MDUSD board president injects more controversy into Charter saga

Mt. Diablo Unified School District board president Cheryl Hansen thrust herself into the middle of the year-long Clayton Valley Charter High School controversy when she sent a letter and two emails to the Contra Costa County Office of Education 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.
In the past six months Hansen was pulled into the charter school controversy because her boyfriend Bud Beemer, a retired school principal and Clayton Valley alumnus, was ruled as having conflicts of interest when he was applying for a CVCHS governing board position.
The school’s legal counsel said Beemer would potentially have conflicts in his capacity as commissioner of the Bay Valley Athletic League and also because of his relationship with Hansen. The legal firm said MDUSD is still the landlord of CVCHS and legal or financial matters between the school and district might be brought before the governing board. Beemer was outspoken in his displeasure with the school’s executive director Dave Linzey.
Hansen’s 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 immediately to provide 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.
Carpenter says Hansen was “using the weight of your office to support your personal position.” Carpenter 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 [that violate] law and policy, to impair the success of the school in furtherance of their own personal agenda.”
“We find this letter, which advocates revocation of our high-performing charter school, very troubling,” said Linzey. “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 (by the Contra Costa County Office of Education) 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 November the county trustees unanimously gave Clayton Valley its maximum charter reauthorization through 2020.
Following the release of the Feb. 25 letter Carpenter and some CVCHS parents spoke at the Mt. Diablo board’s May meeting calling out Hansen. The board president responded by saying she was exercising her First Amendment rights in contacting the county.
In other news, Clayton Valley Charter also has a request into MDUSD to add a second football/soccer/lacrosse all-weather turf field that would be used by school teams, students and local youth groups. CVCHS funds would pay for the $1.4 million project but needs district approval since it is on MDUSD property.
Contra Costa District Attorney Mark Peterson last month cleared CVCHS of a number of charges brought by individuals and the Stakeholders for Transparency group against Linzey and the school’s governing board. The DA’s office “found insufficient evidence of criminal wrongdoing to warrant criminal prosecution or additional investigation….I consider the matter closed.”