Clayton Valley Charter High School

As we enter our last month of Clayton Valley Charter's first year, there are so many good thoughts that flood my mind. Just one year ago, I was hired as the Executive Director to lead the conversion from a traditionally good high school to an innovative, great charter high school. I met with teachers after school, held my office in Pat Middendorf's classroom, to start the planning process and hiring of my administrative team. We began to locate the pieces of data that would help us understand what was working well and what exactly needed to be improved. There was much anxiety and enthusiasm by all of our stakeholders as we were launching this new endeavor which would shape the course of history for thousands of current and future students' lives.

As we approach completion of our first school year, it seems like we have been in business as our own charter school for a decade. Much has been accomplished and school and community pride has soared in a short period of time. Can it be that we have only been open 10 short months?

The teachers have bought into the high expectations and high standards of excellence. They are doing an amazing job! The staff has worked tirelessly and been so supportive. It is a joy to go to work and feel their enthusiasm! My administrative team has worked 6-7 days per week and are still smiling and giving it their all. Parents keep supporting, encouraging and thanking us for the differences they see and they keep volunteering their time and talents, to help lend a hand (arms, feet, whatever it takes!). The Governing Board members are a breath of fresh air as their motto is clearly...."whatever is good for our students....let's do that!" Clayton Valley Charter High School is different, better, stronger and on the road to greatness because of these partnerships.

The dedication of CVCHS took place last fall and we buried a time capsule with important mementos of our conversion process. One of our foundational themes was that we were moving from good to great. We buried the book with that title as we dedicated our school to become one of the great high schools in our region and one of the great charter schools in the state. A few weeks later a signed copy of "From Good to Great" arrived and the author, Jim Collins, encouraged me in our efforts!

I am happy to report to our community the tremendous strides taken to date to make our school a great one. We have clearly achieved 3-5 years of work in just one short year. I will quickly outline some of our accomplishments:

I have been asked to deliver end-of-year report to the Contra Costa County Office of Education next month in regards to "what is different at CVCHS?" These are the results I will be sharing with the County Board of Education and their administrative team. They have been extremely supportive of CVCHS. It will be a pleasure to report out on our move "from good to great!" Fiscally, I will be able to report the great news that under my close watch and conservative budgeting, CVCHS has a solid budget balance for 2013 and will be able to post a strong financial reserve as required by the state. This is exceptional for a first year charter high school! This, in part, was due to the passage of Proposition 30. Thank all of you who supported that measure.

There are so many more people I could thank who have had a hand in our success, such as our local Clayton City Council, the Concord City Council, the Clayton Business and Community Association, Comcast Cares, (tomorrow where 700 + community members will come out for a work day), and perhaps most significantly, the fantastic students of CVCHS who have bought into the charter high school and have taken it upon their shoulders to make CVCHS one of the great high schools in the region. This is for them!