San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Parents demand schools reopen after board quits
Outraged parents gathered in front of Oakley City Hall for a rally Saturday to demand that the city reopen its schools after the mass resignation of the city’s school board.
About three dozen parents, joined by community members and school activists, were marching from City Hall to shuttered Oakley Elementary School a few blocks away.
Four school board members stepped down in recent days after they were caught on camera disparaging parents who wanted to reopen schools with profanity. “Bitch, if you’re going to call me out, I’m going to f— you up,” thenmember Kim Beede said during a Wednesday Zoom meeting. The board was unaware that its conversation was being broadcast before the meeting.
“Teachers are educators, not baby sitters,” read one of the protesters’ signs — a reference to one of the overheard remarks by one of the former school board members who said parents wanted schools to reopen because they sought baby sitting.
“This year has been difficult and stressful,” said parent Claudine Zambrana, whose two elementary school children “miss their friends, their classroom and their teachers.”
The controversial comments, which have gathered national attention, were “unfortunate and disappointing, but it’s time to move on,” she said.
“We’re pleased with their decision to resign,” said Jonathan Zachreson, founder of Reopen California Schools and organizer of the rally. “But it’s not just their lack of judgment with regard to the open microphone. It reveals how they’re not listening to parents or taking them seriously.”
The coronavirus has sent students home for nearly a year, and disputes between school districts, teacher unions, city officials and parents have been increasingly fraught. Many students are struggling academically and emotionally. San Francisco sued its own school district this month to reopen schools.
The former school board members said earlier that they had been heavily and unfairly criticized by parents.
“We were having a private conversation because we were really struggling at that moment with all the board comments coming in because we want what’s best for the kids so badly,” Lisa Brizendine, the former board president, said at Wednesday’s meeting.
Parents weren’t sympathetic, with thousands of people signing an online petition demanding the resignations.
“The school board forgot who it works for,” Zachreson said. “It works for the parents and the children.” Parent Heather McKinney of nearby Brentwood, with three children in elementary schools, said the resignations were “absolutely appropriate.”
“We’ve all said things we don’t mean, and I feel bad for them,” she said. “But they have no business representing the community. All we’re asking for is that families have the choice whether to return to school or not.”
Signers of the online petition gave several reasons for their rage at the board members and their desire to see schools reopen. Oakley Union School District includes six elementary schools and two middle schools.
“This is truly disturbing and it shows the ignorant mentalities of these socalled school leaders,” Debora Devaughn wrote.
“It is time for teachers to go back or lose their pay like the rest of us have had to,” William Varner wrote.
“These people are scumbags and unprofessional,” Heather Madla wrote.
The mass resignations was the talk of the town of 41,000 in northeast Contra Costa County.
Oakley barber Ron Brown, owner of Ron’s Center Barber Shop, said “you’ve got to be careful what you say” when a microphone is involved.