May 22, 2015
Concord Pioneer • www.concordpioneer.com
Page 5
CV Charter tensions spike with MDUSD board president letter, teacher rep resignations JAY BEDECARRÉ Concord Pioneer
Mt. Diablo Unified School District board president Cheryl Hansen thrust herself into the middle of the yearlong Clayton Valley Charter High School controversy when she sent a letter and two emails to the Contra Costa County Office of Education recently urging the county to revoke the charter and immediately return Clayton Valley to MDUSD because of “incompetent, corrupt and dysfunctional” administration and board. Hansen said she was writing as a “long-time public educator and Clayton resident,” yet signed her Feb. 25 letter as President, Mt. Diablo United School Board. Clayton Valley was granted charter school status for the 2012-13 school year after charter leaders went to the county when the MDUSD board refused to approve their charter application. Hansen points out she was the only Mt. Diablo district board member to vote in favor of the CVCHS proposal in 2011. Her letter said the school’s leadership "has become so corrupt and dysfunctional that the only way to end the toxicity and restore a positive educational
system is revocation of the charter." She added, “Mt. Diablo Unified is ready to step in immediateMDUSD BOARD ly to provide PRESIDENT CHERYL HANSEN students with clear, meaningful educational opportunities and to restore trust and functionality to the Clayton Valley school community." Following the discovery of Hansen’s February letter and March emails to the county through a Public Records Act request, attorney Kristopher Carpenter of Young, Minney and Corr said Hansen was breaking MDUSD board policies in sending the letter and emails to the CCCOE, which is in the midst of investigating a series of complaints sent to them by individuals dissatisfied with the charter school’s leadership. Hansen was first pulled into the charter school controversy when her “romantic partner” Bud Beemer, a retired school principal and Clayton Valley alumnus, was ruled as having real and potential conflicts of interest when he was applying for a CVCHS governing board position.
Carpenter says Hansen was using the weight of her office “to support your personal position.” He then outlined in a three-page letter the “legal and ethical boundaries you have crossed in sending communications on behalf of MDUSD to the County Board and Superintendent.” He goes on to say “your attempts to sway the CCCOE’s investigation have violated MDUSD Board policy, and may have even violated law.” The school counsel finished by saying “what is made exceedingly clear by your actions is that detractors of CVCHS are willing to utilize any resource, even those violative of law and policy, to impair the success of the school in furtherance of their own personal agenda.” In a formal statement, the school’s executive director, David Linzey, said “We find this letter, which advocates revocation of our high-performing charter school, very troubling. It certainly demands answers as to why Cheryl Hansen would use her official title as Board President and District resources to influence an on-going investigation and to reassure our authorizer that MDUSD is ‘ready to step in immediately’ to take over our school. We are concerned as to whether MDUSD has taken any official action to actively
take over our school for their own financial gain.” In a statement she read at the May 4 MDUSD board meeting, Hansen insisted she wrote the letter as a private citizen exercising her constitutional right to free speech. In November the county trustees unanimously gave Clayton Valley its maximum charter reauthorization through 2020
SCHISM WIDENS Adding more intensity to the conflict between faculty and administration, both teacher representatives on the CVCHS governing board resigned last week. Amber Lineweaver and Dana Tarantino abruptly quit at the May board meeting the same evening Mike Fine was elected to fill a member-at-large vacancy. Tarantino said that fewer than 40 percent of the teachers who signed the original charter petition several years ago are still on the faculty. Lineweaver’s departure followed a tumultuous year for her. Board members had given her a vote of “no confidence” last fall for her actions in the removal of administrator Pat Middendorf 12 months ago. Then early this year CVCHS executive director David Linzey removed Lineweaver from her position as the school’s athletic director.
also been downloaded to his Concord residence, according to the release. Kasper is well-known in Concord as the emcee of the Concord July 4 celebration at Todos Santos Plaza. He is a past president of the Greater Concord Chamber of Commerce and served as president of the Mt. Diablo Health Care District
board in 2012. According to his website, Kasper is a professional public speaker and business consultant. He is free on $20,000 bail. “It’s a shocking thing. Tough to believe,” said Concord Planning Commissioner Tim McGallian, who is also President of the Todos Santos Business Association Arts
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Foundation. He also said Kasper was lined up to emcee this year’s July 4 event and will be replaced. Police ask anyone with additional information to call Detective Krista Sansen at (925) 6035876. Anyone wishing to remain anonymous can call the Concord Police Department Tipline at (925) 603-5836.
