Mountain View parents outraged by school district’s $189K meditation deal

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. ( KRON )—Mountain View Whisman School District parents expressed their frustrations Thursday after finding out the district had signed a $189,000 school-approved contract for what they describe as 160 “guided meditation sessions for District Leadership team members.”

The MVWSD signed an agreement with Alycia Diggs Chaves, owner of Blue Violet Energy and a self-described “energy healer.” Her practice averages about $1,200 per meditation session.

According to the agreement, initially reported by the Chronicle , Chaves’ services are designed to “help leaders manage and reduce daily stress levels that negatively impact their well-being and, therefore, their effectiveness in their role.”

Despite previously working with Chaves, school district leaders said they had never looked at Chaves’ Blue Violet Energy website prior to hiring and signing the $189K agreement with the spiritual healer.

Parents expressed their concerns over the agreement and the lack of research done prior to signing it. “I mean, normally, when someone is hired, especially for the volume of business that she’s doing, people check the website… Trying to insist that no mistakes were made given the situation, that’s just burning credibility,” Chris Perry, a school board district parent, said.

“How in the world is it reasonable to spend more than $1100 per hour on meditation sessions,” Mohan Garunathen, a school board district member, said, “I wanna ask you, would you spend that much of your own money on meditation? If not, how can you possibly think it’s okay to spend our taxpayer money that way?”

Camille Lubont, another school district parent, was told by MVWSD that programs that are “duplicative” in nature are to be eliminated. “If that were the case, then why do we have three concurrent leadership coaching programs for our district?” She said.

Another MVSWD parent, Lilian Good, agrees with Lubont. “I agree that health, mental health, and wellness is entirely important, and that is why the district has a division of health and wellness with multiple staff members being paid more than $400,000 a year,” she said.

According to Dr. Ayindé Rudolph, MVSWD’s superintendent, the meditation sessions were first started several years ago by an in-house doctor. Good believes working with in-house doctors would have significantly cost less than a third-party contract.

“It really feels like we as taxpaying parents are just really being asked to spend more money than frankly I can afford.. I’m just frustrated,” Erica Relich, an MVWSD parent, said during the Thursday meeting.

KRON4 has reached out to MVWSD and Chaves for a statement and has not heard back as of the publication of this report.

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