Latest / The Myth of Education Podcast / Ep. 35 | Are School Boards Working For You? w/ Kendra Wesson

Transcript

Ep. 35 | Are School Boards Working For You? w/ Kendra Wesson · The Myth of Education Podcast

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SPEAKER_00: Bonds were a big problem.
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SPEAKER_00: People spent money they would not have normally spent.
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SPEAKER_00: You're setting the budget with
0:15
SPEAKER_01: Don't you want our kids to have AstroTurf?
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SPEAKER_01: No, I don't.
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SPEAKER_01: I want my kid to read.
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[music]
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SPEAKER_01: All of these taxpaying people are handing over good money for bad purchases.
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SPEAKER_01: Homeschool, charter schools, private schools are not the answer.
0:38
SPEAKER_01: The answer is for America to wake up and fight for their public schools,
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SPEAKER_01: get our teachers the pay they deserve, and get our kids reading at the proper level.
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SPEAKER_00: Welcome to The Myth of Education Podcast,
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SPEAKER_00: where we expose corruption, advocate for student safety, and defend parental rights.
0:54
SPEAKER_00: Follow us on socials at Myth of Education.
0:57
SPEAKER_00: Subscribe at mythofeducation.com.
1:00
SPEAKER_00: Support the broadcast by becoming a monthly or yearly subscriber or give us a one-time donation.
1:06
SPEAKER_00: Visit mythofeducation.com and click the support link.
1:09
SPEAKER_00: Thanks for tuning in to The Myth of Education Podcast.
1:12
SPEAKER_00: Be sure to like, share, and leave a comment.
1:18
SPEAKER_00: I have with me today Kendra Wesson.
1:21
SPEAKER_00: She is president and CEO of her own accounting firm.
1:24
SPEAKER_00: She is the Oklahoma GOP treasurer and a courageous mother of eight.
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SPEAKER_00: She sat on Oklahoma State's Board of Education.
1:32
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for having me, Tiffany.
1:48
SPEAKER_01: I'm excited about that.
1:49
SPEAKER_01: Went to convention last week and did all the things.
2:03
SPEAKER_00: Before COVID, I was an accountant.
2:18
SPEAKER_01: The most political thing I had done was be president
2:23
SPEAKER_01: of my kids' sports booster clubs, which is vicious.
2:26
SPEAKER_01: Don't kid around with that.
2:28
SPEAKER_01: And then March of 2020,
2:29
SPEAKER_01: we were on vacation in Gulf Shores,
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SPEAKER_01: Alabama, and they started to We had conversations about closing the highways down.
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SPEAKER_01: We were in our RV and I started to realize that this was not just a simple lockdown.
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SPEAKER_01: When I got back home to Norman, the kids were out of school.
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SPEAKER_01: We were trying to do homeschool.
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SPEAKER_01: I realized that teachers were not giving them any instruction or direction.
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SPEAKER_01: I had a battle with the school about the kids having an email and a laptop
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SPEAKER_01: that they could password lock me out of, which I did not appreciate at all.
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SPEAKER_01: And so June,
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SPEAKER_01: I woke up and our local police department had been defunded $865,000 in Norman,
3:00
SPEAKER_01: Oklahoma.
3:02
SPEAKER_01: And I knew this wasn't the America that I had grown up in.
3:04
SPEAKER_01: And I also knew that I was going to figure out how politics worked
3:06
SPEAKER_01: and not sit around and say, I wish I would have.
3:07
SPEAKER_01: I was going to do it.
3:21
SPEAKER_00: I followed Oklahoma Superintendent Ryan Walters for a bit.
3:25
SPEAKER_00: This was during my time at Turning Point USA.
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SPEAKER_00: I was working on a project called the School Board Watch List.
3:30
SPEAKER_00: All of a sudden,
3:31
SPEAKER_00: from the right,
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SPEAKER_00: I'm like, who is this guy contending to bring God back into our lives?
3:36
SPEAKER_00: Yes, Ryan was fearless.
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SPEAKER_00: So
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SPEAKER_01: I began my tenure the same time that he did.
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SPEAKER_01: The very first meeting was to approve a budget set by the previous superintendent,
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SPEAKER_01: Democrat superintendent.
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SPEAKER_01: And I noticed on the budget there were two line items for Imagine Learning.
4:01
SPEAKER_01: There was Imagine Learning math and Imagine Learning reading.
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SPEAKER_01: Now on a school board budget for the You don't normally see textbooks line-itemed in that way.
4:10
SPEAKER_01: They have to go through a textbook committee.
4:12
SPEAKER_01: They have to be approved.
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SPEAKER_01: And I guess that the legislature had worked out a way to line-item these to avoid
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SPEAKER_01: that textbook process for whatever reason.
4:20
SPEAKER_01: We all have our guests.
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SPEAKER_01: I went to Ryan and I said, I'm really concerned about these two line items on the budget.
4:28
SPEAKER_01: And he goes, let's take them off.
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SPEAKER_01: And I was like, are you sure?
4:31
SPEAKER_01: And he said, yes, take them off.
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SPEAKER_01: We're going to we're going to go into this meeting.
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SPEAKER_01: We're going to take them off.
4:34
SPEAKER_01: And I remember my heart fluttering and thinking, oh,
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SPEAKER_01: And so we went to the table,
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SPEAKER_01: we took those off,
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SPEAKER_01: and then the very next thing he wanted to tackle was opposition
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SPEAKER_01: to Biden's Title IX interpretation, which was the exact right thing to do.
4:47
SPEAKER_01: We went straight into tackling no boys and girls sports or bathrooms.
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SPEAKER_01: Our legislature was not willing to touch it at that time and had not tackled it yet.
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SPEAKER_01: So out the door running,
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SPEAKER_01: keeping Oklahoma's kids safe, making sure that they had what they needed.
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SPEAKER_01: It was a A whirlwind from that point on.
5:03
SPEAKER_01: We just went after issue after issue.
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SPEAKER_01: He was elected to make change and that's what he delivered.
5:08
SPEAKER_00: That's so good.
5:09
SPEAKER_00: What is your primary function as a training specialist?
5:12
SPEAKER_01: Yes, I'm a training specialist with the Leadership Institute.
5:15
SPEAKER_01: When I was on the Board of Education in Oklahoma,
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SPEAKER_01: I was a part of bringing them to Oklahoma
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SPEAKER_01: to do some alternative board member training to train them to embrace their roles
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SPEAKER_01: and fully encompass them and not just be subservient to And that's a big piece
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SPEAKER_01: of turning education around is for school boards to understand their authority and
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SPEAKER_01: the power that they have to make fundamental change in a school district.
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SPEAKER_01: A lot of times superintendents will call them off the fence and say, no.
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SPEAKER_01: And I think that when our school board members realize their power
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SPEAKER_01: and their opportunity to really make education better,
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SPEAKER_01: we're going to see an amazing turnaround.
