Martinez, CA – April 4, 2014 – Friday morning the students, parents, and teachers of Dozier-Libbey Medical High School, fighting to convert their school to an independent public charter school, won a small victory in the Superior Court of Contra Costa County when the Honorable Judge Laurel Brady agreed that demands being made by the Antioch Unified School District (AUSD), with regard to a questionable counter charter proposal, were unreasonable.
The process to convert Dozier-Libbey into a public charter school was greatly confused last month, apparently deliberately so, when the district filed and approved its own petition to convert the high-performing medical pathway school into a district-dependent charter school, immediately after denying the original independent charter petition submitted by the faculty of Dozier-Libbey.
The legality of the district’s petition is highly suspect, as the district was unable to obtain a single signature from Dozier-Libbey faculty (California Ed Code requires concurrence of 50% of the current teachers plus one). A preliminary injunction request has been filed with the court against AUSD on behalf of the students, parents, and faculty of Dozier-Libbey Medical High School, the hearing for which is set on April 28th.
Pending this hearing, the judge has ordered the district to withdraw its demand that parents enroll their children in the district’s dependent charter by April 7. The district has repeatedly admonished parents that in failing to do so parents will risk losing their spot at the school next year. The judge further ordered that the district withdraw its demand that Dozier-Libbey teachers commit to employment at the district dependent charter by the close of business today, or risk termination.
The teachers of Dozier-Libbey filed a petition last February, in accordance with the charter schools section of the California Education Code, to convert their school to a public charter governed by a school board that would be independent of AUSD’s board of trustees.
The teachers’ 121-page petition presents a strong case for significantly improving academic programs and fiscal management at this respected pathway school, however AUSD denied the petition last month, prompting teachers to file an appeal with the Contra Costa County Board of Education. The school district took the additional step of approving its own charter petition for Dozier-Libbey that would leave the school under the governing authority of the AUSD board.
Although the district’s charter was initially described in public hearing as a new start-up charter, AUSD has since announced via social media that its charter will replace the current Dozier-Libbey Medical High School. The district has not yet provided legal justification for how it would accomplish what would appear to be a clear violation of both California Education Code and the Charter School Act of 1992.
Supporters of Dozier-Libbey believe that the court, like much of the Antioch community, will take a dim view of the school district’s attempt, with great expenditure of public funds, to confuse the issue of the school’s legal conversion to a public charter school.
The case pending before the Contra Costa Superior Court is Dozier-Libbey Medical High School et al. v. Antioch Unified School District, et al. (Case No. CIVMSN14-0453). A ruling is scheduled for 9:00am on April 28th. Updated information can be found online at DozierLibbeyCharter.com.
The following was a press release provided by Jeff Weber.
14 comments
Congratulations D/L. The problem with the Antioch Schools is the main office and it leaders. It has been the same problem for many years. Until we have a board that isn’t under the superintendents thumb and can hire the right person, out there somewhere, the schools will continue to go down hill. I thought Dr Gill could have been the right one but obviously he isn’t and the district should be looking for another one.
I want to know how much money the district has spent on this. It hasn’t been nickles and dimes. I’m sure they are in to many tens of thousands they cannot afford and should be used for our children who don’t have enough supplies as it is.
This is a press release disguised as a news article.
The by-line says East County Today, and one must read to the bottom of the story to see “The following (sic) was (sic) a press release…”
The attribution belongs in place of the by-line at the beginning of the item: “The following is a press release…”
@Press Release:
Not true and nice spin. This is the same Press Release that went out to multiple media outlets and is even posted on their Dozier-Libbey website. This press release is one side of the issue–we have published the AUSD side on multiple occasions including their press conference. We have been printing both sides of this issue for the parents/community to decide.
It says ECT as the byline because we published the article. It says ECT on ALL bylines on this site. If we were to give someone login information to begin posting, it would then state their name such as “John Smith”.
Side note: please stop playing with “user names” and stick to one. We notice you have used multiple names in the past.
