Latest / Laguna Talks / Laguna Talks to FUEL about turmoil at the School Board

Transcript

Laguna Talks to FUEL about turmoil at the School Board · Laguna Talks

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Appreciate what they bring to Laguna Beach because they really
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: do bring a soul here that would be missing if
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: we were all gone. So if you can support them
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: financially a little bit by a painting, by a sculpture
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: or some ceramics, whatever, then do that as well, because
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: it really makes our day when we know that people
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: are enjoying what we do. And I know Casey you
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: probably feel the same way.
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: I imagine absolutely no, this is great. Well, thanks for
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: having me this.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: So okay, thanks Casey. Folks you're listening to KXFM Radio
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: here in Laguna Beach. It's a beautiful day out there,
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: so I hope you'll enjoy it.
• 0:38
  Speaker 3: FM Radio dot Org.
• 0:42
  Speaker 4: This disclaimer is a statement notifying listening audiences that any
• 0:45
  Speaker 4: opinions expressed in our shows are not representative of Laguna Radio, Inc.
• 0:48
  Speaker 3: Its management, or its board of directors.
• 0:50
  Speaker 5: Hey there, what's up, Laguna? Janice Murray here with news
• 0:54
  Speaker 5: new Laguna Beach School superintendent doctor Jason Glass has been
• 0:58
  Speaker 5: fired by the Unified School District's board less.
• 1:02
  Speaker 6: Than a year into his four year agreement.
• 1:05
  Speaker 5: During a closed door session, the school board May twelfth
• 1:08
  Speaker 5: decided on a quote mutual agreement unquote with Superintendent Doctor
• 1:14
  Speaker 5: Glass for him to depart, and he leaves May thirty first.
• 1:18
  Speaker 6: Which essentially means he's been fired.
• 1:21
  Speaker 5: Doctor Glass was hired just last summer by LBUSD and
• 1:26
  Speaker 5: had served previously as the Kentucky Commissioner of Education for
• 1:31
  Speaker 5: three years plus the Associate VP of Teaching and Learning
• 1:35
  Speaker 5: at Western Michigan University.
• 1:38
  Speaker 6: He'd even moved his family here.
• 1:40
  Speaker 5: Board President Sherry Morgan, Howard Hills, and d Perry voted
• 1:45
  Speaker 5: for the astor in a three to two vote, and
• 1:48
  Speaker 5: the community is up in arms. Dozens protested outside with
• 1:54
  Speaker 5: parents opposing the aster, with science claiming shame to the board,
• 2:00
  Speaker 5: with their kids shouting too for doctor Glass. Then the
• 2:04
  Speaker 5: board appointed former Laguna High School Principal Don Austin as
• 2:08
  Speaker 5: the new superintendent, starting July first. And I'm Janis Murray
• 2:13
  Speaker 5: for news on one of four seven KXFM. And now
• 2:19
  Speaker 5: here's Dave Jess.
• 2:20
  Speaker 7: We have another good looking afternoon on our hands, sunshining control.
• 2:24
  Speaker 7: It's a little bit breezy and temperatures are up a
• 2:26
  Speaker 7: degree or two seventy at the beach seventy two, the
• 2:29
  Speaker 7: hilltop of the canyon seventy Tonight some clouds around fifty seven,
• 2:33
  Speaker 7: but not a lot of clouds.
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: We kind of call it partly to mostly cloudy.
• 2:36
  Speaker 7: Wednesday, same kind of story, some early early morning clouds
• 2:39
  Speaker 7: quickly going sunny and seventy two degrees. The marine layers
• 2:43
  Speaker 7: a little thicker and deeper Thursday and Friday, so there'll
• 2:47
  Speaker 7: be more morning clouds around Thursday and Friday, and temperatures
• 2:51
  Speaker 7: will cool back a couple of degrees. That's my forecast
• 2:54
  Speaker 7: on Meteorologist Dave Murray. Tune in, turn on to KXFM
• 2:57
  Speaker 7: one oh four to seven, Lagunas, commune to the radio.
• 3:25
  Speaker 8: It's a shame.
• 3:27
  Speaker 4: We have to surround it.
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: Demand it's such shame.
• 3:33
  Speaker 6: Hurting.
• 3:34
  Speaker 9: It's a shame.
• 3:37
  Speaker 8: Were as surround wisdom man on city all alone, mother said, waiting.
• 3:44
  Speaker 10: Folly, And when you're not gone, it's a shame.
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: When you're about it the man, it's a shame, my
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: mo shot. It's a shame.
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: When you missmelling the man.
• 4:02
  Speaker 4: You're like a child on the sun.
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: Miss a flagain, you throw it away.
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: Us, So it's a shame.
• 4:34
  Speaker 9: And when you miss abound it, it's.
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: A shape saway. It's a shame. And when you missus,
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: I try to stay.
• 4:49
  Speaker 3: So true, but you won't appreciate it.
• 4:53
  Speaker 10: A love we try.
• 4:57
  Speaker 6: To be a shame.
• 5:10
  Speaker 4: This day.
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: The way you move around with you make.
• 5:30
  Speaker 4: Shave away.
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: The shaking and say.
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: The way you feel Papa anything love friend, I'm das
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: so get some shape, sat away you.
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: Hurt me.
• 6:25
  Speaker 11: On the road the happily ever after. There's a place
• 6:30
  Speaker 11: you just might see. Now, there ain't no sign and
• 6:35
  Speaker 11: exit's really hard to find. But if you're heart.
• 6:39
  Speaker 6: Should never feeling new.
• 6:43
  Speaker 9: To come down here where the pavement turns back to
• 6:49
  Speaker 9: dirt and stone. Yeah, it's a strange old place. It's
• 6:56
  Speaker 9: all burned in black. Don't look open, but you can
• 6:59
  Speaker 9: see that the lights are on. The sign out front
• 7:04
  Speaker 9: says se us. Welcome week, Go ladies and gentlemen.
• 7:10
  Speaker 3: It is the two o'clock hour on kx FM radio
• 7:16
  Speaker 3: and it's time for Laguna Talks. I'm your host, Billy
• 7:19
  Speaker 3: Freed for then hour of hopefully scintillating conversation with people
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: around Laguna that make this town what it is. And
• 7:26
  Speaker 3: today we have a very special show like to welcome
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: shaheen shh, shake subtle, shake subtle, There we go and
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: Nuth Morris, both from Fuel Families United for Education in Laguna.
• 7:39
  Speaker 3: Did I say that? Right? Awesome? And uh you guys.