5:53
SPEAKER_01: So I'm pleased to be able to train in this I would agree.
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SPEAKER_01: I'm in boardrooms.
5:57
SPEAKER_01: And so I see the power struggle.
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SPEAKER_00: So in my school district, they actually ended up dethroning our superintendent and
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SPEAKER_00: Putting the chair and nameplate over with other executive administrators in
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SPEAKER_00: the cabinet, it has cleared up a lot of that confusion.
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SPEAKER_00: They earned the six figures.
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SPEAKER_00: They have the EDD, PhD behind their name.
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SPEAKER_00: I have found it to be intimidating.
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SPEAKER_00: For parents or teachers or people who are in a position where they need to ask
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SPEAKER_00: the district for something,
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SPEAKER_00: I always tell people just because somebody has letters behind their name,
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SPEAKER_00: it doesn't make them an expert on your kid, a PhD in organizational communication.
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SPEAKER_00: That's not a proven track record that they can lead.
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SPEAKER_00: Why do you think school boards so easily cave to these special interests and unions?
7:24
SPEAKER_00: Well, I served on a local school board a couple of years before I went to the state.
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SPEAKER_00: In my experience and personal opinion, it is the brotherhood.
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SPEAKER_00: And I have noticed that it's something that the progressive side of
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SPEAKER_00: the fence does very, very well.
7:35
SPEAKER_01: They pull them in.
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SPEAKER_01: They befriend them.
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SPEAKER_01: They go to all the cool parties, meet all the cool people.
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SPEAKER_01: It's very tough to stand up and be that one person saying, we're not doing this.
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SPEAKER_01: And having been in that seat, I think there's a fear of what will happen if I stand up.
8:05
SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah.
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SPEAKER_01: Standing alone is defeated.
8:22
SPEAKER_01: And the truth is, standing alone, and the Lord had to show me this.
8:26
SPEAKER_01: I was at a textbook committee meeting, which I was the chair of.
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SPEAKER_01: Ryan let me chair the textbook committee for the state.
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SPEAKER_01: And there was a vote that came about for a textbook that turned the conversation of
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SPEAKER_01: the Latin word for slave into a conversation about white privilege
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SPEAKER_01: and slave ownership and things like that.
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SPEAKER_01: And I was not pleased with this textbook.
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SPEAKER_01: And so I was the only board member that was going to vote for For that textbook
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SPEAKER_01: to not come in out of cycle, and I knew it.
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SPEAKER_01: And so I started the vote.
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SPEAKER_01: I'm at the head of the table,
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SPEAKER_01: and I have 12 teachers down the table,
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SPEAKER_01: six on each side, and I think there were nine present.
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SPEAKER_01: It goes around the room, and the first person's vote, yes.
9:01
SPEAKER_01: Second person, yes.
9:05
SPEAKER_01: Fifth person, yes.
9:07
SPEAKER_01: And my head is saying,
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SPEAKER_01: but Kendra,
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SPEAKER_01: if you don't stand up for what you believe in and you go with the flow,
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SPEAKER_01: then you're just like every representative or senator that you've called out
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SPEAKER_01: for doing the exact same thing.
9:17
SPEAKER_01: Fifth person, yes.
9:17
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
9:18
SPEAKER_01: It's going around the table.
9:19
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
9:19
SPEAKER_01: It gets to the last person and they're a yes.
9:22
SPEAKER_01: And I literally felt like I had a devil and an angel on each shoulder.
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SPEAKER_01: And I'm just like, which way do I go?
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SPEAKER_01: And I thought I have to stand on my principles.
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SPEAKER_01: My vote was no.
9:30
SPEAKER_01: And so I put my hand down.
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SPEAKER_01: I said, motion control.
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SPEAKER_01: And I looked at him and I was like, are you sure?
9:48
SPEAKER_01: Yes, it had to have 75%.
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SPEAKER_01: And I just thought, God, I see you right there.
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SPEAKER_01: You just showed me that one person can make all the difference.
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SPEAKER_01: So I think we get overwhelmed by percentages and numbers and data and thinking
10:00
SPEAKER_01: that we're in the lower side of things and we can't make it happen.
10:04
SPEAKER_01: But if we go back and the Lord tells us he reduced Gideon's army to 300.
10:08
SPEAKER_01: He reduced Gideon's army.
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SPEAKER_01: Yes, preach it, preach it.
10:31
SPEAKER_00: Well, you know,
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SPEAKER_00: in terms of having a majority on a school board,
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SPEAKER_00: we have five on our school boards here, mostly.
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SPEAKER_00: There are some districts that have more because of the landscape that they cover.
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SPEAKER_00: But you need those three people.
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SPEAKER_00: You need those three votes in order to be able to get students.
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SPEAKER_00: What I tell people, now obviously I think like an activist, my constituency,
11:01
SPEAKER_00: So what we need you to do is just to continue.
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SPEAKER_00: Continue to expose things, pull things off the consent agenda that needs a discussion.
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SPEAKER_00: If you need somebody to come make a public comment, that's what we're here for.
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SPEAKER_00: The situation in my boardroom is that the lady who was our board president,
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SPEAKER_00: the left, is after her so much.
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SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter.
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SPEAKER_00: That's
11:37
SPEAKER_00: what I tell my board member friends who are outnumbered is continue to use your voice.
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SPEAKER_00: There are people in the community that are watching these board meetings.
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SPEAKER_00: They may never come.
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SPEAKER_00: I think the most challenging is getting them to embrace and understand their authority.
12:11
SPEAKER_01: I think culturally school board seats are not viewed like a legislator or a senator
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SPEAKER_01: or a governor.
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SPEAKER_01: And it's unfortunate because we have it backwards.
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SPEAKER_01: School boards and city council are the most important seats in our local communities.
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SPEAKER_01: That's how our communities are designed.
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SPEAKER_01: To be handled locally with local control.
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SPEAKER_01: I remember talking to a board member saying, well, what does your policy say?
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SPEAKER_01: And he goes, we have policies?
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SPEAKER_01: Where are those?
12:33
SPEAKER_01: And I'm just like, oh my goodness.
12:35
SPEAKER_01: Yes, you have policies.
12:37
SPEAKER_01: I got on the internet, found his policies.
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SPEAKER_01: I was like, you need to know every one of these policies.
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SPEAKER_01: You can change these policies.
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SPEAKER_01: For me, with my board, tried to keep it about policies.
12:45
SPEAKER_01: It seems like the left really wants to move us into an emotional space,
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SPEAKER_01: which tends to make us unreasonable, tends to cloud our judgment.
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SPEAKER_01: It tends to make us not think clearly.
12:55
SPEAKER_01: So if we can go back to policy.
12:57
SPEAKER_01: So we had a little kindergartner,
12:59
SPEAKER_01: young man, who parents had seen him wearing grandma's beads or whatever.
