New principal brings ‘creating team’ talent to CVCHS

Jeff Eben began a new chapter in his professional life this week when he assumed his role as the first fully-dedicated principal of Clayton Valley Charter High School.

The Central Valley native was selected from a broad field of candidates after interviewing with 15 CVCHS stakeholders (teachers, administrators, board members and parents) for the position after it was decided that Executive Director Dave Linzey’s dual role as executive director and principal would be split.

Linzey said he’s been discussing hiring a principal with the governing board for the past two years. The move allows Linzey to concentrate on his duties as superintendent of the charter school district, board chairperson Ted Meriam said.
Eben brings three decades experience as an elementary and high school educator, principal and administrator in California and Wisconsin. His career includes a stint as Fresno’s deputy mayor and CEO of the Fresno Convention and Visitors Bureau.

The new position and its $135,000 salary will have a minimal budgetary impact as it replaces the administrative slot vacated by Neil McChesney early this year. There is about a 12 percent difference in the two salaries.

Meriam adds, “We are excited to select Jeff Eben. I cannot imagine a better outcome for our school community. Jeff brings a wealth of experience and is committed to the well being of our students and their academic success. This is the best management structure to support [our] teaching and instruction.”

Most recently Eben was principal of Case High School in Racine, Wisconsin. He took over a consistently under-performing urban school and was given the 2013 Distinguished Educator Award by Phi Delta Kappa for his success there.

He was then hired for an administrative role in the Racine Unified School District but took leave to return to Southern California last summer to deal with a medical condition. That situation was resolved early this year and he was ready to get back to work when he saw an online posting for the Clayton Valley Charter job. Eben immediately applied.

Linzey contacted him during the initial screening process and was “excited about [Eben’s] depth of principal background.”

The new principal’s appointed was announced at the June 15 CVCHS governing board meeting. Eben attended the meeting for his first opportunity to meet school and community members. He is moving into a temporary location from the Central Valley while “I get my bearings” and find a long-term housing location.

Eben was a star athlete in Clovis when he was injured in a water skiing accident his junior year that left him paralyzed. His high school football line coach, Jack Bohan, visited him in the hospital the day after his accident and every day after. Rather than ask the scared and heartbroken 16-year-old “how are you?” the coach would say to Eben “how many wins have you had today?”

Years later that became the title of Eben’s inspirational autobiography. He’s also written leadership and children’s books.

Eben steps into the principal’s office after a tumultuous year of strife and conflict at the teacher/administrative level following Linzey’s May 2014 firing of administrator and charter school founder Pat Middendorf. Undaunted by the challenge, Eben says “I’m really comfortable about ‘creating team’. I’m not at all intimated or afraid of team building in any climate.” He adds that he’s coming to a school that’s “doing well” in academics, music, athletics and many other areas.

In preparation for his interview he researched Clayton Valley Charter online and contacted a couple educator friends in the Bay Area and was very impressed with what he found and heard. He learned that Tim Murphy and two other members of the coaching staff from his former high school, Clovis East, are at CVCHS but he didn’t contact them before his interview.

Eben is proud of his time at Clovis East. The Fresno State journalism grad was assigned the task of building the school “from dirt,” hiring the staff and leading the school for its first several years.

He will be in Linzey’s current campus office so that students, staff and faculty will have clear access to the new principal. Linzey says he and Eben are “in harmony philosophically” and both are strong proponents of school reform.
Eben plans to meet students on campus during summer school and also wants to begin his long-term planning process by meeting with leadership students in the weeks ahead. Freshman transition program starts Aug. 4 and school begins Aug. 12.

Linzey’s new office location, possibly off campus, is yet undetermined.

The executive director will be concentrating on his superintendent role that includes budgeting, curriculum development, special education, community relations, governing board liaison, legal services, assessment coordination (transition to Common Core), facilities, staff and administration professional development and mentoring.