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: And the school district has been in the news lately
• 7:48
  Speaker 3: for an abrupt parting of ways between the school superintendent,
• 7:52
  Speaker 3: Jason Glass, and the school board. And I am today
• 7:58
  Speaker 3: going to play the role of let's say, eighty percent
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: of Laguna who don't have kids in the school system
• 8:04
  Speaker 3: and really are low information in terms of how this
• 8:08
  Speaker 3: is impacting families and our community, because interestingly, we do vote, right,
• 8:15
  Speaker 3: we have a vote, and we'll talk about that the
• 8:18
  Speaker 3: process of who gets elected to the board, who may
• 8:21
  Speaker 3: or may not be in the eyes of parents, the
• 8:25
  Speaker 3: right choice of the most qualified, but nonetheless won the
• 8:29
  Speaker 3: vote because maybe they just out campaigned, did their competition,
• 8:32
  Speaker 3: and have a higher awareness as I try to figure
• 8:35
  Speaker 3: out how to get my mic to stabilize. Hey, there
• 8:38
  Speaker 3: we go. Okay, So run us through if you would,
• 8:44
  Speaker 3: this series of events that not only have started with
• 8:50
  Speaker 3: they said it was a mutual parting of the ways,
• 8:53
  Speaker 3: which I think is a legal way of saying of
• 8:55
  Speaker 3: protecting one another from liability. You're a lawyer, right, I
• 8:58
  Speaker 3: am a lawyer. Yeah, And so I've noticed in the
• 9:01
  Speaker 3: media that I've read about this that nobody's saying anything.
• 9:05
  Speaker 3: And that's kind of standard, right, because in the settlement process,
• 9:09
  Speaker 3: when two parties agree to part ways, usually there's some
• 9:13
  Speaker 3: sort of non disclosure clause they can't talk about it.
• 9:17
  Speaker 4: Sure, confidentiality protest.
• 9:20
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and I still have not seen anything that explained
• 9:25
  Speaker 3: to me in any concrete way why this happened. After
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: doctor Glass was recruited from the state of Kentucky had
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: quite the resume. I did see many of the columns
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: that he wrote in the Independent informing the community as
• 9:40
  Speaker 3: to what he was doing best practices. He seemed like
• 9:44
  Speaker 3: a highly intelligent, capable executive administrator who everybody was excited about.
• 9:50
  Speaker 3: And ten months later he's gone, and he uprooted his
• 9:53
  Speaker 3: family and you know, settled in Laguna. Who knows what's
• 9:58
  Speaker 3: next for him now paid a quite a handsome salary.
• 10:02
  Speaker 3: Maybe as parents, and let's start there. You guys both
• 10:04
  Speaker 3: have kids in the school system.
• 10:06
  Speaker 4: Yeah, so I have a high schooler in a middle
• 10:08
  Speaker 4: school and they both started from elementary first grade. Okay,
• 10:12
  Speaker 4: so kind of going through the system.
• 10:13
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and what brought you to Laguna?
• 10:15
  Speaker 4: The schools?
• 10:16
  Speaker 3: No kidding, So where did you move from.
• 10:18
  Speaker 4: We were in North Orange County and we were I
• 10:23
  Speaker 4: was driving the kids from there from Anaheim all the
• 10:26
  Speaker 4: way down to Annalise in the Canyon. I drove one
• 10:29
  Speaker 4: hundred miles a day. So I wanted because I wanted
• 10:31
  Speaker 4: that school for my kids.
• 10:32
  Speaker 3: Okay, what is it about? Is that a Waldorf school?
• 10:37
  Speaker 4: Waldorf? But it's yeah, it's like a magic faeryland is
• 10:39
  Speaker 4: the best way to describe it.
• 10:41
  Speaker 3: Yeah, particularly good for your kids because.
• 10:45
  Speaker 4: It had a deep emphasis on play and curiosity. They
• 10:50
  Speaker 4: were scratch cooking their meals every day. They let kids
• 10:53
  Speaker 4: be kids. They had a deep appreciation for foreign language,
• 10:58
  Speaker 4: inquisitive you know, aademic inquisitive learning, et cetera, et cetera.
• 11:02
  Speaker 4: So that was a very for that developmental age that
• 11:05
  Speaker 4: in all of my research, that was what was the
• 11:07
  Speaker 4: best for kids.
• 11:08
  Speaker 3: Got it and they had a good experience, a great experience,
• 11:11
  Speaker 3: and then you wanted to keep them in the Laguna
• 11:12
  Speaker 3: school system, even though the high school or the middle
• 11:15
  Speaker 3: school is not part of this analyse system right exactly.
• 11:19
  Speaker 4: So at that time my husband and I had to
• 11:22
  Speaker 4: start making decisions about, Okay, well where do we anchor
• 11:24
  Speaker 4: our family? And we wanted them to be able to
• 11:26
  Speaker 4: start a school district and kind of run through the
• 11:28
  Speaker 4: whole school district. And we grew up in North Orange
• 11:31
  Speaker 4: County and I'm hills in or Blinda. We went through
• 11:32
  Speaker 4: that school system. We did great. Principal Jamison, who lives
• 11:35
  Speaker 4: here in town, was my principal in high school at
• 11:37
  Speaker 4: Canyon Wow. So you know, we did really well by
• 11:41
  Speaker 4: our schools. So we wanted to And I am a
• 11:44
  Speaker 4: product of public school for college and law school, so
• 11:47
  Speaker 4: for me, public school systems did me such a great service.
• 11:52
  Speaker 4: And I fully believe in the system of public education.
• 11:56
  Speaker 4: So we would have rather found a really great public
• 11:58
  Speaker 4: school system then stuck our kids in private schools, which
• 12:01
  Speaker 4: is also an option. So we started looking around, and
• 12:04
  Speaker 4: we also wanted to find a community that was, you know,
• 12:07
  Speaker 4: kind of aligned with our values, et cetera, et cetera.
• 12:09
  Speaker 4: And I started like zooming in on the map in
• 12:11
  Speaker 4: Orange County and we landed here, and as I tell
• 12:15
  Speaker 4: the story, we kind of sunk every last penny we
• 12:18
  Speaker 4: had to buy in nineteen sixty three fixer and got
• 12:22
  Speaker 4: our kids in the school system.
• 12:24
  Speaker 3: And have you've been able to fix it?
• 12:26
  Speaker 4: We did during COVID of all times.
• 12:27
  Speaker 3: Yeah, well that was a good time to find that
• 12:30
  Speaker 3: essential workers.
• 12:31
  Speaker 4: Yeah exactly. So we did fix it, and you know,
• 12:34
  Speaker 4: we're not going anywhere the kids now. My oldest, our
• 12:37
  Speaker 4: oldest is in tenth grade, and you know, we've kind
• 12:39
  Speaker 4: of been able to run through the system with her
• 12:41
  Speaker 4: and she's had an incredible experience.