13:03
SPEAKER_01: They went to church.
13:04
SPEAKER_01: Church said, you need to affirm his desire to be a girl.
13:07
SPEAKER_01: He's five.
13:10
SPEAKER_01: And I said, why do we do that?
13:13
SPEAKER_01: And they said, well, because he was using the girls' bathroom.
13:15
SPEAKER_01: And my first thought was, some little girl's dad is going to come up here and beat you up.
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SPEAKER_01: Because you were letting a boy in her bathroom.
13:31
SPEAKER_01: This is insane.
13:32
SPEAKER_01: We went through the whole conversation and I looked at my board and I just said,
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SPEAKER_01: listen, what is our role here?
13:37
SPEAKER_01: What do you believe our role is?
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SPEAKER_01: Are we here to give kids the best education we can, which we know is a bridge out of poverty?
13:43
SPEAKER_01: We know that's the way.
13:45
SPEAKER_01: And I said, so I think we can do one of those things very, very, very well.
14:00
SPEAKER_01: I just kind of held my breath because at that time I wasn't super outspoken yet.
14:08
SPEAKER_01: And I held my breath and I thought, this is it.
14:10
SPEAKER_01: This is where I get kicked off this board.
14:11
SPEAKER_01: They looked at each other and they said, well, we want to educate children well.
14:14
SPEAKER_01: That's why we're here.
14:15
SPEAKER_01: And I said, then maybe we can make our focus and our policy focus on educating children well.
14:19
SPEAKER_01: Let's move away from the things that parents need to handle while this child is at school.
14:25
SPEAKER_01: He's going to use the boys' bathroom and he's going to biologically be a boy.
14:28
SPEAKER_01: If he wants to dress up like a girl at home, that's their purview.
14:31
SPEAKER_01: But here, we need to keep a consistent environment free of dramatic interlodes.
14:36
SPEAKER_01: And they agreed.
14:37
SPEAKER_01: And this was back before we even knew that boys were using girls' bathrooms.
14:40
SPEAKER_01: And I think it was just the Lord layering my exposure.
14:42
SPEAKER_01: But that's what we did.
14:44
SPEAKER_01: And we kept that vein of thought while I was on that board.
14:46
SPEAKER_01: And our scores improved.
14:48
SPEAKER_01: It was a charter school and our MAP scores improved drastically.
14:52
SPEAKER_01: We became one of the top charter schools that year because our focus was on education.
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SPEAKER_01: That's the school's focus.
14:59
SPEAKER_01: That's what they're designed to do.
15:04
SPEAKER_00: They would come away a lot wiser and better for it because I do see it.
15:08
SPEAKER_00: It is easy to be distracted by pressure.
15:11
SPEAKER_00: Pressure works, whether it's coming from the left or the right.
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SPEAKER_00: The left just tends to be a little bit louder and more aggressive.
15:17
SPEAKER_00: They have an agenda that's quite different than just protecting students.
15:22
SPEAKER_00: But I think that school board members would learn so much just even from taking
15:27
SPEAKER_00: a training that is not necessarily about district finance or How to support
15:31
SPEAKER_00: a superintendent or training and development for staff members.
15:35
SPEAKER_00: All of those things are viable, but I feel like the students get lost.
15:39
SPEAKER_00: In a typical school board meeting, though,
15:40
SPEAKER_00: you have what I call a parade of teeth and hair, awards and things that go on.
15:45
SPEAKER_00: That's fine.
15:46
SPEAKER_00: A lot of that I feel like is dangled in front of the community.
15:49
SPEAKER_00: Look at how well we're doing.
15:50
SPEAKER_00: But then when everyone leaves the room,
15:52
SPEAKER_00: there's no real discussion on the improvements that the district needs
15:55
SPEAKER_00: to make academically or otherwise.
15:57
SPEAKER_00: It's usually about more money, contracts.
16:00
SPEAKER_00: It's the business.
16:02
SPEAKER_00: How can these school board members arrest that agenda?
16:06
SPEAKER_00: Let's talk about what's really going on in the district.
16:09
SPEAKER_00: An hour, two, three, sometimes four hour meetings.
16:14
SPEAKER_00: Not once is reading interpretation.
16:20
SPEAKER_01: Well, I think that we can probably attribute a lot of that to chambers of commerce.
16:26
SPEAKER_01: I think that chambers of commerce go into a town with the good intentions
16:29
SPEAKER_01: of helping small business owners.
16:31
SPEAKER_01: Because business and commerce isn't going to come to our town.
16:36
SPEAKER_01: We can't talk about failing students, lack of high reading scores because.
16:46
SPEAKER_01: So we're in a cycle,
16:47
SPEAKER_01: I feel like, of, I hate to compare it to this, but this is how my brain sees
17:01
SPEAKER_01: It's almost like an alcoholic family.
17:03
SPEAKER_01: We're not going to talk about the ugly outside.
17:05
SPEAKER_01: The ugly stays inside.
17:06
SPEAKER_01: Only the pretty goes outside because we want to present the community and
17:09
SPEAKER_01: the people moving here with an image of a school district that's thriving
17:13
SPEAKER_01: and successful so they'll bring their families and their business Yeah,
17:20
SPEAKER_01: we had a bad teacher and he's gone.
17:24
SPEAKER_01: He was gone the next day.
17:25
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we had low reading scores and we did A, B, C, D and got those up.
17:29
SPEAKER_01: We are an improving district and we'd like your family to come along and be a part of that.
17:33
SPEAKER_01: And this is how we made improvements.
17:34
SPEAKER_01: But we're just hiding everything from sexual abuse to physical abuse to trauma.
17:39
SPEAKER_01: Teacher-child relationships.
17:41
SPEAKER_01: We're cutting the parent out of the conversation completely,
17:43
SPEAKER_01: giving them laptops and electronics with email addresses that parents have no access
17:47
SPEAKER_01: to that they can then be used for any social media platform,
17:50
SPEAKER_01: Instagram, Snapchat, OnlyFans, whatever.
17:53
SPEAKER_01: And there's been a really a And I think with our age group,
17:57
SPEAKER_01: I assume you're around my age,
17:59
SPEAKER_01: we have a hard time understanding that school today inside that school building
18:03
SPEAKER_01: during the day is nothing like it was when we were children.
18:07
SPEAKER_01: It's nothing like that now.
18:08
SPEAKER_01: And we need professionals.
18:09
SPEAKER_01: Parental involvement.
18:10
SPEAKER_01: We need that parental responsibility.
18:11
SPEAKER_01: We need them at those board meetings saying, hey, Mr.
18:14
SPEAKER_01: Board member,
18:15
SPEAKER_01: you told me last week you weren't going to do this and I'm here
18:17
SPEAKER_01: to hold you accountable.
18:18
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, one works, but wouldn't a hundred work better?
18:22
SPEAKER_01: Wouldn't a thousand parents work better?
