 There has been an effort to suggest that the creation of the alternative assignment policy was simply to aid in parent involvement and transparency. It's also been suggested that those who objected to this crock of a policy are anti-parent involvement. We are not anti-parent involvement in education. I am a parent. Do you get the impression I am anti-parent involvement? We are anti-poorly constructed policy. It's important to note that there has always been a policy in place in the district for parents who wished to opt their children out of literature. The books have always been listed on the district website. And, parents have always received a syllabus with the books listed. We are also anti-shenanigans implemented by an extremist board majority that create unnecessary controversy, community divisiveness, and inefficient use of time and district funds. Our district is operating at a deficit and our enrollment is declining, and yet the current board majority (comprised of Mike Dunn, Jon Andersen, and Sandee Everett) spent more than a year of board meetings on shoving through a curriculum and selection review policy that was never asked for. Many people, who are trying to catch up on what exactly happened have been asking me to create a timeline to share. Please see below. January 2017: English Dept. requests “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” be added to the curriculum. (It goes through the process, which involves being reviewed by the district's curriculum committee — a committee comprised of credentialed experts who are well versed in reviewing curriculum needs.
June 2017: The book appears on the agenda for approval by the board. CVUSD Board President Mike Dunn reads a quote from the book out loud, “I kicked him in the balls,” and says he’s not sure he would want his kids reading that book. Book does not appear on the next meeting’s agenda for approval. Community members have to write in asking that the book be added back to the agenda for vote and approval. It is added to the August 15 board meeting. READ RELEVANT BLOG HERE. Quick facts:
August 2017: After hours of public comments from both community members in favor of the book and outside activists brought in to speak against the book (affiliated with Unified Conejo), the book is approved with the caveat by Board Member Jon Andersen that the board formalize an opt-out policy on paper. READ RELEVANT BLOG HERE. Quick facts:
September/October 2017: Board unanimously votes upon creating a committee (we’ll refer to it as the teacher committee) to formalize language as to how a parent could request an alternative assignment for their child. The committee was to be comprised of teachers, district personnel, and to have oversight by two board members: Sandee Everett and Pat Phelps. READ RELEVANT BLOG HERE. November 2017: Teacher committee produces policy to Sandee Everett and Pat Phelps for review. Sandee Everett doesn’t like policy; writes her own. Gives powerpoint presentation at next board meeting defending her policy, and prevents many (including students who had been standing for six hours) from offering public comment on her policy. Board majority puts Sandee’s policy on the agenda for the next meeting to vote upon, despite Pat Phelps' request to wait, as she would not be present for next board meeting. They refuse. READ RELEVANT BLOG HERE. READ SECOND RELEVANT BLOG HERE. READ THIRD RELEVANT BLOG HERE. Quick facts: The entire and sole purpose of the policy was to formalize language as to how a parent could request an alternative assignment for their child. What Sandee’s policy did:
***Also to note: Mike Dunn, then-board president, refused to add the teacher committee policy (you know, the one they unanimously agreed to have written) to the agenda for discussion/review, despite receiving a formal request to have it added to the agenda by Dr. Connolly. Mike Dunn lied at the board meeting and said he was never asked to add it to agenda. Dr. Connolly produces emails that show otherwise. The board only discussed Sandee Everett's policy — never giving the public the opportunity to hear discussion session on the policy created by the teacher committee. November 2017: Board majority (comprised of Mike Dunn, Jon Andersen and Sandee Everett) votes to approve Sandee’s policy, despite receiving a petition of more than 3,000 community member signatures opposed. READ RELEVANT BLOG HERE. Note: prior to the vote, the agenda item for consent approving the purchase order for “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” was removed from the agenda. Then, when the board majority got the vote they wanted, they immediately added the consent item back to the agenda and approved it. They basically held the book order hostage until they got the policy they wanted approved. Then board president Jon Andersen gave a whole lecture about how he believes in transparency. December 2017: Jon Andersen voted in as board president, Sandee Everett voted in as vice president by board majority. January 2018: District syllabi go out. “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian,” the book that launched this whole charade — the one that Mike Dunn called pornographic, wasn’t even controversial enough to warrant an asterisk on the syllabus. Yes, my friends. We had all been had. It was just a prop in order to allow the board majority to implement and opt-out policy under the guise of appearing to support parental rights and transparency. Issues with how hastily the opt-out policy had to be implemented: only one alternative assignment policy was created by the district — a grade 9 reading level book. Therefore, regardless of grade, your alternative assignment that you would be reading in the library on your own, was level 9. If you opted out of more than one book (which did happen), you didn't have another assignment prepared. Also January 2018:
READ RELEVANT BLOG HERE. February 2018: Mike Dunn is censured by the board for threatening my employer. He doesn’t show up for his censure because his wife wouldn’t allow him to. I’m not kidding. That’s the actual statement he had Jon Andersen, now board president, read to the more than 300 people who showed up. READ RELEVANT BLOG HERE. READ SECOND RELEVANT BLOG HERE. Quick aside: The California Dept. of Education (CDE), upon learning what CVUSD planned to do in using the annotations on its website for CVUSD’s policy, REMOVED ALL ANNOTATIONS from its website, believing the CVUSD was abusing the purpose of its annotations… thus rendering Sandee’s policy outdated… as it referenced annotations that no longer existed. This meant the board would need to review the policy and discuss amendments. May 2018: We learn that board president Jon Andersen secretly (without approval or even discussion of the board) used more than $1,000 of district funds to have legal counsel file a public records request to the CDE (which can be done for free) demanding ALL exchanges to the CDE regarding the annotations, as well as NAMES of all community members who corresponded with the CDE regarding the annotations on the website and the CVUSD policy up for discussion. READ RELEVANT BLOG HERE. Also May 2018: Sandee Everett writes 16+ pages of amendments to her policy. She only presents these amendments to board members for review when the agenda action item on the policy amendments is called. Pat Phelps and Dr. Betsy Connolly ask for an additional session to review the new amendments they just received before voting. The board majority rejects this request, Jon Andersen offers them 5 minutes to review, and then forces a vote, in which the board majority approves amendments. (It should be noted that Jon Andersen and Mike Dunn did not pose a single question about any of the amendments, nor appear to even glance at them — leading public to wonder if they had seen in advance or just didn’t give a damn.) It should also be noted that Sandee Everett did not allow amendments to be made available to the public which is a Brown Act violation. When The Acorn asked her about this, she lied and placed the blame on board clerk, Hyonchin Turner, despite the fact that community members witnessed Sandee’s specific instructions to Ms. Turner regarding number of copies and who/when the amendments would be distributed to. What Sandee's amendments do:
READ RELEVANT BLOG HERE. Y'all, that's what your current board majority (Jon Andersen, Mike Dunn and Sandee Everett) have been doing this last year: misusing district funds, threatening constituents and their employers, threatening the quality of our district's education and beyond. Don't believe you have skin in the game? (Don't have kids entering/or in the district?) Poor school district reputation will affect your home value. You should be concerned. The decisions being made by our school board will affect all constituents, children or not. NOVEMBER 6: #VOTETHEMOUT Jon Andersen and Mike Dunn are up for re-election. Pat Phelps will not be re-running. You have three votes. My choices are: Bill Gorback Jenny Fitzgerald Cindy Goldberg #CONEJOTOGETHER
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