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November 11, 2011
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MDUSD rejects charter school petition deNiSeN HarTlove Clayton Pioneer
After months of passionate preparation and pushback by both sides, on Tuesday night the Mt. Diablo Unified School District Board of Education
rejected the petition to convert Clayton Valley High School to a charter school, saying the financial documents submitted by the charter petitioners didn’t meet all the conditions set by the board in the conditional approval granted in September.
District Associate Counsel Deborah Cooksey described the petitioners as tireless and responsive to the district’s requests for information starting June 8, when the original petition was submitted. Petitioners and district staff were still trading num-
bers and negotiating the Friday before Tuesday’s meeting. In the resolution to deny the petition, completed only hours before the meeting, the district said there were overstatements by the petitioners of the charter’s revenues and questioned some of
the cost assumptions. “Part of the problem has to do with the ongoing structural problem the state has with its finances and the effects on its schools and districts, and they’re not fully incorporating that into their plan,” said district
CFO Bryan Richards. At the meeting, parents, teachers and students, about evenly divided for and against the charter, spoke persuasively, recited poetry and even sang in
See Charter, page 9
Local barn owls to get new homes Owl boxes are an environmentally friendly way to combat rodents DavE ShuEy
Peggy SPear Clayton Pioneer
mayOr’s COrner
Bits and pieces from City Hall The City Council has unanimously endorsed and accepted the generous offer of the Hoyer family to donate a flagpole in honor of Clayton’s first lady, Eldora Hoyer, to be placed in our beautiful downtown park. As you know, Bob and Eldora were key players in incorporating Clayton in 1964, were our first Mayor and first lady and kept active in supporting the City throughout the years, including donating the flagpole that sits outside of City Hall currently. Bob was also on the committee that designed the
See Mayor, page 6
Fairness Coalition leader appointed to fire board Tamara STeiNer Clayton Pioneer
When East Contra Costa Fire Protection District threatened to shutter the Marsh Creek Sunshine Fire Station in 2010 for six months of the year to save $366,000, Cheryl Morgan cried “foul.” She called the Marsh Creek and Morgan Territory neighbors to action and the East Diablo Fairness Coalition was born. The district reversed its decision and renewed the needed contract with CalFire to assure the station continued to operate year around. Last month Morgan was
See Fire Board, page 13
Tamara Steiner/Clayton Pioneer
mitChell CanyOn neighbOrs, native wild bird enthusiasts and Cemex Quarry are teaming up to provide a solution for homeless barn owls. Cemex workers Matt Griffin and Mike Jacobsen complete the installation of one of several new owl boxes installed on the Cemex property at the end of Mitchell Canyon Road.
If you build it, they will come. At least that’s what a unique coalition of Mitchell Canyon neighbors, Cemex Quarry employees and native bird enthusiasts are hoping for as they install owl boxes – sort of like condos for barn owls – on the rural quarry lands west of Clayton. The boxes are the answer to the barn owl population’s housing crisis. As more and more development spreads across the area and older barns and other structures are torn down, barn owls are finding themselves homeless. Temporary digs in palms and other trees can blow away with a big gust of wind. And if the barn owls move out, rats and other rodents move in.
See Owls, page 18
Chuck Evans: Clearly a Clayton original Longtime civic leader still looks to city’s future Pamela WieSeNdaNger Clayton Pioneer
Downtown Clayton still feels like the Old West with hitching posts near paved parking spaces, frontier-style architecture and 27 miles of trails that meander along creeks and snake up into Mt. Diablo State Park. All of this can be traced to the city’s General Plan, originally completed in 1971 and considered by 47-year resident Chuck Evans to be one of his most notable civic contributions. Evans, now 85, carefully touches the worn, spiral-bound plan filled with black and white photos. No such document existed, he says, when the city incorporated in 1964. “It’s a dream come true,” Evans says, that the current plan
What’s Inside Around Town . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 Book Review . . . . . . . . . . . .16
reflects the same goals as the original. Shaping Clayton Over nearly five decades, Evans has been on the planning commission, the city council and served as mayor and citizen advisor on transportation committees. Evans recalls his time on the planning commission developing the early stages of the General Plan, helping decide what Clayton wanted – and what it didn’t want. He chuckles as he reveals a map showing a freeway alongside Kirker Pass Road. One feature in the plan that did not change over time was having a town center. Residents named Clayton’s “small town and village environment” as one of the main reasons for living there. “The trails are really important to maintaining that rural feeling,” Evans says. Bob Hoyer, Clayton’s first mayor, encouraged Evans to be
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a council member. “Chuck was always very positive towards planning,” he says of his longtime friend. Clayton council member Julie Pierce agrees. “As an early council member, he was part of the team that made sure we had strategic, not rampant, growth,” another goal of the plan. Maintaining pride in Clayton is also an ongoing goal of the plan. As mayor, Evans led Clayton in its recognition as a national bicentennial community by the American Revolution Bicentennial Administration in Washington D.C. “It was a really exciting time,” Evans says. “It involved the entire community.” EvanS’ Early DayS Evans’ involvement in civic duty was a natural choice. He was born in the state capitol of Sacramento in 1926.
See Evans, page 6
Fit with Levity . . . . . . . . . . . . .9 Food for Thought . . . . . . . . .18 From the Chief . . . . . . . . . . . .7 Garden Girl . . . . . . . . . . . . .17 Holiday Guide ..........15
One Of ClaytOn’s Original general Plan framers, Chuck Evans still likes nothing more than spreading out his maps and notes and talking about planning in Clayton’s early days. Letters to the Editor . . . . . . . .7 Mind Matters . . . . . . . . . . . .17 Obituary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 Pets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13 Real Estate . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9
Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10 Sports Shorts . . . . . . . . . . . .11 Teen Speak . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8 Theatre . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16 Travel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4
PRSRT STD US POSTAGE PAID CLAYTON, CA PERMIT 190