18:24
SPEAKER_01: I think we've got multiple breakdowns and it all goes back to parental involvement,
18:29
SPEAKER_01: community involvement.
18:30
SPEAKER_01: If you're a community member and you see a young child in a restaurant reading
18:33
SPEAKER_01: the menu, what's wrong with saying, wow, your reading skills are on point.
18:37
SPEAKER_01: Great job.
18:38
SPEAKER_01: But we discouraged our elders from asking about grades because they might shame a child.
18:42
SPEAKER_01: Heck yeah.
18:43
SPEAKER_01: If my grandma found out I got a B, I was getting shamed by the entire family.
18:47
SPEAKER_01: I'm not saying that's right or wrong, but,
18:48
SPEAKER_01: you know,
18:49
SPEAKER_01: we did have an involvement in the education of children that we're all paying for
18:52
SPEAKER_01: with our tax dollars.
18:53
SPEAKER_01: Every one of us is contributing money to education,
18:56
SPEAKER_01: whether it's through rent, whether it's through property tax, business revenue.
19:00
SPEAKER_01: It's there and those kids' education is important.
19:03
SPEAKER_01: I just think that there's been a breakdown of that conversation.
19:06
SPEAKER_00: I agree with you.
19:06
SPEAKER_00: I was having a conversation with somebody recently.
19:08
SPEAKER_00: And I said the same thing about the school districts want the PR work to make them look good.
19:14
SPEAKER_00: But the problem is that when a business owner has an apprenticeship or job
19:19
SPEAKER_00: and they need a young person to do it,
19:21
SPEAKER_00: they hire this person only to find out they can't read.
19:24
SPEAKER_00: I do believe having that parental involvement,
19:29
SPEAKER_00: as you said, is what's going to be key because teachers, they're all over the place.
19:34
SPEAKER_00: There's 30, 40, whatever kids in the classroom.
19:36
SPEAKER_00: They're doing the best that they can.
19:38
SPEAKER_00: That's what hiding and shame and all of those things are about.
20:03
SPEAKER_00: This is what's putting students in danger.
20:05
SPEAKER_00: You cannot lie to a parent,
20:07
SPEAKER_00: school board members,
20:08
SPEAKER_00: you cannot lie to a parent and tell them that you're working on student safety,
20:12
SPEAKER_00: but at the same time we're passing the trash and we know that we have predators
20:16
SPEAKER_00: in our classrooms.
20:17
SPEAKER_00: This is the boldness that we have to have,
20:20
SPEAKER_00: maximum sunlight and truth so that the community can trust you.
20:24
SPEAKER_00: I always say, Kendra, that nice is fake.
20:26
SPEAKER_00: And I think that that gets to people on the left because they're always,
20:29
SPEAKER_00: you know, perverting the word kind.
20:30
SPEAKER_00: Be kind, be nice, be all the things.
20:33
SPEAKER_00: In my school district, we are kind of overrun by unions.
20:35
SPEAKER_00: I think that this is something that everyone is facing in society.
20:49
SPEAKER_00: How
20:55
SPEAKER_00: can school board members who have no choice, they feel, to work with unions?
21:00
SPEAKER_00: What is the healthy compromise between that union agenda,
21:04
SPEAKER_00: which is typically further left,
21:06
SPEAKER_00: versus trying to balance that with what the community needs?
21:10
SPEAKER_01: Boy, that's a lot to unpack there, Tiffany.
21:12
SPEAKER_01: In Oklahoma, it's not just one union.
21:15
SPEAKER_01: It's the School Board Association.
21:16
SPEAKER_01: It's the School Administrator Association,
21:18
SPEAKER_01: the School Principal Association, the Teachers Association.
21:22
SPEAKER_01: Now we've got an association that handles our textbooks.
21:25
SPEAKER_01: We've got an association that handles our leftover funds and invests them.
21:28
SPEAKER_01: And so I put a spreadsheet together and I put every association on its own tab.
21:33
SPEAKER_01: And I put in their annual revenue, what kind of entity they were, what year they started.
21:37
SPEAKER_01: I just went to town.
21:38
SPEAKER_01: And what I discovered in the education,
21:40
SPEAKER_01: what I call the education mafia,
21:42
SPEAKER_01: for lack of a better word, Kabul, however you want to describe it.
21:45
SPEAKER_01: There would be a person who would be a board member of this association and then be
21:49
SPEAKER_01: an executive director of another one.
21:51
SPEAKER_01: And then his cousin would be the executive director of one and a board member of another.
21:54
SPEAKER_01: And I started to see the same names across all.
21:57
SPEAKER_01: I did seven total and there's a couple I need to add.
21:59
SPEAKER_01: Seven total.
22:00
SPEAKER_01: Total organizations with names repeating three, four, sometimes five times.
22:05
SPEAKER_01: And those people are in charge and in control of education.
22:10
SPEAKER_01: And in a lot of states,
22:11
SPEAKER_01: the School Board Association has exclusive control over all the school board.
22:16
SPEAKER_01: So I think the first step for a state to take is to find an alternative.
22:21
SPEAKER_01: And a lot of times it's legislated that way or it's an administrative rule of
22:24
SPEAKER_01: the Board of Education.
22:26
SPEAKER_01: The first fix is to remove that rule and give some competition
22:30
SPEAKER_01: to those school board associations.
22:32
SPEAKER_01: Then find competent programs such as Leadership Institute or whomever,
22:36
SPEAKER_01: find a competent program to either replace or at least coexist with
22:40
SPEAKER_01: that school board association training that offers
22:42
SPEAKER_01: that same school district training.
22:43
SPEAKER_01: A lot of states require new school board members to have so much.
22:47
SPEAKER_01: And then additional training every year.
22:49
SPEAKER_01: That would help get a different perspective on the training and more competition on
22:53
SPEAKER_01: the training.
22:54
SPEAKER_01: But working with these associations,
22:56
SPEAKER_01: I would love to tell you that you can go sit down and have coffee with them
22:59
SPEAKER_01: and have lunch with them and make a difference and sway some of this.
23:03
SPEAKER_01: I've tried that.
23:04
SPEAKER_01: So I'll tell you, for me, that did not work.
23:06
SPEAKER_01: There is so much money wrapped in this and it's comical because For an industry such
23:12
SPEAKER_01: as education to be so poor,
23:14
SPEAKER_01: and then for me to come back in the backside as an accountant and see all
23:17
SPEAKER_01: the money wrapped around things such as a Title IX district in Oklahoma City,
23:22
SPEAKER_01: 98% poverty, 95% non-English speaking, but the first
23:28
SPEAKER_01: This is a failing district.
23:31
SPEAKER_01: It's been taken over by the state once,
23:33
SPEAKER_01: and somehow they coughed up $55,000 to pay a speaker to jazz up the teachers.
23:38
SPEAKER_01: And I'm just thinking, teachers, why would you not throw a fit about that?
