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Activism marks start of 2 school board meetings last week

On a very pleasant spring late afternoon last Wednesday the temperature was a little higher indoors as the Mt. Diablo Unified School District and Clayton Valley Charter High School governing boards held meetings that drew larger than normal crowds.

The CVCHS meeting started 30 minutes before the Mt. Diablo district. With the public comment portion of the agenda underway about 40-50 members of the charter school’s teaching staff and their supporters marched into the school library chanting “We are CTA (California Teachers Association)” dozens of times while six speakers voicing support for the teachers in their ongoing contract negotiations with the school spoke to the governing body.

Just a half hour later and four miles away in Concord, the lobby and board room at MDUSD headquarters were full of students, staff and alumni speaking on behalf of the Mt. Diablo High School academy programs. The supporters fear state funding for the long-time academy programs is about to be eliminated by MDUSD.

So many turned in speaker’s cards for the school board meeting that Board president Keisha Nzewi announced that the normal three minutes per speaker was cut to one minute in order to accommodate all those who wanted to speak.

The emotion in the message many current and past students passed along about the importance of the MDHS Academy programs—-focused around the hospitality, digital media and medical fields—-was quite mov-

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