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Concord Pioneer • www.concordpioneer.com
December 19, 2014
SCHOOLS Concord High CHS offers 12 Days of Happiness
Azeema Yahya CONCORD HIGH CORRESPONDENT
Ygnacio Valley we covered all the mirrors at our school and told our student body to celebrate their inner beauty because true beauty shines through your personality. All these days were focused on making our student’s week better. The Happiness Campaign organizers are glad that they have the chance to make such great
things happen around campus. There’s no better feeling than making someone smile, and with the Happiness Campaign, something as small as a box of a candy can do that. Azeema Yahya is a senior and Codrum Major. She loves music and plans to attend UC Davis in the fall. Send comments to editor@concordpioneer.com.
Stephen Brady
Bond money lights up Ygnacio Valley
YGNACIO VALLEY PRINCIPAL
Rianne Pfalzgraff CHS PRINCIPAL
WEIGHTS TEACHER AND HEAD FOOTBALL COACH BRIAN HAMILTON (left) and government and psychology teacher Jeff Schiebler arm wrestle for a good cause — granting a student’s wish.
December is the month of giving for Concord High School. At our school we have something called the CHS Happiness Campaign. This is where students from Leadership dedicate a few weeks to simply making people happy. On Dec. 4 we started our “12 Days of Wishes.” This is when we try to make as many wishes as we can come true. We’ve been able to grant wishes by giving people candy, watching teachers arm wrestle, and even having the band, “5 Seconds of Summer” serenade a few people. As one of the students in charge of the campaign, Vanessa Martinez mentioned, “It’s the part of making
people happy that makes me happy. It’s one of best activities at Concord High.” Furthermore, the week of Dec. 15 was our “Happiness Week.” Monday was “Hug Me Monday,” where the students gave out hugs to everyone. Then it was “Chocolatte Tuesday” where we gave out free hot chocolate during lunch. Next was “Worry Free Wednesday” where students wrote down all their worries on balloons and then we released them together letting go of all our worries. “Thoughtful Thursday” gave a chance for people to thank one another publically. And lastly, we ended the week with “Feel Good Friday,” where
New facility will serve CHS students
Concord High is very excited to present our new Academic Honor Roll distinctions! Students with a 3.0 – 3.49 will earn their place on the Minutemen Green Honor Roll, a 3.5 – 3.99 the Minutemen Silver Honor Roll, and finally a 4.0 or higher the Minutemen Gold Honor Roll. This quarter proved to be successful, as 818 students proved their commitment to academic excellence. Students will receive an Honor Roll certificate and their names will be posted outside the office in our display cases. The Senior class has proven strong, as 72 students made the Minutemen Gold Honor Roll. These students are: McKenzie Acton, Alejandra Alegria, Jowar Basulto, Peter Bergen, Vandelinda Beri, Danielle Blake, Deekota BrettBlunt, Parker Burr, Monica Camare-
na, Yvonne Cao, Kelsey Clark, Nicholas Colarich, Alia CortezBridges, Mitchell Daniels, Devynn Darner, Jessica Daynes, Kimberly Dell, Philip Dempster, Tiffany Dinh, Jacob Dowd, Natassja Jacklene Esquivel, Ervin Fernandez, Jenna Fitzpatrick, Gabriela Flores Caro, Leah Ford, America Frausto, Justin Furtado, Benjamin Geiser, Terra Gifford, Mariah Gonzalez, Rachel Henry, Cesar Gabriel Higuera Moras, Eric Higuera Ramirez, Sequoia Huerta, Kevin Kruse, Amelia Kubik, Jennifer Lam, Enrique Loza-Vega, Daisy Martinez, Vanessa Martinez, Shelby McCarthy, Jacob Meyer, Isabella Mulford, Jacob Neef, Biviana Ochoa, James Olesen, Dani Pallas, Dylan Parisi, Nathan Pass, Nathan Petersen, Jack Pickard, Jonathan Pluth, Taylor Ramson, Lisa Repetto, Natalya Reynoso, Trever Rivera, Thomas Salvin, Molly Santa Maria, Brevin Schmidt, Alondra Serrano, Jakub Sevcik, Brett Shearer, Nicole Slattengren, Ebonie Smart, Renessa Soriano, Mathew Tara, Faith Veloria, Ernesto Ventura, Brittany von Savoye, Azeeya Yahya and Ning Zheng.
Our premier Art & Science teachers are doing excellent work, presenting professional development. Leslie Addiego, Gary Macaluso, Gioia Stark, Nastasha Robinson, Stephen Brady, and Andrew Hubbell are “representing”! Performing Arts outperformed itself. The music boosters stepped up with wonderful support. They are currently working on a trip to New Orleans. Given Kelly Cooper, Thom Kwiatkowski, Stephen Brady, and Measure C’s Charlie Beirgarten, Tim Cody, and Mitchell Stark, the dance studio, formerly a broken stage floor, is up! Our recent Santa Cruz band trip, guitar concert and districtwide music practice (our Honor Jazz Rehearsal) were celebrations. Our Puente small learning community, facilitated by teachers Kara Yu and Samantha Hopper and administrator Socorro Lomas, toured colleges and universities. including UC Santa Barbara and UCLA. Our firstgeneration college aspirants have bought even more into their education as a result.