23:41
SPEAKER_01: That's money that could go, and maybe you don't want it in your pocket.
23:43
SPEAKER_01: Most people don't teach for the money.
23:45
SPEAKER_01: We know that.
23:45
SPEAKER_01: But this is money for items in your classroom.
23:47
SPEAKER_01: This is money for items on your playground.
23:50
SPEAKER_01: This is money that could be utilized and passed through to the students where it belongs.
23:54
SPEAKER_01: But now we've got...
23:56
SPEAKER_01: Speakers,
23:56
SPEAKER_01: companies coming in and doing consulting,
23:59
SPEAKER_01: and they're pulling millions out of districts.
24:01
SPEAKER_01: You've got the School Board Association getting paid $100,000 for a strategic plan
24:08
SPEAKER_01: for a school district with 3,500 kids.
24:10
SPEAKER_01: That does not Make good financial sense.
24:13
SPEAKER_01: But that is what's happening.
24:14
SPEAKER_01: We've got administrators being paid $450,000 a year and producing children who read
24:19
SPEAKER_01: at a third grade level.
24:20
SPEAKER_01: In the corporate world, a 35% success rate would mean you're fired, right?
24:25
SPEAKER_01: But yet, these people are getting a raise.
24:27
SPEAKER_01: And on top of their salaries, they're getting home allowance.
24:29
SPEAKER_01: They're getting car allowance.
24:30
SPEAKER_01: They're getting meal allowance.
24:32
SPEAKER_01: We could go on and on, Tiffany.
24:33
SPEAKER_01: But this is the breakdown.
24:35
SPEAKER_01: I think teachers need to fill their oats a little bit.
24:37
SPEAKER_01: They need to say, I am a teacher.
24:38
SPEAKER_01: I am trained.
24:50
SPEAKER_01: I will teach these children.
24:51
SPEAKER_01: You give me the list of what you want them taught by the end of the year through
24:54
SPEAKER_01: the framework of the standards, and I'll accomplish that.
24:56
SPEAKER_01: And if I don't accomplish that, fire me.
24:58
SPEAKER_01: But don't micromanage me.
24:59
SPEAKER_01: Don't hang out over me.
25:00
SPEAKER_01: Don't tell me I can't go to my son's birthday party.
25:02
SPEAKER_01: You know, let me do my thing.
25:05
SPEAKER_01: And I think you would see a huge rise in people wanting to be teachers.
25:08
SPEAKER_01: It's a great job to be with these kids all day.
25:10
SPEAKER_01: It's wonderful.
25:11
SPEAKER_01: It makes it miserable.
25:12
SPEAKER_01: It's all that administrative overlay on them and that pressure and that conversation.
25:17
SPEAKER_00: Do you hear that, teachers?
25:19
SPEAKER_00: You need to push back on your administration quite a bit more.
25:23
SPEAKER_00: I don't think administrators understand,
25:25
SPEAKER_00: maybe if they were teachers before,
25:27
SPEAKER_00: but if they're so far removed and they're doing a lot of spreadsheet watching
25:31
SPEAKER_00: in Pennsylvania, Okay, I wrote down finances.
25:39
SPEAKER_00: So I'll set this up.
25:40
SPEAKER_00: Situation here in Peoria Unified.
25:43
SPEAKER_00: And for anybody in Peoria who's watching, we are voting no on Proposition 428.
25:47
SPEAKER_00: Our board voted to put an M&O back on our ballot, even though we voted no last year.
25:53
SPEAKER_00: We also have issues in Scottsdale,
25:56
SPEAKER_00: a little further east of here, where their schools are closing, right?
26:00
SPEAKER_00: But if you know anything about Scottsdale Scottsdale Unified, Peoria Unified.
26:04
SPEAKER_00: I just say, let the schools close.
26:06
SPEAKER_00: Whatever puts parents back in charge of education, that is what we need to happen right now.
26:12
SPEAKER_00: The government has gotten too big.
26:14
SPEAKER_00: The whole nanny state thing, parents have taken advantage of that for so many generations.
26:19
SPEAKER_00: And now your kids are being attacked and they're failing all the things.
26:22
SPEAKER_00: Now, school board members,
26:24
SPEAKER_00: they are going to be taken to task again by unions,
26:27
SPEAKER_00: administrators,
26:28
SPEAKER_00: and it seems like teachers,
26:29
SPEAKER_00: the ones who are really quiet when things are going on,
26:32
SPEAKER_00: they seem to find their voice when it comes to asking for money.
26:35
SPEAKER_00: Like you,
26:36
SPEAKER_00: I have seen There
26:41
SPEAKER_00: are even school districts in Arizona who receive multiple millions
26:46
SPEAKER_00: of dollars, Kendra, for what?
26:49
SPEAKER_00: Desegregation efforts.
26:51
SPEAKER_00: It's 2026.
26:52
SPEAKER_00: I'm trying to understand what's going on with them receiving those kinds of funds
26:57
SPEAKER_00: in these school districts.
26:58
SPEAKER_00: But when it comes to paying teachers building repairs,
27:02
SPEAKER_00: they need taxpayers to keep levying their properties in order to fit that bill.
27:07
SPEAKER_01: So I had an interesting conversation and I just pulled my notes from it.
27:10
SPEAKER_01: Oklahoma City School District is one of the largest.
27:13
SPEAKER_01: Well, Tulsa and Oklahoma City are very close.
27:15
SPEAKER_01: They often argue about who's larger, but they've got about 33,000 kids.
27:18
SPEAKER_01: I sat down in October of 2023 with their superintendent to see he had done it for a long time.
27:23
SPEAKER_01: It was a huge district.
27:24
SPEAKER_01: I just really want to pick his brain about what worked and what didn't work in his opinion.
27:29
SPEAKER_01: Now, this superintendent closed 15 schools and he was not a popular man for this.
27:34
SPEAKER_01: You can imagine how they came after him.
27:36
SPEAKER_01: So I said, explain that to me.
27:38
SPEAKER_01: What was the thought process?
27:39
SPEAKER_01: How did it work?
27:40
SPEAKER_01: And what was the result?
27:42
SPEAKER_01: So his explanation was, even if a school They now have 32 elementaries.
27:59
SPEAKER_01: And what those school closures allowed him, the success that came out of that.
28:03
SPEAKER_01: They added art, music,
28:04
SPEAKER_01: counseling, and they doubled their reading specialists by closing those 15 schools.
28:09
SPEAKER_01: A district hub was created in one building.
28:11
SPEAKER_01: They leased out the others to the health department.
28:14
SPEAKER_01: And then they leased out six of them to charter schools that they sponsored
28:21
SPEAKER_01: that are now independent operating charter schools.
28:23
SPEAKER_01: Our charter schools in Oklahoma are publicly funded, privately ran.
28:26
SPEAKER_01: So they got art, music, PE, and STEM in everything.