• 12:44
  Speaker 3: Well, first, I want to congratulate you on getting your
• 12:46
  Speaker 3: home remodeled. Yeah, I think that's quite an accomplishment.
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: But I joked at that's the hazing ritual to join
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: the Fraternity of Laguna Beach, right, Yeah, exactly.
• 12:56
  Speaker 3: I think a lot of first time buyers in Laguna,
• 12:58
  Speaker 3: people that are raising family, they find out how hard
• 13:01
  Speaker 3: it can be and that they if they're doing a
• 13:04
  Speaker 3: major reno, they can't even move in yet. And this
• 13:07
  Speaker 3: kind of very arduous system of design review actually favors
• 13:12
  Speaker 3: people with a lot of disposable income because they can
• 13:14
  Speaker 3: live in a second or third home while they're renovating,
• 13:17
  Speaker 3: you know, so it has the opposite kind of pernicious
• 13:19
  Speaker 3: effect of excluding the very people that you want to
• 13:23
  Speaker 3: welcome to the community by having this rigid design review process.
• 13:27
  Speaker 4: Totally. Yes, it was not an easy process, but we
• 13:31
  Speaker 4: were committed to doing it because we wanted our kids
• 13:33
  Speaker 4: to stay in this school disn't.
• 13:34
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and nuth You've said several times when we've met that,
• 13:37
  Speaker 3: you know, as a young parent, one of the things
• 13:39
  Speaker 3: that attracts parents to Laguna is, of course we talk
• 13:43
  Speaker 3: about the climate, the beauty, the weather, the ocean. But
• 13:47
  Speaker 3: this is school. Yeah.
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: I think for just about any resident, if you said,
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: what are the top five things about Laguna Beach, this
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: school district would be in there. Even for people that
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: don't have kids in the district, they just know that
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: it's one of the things that makes our community out.
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: I did not move here for the schools. I moved
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: here because I got a cheap bachelor pad over on
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: table rock that had one of the keys for one
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: of those private stairs.
• 14:09
  Speaker 3: Oh yeah.
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: And I met my now wife on an airplane. She
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: was living in Chicago, and when she saw where, she
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: agreed to move in with me. After she saw left.
• 14:19
  Speaker 3: Yeah, the bachelor that in December or January.
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: February, Chicago, you know, the j So we didn't think
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: too much about schools or anything like that. Which we
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: were childless at the childless and we got and if
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: you'd asked me at that time, I probably would have said, oh,
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: you know, we'll move Inland and do private school or
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: something like that. Then we got pregnant, had our first child,
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: and he has special needs kids. We need services. So
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: we spent about three years. Kind of we had diagnosis
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: pretty early, and so we spent a couple of years
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: going over all of southern California his autism. We actually
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: got an autism diagnosis before most people would do it
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: up at UCLA and struggle to piece together services. And
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: if you're in the autism community, you're probably an special
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: needs community. They tell you to lawyer up before you
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: go in and talk to your school. But we went
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: in and sat down and a couple of the people
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: that were there, one of them is Mike Conlin, he's
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: now a superintendent, was the first person to look at
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: us and say, we have all the services that you'll
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: need right here, and your child is going to be fine.
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: He was nonverbal and didn't walk at that time. So
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: fast forward. Now he's going into the high school and
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: he's had a wonderful experience. He's got friends, he's part
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: of the community, and it's been a just really amazing
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: place for him to grow up. Very important also that
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: he's had peers and friends since he was a newborn essentially,
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: So after that, that was really all I was focused
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: on as related to the schools. My wife's a super mom,
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: super involved in everything else, but I was kind of
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: not something I worried about. Myler kids have different strengths,
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: and it just seemed like they were fine. But it
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: wasn't until the drama that resulted in the last election,
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: when people are saying our schools are failing and any
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: number of things that it forced me to really look
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: into the schools and not only are school is excellent there,
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: they're phenomenal. Now lots, there's plenty of that can be improved.
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: There always is, but it's something that the community has
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: right to be proud of.
• 16:07
  Speaker 3: Okay, so both of you have children in the system
• 16:11
  Speaker 3: and you're excited they seem like they're getting quality education.
• 16:16
  Speaker 3: But something provoked both of you to become activists And
• 16:20
  Speaker 3: are you the founding members of Fuel?
• 16:22
  Speaker 4: Yeah, we are. We are founding board members. I like
• 16:24
  Speaker 4: to call us inaugural board members.
• 16:26
  Speaker 3: Who came up with the acronym.
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: By the way, Eva, it's got to be Eva. She's
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: CMO for Gureyana and she's inspired.
• 16:33
  Speaker 3: That's a pretty good one. Yeah, Families United for Education,
• 16:37
  Speaker 3: Unified for Education and Laguna Fuel love it, okay. And
• 16:41
  Speaker 3: what caused you guys to come together and feel like
• 16:44
  Speaker 3: you needed to be more involved.
• 16:46
  Speaker 4: It was the election. Those of us which election, the
• 16:49
  Speaker 4: twenty twenty four election. Those of us who are really
• 16:53
  Speaker 4: have been really active in the school district. So I
• 16:55
  Speaker 4: know Nuth's wife, Claudia, because of all of our work
• 16:58
  Speaker 4: in the PTA's and sitting on various volunteer in various
• 17:01
  Speaker 4: volunteer positions for the district, we knew what was coming,
• 17:07
  Speaker 4: and so we showed up at that school board meeting
• 17:10
  Speaker 4: first after they were I guess what do you call it?
• 17:14
  Speaker 4: Installed or inducted? That's the word. And so we went
• 17:19
  Speaker 4: to that school board meeting on December sixteen, twenty twenty four,
• 17:22
  Speaker 4: and that date is like burned into my mind. They
• 17:26
  Speaker 4: were also talking about the pool, so it brought a
• 17:28
  Speaker 4: lot of folks who were really interested in what was
• 17:31
  Speaker 4: going with the pool, and that would be sort of
• 17:33
  Speaker 4: why Nuth showed up to that meeting.
• 17:34
  Speaker 3: And certainly the pool agenda involved people who don't have
• 17:39
  Speaker 3: kids in school but live nearby and would be impacted,
• 17:42
  Speaker 3: so it became broader than just a school issue.
• 17:45
  Speaker 6: It wasn't.
• 17:46
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it was a neighbor issue, sort of what you
• 17:48
  Speaker 4: talk about constructing in Laguna. It brought out those kinds
• 17:52
  Speaker 4: of conversations for sure, But.
• 17:53
  Speaker 3: You said something before you saw what was coming. What
• 17:57
  Speaker 3: was coming that you saw, Well, we all know.
