Clayton Valley Going Charter Discussed at Council Meeting

For the first time, the Clayton City Council had a long discussion Tuesday night on what is quickly becoming the most talked about issue in town — High possibly converting into a charter school.

Though the council has no jurisdiction over the school, with Clayton Valley being in Concord and part of the Mount Diablo Unified School District, it is the public high school for Clayton teenagers. The council voted unanimously in support of the effort to look into the process of becoming a charter, but stopped short of endorsing the idea.

Dylan Perreira, a social science teacher at Clayton Valley, briefed the council on the status of the charter idea. He said the process is moving along quickly and the goal is for Clayton Valley to be a charter school for the 2012-13 school year.

For the conversion to become a reality, more than 50 percent of the teachers have to vote in favor of it. Perreria said he thinks more than half the teachers support the idea, with a formal vote expected later this month.

What could prove to be a more difficult hurdle is the Mount Diablo Unified School District. Perreira didn't sound overly optimistic that the district would approve the conversion, emphasizing that the decision could be appealed to the county and state if MDUSD rejects the proposal. Perreria said the aim is for the district to vote on the conversion at its June 14 meeting.

Mayor David Shuey said he was part of a group that met with some MDUSD board members, which included Superintendent Steve Lawrence, about the issue and said the discussion was productive but the board members were "coy" about how they felt.

Shuey said he believes the district is concerned about a domino effect — that if it allowed Clayton Valley to become a charter school then other high schools, such as Northgate and College Park, could follow suit.

If Clayton Valley became a charter school, it would be the first public high school to do so in the Bay Area, though more than a dozen high schools have gone charter in Southern California.

After Perreira's overview of the charter effort, he faced pointed questions from some council members.

Councilwoman Julie Pierce, whose children graduated from Clayton Valley, was skeptical that the school would receive as much money in grants as the pro-charter group thought. Perreira said a financial study is in the works and is expected to be completed soon.

"It sounds like a fabulous idea," Pierce said. "The devil is in the details."

Councilman Howard Geller sought numbers, asking what percentage of conversion charters fail. Perreira said he didn't know the number, adding that the success rate of a conversion charter is much high than charter schools started from scratch. Shuey added that conversion charters have an extremely high success rate.

Geller said if the charter school were successful it could boost housing prices in the city.

"As a real estate professional, the first thing people ask about is the schools and ours aren't as good as the schools in places like Walnut Creek, Lafayette and Moraga," he said. "This would increase our home values."

Along with Shuey, council members Joe Medrano and Hank Stratford had fewer reservations about the conversion as long as the projected budget makes sense.

"I'm fully in support," Medrano said. "Something has to be done. I think the district is the core problem and if the financials are right, I think everything else will work out."

Read more about Clayton Valley becoming a charter school .