28:29
SPEAKER_01: Every elementary, they were also able to add AP classes for the high school.
28:33
SPEAKER_01: So I think that when we hear the words,
28:35
SPEAKER_01: and it's often the left and the unions that want us to hear
28:38
SPEAKER_01: the words school closure,
28:40
SPEAKER_01: but the side effect of school closure is a better education for those children at
28:44
SPEAKER_01: the We can't get hung up on closing these schools.
29:07
SPEAKER_01: They're handling that piece.
29:09
SPEAKER_01: And at the end of the day, I think the kids benefit from that.
29:11
SPEAKER_01: The other piece of this we didn't touch on are the, I noticed an influx of attorneys.
29:15
SPEAKER_01: Every school board and every school has an attorney now.
29:18
SPEAKER_01: And these attorneys are there to represent the district.
29:21
SPEAKER_01: They're not there to represent families and children and teachers.
29:24
SPEAKER_01: They're there to represent the district as a whole.
29:26
SPEAKER_01: I think we need to understand that.
29:28
SPEAKER_01: So school board members are being advised by attorneys who do not have,
29:30
SPEAKER_01: it's not that they don't have
29:41
SPEAKER_01: That's right.
29:56
SPEAKER_01: I remember asking for, we would have a line item for the P-card that was paid.
29:59
SPEAKER_01: I don't want to see a line item for the P-card.
30:01
SPEAKER_01: I want to see the P-card transactions.
30:03
SPEAKER_01: And you would have thought I was
30:15
SPEAKER_01: That's another layer of where they kind of hide these financial transactions
30:18
SPEAKER_01: within these P cards or credit cards or whatever they happen to have.
30:32
SPEAKER_01: So it's a huge onion.
30:33
SPEAKER_01: It's multiple layers.
30:34
SPEAKER_01: But we all know that one person paying attention makes all of the difference
30:38
SPEAKER_01: and asking the right questions.
30:40
SPEAKER_01: There needs to be more education on our parts about how schools work.
30:44
SPEAKER_01: The funds are, in my opinion, intended to be.
30:47
SPEAKER_01: That's happening.
30:48
SPEAKER_01: That's happening.
30:49
SPEAKER_01: Tulsa Public Schools here just had three,
30:51
SPEAKER_01: four million skimmed off by an architect that they hired on staff and
31:02
SPEAKER_01: He funneled all kinds of money through.
31:03
SPEAKER_01: He's probably going to jail.
31:05
SPEAKER_01: Now, if Tulsa Public Schools,
31:06
SPEAKER_01: who says that they don't have the money to educate their kids,
31:09
SPEAKER_01: had that $3 million back for 33,000 students,
31:12
SPEAKER_01: you can do the math and see how much money would have went back in their budget.
31:15
SPEAKER_01: But the oversight that the board was responsible By the way,
31:18
SPEAKER_01: they had two board members stand up against that,
31:20
SPEAKER_01: ask for oversight,
31:21
SPEAKER_01: turned in Tulsa Public Schools for breaking the Open Meetings Act.
31:24
SPEAKER_01: The school subsequently sued them and it became a very big deal.
31:28
SPEAKER_01: This is what we're looking at.
31:30
SPEAKER_01: We just need qualified And qualified,
31:33
SPEAKER_01: I use loosely,
31:34
SPEAKER_01: it doesn't mean you go on the board and know all the financial in and outs.
31:37
SPEAKER_01: Qualified to me means I'm capable,
31:39
SPEAKER_01: able, and willing to learn how this school works from the ground up.
31:42
SPEAKER_01: And I take that as my responsibility in this role to ensure that the kids
31:46
SPEAKER_01: in my district that I'm serving get the very best education they can.
31:49
SPEAKER_00: I want to hone in on something you said
31:51
SPEAKER_00: about school closures actually benefiting students because that is not something
31:56
SPEAKER_00: that you hear.
31:57
SPEAKER_00: I do my best with just basically telling parents that you should be in control
32:02
SPEAKER_00: of education anyway because you're I think that that is kind of sending a message
32:07
SPEAKER_00: that everybody should homeschool.
32:08
SPEAKER_00: That's not necessarily what I'm saying.
32:10
SPEAKER_00: You were talking about adding those programs that
32:12
SPEAKER_00: the students really do need once they don't have that overhead with
32:16
SPEAKER_00: the additional buildings that are not at capacity.
32:19
SPEAKER_00: And yes, I agree with you.
32:21
SPEAKER_00: It does create some difficulty,
32:24
SPEAKER_00: but the cuts that it seems like board members are being forced to make,
32:27
SPEAKER_00: it's always something that hurts children.
32:29
SPEAKER_00: We're going to get rid of the bus route or there's a certain program that we can't fund anymore.
32:33
SPEAKER_00: In my mind, I should just say this during a public comment.
32:37
SPEAKER_00: How about everybody that makes six figures?
32:39
SPEAKER_00: You don't get a raise for a couple of years.
32:42
SPEAKER_00: We're going to keep your income the same.
32:45
SPEAKER_00: So, you know, restaining that deck or putting in the pool, you're going to have to put that.
32:49
SPEAKER_00: I would love to get that message out there for the board members and the parents and
32:53
SPEAKER_00: the community members.
33:04
SPEAKER_00: I think bonds were a big problem when they started coming in because people spent money.
33:29
SPEAKER_01: That they would not have normally spent.
33:31
SPEAKER_01: So for instance, we've got a $14 million bond.
33:35
SPEAKER_01: It can only be spent on an performing arts center.
33:38
SPEAKER_01: Okay, we've got $14 million.
33:41
SPEAKER_01: We just have to get the bond passed.
33:42
SPEAKER_01: Well, that performing arts center is going So, you're setting the budget with the bond.
33:46
SPEAKER_01: You're convincing
33:59
SPEAKER_01: We're asking people that that bond money could never be used for teacher salaries.
34:02
SPEAKER_01: Oh, no, it's a whole different bucket, guys.
34:04
SPEAKER_01: So don't worry about the teacher salaries.
34:06
SPEAKER_01: Can't use bond money for that.
34:08
SPEAKER_01: So they'll just have to figure that out on their own.
34:10
SPEAKER_01: But we can build a $14 million performing arts center.
34:13
SPEAKER_01: Completely blows my account.
34:16
SPEAKER_01: Because it makes no sense.
34:18
SPEAKER_01: But this is how the public is sold.
34:19
SPEAKER_01: And then you have principals and school leadership going, do it for the kids.
34:23
SPEAKER_01: Vote yes.
34:24
SPEAKER_01: Do it for the kids.
34:25
SPEAKER_01: Don't you want our kids to have AstroTurf?
34:27
SPEAKER_01: No, I don't.
34:28
SPEAKER_01: I want my kid to read at a 12.