• 18:01
  Speaker 4: From all of our volunteering, we'd all had experiences and
• 18:04
  Speaker 4: interactions with the board, the board members, prior ones as
• 18:10
  Speaker 4: well as the incoming ones. You know, Sherry Morgan was.
• 18:14
  Speaker 4: I knew her as another mom that was volunteering at
• 18:17
  Speaker 4: various PTA events. I've seen that side of her too.
• 18:20
  Speaker 4: She was also sort of a community watchdog who showed
• 18:23
  Speaker 4: up at board meetings to challenge board members. I sat
• 18:28
  Speaker 4: with her before, you know, she before that first meeting.
• 18:32
  Speaker 4: We sat with her for a couple of hours actually
• 18:34
  Speaker 4: to talk to her. I was like, you're on the
• 18:36
  Speaker 4: other side of the dice. Your job has changed. You're
• 18:38
  Speaker 4: no longer a community watchdog. You're there to now lead
• 18:41
  Speaker 4: the district.
• 18:42
  Speaker 3: You're a steward.
• 18:43
  Speaker 4: Yes, exactly. So we kind of knew and and she'd
• 18:47
  Speaker 4: been a PTA president at the high school. It was
• 18:49
  Speaker 4: a volatile year for them. The Pta was kind of
• 18:53
  Speaker 4: removed from the site because the meetings were so volatile
• 18:56
  Speaker 4: and verbally violent.
• 18:57
  Speaker 3: So and then there was Howard Hills, right, who he
• 19:01
  Speaker 3: very public. We read his yes, his ramblings quite a bit,
• 19:06
  Speaker 3: yes and every.
• 19:06
  Speaker 4: And lots of people have experience with him in terms
• 19:10
  Speaker 4: of just he's been, you know, kind of been a
• 19:12
  Speaker 4: figure of Michael figure for a long Yes, for a
• 19:16
  Speaker 4: long for a long time. So we there's some of
• 19:18
  Speaker 4: us who knew what was coming. When we heard the
• 19:21
  Speaker 4: election results, we were really set because we knew this
• 19:24
  Speaker 4: was going to destabilize the district.
• 19:26
  Speaker 3: And what platform did they run on? Because previously there
• 19:30
  Speaker 3: had been some turnover at the at the school board level,
• 19:33
  Speaker 3: correct or the superintendent.
• 19:36
  Speaker 4: Well, the super the old super we had right before
• 19:40
  Speaker 4: that election entered into a mutual separation agreement with the
• 19:45
  Speaker 4: old board. The You asked what the platform that they
• 19:49
  Speaker 4: ran on? So they ran on So Sherry ran on transparency,
• 19:53
  Speaker 4: Howard ran on governance, which I would argue we were
• 19:58
  Speaker 4: not really seen since since we've since they've joined the board.
• 20:03
  Speaker 3: Uh, they're the two new members. The other three were incumbents.
• 20:07
  Speaker 4: There exactly a sad Joan and Jim are incumbents, okay, And.
• 20:12
  Speaker 3: Were they able to lobby for were they can they
• 20:17
  Speaker 3: publicly come out in favor of a candidate.
• 20:21
  Speaker 4: That's a good question. I'm not sure if they can endorse.
• 20:23
  Speaker 3: Maybe, so we don't know if they were advocating.
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: And do you know that Kelly Osborne a former board
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: member and did endorse other candidates.
• 20:32
  Speaker 4: Yeah, were you.
• 20:33
  Speaker 3: Guys fearful all along? I mean, with you thought that
• 20:36
  Speaker 3: this was going to create the kind of instability that's
• 20:39
  Speaker 3: happening now.
• 20:39
  Speaker 10: I did.
• 20:40
  Speaker 4: Why that was Sherry before she huh, before she had
• 20:43
  Speaker 4: that first meeting. And the other thing was they did
• 20:45
  Speaker 4: talk about on their campaign campaign trail about terminating the
• 20:48
  Speaker 4: old Soup, So that mutual separation agreement with the old
• 20:51
  Speaker 4: board was emotional. But he was trying to I think
• 20:55
  Speaker 4: I haven't talked him about it, but my guess was
• 20:57
  Speaker 4: he was trying to spare his family a long drawn out,
• 20:59
  Speaker 4: ugly process.
• 21:00
  Speaker 3: And that was Jason Valeria Valoria Valoria. And why did
• 21:05
  Speaker 3: he get why was there a mutual succept? Do we know?
• 21:09
  Speaker 4: I think, like I said, I think it had more
• 21:11
  Speaker 4: to do with the fact that the incoming board had
• 21:13
  Speaker 4: made it clear that they no longer wanted him to
• 21:15
  Speaker 4: be the superintendent, and it.
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: Was more than that. If you listening to some of
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: the stuff that's recorded, made it pretty clear also that
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: they wanted to kind of torture them, investigate him in
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: whatever else and then ultimately firing without cause.
• 21:25
  Speaker 3: So did you guys like him?
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: I didn't know him. I have to say my involvement.
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: As I said, I happened to be at that December
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: board meeting because I was going to say a couple
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: of nice words about the pool. I had no context
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: about what was going on, But as soon as I
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: saw the behavior from the daist, that's what got me engaged.
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: Otherwise I'd be like everybody else in town until last week,
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: just rolling my eyes at my wife, you know.
• 21:46
  Speaker 3: Yeah. I mean, as a casual bystanderd, just reading what
• 21:50
  Speaker 3: I see in the newspaper. It seems like it's always volatile.
• 21:54
  Speaker 3: There's something controversy going on, and I'm thinking, of all
• 21:58
  Speaker 3: places that should be controversy, it's our education, and it
• 22:01
  Speaker 3: seems like people are posturing and fighting and suing each other.
• 22:06
  Speaker 3: It's an ugly look and certainly doesn't benefit the main recipients,
• 22:11
  Speaker 3: which is our kids.
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: Well, even on the community side. I was talking to
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: one of the main realders in town this weekend and
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: he said he's already seen a fall off in inquiries
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: from families to move to town. So the damage is
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: being done in real time.
• 22:24
  Speaker 3: Wow. And just to correct the record on our educational record,
• 22:28
  Speaker 3: because you guys cited and we'll get into this a
• 22:31
  Speaker 3: little bit more, that there was a you know, a
• 22:35
  Speaker 3: line put out to the community that our schools are failing,
• 22:39
  Speaker 3: and yet you guys have debunked that, right. I mean,
• 22:41
  Speaker 3: there's objective data that says our students do as well
• 22:45
  Speaker 3: as private school students, they get placed in as just
• 22:48
  Speaker 3: as many elites colleges. Where's that rumor coming from and
• 22:52
  Speaker 3: what's it based on?