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How much do you know about Concord’s streets?
EDI BIRSAN PULSE OF CONCORD Has Concord lost a Fourth Street? How many street names are at the Four Corners? And is there really a grove of Oaks on Oak Grove? In the course of walking through the streets of Concord there are some interesting oddities. Take this short quiz and see how much trivia you know about our local street names.
Answers 1. There is no Fourth Street currently. In fact the 1908 map of the city at City Hall shows Fourth AVENUE just east of Parkside but it was filled in for the housing developments. 2. West Street (which used to be an airport runway) runs north-south. 3. Relative to each other: West Street is EAST of East Street and East Street is WEST of West Street.
6. Willow Pass is a dividing line between Sixth Street and North Sixth Street. Which way does North Fifth Street go from Willow Pass Road? 7. Monument Blvd. was called Monument Blvd. before the World War 1 monument was built in Pleasant Hill. What monument was the street named after? 8. How many different street names are there at the Four Corners? (*Hint: It is in the Monument Corridor) 9. Is there a grove of Oaks on Oak Grove in Concord? 10. Name a street that begins with the word The in Concord? 11. Name a street that does not have Street/Avenue/ D r ive / Ro a d / Ya r d / C o u r t / Place/Boulevard/Way or something equivalent after its
4. Colfax between Clayton Road and Concord Blvd. has the traffic going opposite to American standard. 5. Colfax was the Vice President under President Grant. 6. North Fifth Street goes SOUTH from Willow Pass, opposite thinking from Sixth Street. To make it more weird, there is a South Fifth Street but there is no actual Fifth Street connecting them. Developers’ priorities may have played a role in that.
7. Monument was named after the ground survey monuments that were used for marking out land ownership, none of which remain. 8. There are three names: Monument Blvd, and then Meadow Lane, which turns into Oak Grove as it crosses Monument. 9. There only grove of oaks on Oak Grove is in Walnut Creek as you approach Ygnacio. HOWEVER, on Arbor Day 2013 the City planted two Oak Trees at the Ygnacio Valley Neighborhood Park by
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1. We have Second, Third, and Fifth and Sixth Streets running into Willow Pass Road. Where is Fourth Street? 2. East Street goes east to west. What direction does West Street go? What was it? 3. Relative to each other what is odd about East and West Street? 4. In England they drive on the left side of the street. In America we drive on the right side of the street EXCEPT for one street in Concord where it is done the English way. Where is that? (*Hint: they had to build a low wall to stop people from crashing head on.) 5. Galindo and Pacheco streets were named after founding families of the city. What is the historic relationship between Grant and Colfax streets that are parallel to each other?
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Concord man arrested for child porn A prominent civic leader was arrested on May 7 on child pornography charges. According to a press release from Concord police, Jeffrey Kasper, 52, is accused of illegally downloading and sharing child pornography. A search of his home also established that digital videos depicting children engaged in sexual activity had
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proper name and borders Clayton Road in two different places? (Hint: See question 10) 12. What is the name of a park that has a foreign country in its name? 13. In the States Streets area (South East of Ygnacio Valley Road and Clayton Rd) which of these States are missing: Texas, California, Tennessee, Virginia? 14. North Fifth Street and Fifth Street connect where? 15. What street connects to itself in a three-way intersection with it going off in all three directions? (Hint: It is by Mt. Diablo High School.) The answers are in the gray box below. Send comments to EdiBirsan@astound.net, or visit www.PulseOfConcord.com.
Oak Grove. So maybe in a few more Arbor Days…we can dream. 10. It is named after a racetrack: The Alameda. 11. The Alameda has no designation after Alameda. 12. Brazil Quarry Park has the name of a foreign country in it. 13. All of them are missing. 14. Nowhere. They don’t connect. 15. Grant Street.
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