34:29
SPEAKER_01: All of these taxpaying people are handing over good money for bad purchases, period.
34:44
SPEAKER_01: And the people who deserve it,
34:45
SPEAKER_01: the little girls like me,
34:46
SPEAKER_01: my parents would not have homeschooled me because they were not sober enough
34:49
SPEAKER_01: at eight in the morning to start school, right?
34:51
SPEAKER_01: Public school was my saving grace, so I'm with you.
34:53
SPEAKER_01: Homeschool, charter schools, private schools are not the answer.
34:56
SPEAKER_01: The answer is for America to wake up and fight for their public schools,
34:59
SPEAKER_01: get the money where it needs to be,
35:01
SPEAKER_01: get our teachers the pay they deserve,
35:03
SPEAKER_01: and get our kids reading at the proper level every single year without exception.
35:07
SPEAKER_01: Period.
35:07
SPEAKER_00: I think until we do that on a consistent basis for a couple of generations,
35:12
SPEAKER_00: we shouldn't be passing any overrides or bonds.
35:16
SPEAKER_00: Reasonably, yes,
35:17
SPEAKER_00: we know buildings need maintenance and upkeep and we need new textbooks
35:21
SPEAKER_00: and all those things,
35:21
SPEAKER_00: but what we've I've been saying throughout this podcast is
35:24
SPEAKER_00: that those funds are already sitting in some bucket somewhere and it just needs
35:28
SPEAKER_00: to be reallocated.
35:29
SPEAKER_00: School board members,
35:30
SPEAKER_00: conservative school board members,
35:32
SPEAKER_00: fiscal conservatism is you making the suggestion that we reallocate before.
35:37
SPEAKER_00: Before we ask the community for more money,
35:39
SPEAKER_00: we can see projects are failing to meet the deadlines.
35:43
SPEAKER_00: They're not being completed by the next school year.
35:45
SPEAKER_00: Or we're in the middle of a project bringing in another project on top of that
35:49
SPEAKER_00: when we haven't even seen any results yet.
35:52
SPEAKER_00: We're going to have to take that more seriously.
35:57
SPEAKER_00: I've watched my board members' faces and the notes they take when the CFO is standing up there.
36:01
SPEAKER_00: We're in the audience sitting shoulder
36:02
SPEAKER_00: to shoulder like they don't even understand what the CFO is saying.
36:05
SPEAKER_00: Let's see what question they ask.
36:07
SPEAKER_00: Transcription by CastingWords
36:22
SPEAKER_00: It's a friendly one, but that is a confrontation that a taxpayer have to bring to them.
36:26
SPEAKER_00: In the state of Arizona,
36:27
SPEAKER_00: we are consistently ranked number 47, 48, 49, 50 for the education experience.
36:33
SPEAKER_00: At the same time, we have a robust empowerment scholarship and statement.
36:38
SPEAKER_00: So schools closing to me seems very natural.
36:42
SPEAKER_00: If parents are pulling their kids out,
36:44
SPEAKER_00: they're utilizing alternative education methods,
36:47
SPEAKER_00: schools closing, that's not something that should be setting anyone's hair on fire.
36:51
SPEAKER_00: The kids are okay.
36:52
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
36:52
SPEAKER_00: It's the teachers who need to pivot and use their skills and training maybe
36:56
SPEAKER_00: to pick up a second job or maybe it's time to change careers.
37:00
SPEAKER_01: Well, and I think we need to prepare and ask tough questions as a community, for instance.
37:04
SPEAKER_01: Okay, great.
37:05
SPEAKER_01: So we're going to put a solid glass front on the local high Did that help our reading rates?
37:08
SPEAKER_01: Or could we have just done a brick front with a couple of windows
37:22
SPEAKER_01: I'm glad you said that.
37:23
SPEAKER_01: It's really
37:38
SPEAKER_00: The investment that we're making is financial,
37:41
SPEAKER_00: but foremost, it's minds and souls of children and the future of the nation.
37:45
SPEAKER_00: What we want to do is have everything going in the same direction,
37:49
SPEAKER_00: the right direction at the same time.
37:51
SPEAKER_00: If the district has a reputation, So I've been to NLI school board training.
37:53
SPEAKER_00: I found it informative.
37:54
SPEAKER_00: The conversations get a bit lively because there are difficulties.
38:07
SPEAKER_00: Different levels of conservatism, if you know what I mean.
38:10
SPEAKER_00: Tell us about what a school board member or candidate can expect
38:14
SPEAKER_00: when they're attending a training course.
38:16
SPEAKER_01: Leadership Institute, it's a wonderful training.
38:19
SPEAKER_01: We are a 501c3, so anyone is welcome to come to this training.
38:22
SPEAKER_01: We are happy to provide it to whoever walks in the door as a school board member.
38:27
SPEAKER_01: We focus on governance, responsibility, authority.
38:30
SPEAKER_01: We even focus a little bit on conversations with community members here in Oklahoma.
38:34
SPEAKER_01: I feel like our board members are discouraged from We work on a little bit
38:37
SPEAKER_01: of finance, budgeting.
38:51
SPEAKER_01: We are authorized to train in several states,
38:55
SPEAKER_01: Oklahoma, Tennessee, Florida, working on Arkansas.
38:59
SPEAKER_01: We just got Arkansas, that's right.
39:00
SPEAKER_01: We are providing that alternative to state school board associations.
39:04
SPEAKER_01: And we have a good time.
39:06
SPEAKER_01: We feed you.
39:06
SPEAKER_01: Most of our trainings are at no cost.
39:08
SPEAKER_01: So, for instance,
39:09
SPEAKER_01: in Arkansas,
39:10
SPEAKER_01: we save them $1.7 million if we do all of their school board training
39:14
SPEAKER_01: because school board association funds come directly from the taxpayer's pocket,
39:19
SPEAKER_01: funneled through the school to the association.
39:22
SPEAKER_01: It's taxpayer dollars that we're saving,
39:24
SPEAKER_01: and that's what we're all about,
39:25
SPEAKER_01: lowering taxes, saving money, and educating kids well.
39:29
SPEAKER_00: When it comes to school boards here in Arizona,
39:32
SPEAKER_00: we claim to be nonpartisan, Kendra, nonpartisan.
39:35
SPEAKER_00: What I think school board members would benefit from is learning the platform
39:40
SPEAKER_00: for what is conservative versus what is liberal.
39:43
SPEAKER_00: Nonpartisan.
39:44
SPEAKER_00: Not what's Democrat and not what's Republican separate party politics from
39:49
SPEAKER_00: the values that are going to show up in the policies and laws.
39:53
SPEAKER_00: They are connected.
39:54
SPEAKER_00: Like on the right, we tend to believe in God, so we want to do things in a moral way.
39:58
SPEAKER_00: People from the left.
39:59
SPEAKER_00: They worship themselves.
40:00
SPEAKER_00: And so it's very humanistic.