• 22:53
  Speaker 4: So it's based on the CAST testing, which is our
• 22:57
  Speaker 4: California state standards that we have to you know, every year,
• 23:00
  Speaker 4: the kids take a test depending on what year they're in,
• 23:04
  Speaker 4: and the data comes out based on you know, it's
• 23:07
  Speaker 4: it's it's policy wonky stuff. So it's like, you know,
• 23:11
  Speaker 4: meets the standards, exceeds the standards, you know, percentage of
• 23:14
  Speaker 4: students that do those things at these various broad bands.
• 23:18
  Speaker 4: So the data comes out that's seventy seven percent of
• 23:20
  Speaker 4: our children. Our students meet or exceed the standards in
• 23:23
  Speaker 4: English language arts, and seventy two percent meet or exceed
• 23:27
  Speaker 4: the standards in math. So if you don't actually care
• 23:31
  Speaker 4: to learn what the CAST was testing for or what
• 23:33
  Speaker 4: that data means, you just can go what you can
• 23:36
  Speaker 4: say in the constraints anything. They're getting seas in math
• 23:39
  Speaker 4: and English, and we're supposed to be proud about that.
• 23:41
  Speaker 4: Our schools are failing our children.
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: So the other thing that the other context that this
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: is put into is there was a different kind of
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: test before, called Star, and that was just kind of
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: a California only thing, and that ended in twenty fifteen.
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: In twenty sixteen, CAST came in, and that's based off
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: of common Core. Again wonky, but people ever heard a
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: common Core in broader politics. So when people say our
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: schools were so much better back then, they're pointing to
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: an Actually, the Lagunu schools under the Star regime, we're
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: ninety percent at grade level or what have you. Once
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: they shifted the test methodology, that's when the scores came
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: back down, and that happened nationwide, So people point back
• 24:19
  Speaker 2: to things were better in twenty twelve or whatever. But
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: they were testing different things back then.
• 24:24
  Speaker 4: And to clarify, let's just wrap that up too, which
• 24:27
  Speaker 4: is the CASP is testing your college and career readiness.
• 24:30
  Speaker 4: So it's not a minimum proficiency test, it's are you
• 24:33
  Speaker 4: ready to go out in the world and be successful. Now,
• 24:35
  Speaker 4: we're not testing. We're not going to say a third
• 24:37
  Speaker 4: grader who you know, who's met or exceeded the standards
• 24:40
  Speaker 4: is college your crew ready. But when you look at
• 24:42
  Speaker 4: the data, you go, Okay, a third grader who's met
• 24:44
  Speaker 4: or exceeded the standards is on track to be college
• 24:47
  Speaker 4: or crew ready by the time they get to the
• 24:48
  Speaker 4: last test is given in eleventh grade, by the time
• 24:50
  Speaker 4: they get to eleventh grade. So when you look at
• 24:52
  Speaker 4: the data, let's say, or let's use these seventy seven
• 24:55
  Speaker 4: and seventy two numbers, seventy seven percent of our kids
• 24:59
  Speaker 4: are college and career ready in English language arts and
• 25:03
  Speaker 4: seventy two percent college and career ready in math. So
• 25:06
  Speaker 4: they're ready to go out in the world and be successful.
• 25:08
  Speaker 3: And how does that compare to other schools in the area.
• 25:11
  Speaker 4: So in California or the well in Orange County, were
• 25:13
  Speaker 4: the number one school district unified school district based on
• 25:17
  Speaker 4: those test scores and in California in the top four percent.
• 25:21
  Speaker 3: And I would think that this data of decreasing proficiency
• 25:25
  Speaker 3: is a national problem. Kids aren't reading like they used to,
• 25:29
  Speaker 3: not doing math. Social media is an issue, right, I mean,
• 25:31
  Speaker 3: we're seeing a decline in overall test scoring, not just Laguna,
• 25:35
  Speaker 3: but throughout the nation.
• 25:37
  Speaker 4: We have a national reading crisis for sure. It's not
• 25:39
  Speaker 4: a Laguna specific problem. Problem we also have as I
• 25:42
  Speaker 4: was kind of digging into the data a little bit
• 25:44
  Speaker 4: more on this cast, there's a discrepancy between female students
• 25:49
  Speaker 4: and male students. So female students are pretty steady year
• 25:52
  Speaker 4: after year after year, and there's some there seems to
• 25:54
  Speaker 4: be some variation with the male students. They seem to
• 25:57
  Speaker 4: be declining. So now I'm curious read Scott gall.
• 26:00
  Speaker 3: We know that there's a crisis amongst young men yep,
• 26:03
  Speaker 3: and women are kicking butt.
• 26:05
  Speaker 4: So there's a lot of factors that go into this,
• 26:07
  Speaker 4: but definitely our school, I want your readers, I mean,
• 26:09
  Speaker 4: your listeners.
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: Were not feeling and then there was at one time
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: learning loss as a result of COVID. That kind of
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: that's also nationwide. The other thing that's important. Some people
• 26:18
  Speaker 2: have said that it's well, it doesn't matter what're in California,
• 26:20
  Speaker 2: because California schools suck anyways. But in fact, we're ninety
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: percent tiled nationwide, so we compare well to Massachusetts or
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: Connecticut or whatever kind of public school system that you
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: point to. One other thing that was cited in the
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: election was our rankings in the US News and World
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: Report of high schools. They cited that we fell about
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: one hundred spots and they said, this is an indication
• 26:42
  Speaker 2: of the failure of the school district. The first thing
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: I said is like, I wonder what happened in Newport
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: And they fell one hundred and twenty spots, So well, okay,
• 26:51
  Speaker 2: well they must have changed the rankings, and sure enough,
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: they introduced DEI metrics that now make up about thirty
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: percent of the waiting in these and so it affected
• 27:00
  Speaker 2: all of the coastal coastal school districts.
• 27:03
  Speaker 3: Got it, So tell us what a good school superintendent does.
• 27:09
  Speaker 4: That's a vision for the districts. So we should back
• 27:12
  Speaker 4: up a second. Yeah, most superintendents stay in a school
• 27:14
  Speaker 4: district five years on average, four to five years. And
• 27:17
  Speaker 4: what you want them to do in that four to
• 27:19
  Speaker 4: five years is sort of pick up the ball where
• 27:20
  Speaker 4: it was left and keep going and say, what is
• 27:24
  Speaker 4: the future of our school district? And let's set a
• 27:25
  Speaker 4: trajectory and then they're effectively the CEO of the district.
• 27:28
  Speaker 7: Right.
• 27:29
  Speaker 4: So, with the with the with the board's attention and
• 27:31
  Speaker 4: policy setting, you put together a long term vision for
• 27:35
  Speaker 4: the district and then you start implementing. You start working
• 27:38
  Speaker 4: with your staff to start implementing that vision.
