Public Comment

I object to spending $5 million in Berkeley taxpayer bond revenues to provide facilities for students that may not even live in Berkeley while our own BUSD high school students lack sufficient classrooms. On June 29th you will be asked by BUSD officials to approve an agreement with REALM Charter School to fund their classrooms. Act responsibly to Berkeley taxpayers and students and vote NO. 

The costs of designing and building classroom facilities for the REALM Charter School at West Campus are proposed to be paid for out of the Measure AA bond fund. When the school board approved the REALM charter application, NO mention was made of asking Berkeley taxpayers to foot the bill for their facilities. California charter schools are legally required to admit any California resident. Students who are not Berkeley residents are free to apply and attend the REALM charter school. If approved, the school board is not meeting its commitments to Berkeley taxpayers in terms of transparency or accountability. 

Specifically, --The Measure AA bond measure of 2000 ($116.5 million) NEVER mentioned building a charter school as one of its intended uses. 

--Measure AA promised classrooms at BHS that never materialized. Instead taxpayers got a "state-of-the-art" transportation facility for $10 mil and a $25 mil rebuild of West Campus for administrators. 

--Bond Measures A and AA combined were supposed to assure seismic safety for all BUSD students. We have been told that our schools have been retrofitted to meet post Loma Prieta earthquake standards by the District, yet NONE have received Field Act certification. 

--Measure AA has NEVER had any regular citizen oversight NOR any annual financial audits, contrary to representations by BUSD officials. 

As a taxpayer, I don't want to support a half-baked charter school proposal that won't even serve Berkeley students. Check out the corruption and fraud with charter schools in Philadelphia due to lack of adequate oversight. (Investigating Charter Schools Fraud in Philadelphia http://www.npr.org/2011/06/27/137444337/what-happens-when-charter-schools-fail?ft=1&f=13) 

How about spending Berkeley taxpayer money (both bond and parcel tax revenues) solving BUSD's chronic problems with adequate, safe facilities and low student achievement? In tough economic times, let's focus our resources on BUSD students first.