40:02
SPEAKER_00: What I am trying to say, it can't be about the interests of a party.
40:05
SPEAKER_00: With governance, it has to be about practices on school grounds.
40:09
SPEAKER_00: Values are going to show up for a school district how
40:13
SPEAKER_00: a day-to-day It should not be difficult for a teacher to mandate report
40:16
SPEAKER_00: if something happens.
40:16
SPEAKER_00: It should not create backlash or stress or turbulence for the school district.
40:31
SPEAKER_00: I'm pro-parent.
40:36
SPEAKER_00: That doesn't mean that parents are always right.
40:38
SPEAKER_00: Just for me, it means that God gives children to the parents.
40:40
SPEAKER_00: That's what I mean by pro-parent.
40:42
SPEAKER_00: When you approach from a...
40:45
SPEAKER_00: You're going to come to a consensus that is going to be best for governing that district.
40:50
SPEAKER_00: And then when you have the policies in place, all we need administrators to do is enforce it.
40:55
SPEAKER_00: If you could take that six-figure salary and just enforce it.
40:59
SPEAKER_00: Consistency is very important.
41:00
SPEAKER_00: Enforce it fairly and consistently across every family in that district.
41:03
SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
41:14
SPEAKER_00: If you see yourself going there and you're working on your resume,
41:19
SPEAKER_00: I recommend doing a Leadership Institute training.
41:21
SPEAKER_00: If nothing else, it'll keep you human.
41:24
SPEAKER_00: Don't get so high in your position you dehumanize your subordinates and your community.
41:29
SPEAKER_01: You're exactly right.
41:30
SPEAKER_01: And I noticed with myself this was this weird thing
41:33
SPEAKER_01: that happened was I was super quiet,
41:36
SPEAKER_01: super uninvolved, and I became educated in the matter.
41:39
SPEAKER_01: And the more educated I became, the more confident I became.
41:43
SPEAKER_01: And the more confident I became, the more outspoken I became.
41:46
SPEAKER_01: So all of this really starts with education,
41:48
SPEAKER_01: educating board members on how things should work and whatever that looks like
41:52
SPEAKER_01: for your community.
41:53
SPEAKER_01: Community,
41:53
SPEAKER_01: create a group to train board members,
41:55
SPEAKER_01: create a group to watch the boards and to explain
41:58
SPEAKER_01: to parents what they should be looking for.
41:59
SPEAKER_01: Because honestly, a lot of it I didn't know.
42:02
SPEAKER_01: I had to learn it.
42:03
SPEAKER_01: It's something you have to learn.
42:04
SPEAKER_01: So the community can be a part of that education, holding those people accountable.
42:07
SPEAKER_01: And imagine being elected to a school board,
42:09
SPEAKER_01: having no idea what you're doing,
42:10
SPEAKER_01: and your people who elected, you just go silent and you have no support.
42:14
SPEAKER_01: So please support your board members who are doing those conservative things
42:18
SPEAKER_01: that you want them to do,
42:19
SPEAKER_01: making good policy,
42:20
SPEAKER_01: enforcing good policy,
42:22
SPEAKER_01: Please support them,
42:23
SPEAKER_01: educate them,
42:23
SPEAKER_01: help them,
42:24
SPEAKER_01: hold up their wings as they're trying to hold these schools together
42:26
SPEAKER_01: for our public school kids who have education as a bridge out of poverty,
42:31
SPEAKER_01: out of whatever they have going on in their lives.
42:33
SPEAKER_01: That's their chance.
42:34
SPEAKER_01: That's what you get to provide to kids in your community is a good education.
42:38
SPEAKER_01: And that should be taken seriously.
42:39
SPEAKER_00: Yes, I agree.
42:40
SPEAKER_00: One thing I will add is that school board members,
42:43
SPEAKER_00: you need to find who the activists are in your community.
42:45
SPEAKER_00: We work for you because you have that constituency.
42:48
SPEAKER_00: You've got to draw inside of some lines.
42:51
SPEAKER_00: Your First Amendment's looking a little funny on the dais,
42:54
SPEAKER_00: but I can come and make a public comment for you.
42:55
SPEAKER_00: No problem.
42:56
SPEAKER_00: Let's open the discussion.
42:58
SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
42:59
SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
42:59
SPEAKER_01: See, we've got it solved all in one hour.
43:02
SPEAKER_00: All right.
43:03
SPEAKER_00: Well, tell us about the event that you have coming up.
43:05
SPEAKER_01: On September 25th and the 26th,
43:07
SPEAKER_01: we are offering a school board training in West Palm Beach, September 25th.
43:12
SPEAKER_01: We're offering a school board,
43:13
SPEAKER_01: what we call Learn Right,
43:14
SPEAKER_01: which is all kinds of speakers on education for community activists.
43:18
SPEAKER_01: So two days of events.
43:19
SPEAKER_01: And then the next time we come to Arizona,
43:22
SPEAKER_01: of course, I will be letting Tiffany know so she can make you guys aware.
43:25
SPEAKER_01: These leadership,
43:26
SPEAKER_01: school board leadership trainings are all over the U.S. We have several coming up.
43:30
SPEAKER_01: If you want to go to our website and look for one near you,
43:32
SPEAKER_01: if you'd like to speak to me as a school board member about anything you need
43:35
SPEAKER_01: that I can help with,
43:36
SPEAKER_01: get with Ms. Tiffany and she'll get you my contact information.
43:39
SPEAKER_01: So we're excited.
43:40
SPEAKER_01: We're really launching off this year in a big way.
43:42
SPEAKER_01: We have events scheduled almost every week until tomorrow.
43:45
SPEAKER_00: Wonderful.
43:46
SPEAKER_00: All right.
43:47
SPEAKER_00: Well, any final words to those in the community watching this?
43:51
SPEAKER_00: They are thinking about running for school board,
43:53
SPEAKER_00: but they see all of the arrows that lone board member is taking,
43:58
SPEAKER_00: whether it be from parents, unions, whatever.
44:00
SPEAKER_00: What is your word of encouragement for those who just need that last little push
44:04
SPEAKER_00: to become more active in their communities?
44:07
SPEAKER_01: The weapon may be formed, but it won't prosper.
44:10
SPEAKER_01: Keep your eye on the prize, your nose in the book.
44:13
SPEAKER_01: The great book.
44:14
SPEAKER_01: And move forward the way the Lord intends you to.
44:16
SPEAKER_01: And just remember, God is for us.
44:18
SPEAKER_01: Who can be against us?
44:19
SPEAKER_01: So just do it.
44:20
SPEAKER_01: Just jump out there.
44:21
SPEAKER_01: Keep going.
44:21
SPEAKER_01: Do it for the kids.
44:23
SPEAKER_01: Do it for your faith and your beliefs.
44:25
SPEAKER_01: We need good people running for school boards.
44:27
SPEAKER_01: That is the key.