• 27:41
  Speaker 3: And wouldn't job one be attracting the best teachers?
• 27:45
  Speaker 8: Yes, the best talent we create the one that you
• 27:47
  Speaker 8: ones that you have, which is not easy in a
• 27:50
  Speaker 8: place as expensive as Laguna, right, right, because you can't
• 27:53
  Speaker 8: pay them enough to live here, and so they have
• 27:55
  Speaker 8: quality of life issues.
• 27:56
  Speaker 3: Do I want to commute thirty minutes? So can I
• 27:58
  Speaker 3: get a job at a comparable salary inland? That's right?
• 28:01
  Speaker 2: And along those lines, one of the weapons that was
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: used in the election is this idea that we're paying
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: our teachers too much. And if you take in the
• 28:09
  Speaker 2: way that math was they arrived at. That math was
• 28:11
  Speaker 2: just taking a salary number and divide it by the
• 28:14
  Speaker 2: number of teachers and you get an average, and sure enough,
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: that the number seems high. It is much higher than
• 28:19
  Speaker 2: the average in Irvine. But if you break down the numbers,
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: like on a contracted basis, there's like steps like in
• 28:26
  Speaker 2: the military, you had so many years, you get this
• 28:28
  Speaker 2: step or what have you. On this step basis, we're
• 28:31
  Speaker 2: about ten percent higher than an Irvine and that would
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: be us paying for people to commute in and the
• 28:37
  Speaker 2: other quality of life issues, and also we want the best.
• 28:41
  Speaker 2: But more than that is we have a lot of
• 28:42
  Speaker 2: senior teachers. If people get in here, they tend to
• 28:44
  Speaker 2: stay and as you progress, you end up making more.
• 28:47
  Speaker 2: So that's another piece of disinformation that was put into
• 28:50
  Speaker 2: the put into the community last year.
• 28:53
  Speaker 3: I mean, my personal feeling is whatever we're paying teachers,
• 28:55
  Speaker 3: it's not enough.
• 28:57
  Speaker 2: COVID proved that we tried to homeschool for a little bit.
• 28:59
  Speaker 2: My marriage would not to survive that, right. So what
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: was Jason Glass that he brought in.
• 29:05
  Speaker 3: He say, he's articulate, he's you know, I thought, just
• 29:10
  Speaker 3: the right guy for the central casting, thoughtful.
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: But his kids in the district, his wife is a
• 29:16
  Speaker 2: substitute teacher.
• 29:17
  Speaker 3: So what vision would you say in the short time
• 29:19
  Speaker 3: he had here? Maybe he wasn't even able to manifest
• 29:22
  Speaker 3: one because he was in battled, it seemed from the beginning.
• 29:24
  Speaker 3: But what would you say. His point of difference was.
• 29:27
  Speaker 2: Well, so I would say that this conversation that we
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: just had about what's really going on with test scores
• 29:32
  Speaker 2: and boys and learning or whatever else, there's been none
• 29:35
  Speaker 2: of that at the school board, So that would he
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: was in a position to start those kinds of conversations. Now,
• 29:41
  Speaker 2: he did say two things that the schools could probably
• 29:44
  Speaker 2: that are done our areas that he wanted to work on.
• 29:46
  Speaker 2: One of them was high school math, and so there
• 29:48
  Speaker 2: is we performed very well, and again it's ninety second percentile,
• 29:51
  Speaker 2: but it's not ninety six the way the rest of
• 29:53
  Speaker 2: the schools are. Scores are, so let's get those up.
• 29:56
  Speaker 2: And the other one is is English is a second
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: language ESL. And just so happens that I've got nephews
• 30:02
  Speaker 2: my wife Venezuela, and as you know, and so I've
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: got nephews that are sl So this is something I
• 30:06
  Speaker 2: also care about. But twenty percent of our school population
• 30:08
  Speaker 2: is actually below the poverty line. We don't think about
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: it that much, but that is that's a part of
• 30:12
  Speaker 2: our community. That is not as well served or part
• 30:15
  Speaker 2: of our school district. So he cited those the two
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: areas that he wanted to focus on, but he just
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: he only got the opportunity to say it, and then
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: that never came.
• 30:23
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I don't think he had a fair shot to
• 30:26
  Speaker 4: really work on the things that he wanted.
• 30:27
  Speaker 3: He never had a chance.
• 30:28
  Speaker 4: I don't think so. I mean, yeah, he spent the
• 30:30
  Speaker 4: first he did like a hundred day like just kind
• 30:32
  Speaker 4: of we called it a listening tour. He went and
• 30:34
  Speaker 4: kind of went to the various sites. He delivered a
• 30:38
  Speaker 4: hundred day report where he talked about kind of what
• 30:41
  Speaker 4: he heard and what he wanted to do with it.
• 30:43
  Speaker 3: And that seemed like you guys saw that report.
• 30:46
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it's public. You can find it on the district's website.
• 30:49
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so here he is, you know, a big exhaustive
• 30:54
  Speaker 3: talent search.
• 30:54
  Speaker 10: He was.
• 30:55
  Speaker 3: He had a high ranking role in Kentucky, right, he
• 30:58
  Speaker 3: was in charge of the entire state. He was school
• 31:00
  Speaker 3: system or something like that. So I can only extrapolate.
• 31:04
  Speaker 3: Maybe you guys can clarify, you know, the board their
• 31:08
  Speaker 3: interference in his ability to operate with autonomy that you
• 31:13
  Speaker 3: would expect as an administrator a board's goal or role
• 31:18
  Speaker 3: is to just provide guidance, right, and not to actively
• 31:22
  Speaker 3: meddle and operate. But from what I've gleaned, you know,
• 31:26
  Speaker 3: the board is constantly challenging him and wanting to usurp
• 31:32
  Speaker 3: his control.
• 31:33
  Speaker 4: On several different occasions, Howard has asked the question, by law,
• 31:37
  Speaker 4: does the school district actually need a superintendent? And at
• 31:40
  Speaker 4: the last governance meeting, which happened in a few weeks ago,
• 31:43
  Speaker 4: this latest attorney specifically said, well, okay, by law, a
• 31:47
  Speaker 4: board is not required to have a superintendent, and then
• 31:52
  Speaker 4: went on to talk about other things.
• 31:53
  Speaker 3: But I think he was playing his hand a little bit.
• 31:56
  Speaker 4: I think he's interested in running a school district.
• 31:59
  Speaker 3: That's sounds like, yeah, I think this, and I you know,
• 32:03
  Speaker 3: I know Howard. I've known him for years and years,
• 32:05
  Speaker 3: and I watched when he ran the last time unsuccessfully.