Support the teachers! Get informed, read their petition, save their principal, save DLMHS, help the teachers prepare the students of Antioch. Write your county board and urge them to approve the independent charter. Public education in California needs serious intervention. Let that movement start with the concerned citizens of Antioch.
Thank you East County Today! You do a terrific job to keep us informed and sometimes we read it here first. We appreciate that!
Taxpayers should be pissed over this move by Dozier-Libbey. Those people didn’t build the school, taxpayers did.
Dozier-Libbey was not funded by Antioch tax payer money. It was built on emergency money by the state. Yes, those people did build it, they made the successful programs and students who have graduated. If it were about Antioch taxpayer money perhaps it would be better equipped with science labs, an athletic field, high school sized classroom instead of elementary sized ones for bigger students and larger classes. Get your facts straight Frank S before you start complaining.
I believe there are over 300 plus teachers in the district, and 23-26 uppity teachers think they should be able to run a school independently from the district, bounce youth right and left from the school because they don’t fit THEIR MOLD. I call BS. These teachers want to be able to take funds away from the kids to give themselves yearly wages and not deal with any of our troubled youth, because it is beneath them. All schools would love to have a nice facility built with others money and then just decide to take it over for their benefit and expect people to just say oh OK go ahead we don’t care about our tax dollars, they are sadly mistaken. Mr. Weber makes a great spin on things here to make it look like the BIG BAD DISTRICT. To bad it should read LOW DOWN UNGRATEFUL SNEAKY SHADY TEACHERS AT DOZIER LIBBEY.
JT tell us what you really think. How do you feel about Clayton Valley doing the exact same thing.
FrankS, as a taxpayer I am pleased to see Dozier-Libby make this move and protect the education of our students. AUSD is a failing school district. Has been for years and years.
Before you slam the teacher’s and the Independent charter you may want to examine all the schools carefully. These dedicated teachers have only the best interest in mind wanting to bring programs to their school, yes, including an extensive credit recovery plan, summer bridges program and expand their services. The reason it has not yet been done, mmmmm let me see AUSD controlling the funds? How can a school function with a part time librarian, one administrator? Perhaps your questions should be directed at those that control the programs and funding.
Read the following link, their plan is exactly the opposite what you have implied. I keep an open mind and do my research and weigh both sides. Remember this is not about administrators or teachers but to be able to better serve the Antioch youth by providing the best education possible with innovative programs. It is just a matter of who can deliver! Until AUSD has outlined something their Dependent charter can bring instead of the status quo, I’m leaning toward the Independent side.
Instead using emotions use logic!
http://antiochherald.com/2014/04/p12553/
JT it sounds like you have never been on Dozier’s campus otherwise you would know how underserved the facilities are in comparison to the other two high schools. Antioch tax payers have just passed a huge bond to refurbish Antioch High and taxpayers are still paying for Deer Valley under Mello Roose. Dozier-Libbey doesn’t have an athletic field, uses the cafeteria for Physical Education, and the school wasn’t even built with taxpayer money. There are only four science labs, no computer lab and the library is open half a day.
If you looked at the independent petition you would see that the teachers have not given themselves a yearly raise. The teachers contract is exactly the same as AUSD’s current contract. The independent charter is designed to serve students with less overhead (ie: district office). You make false accusations based on lack of knowledge.
I hope Dozier gets what they want. I agree that AUSD is a failure in every way.
“These dedicated teachers have only the best interest in mind wanting to bring programs to their school,”
I would hope that each and every teacher in the district has the best interest of their students and school in mind, I would hope they do at least. Not just the 28-30 that work at Dozier.
Its an unfortunate situation, where kids are put in the middle and adults are bickering like kids.
I think Clayton Valley situation is a different ball of wax. The Facility is old and not updated with the newest technology like Dozier was when it was built. Clayton also has been in existence for many many years Dozier is very new. As a taxpayer I hope that the district gets to keep the school and facility.
I am going to sit back and let it all unfold, I have said my piece, now I feeling like one of the ones bickering. Hope you all are well and everything works out for the benefit of the students.
Comments are closed.