Charter school board turmoil boils over with report findings

The end of the last school year was anything but “normal” at Clayton Valley Charter High School with a controversy that ultimately led to the termination of administrator and governing board member Pat Middendorf. Heated public meetings, allegations against executive director Dave Linzey and charges flying over the internet were followed by the summer break and a successful start to this school year.
Then last week all the wounds were reopened with the announcement that findings from Oracle Investigations Group exonerated Linzey and led to the Sept. 5 resignation of board chairperson Tom Branich over his role in the issues last school year.
In some respects those two matters took a back seat to the board’s actions regarding teacher and board member Amber Lineweaver. The Oracle findings made “material allegations against Lineweaver” which prompted the non-conflicted members of the board (newly-elected chairman Ted Meriam, past chairperson Megan Kommer, retired teacher Dick Ellis and parent member April Winship) after a special closed board meeting Sept. 2 to call on her to “immediately resign.”
Once Lineweaver refused to do so the board publicly issued “a laundry list of concerns” that they hoped would prompt her resignation so as not to “further harm your reputation and the reputation of the school.”
Among the Oracle findings were that “Lineweaver was acting in a manner that is detrimental to CVCHS because she is seemingly using her power as Board members to carry out personal agendas…. (A) Middendorf and Lineweaver ‘engineered’ the removal of Kommer from the Board President position, and (B) Lineweaver stated ‘Little League needs to be gone’ from CVCHS because [Clayton City Councilman and Clayton Valley Little League board member Dave] Shuey is ‘a horrible person’ and ‘evil.’”
Kommer was the first board president. Branich was elected by a 5-4 vote last Feb. to the position with Middendorf, Branich and Lineweaver all voting for the new president. Meriam was elected vice chair 5-4 over Lineweaver at the same meeting.
The little league and CVCHS got into a controversy last winter over use of the fields the local youth baseball organization has built and maintained on the school site for the past 40 years. The school’s softball teams also use two of the fields for their games and practices and tension over that shared use had brewed for a long time before simmering over this year.
This Monday Lineweaver told The Pioneer, “The results of the investigation are clearly biased and unsubstantiated. I was never even interviewed by Oracle in regards to the complaints against me. I will not resign from the Board. I have one agenda – the well-being of CVCHS students, teachers, parents and community. I will continue to stand up for what’s right in spite of any bullying or harassment.” Lineweaver is the school’s athletic director in addition to being a classroom teacher.
Meriam says Oracle’s work is “closed.” The firm will be paid $33,000 for services since May when the board directed its outside law firm, Young, Minney & Corr, to hire Oracle to investigate a series of complaints from administrators and teachers.  The board has yet to act on aspects of the report dealing with charges made against other school employees. Meriam explained that Linzey would be the one to take any disciplinary action against CVCHS employees based on report findings.
Lineweaver’s board term runs through the end of 2015. The terms of Meriam, Kommer, teacher Christine Reimer, Ellis and classified staffer Diane Bailey end in December. An election committee was to be discussed at the regularly-scheduled board meeting Wednesday evening.

The board is next scheduled to meet Oct. 8. For all board agendas, minutes and public reports visit www.claytonvalley.org.