) also contained projected out-of-district enrollment by grade and by home district. The 2011 request also projected approximately 1/3 of total applications from out of district. The 2018 request indicate that 590, or 55%, of the applications were from out of district.
The out-of-district applicants are “practically ineligible” for selection in the lottery
These out-of-district registrations were not aligned with a focus on admitting LASD students, and they are the lowest priority applicants. These out-of-district students have a low single-digit probability of enrollment and are “practically ineligible” participants in the lottery.
The California Charter Act requires two provisions, which are hopefully used to work in a coordinated manner to support the goals of the act. BCS has evolved these two goal statements at least five times.
WHOM THE SCHOOL IS ATTEMPTING TO EDUCATE. The stated goal during the time of these filings was: The School seeks to educate all students in the state of California who wish to attend the School subject only to capacity, with a focus on serving students of the Los Altos Elementary School District. The school seeks to preserve a neighborhood school environment, serving kindergarten through eighth grade students."
ADMISSION REQUIREMENTS. Currently, the web site indicates there are seven admission priorities. The first four priorities focus on siblings of existing students who reside in LASD, a geographic preference inside LASD, children of BCS staff members who reside inside LASD, and then all LASD students. The 5th and 6th priorities focus on siblings of existing students and children of BCS staff members who do not reside in LASD. Finally, the 7th priority is all other applicants who reside within California.
Out-of-district enrollment at BCS is approximately 5%
Although out-of-district registrations/applications are ~33% to over 50% of total applications, only approximately 5% of the enrollees are from out-of-district.
Out-of-district students receive annual educational funding from LASD but no facilities
The BCS Board has conflicting incentives related to admitting out-of- district students.
A positive incentive is ~$8,000 annual funding for serving out-of-district students. The gross expense to LASD for each of these students is ~$8,000 and the average net expense for the district is ~$5,000 per student
A negative incentive is the lack of facilities. Prop 39 does not provide facilities for out-of-district students.
These conflicting incentives have served as a check-and-balance on how many out-of-district students BCS might serve.
Why so many out-of-district applications?
Why has the BCS Board devoted resources to consistently recruiting, reviewing and managing so many out-of-district applications? The magnitude and consistency of the practice is curious since recruiting hundreds of effectively “ineligible” out-of-district applicants would not seem to be consistent with the need to recruit and serve students from LASD who reflect the community.
There are a number of hypotheses that have been discussed:
A TOOL TO MANAGE PERCEPTIONS:
Regulatory Requirement - The perception the lottery pool (vs. the actual admissions) reflects the racial and ethnic balance in LASD. Potentially, the racial, ethnic and economic profiles of the in-district applications in the “realistically eligible” lottery pool did not meet the racial and ethnic balance of LASD. Potentially, an over-applied lottery pool, using out-of-district applicants, better reflected the racial and ethnic balance in LASD. A frequently mentioned comment by BCS leadership, which to some people has the aura of deflection and diversion, “We have an open lottery and we do not determine who applies.”
Perception of Scarcity – The perception of scarcity influences many behaviors (e.g. demand spikes for consumer products which are in limited supply, collectors bid-up prices of scarce objects, colleges advertise their application to admission rates to enhance the desirability of a university, and parents may perceive value in a school which limits the number students and has requirements for admission).
Perception of Failure of LASD - Potentially the BCS Board wanted to create the perception that LASD is not meeting the needs of many families/students?
“Brand” Image - Nurture a regional “Brand” which helps insulate the BCS Board from the mandatory actions related to compliance concerns.
NEGOTIATION LEVERAGE:
Threaten LASD with the potential for growth to gain leverage in facilities or funding.
A PRECURSOR TO A BROADER STRATEGY
A precursor to a strategy to significantly expand the out-of-district enrollment. Why does BCS state in its charter petition that “it seeks to educate all students in the state of California who wish to attend the school, subject only to capacity”? Does the BCS Board, as a part of the California charter movement, have aspirations to increase the ratio of out-of-district enrollment in LASD facilities? Is this an incremental step in efforts to privatize public education?
One twist on this hypothesis is the need to invest in physical assets for the benefit of out-of-district students, who are not offered facilities under Proposition 39. One potential strategy to pursue to achieve this goal might be, force a neighborhood school to close, and dedicate the former neighborhood campus to BCS. The BCS foundation has over $6,000,000 available. Although LASD is not required to fund facilities for out-of-district students, what would occur if BCS decided to fund additional facilities on the campus? Potentially, the BCS Foundation might choose to make improvements to the dedicated campus, although it is publicly owned by LASD.
For example, since each portable cost is ~$200,000 to install and ~$100,000 to lease for 10 years ($200,000 plus $100,000 = $300,000), could BCS decide to deploy a portion, in this example, half of its investments ($3,000,000) and install 10 additional portables, allowing the admission of 210 to 260 out-of-district students?
At the end of a multi-year facility use agreement, what long-term options would the LASD Board have? Would LASD be required to provide facilities to both in-district students and several hundred out-of-district students? Was this the intent of Proposition 39?
Speculating five years into the future, would a physical neighborhood which had been denied their local neighborhood school, instead host a “community” of in-district and out-of-district commuters, who if current practices continue, would not reflect the rest of racial, ethnicity or economic status of LASD?
In this speculative example, LASD’s budget for in-district students would be reduced by ~$5,000 for each off the additional out-of-district students. 210 to 260 out-of-district students would reduce the LASD in-district student funding by $1,050,000 to $1,300,000 per year.
Another twist might be to form multiple legal entities, in various school districts, which could be merged to create a combined race, ethnicity and economic profile which might satisfy the legal expectations set forth in the charter act.
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