Bullis Charter School v. Los Altos School District

The Legislature in 1992 enacted the Charter Schools Act of 1992 (Ed. Code, § 47600 et seq.; the Act). 1 Eight years later, the California electorate amended the Act by adopting Proposition 39. Under that amendment, school districts must provide to charter schools established within their jurisdiction school facilities with “conditions reasonably equivalent to those in which the [charter school] students would be accommodated if they were attending other public schools of the district.” (§ 47614, subd. (b).) This case explores the practical meaning of this reasonable equivalence mandate.

Bullís Charter School filed a petition for writ of mandamus and a complaint alleging that the Los Altos School District (District) had violated the Act, as amended, by failing to offer and provide Bullís with facilities for the 2009-2010 school year that were reasonably equivalent to other public schools in the District. The District prevailed and Bullís challenges the *1030 court’s ruling here. Bullís argues that the District’s offer of facilities was deficient, inter alia, because the District significantly understated the non-classroom space available to District-run schools in the…