Past Haunts Tri-Valley Education Board Candidate: Report

ALAMEDA COUNTY, CA — Revelations about Eric Dillie’s past have come back to haunt the former Livermore charter school administrator’s current bid for countywide office.

The East Bay Times on Wednesday retracted its endorsement of Dillie after the publication acknowledged it overlooked its own reporting on a 2016 child cruelty case that implicated the Area 7 County Board of Education candidate.

Dillie pleaded no contest to failing to report child abuse, according to a 2018 The East Bay Times report.

Dillie previously served as principal of the now-defunct Livermore Valley Charter Preparatory and Livermore Valley Charter School, and was among three staffers charged in connection with a January 2016 incident in which a 16-year-old foreign exchange student who left a classroom after being humiliated by a teacher was forced into a car, The East Bay Times reports.

Both schools filed for bankruptcy in 2017, according to the report.

Dillie and former Vice Principal Randy Taylor allegedly “laughed and joked” about the incident, according to the report, which cites court documents.

The East Bay Times is now “tepidly” backing Cheryl Cook-Kallio, a retired teacher who previously served on Pleasanton’s City Council.

Read The East Bay Times endorsement retraction here