• 32:10
  Speaker 3: I do think he has awareness in the community, given
• 32:13
  Speaker 3: his long time here and also his writing and you
• 32:17
  Speaker 3: know his he sends out his favorite songs to people
• 32:21
  Speaker 3: on his email lists. So I think, you know, there
• 32:24
  Speaker 3: was a sense of oh, who's this guy. He seems
• 32:26
  Speaker 3: like a decent guy. Let's let's I know his name
• 32:29
  Speaker 3: let's vote him in. But I'm trying to get my
• 32:33
  Speaker 3: head around, and I think in the spirit of you know,
• 32:35
  Speaker 3: here at the station, we don't want to take a
• 32:37
  Speaker 3: partisan position on anything. All we want to do is
• 32:40
  Speaker 3: his amplify and the stories. So it might be I'll
• 32:44
  Speaker 3: certainly offer him an opportunity to come on here and
• 32:46
  Speaker 3: defend himself, but it seems like he just is needing
• 32:51
  Speaker 3: a platform for validation, for something to do. I mean,
• 32:56
  Speaker 3: he's of retirement age, and why take on this enormous
• 32:59
  Speaker 3: amount of work your kids are no longer in the
• 33:03
  Speaker 3: school system. Any thoughts, I mean, I know you guys
• 33:06
  Speaker 3: aren't psychologists, but you know, can you speculate on why
• 33:12
  Speaker 3: he came in and is breaking things?
• 33:15
  Speaker 2: So he was brought in because he's run multiple times before, right,
• 33:20
  Speaker 2: and so the anti development guys, the anti pool guys,
• 33:24
  Speaker 2: recruited him to come in. Now, a friend of mine
• 33:28
  Speaker 2: recalled a conversation that she had with one of those
• 33:31
  Speaker 2: guys and said, he is not emotionally well suited for
• 33:34
  Speaker 2: this role, to which that guy replied, it's okay because
• 33:38
  Speaker 2: he'll do whatever we say.
• 33:40
  Speaker 3: So that guy, being a member of the anti penttipools,
• 33:43
  Speaker 3: though now is it fair to say, is this laguna
• 33:48
  Speaker 3: sensible lagoon that's kind of their main focus.
• 33:51
  Speaker 2: That's right, And they've they're frequently seen with the board members,
• 33:54
  Speaker 2: their frequency frequently in the district office, so you can
• 33:59
  Speaker 2: surmise and early on they spend a lot of time
• 34:01
  Speaker 2: with doctor Glass, as did Howard Hills, so they have
• 34:05
  Speaker 2: an agenda. Something about their agenda. Glass decided not to
• 34:09
  Speaker 2: go along with We could see some of it publicly,
• 34:12
  Speaker 2: as like Howard Hills and the board took authority from Glass.
• 34:17
  Speaker 2: We suspect there's other things behind the scenes. There's reason
• 34:19
  Speaker 2: to believe that various members of staff and the teachers
• 34:22
  Speaker 2: have gotten attorneys on a teacher salary. So there's things
• 34:26
  Speaker 2: that are not public that we can point to data
• 34:28
  Speaker 2: points and say, wow, that's troubling. So that was what
• 34:33
  Speaker 2: I would guess, is that happen. So now it's important
• 34:36
  Speaker 2: to keep in mind what's happened in the last week
• 34:40
  Speaker 2: has actually happened twice now. So they ran on torturing
• 34:45
  Speaker 2: and firing Jason Valoria. He resigns, Then they go out
• 34:50
  Speaker 2: and recruit Joane Culverhouse, who apparently is a loved teacher
• 34:54
  Speaker 2: or a principal in town who could have done the
• 34:56
  Speaker 2: job well. However, in the way that he went about that,
• 35:00
  Speaker 2: it's very likely he committed brawnout violations. And I'd say
• 35:05
  Speaker 2: the validation of that is his Culverhouse looked at the
• 35:08
  Speaker 2: situation and said, I'm not getting anywhere near it. Fast forward,
• 35:11
  Speaker 2: they now have tortured and driven out Jason Glass, and
• 35:15
  Speaker 2: they've recruited Don Austin, who is also a well respected
• 35:20
  Speaker 2: principle that's up in Paloato and Paloatta has a lot
• 35:23
  Speaker 2: doing for it.
• 35:23
  Speaker 4: He was a superintendent Palato, but he was our principal
• 35:26
  Speaker 4: here back in twenty seven.
• 35:27
  Speaker 2: That's right, And so it tells me a couple things.
• 35:30
  Speaker 2: One public service announcement to all superintendents get out after
• 35:35
  Speaker 2: seven years. Valori was here for nine. Austin was in
• 35:37
  Speaker 2: Palo Alto for nine, averages five to six. Do one
• 35:41
  Speaker 2: year of victory lap and move on, because there's a
• 35:43
  Speaker 2: saying in local politics for each decision you make, you
• 35:46
  Speaker 2: make one temporary friend and one permanent enemy. And so
• 35:50
  Speaker 2: over nine years those enemies build up, and that's what
• 35:52
  Speaker 2: becomes a crescendo on your way out.
• 35:55
  Speaker 3: So where did you hear that?
• 35:56
  Speaker 4: I like that?
• 35:57
  Speaker 3: Well, I've never heard that one.
• 35:58
  Speaker 2: You never heard that was pretty good? So actually, how
• 36:00
  Speaker 2: it was I sat down with I'll tell you who.
• 36:01
  Speaker 2: It was, Scott Ball he ran for congress here. Oh
• 36:04
  Speaker 2: yeah yeah, so oh no, I'm sorry. It was will
• 36:06
  Speaker 2: O Neil, will O Neil. So I'm just giving away
• 36:08
  Speaker 2: my some of my priors here, right. I sat down
• 36:10
  Speaker 2: with will after the Valoria thing and we'd had like
• 36:13
  Speaker 2: some huge spike in our standardized test scores or something,
• 36:15
  Speaker 2: and I'm like, Will, what happened? They nuked this guy?
• 36:18
  Speaker 2: And as far as I can tell, things are going well.
• 36:20
  Speaker 2: And that's he gave me that little story.
• 36:22
  Speaker 3: So, so, so what about the other board members? They
• 36:27
  Speaker 3: kind of are they not vocal? They there was two
• 36:30
  Speaker 3: of them that voted against U.
• 36:32
  Speaker 4: So you have a board majority. You can put d
• 36:35
  Speaker 4: Sherry and Howard in that board majority. Then you have
• 36:38
  Speaker 4: a board minority, which is Jim and Joan. And you know,
• 36:42
  Speaker 4: Jim and Jon are up there fighting the good fight.
• 36:44
  Speaker 4: Joan tends to be attle more vocal and open session
• 36:47
  Speaker 4: and but you know their hands are tied because the
• 36:51
  Speaker 4: three of them always just vote locks up.
