-PDBM/FXT BULLIS
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has become entrepreneurial and aggressive,” she said. “It is part of a privatization movement. This is very bad for our society.” “This notion that the money somehow belongs to the school district is a very warped perspective,” said Eric Premack, executive director of the Charter Schools Development Center, which supports charter schools around the country, and especially in California. People become upset when they believe that charter schools are “stealing” money from public school districts, Premack said. “It’s not the school district’s money,” he said. “It’s the public’s money.” In his view, that money should be able to follow the students. Bullis is open to any student in the state, said Moore. Bullis is prohibited by law from charging tuition or creating selective criteria that might favor one group of students over another, it must participate in standardized state testing just like any other public school, and, unlike public schools, charters face a review process every five years where they can be denied renewal. “There is no perfect school and there is no perfect school system,” Moore said. In addition to the charter school’s review process, “If you don’t provide something the public wants you will go out of business. That is unlike a school district, which runs in perpetuity.” Charter schools, in Moore’s opinion, are meant to provide an alternative to the generationsold public school system — challenging the status quo in order to encourage change for the better. The high court’s decision was the last in a series of judicial rulings stretching back to November 2009, when the Santa Clara County Superior Court initially rejected Bullis’ claim that the LASD had violated a state law, which mandates that school districts share land, facilities and other resources with charter schools established within their boundaries. Bullis believed that the district had incorrectly calculated the correct proportion of resources that it was required to provide — in money, facilities and space — to the charter school. Bullis appealed, and in October 2011 the California Court of Appeal for the Sixth District reversed the decision of a Santa
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Clara County trial court. The appeals court found that the school district had failed to tally more than 1 million square feet of space that should have been counted when calculating the “reasonably equivalent” share of public school facilities it is required to provide Bullis under the provisions outlined in Proposition 39. Even though the appeals court’s decision was unanimous and written forcefully in favor of Bullis, LASD fought back, asking the state’s Supreme Court to review the case, which it declined to do. While Baier remained upset with the ultimate outcome, he said he has accepted the court’s decision as final. “With this dispute coming to a close,” he said in a district press release, “we look forward to continuing our commitment to providing the opportunity for an outstanding education for all the students residing within the LASD boundaries.” V
HEY TECH
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Sun Microsystems started by selling open architecture workstations that cost less than competing proprietary hardware for applications like circuit design and publishing. In the mid-1980s, headquartered at 2550 Garcia Avenue, Sun had many nearby offices around Charleston, now occupied by Intuit and Google. In 1997, Sun moved its headquarters to a former Ford Aerospace building on the site of Palo Alto’s Jewish Community Center, then to Agnews Developmental Center in Santa Clara. Sun’s former East Menlo Park campus, known locally as “Sun Quentin” is being remodeled for Facebook. By selling servers, storage and software for enterprises and the Internet, Sun grew rapidly. In 2010, Oracle acquired Sun for $7.4 billion, or $5.6 billion net of debt and cash. The revenues to Oracle from hardware alone, with related sup-
port, are about $7 billion. The first talk I heard from Intuit’s founder, Scott Cook, compared Quicken check printing software to an old-fashioned pen and checkbook. Based on Cook’s enthusiasm, in 1987 I bought Quicken for my Mac Plus. For many years, Intuit was in Menlo Park. Then it moved headquarters to 2700 Coast Avenue. From simple accounting to tax planning, Intuit has expanded to also offer software for employee management, data storage and web hosting. For the fiscal year ending July 31, 2012 Intuit expects revenues of over $4 billion. Advances in software tools, online distribution and widespread use of computers and cell phones mean that Google, founded in 1998 out of Stanford, has grown much faster than the companies started in the ‘80s. Google reported preliminary revenues for 2011 of $37.9 billion, up 25 percent on 2010, with net income of $9.7 billion. Google employs about
32,500 people. According to StatCounter (http://gs.statcounter. com), Google’s Chrome browser market share globally grew from 15 percent in December 2010 to 27 percent by December 2011, second only to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, whose share is declining rapidly. In the same period, Android’s mobile operating system market share went from 14 percent to 22 percent globally. With revenue for the last four quarters approaching $500 million, more than double the previous year, and a 2011 initial public offering, can business social networking company LinkedIn become the next Mountain View company worth over $1 billion? Watch their growth as they remodel and fill more office space on Stierlin Court near the Shoreline Amphitheatre. Which Mountain View technology company do you think will make its first $1billion in 2012? Read this article online and comment with your guess. V
Bullis Charter School
2011/12
Inspiring the Individual ™
REGISTRO PARA K-6 Y LOS GRADOS 7-8 DE ESCUELA PRIMARIA Y COLEGIO Excelencia Académica: Escuela distinguida de California Colegiatura gratuita Abierto a cualquier estudiante de California Día escolar más largo Programa de estudios de enriquecimiento personal que incluye arte, drama, música y ciencias
Violins Meet Piano 2/5
Attached 2/8
Violins Meet Piano Chamber Music Concert with Alexander Barantschik, Era Lifschitz and Alona Tsoi A night of classical music by Beethoven, Ravel, Prokofiev and Shnitke.
Sunday, 2/5 at 8:00 PM $25 OFJCC Members and students, $30 Non-Members in advance $35 at the door, space permitting
Authors Amir Levine and Rachel Heller, Attached What’s your attachment style? Explore the science of relationships with this psychiatrist-neuroscientist duo.
Los materiales de inscripción están disponibles en la escuela o en línea. Residentes del distrito de Los Altos tendrán mayor prioridad.
Wednesday, 2/8 at 7:00 PM $10 OFJCC Members, $15 Non-Members in advance $18 at the door, space permitting
Inscripciones se cierran el 3 de febrero del 2012
For more information and to purchase tickets, visit 102 W. PORTOLA A LOS ALTOS, CA 94022 650-947-4939
www.bullischarterschool.com
www.paloaltojcc.org/arts. Oshman Family JCC 3921 Fabian Way | Palo Alto, CA | (650) 223-8700 | www.paloaltojcc.org/arts
AAD
JANUARY 27, 2012 ■ MOUNTAIN VIEW VOICE ■
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