Media Statement, Clayton Valley Charter High School
With the publication of the investigation report by Contra Costa County Office of Education’s (“CCCOE”) law firm Dannis, Woliver, Kelley, LLP (“DWK”), it is now clear that CVCHS has not violated the law or its charter petition, that there is no basis for the call for revocation coming from some anti-charter elements in the community, and that many of the complaints were in fact based on misstatements of fact and misinterpretations of charter school law.
For more than a year, CVCHS has been under a blustering, orchestrated attack by those that have been seeking revocation of our charter and the return of CVCHS to MDUSD, regardless of the costs. These attackers created a culture of personal attacks, baseless accusations, and an effort to paralyze CVCHS and CCCOE with complaints, no matter how trivial, factually inaccurate or whether appropriate for consideration. The CCCOE and CVCHS were each forced to spend significant funds, time, and energy addressing these attacks, when that time and money would have been much better spent on the students of Contra Costa County and CVCHS.
CVCHS now urges the community to move forward from this episode and for anti-charter and anti- CVCHS elements to cease their campaign. We hope to heal the wounds caused by such attacks over the next school year and to continue serving the students of CVCHS with a world-class education.
That is not to imply that CVCHS agrees with the process utilized by DWK in developing the report, the factual inaccuracies and analysis that are contained in the report, or the initial premise that DWK has operated from in assuming that the allegations are “not false” (i.e., true) without giving the Charter School the opportunity to rebut these allegations. There are substantial issues to the report that will be addressed in a formal response to be released next week. It is not surprising, given the amount of funds expended on this investigation as well as the public attention given it, that the DWK has provided a number of alleged recommendations even in the absence of any actual violations of law or charter.
CVCHS notes that DWK serves only in an advisory position and any action in relation to this report will need to come from the actual body charged with oversight elected by the voters of Contra Costa County – the County Board of Education. Once the County Board of Education has had the opportunity to review DWK’s report and CVCHS’ response to the report, CVCHS is confident that a constructive dialog will ensue. The CVCHS Governing Board and administration are, and have always been, committed to working with the authorizer to provide excellent educational opportunities for students.
Given the above, CVCHS is compelled to address some overarching deficiencies with the report immediately.
Initially, it remains disappointing that CCCOE and DWK did not afford CVCHS the opportunity to address the allegations addressed in the report, to submit documents directly responsive to the allegations, and to review a draft of the report prior to its release – so as to avoid the factual errors and incorrect assumptions that are now in the report. It is a shame this common level of due process was not afforded to CVCHS thus allowing CVCHS to ensure that the recommendations and information contained in the report would have been more accurate.
Secondly, while the report provides the statement that it will not make factual findings or determinations and that “the report should not be interpreted as evaluating the validity or invalidity of any claim, complaint or allegation”, it clearly assumes factual findings, determinations, and the validity of claims in making “critical” recommendations to address an “apparent violation ... or the significant risk of a future violation.” Inherent in making a statement of an “apparent violation ... or the significant risk of a future violation” is a conclusion that an allegation was valid, or there would be no reason to make a “critical recommendation” as defined in the report. DWK took the stance that all complaints were “presumed not-false” (i.e., true), unless specific documentation refuting each and every complaint was produced, but never providing CVCHS an opportunity to know the scope of such presumptions or to address specific complaints (thus depriving CVCHS of the ability to provide documentation to demonstrate the falsity of the allegations).
In assuming the validity of each and every complaint made, the report presents CVCHS in the worst possible light and in a fashion of “guilty until proven innocent by specific written documentation” – biasing the investigation and report in the favor of the complainants. However, even given such presumption and bias on almost every issue, DWK found that, even if the complaints were taken as truthful, they do not represent a violation of the charter petition or law.
We note also that DWK alleges inconsistent legal analysis and mischaracterizes several legal issues. For example, DWK mischaracterizes the settlement of an Unfair Practice Charge, which settlement resulted in no findings of wrongdoing, as “resulting in a determination that the discipline was incorrectly applied.” Further, when addressing allegations of Title IX violations, DWK fails to address the thrust of the complaint, which was that the facilities at CVCHS were inadequate – facilities that were constructed and provided by Mount Diablo Unified School District (another client of DWK). Again, the totality of the specific areas of inaccuracy and any errors in the application of charter law will be addressed in a formal response to follow.
Finally, the report fails to take into material consideration the many letters of support for CVCHS provided by teachers and community members, nor address that the substantial majority of the allegations came from a small group of very vocal detractors. Instead, it treats the repeated letters and statements by this small group as indicative of some sort of community consensus.
CVCHS now hopes to address the report with the CCCOE Board of Education to determine what, if anything, should be done to address the issues that have arisen throughout the last year. Despite the difficulties over the past year, CVCHS is proud of its students for maintaining a high level of performance and focus during this time period, and looks forward to serving them in the upcoming school year.
