The longest serving member of the Clayton Valley Charter High School governing board, Ted Meriam, has been hired as Chief Innovation Officer as the second most senior administrator for the charter school district.
Meriam began his position last Friday following board approval of his contract in July. He had worked for Microsoft Corp. since graduating from college a dozen years ago.
He will be looking to leverage technology to lead the charter organization, its staff and students through 21st Century challenges and opportunities.
Among his CIO responsibilities he will be looking into ways of accommodating the several hundred students that are waitlisted each year at CVCHS. For the 2016-17 school year the charter increased its freshman class by approximately 200 students, something they can only do once every four years given the capacity of their Concord campus.
Meriam says the CVCHS district is looking towards East Contra Costa where they hope they can restart their plans for a public charter tech academy. “Studies show that 91% of parents want at least one computer science class in the child’s core academic program, ”Meriam says. He adds that online, independent study might also be a partial solution to the demand issue.
A 2001 Clayton Valley High grad and newlywed, Meriam says he had been looking to do something professionally to realize his desire to get into education when he resigned from the governing board in June. The new CIO position was announced the following month. He hopes his Microsoft business, tech, recruiting and human resources experience will all work into his new position.
Executive director David Linzey says of Meriam and other recent administrative hires, “I believe it is essential to select key leaders to begin taking over the [CVCHS] leadership and be mentored by me prior to my retirement.”
He adds that “our highly innovative charter school” has received the 2017 Gold Ribbon Award by the State of California and 2017 National Model Schools Award (one of only 25 schools to receive this award).
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