The Sunol Glen Faculty board declined to reverse their flag ban or affirm assist for his or her superintendent on Tuesday night time, within the first often scheduled board assembly for the reason that controversial decision was authorized in September.
Carrying cowboy boots, board president Ryan Jergensen opened the assembly by saying that he anticipated “a civil dialogue.” And actually, in distinction to the final two conferences, tempers appeared to have cooled barely.
Sunol Glen, a tiny one-school district set in a bucolic valley south of Pleasanton, has develop into the Bay Space’s epicenter of an academic tradition battle that has unfold throughout the nation and California. When Jergensen and board member Linda Hurley voted on Sept. 12 to ban the show of a Delight flag from the campus flagpole, with third board member Ted Romo vigorously dissenting, the assembly resulted in chaos, because the board president ordered the viewers to be cleared from the room.
The subsequent day, some dad and mom within the tiny district stored their youngsters house from faculty, and opponents of the ban hinted that they could pursue a recall towards Jergensen and Hurley.
Every week later, on Sept. 20, it was the viewers who determined to stroll out in protest throughout a swiftly known as follow-up assembly.
At this assembly, Romo launched a decision to reverse the ban, calling it “a constitutional overreach.” One other decision was offered to specific assist for Superintendent Molly Barnes. Barnes publicly clashed with Jergensen over the Delight flag subject, and her job was seen to be in danger as just lately as two weeks in the past.
Earlier within the assembly, Romo opted to not attend the closed session portion, arguing that the “conservative members” of the board would use it as cowl to provoke Barnes’ elimination.
The resolutions had been rolled into one agenda merchandise, which critics mentioned was an effort to curb public remark. The board in the end voted to separate them, and to permit 20 minutes of public remark for every, on the request of board member Romo.
Jergensen and Hurley declined to convey the resolutions to a vote.
“Now is just not the time to ask me if I assist her,” Hurley mentioned of Barnes.
Throughout public remark, group members talked about specializing in college students and never letting a measure divide them. The jeers that had outlined the earlier two conferences had pale, considerably. One speaker mentioned that “we have to band collectively.”
Some blamed the Delight flag ban for dividing the group.
“The college by no means had an issue to start with,” one mother or father, Matthew Sylvester, mentioned throughout public remark. “Now we do have an issue.”
Castro Valley Delight President Austin Bruckner Carrillo accused the board president of shuffling the remark playing cards in an effort to stack public remark along with his supporters. One other group member, Debbie Ferarri,accused board member Romo of disparaging the group and calling them bigots.
Many group members current spoke in favor of the flag ban as the general public remark interval opened, claiming that it sexualized youngsters, amongst different arguments.
“This flag battle is hurting our youngsters,” mentioned Fremont resident Jennifer Kavouniaris on the assembly. “We should settle for that our American flag represents everybody no matter their identification.”
Nonetheless, pockets of resistance remained.
“The problem is you,” Bruckner Carillo mentioned of the board. “Once we cease attending these conferences, Ryan and Linda will transfer ahead with their hateful and dangerous insurance policies.”
The board is not going to meet once more till December.