Our football teams put many points on the scoreboard and won a number of games. We are honored (again) to have Coach Puentes ensuring our athletes grow as team, have fun, and learn the game. Speaking of fun in learning: our Health Academy, headed by Shannon Carr, recently took a working field trip to John Muir Medical. They met with professionals, learned, and fostered smiles. Our Education Academy, facilitated by Thatcher Palmer, hosted outstanding speakers, including vice principal Thom Kwiatkowski, secondary support administrator Bill Morones, Cheryl Hansen of our Board, and superintendent Dr. Nellie Meyer. SF Giants Brandon Crawford and Wells Fargo presented checks for the KNBR Step Up to the Plate for Education grants program. YVHS’s football team received $5,000. Coach Phillip Puentes, the gogetter in this endeavor, embodies the Warrior spirit! Send comments and questions to editor@concordpioneer.com
Tensions erupt at two recent CVCHS board meetings JAY BEDECARRÉ Concord Pioneer
While academics and athletics are soaring at Clayton Valley Charter High School, bad blood and tensions are running high at the board level, marring the high school’s success. Raucous verbal exchanges and protests marked two recent governing board meetings in the past several weeks between audience, board members and staff, stemming back to an administrative blowup last spring, the firing of the IT Director and this month’s board elections. Acrimony first reached a boiling point on Thanksgiving eve at a special board meeting called to consider the termination of school IT director Matt Rosso due to his actions following the firing of administrator and charter leader Pat Middendorf. At the hastily called meeting in
the school library on Thanksgiving eve to deal with the Rosso matter, there were emotional outbursts by speakers and members of the audience supporting Rosso. FIRING OF IT DIRECTOR The charges against Rosso, a 10-year classified employee, revolved around his actions following the termination of Middendorf last May. Linzey instructed Rosso to secure and archive all of Middendorf ’s emails on the school system in anticipation of potential litigation following her termination. He was instructed to do this in confidence but eventually told both Middendorf and then board president Tom Branich. Rosso was terminated by the board after a closed session review of the charges. At the December meeting there were about 50 audience members dressed primarily in black and many carrying signs
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from the California Teachers Association lining the back of the school’s small gym behind the audience of community members, teachers and students. During the three and a half hour session there were a number of outbursts from audience members, a couple of standing ovations for speakers and cries of “shame on you” when board actions didn’t meet with audience approval. As he had done at the regular November board meeting Executive Director Dave Linzey, at whom much of the anger was directed, made a statement defending his administration. He said that benefits and salaries have increased approximately 20 percent for all CVCHS teachers and certificated staff since turning into a charter — the largest increase in the county — and their new collective bargaining agreement has significant protections for teachers and staff.
He stated that in the 30 months of Clayton Valley Charter an average of 1 percent of the staff has been disciplined and not a single tenured teacher or permanent classified staff member has been terminated by the board. Management staffers Middendorf and Rosso are the only permanent employees who have been fired. BOARD ELECTIONS At that meeting, board members Ted Meriam and Megan Kommer were each re-elected to two-year terms by the board with teacher representatives Christine Reimer and Amber Lineweaver dissenting. Diane Bailey was returned to the board as the classified staff rep after her only challenger, Rosso, was fired and thus no longer on the ballot. Chemistry teacher Victoria Campbell was elected as a teacher representative by her fellow faculty members. She replaces Reimer who chose not to run for the seat
she had been appointed to last spring. Jim Killoran, a 26-year Chevron employee, was elected from a slate of four candidates for the one-year community member-at-large seat. But the retired teacher post remained unfilled, due to more controversy. Retired teacher Dick Ellis recently stepped aside as a candidate for a new term. The 83year-old former teacher at the school faced a challenge from retired school principal and teacher Bud Beemer, who was a student while Ellis was teaching at Clayton Valley. Ellis said he dedicated three years to the board for “doing the right thing” and feels that “because of all of the things going on, I withdrew my application to run.” A couple audience members had verbally challenged Ellis at the Thanksgiving eve board meeting. However, the night before
last week’s meeting, outside counsel Paul Minney determined that Beemer was not eligible to sit on the board because of two apparent conflicts of interest. Beemer is the paid commissioner of the Bay Valley Athletic League, currently projected as the new home of CVCHS athletic teams starting in 2016-17. He also has a “romantic relationship” with MDUSD School Board member Cheryl Hansen. CVCHS rents its facilities from MDUSD and thus there is the potential for a conflict, said Minney, who concluded “the appointment of Bud Beemer…would create an impermissible conflict of interest and would constitute an incompatible office with his current office of Commissioner of the BVAL.” The board put off taking any action on the retired teacher position until January.
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