• 36:54
  Speaker 3: So do they ever? You mentioned that Shari ran on
• 36:58
  Speaker 3: transparency and how on accountability, what about making the school better.
• 37:05
  Speaker 3: I don't hear that in either of those.
• 37:07
  Speaker 4: I haven't done.
• 37:08
  Speaker 2: Either vibe because it starts. It's actually concerning because the
• 37:13
  Speaker 2: vibe that was put out into the community was that
• 37:15
  Speaker 2: our schools are failing and they need to be blown up.
• 37:19
  Speaker 2: And so there's a big concern that as opposed to
• 37:22
  Speaker 2: we're kind of optimizing around the edges, call us ninety
• 37:25
  Speaker 2: percent good, let's work on the ten percent. They're starting
• 37:27
  Speaker 2: from the view that ninety percent is bad and so
• 37:31
  Speaker 2: and actively doing damage with the goal of somehow they're
• 37:34
  Speaker 2: going to make. You know, there's kind of a saying
• 37:37
  Speaker 2: of tyrants. There's a three step process in being a tyrant.
• 37:40
  Speaker 2: Step one, give me all the power, Step two, question mark,
• 37:43
  Speaker 2: step three, everything's better. So we're kind of operating in
• 37:46
  Speaker 2: that paradigm here.
• 37:48
  Speaker 3: And so you know, I read in the various media
• 37:52
  Speaker 3: that when you go through this kind of change and turnover,
• 37:55
  Speaker 3: it's obviously creates instability at the teacher level and the
• 37:59
  Speaker 3: student level. Can you speak at all to that, like,
• 38:02
  Speaker 3: what how does it this this turnover uncertainty actually materially
• 38:07
  Speaker 3: affect the day to day education of our kids?
• 38:10
  Speaker 4: Well, staff morales, and morales at an all time low.
• 38:13
  Speaker 4: They did the staff did announce that they had taken
• 38:16
  Speaker 4: a vote amongst their members the unions, I should say,
• 38:20
  Speaker 4: not staff, the two unions. So we have two unions,
• 38:23
  Speaker 4: cscA and LABOUFA. They had, you know, take a vote
• 38:28
  Speaker 4: of their members and they came back with like an
• 38:31
  Speaker 4: eighty five percent no vote of no confidence in this
• 38:33
  Speaker 4: school board. Right, eighty five or ninety I think it was.
• 38:36
  Speaker 4: It's really really high with like almost ninety percent of
• 38:39
  Speaker 4: their members voting in that in that process, so you'd
• 38:43
  Speaker 4: say staff morale is really low. So what happens when
• 38:45
  Speaker 4: morales are like are you innovating or are you just
• 38:48
  Speaker 4: trying to like lay low and hope nobody like comes
• 38:50
  Speaker 4: after you next, right, Because what we know from public
• 38:54
  Speaker 4: meetings is they are doing retaliatory investigations. So if you
• 38:59
  Speaker 4: dare challenge them, they come after you with some sort
• 39:02
  Speaker 4: of retaliatory investigation. And then this is when you know,
• 39:06
  Speaker 4: attorneys show up because you know, and then the teachers
• 39:09
  Speaker 4: feel like they need to lawyer up, Like how many
• 39:11
  Speaker 4: teachers do you know who can easily afford a lawyer?
• 39:13
  Speaker 9: You know?
• 39:15
  Speaker 4: So that's that's that's the staff piece of.
• 39:17
  Speaker 3: It that can't be good. Yeah, But as far as
• 39:21
  Speaker 3: you know, I look at teaching as a sacred art
• 39:23
  Speaker 3: and that you know, to see see a great teacher
• 39:27
  Speaker 3: is to see something of beauty. I mean it's you know,
• 39:30
  Speaker 3: you can watch somebody who can inspire children and be
• 39:33
  Speaker 3: an influence for the rest of their lives. And I
• 39:37
  Speaker 3: would imagine a good teacher can block out all this
• 39:40
  Speaker 3: noise and just focus on what they do.
• 39:42
  Speaker 4: I mean, they're doing what they can to protect the
• 39:45
  Speaker 4: kids in the classroom, for sure, they have no doubt
• 39:47
  Speaker 4: about that, but it's in the back of their minds
• 39:50
  Speaker 4: all the time, and they are being undermined. They're being
• 39:54
  Speaker 4: questioned like how do you in any just take it
• 39:57
  Speaker 4: out of the school context, Like any job you had,
• 40:00
  Speaker 4: if every day you walked into your job and you
• 40:02
  Speaker 4: were like, now, what's going to happen today, does that
• 40:05
  Speaker 4: really inspire you to be at your best? Right?
• 40:07
  Speaker 6: Yeah?
• 40:08
  Speaker 4: So I am definitely concerned about the students. And you
• 40:12
  Speaker 4: know how this even if it's subtle things, right, like
• 40:15
  Speaker 4: your teachers a little bit distracted that day because they
• 40:18
  Speaker 4: got a letter saying that they were you.
• 40:20
  Speaker 3: Know, they might investigated students might overhear, Oh I hear
• 40:23
  Speaker 3: this school board thing is a mess, a lot of shouting.
• 40:25
  Speaker 4: And oh, it's not even overhearing. A lot of these
• 40:27
  Speaker 4: kids show up at the meeting. Yeah, so they're not
• 40:30
  Speaker 4: overhearing there. And many of the high school students are engaged.
• 40:34
  Speaker 4: You know, their school paper has been writing about the
• 40:36
  Speaker 4: school board. There are students that are coming to the
• 40:39
  Speaker 4: school board meetings and publicly commenting like they're brave. They
• 40:43
  Speaker 4: I was not this brave at fifteen and sixteen. They
• 40:45
  Speaker 4: are getting up to the podium and they are challenging authority.
• 40:50
  Speaker 3: Well, that's a good part of their education.
• 40:51
  Speaker 4: It's it's silver lighting in this. Yeah.
• 40:54
  Speaker 2: I think they're learning a lesson that normally you shouldn't
• 40:56
  Speaker 2: have to learn a little bit later in life.
• 40:58
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 40:58
  Speaker 2: But Logan, who has a show here with you, Marshall,
• 41:02
  Speaker 2: he has been a phenom. He's a sophomore and as
• 41:06
  Speaker 2: you can imagine, he's standing his ground. He's articulating like
• 41:10
  Speaker 2: good arguments against positions. He's being respectful but forceful. And
• 41:15
  Speaker 2: I have to say, I'm so proud of that kid.
• 41:18
  Speaker 3: You know, I got to say he learned it all
• 41:19
  Speaker 3: on the radio. He did attend our summer radio camp
• 41:24
  Speaker 3: and then became hooked and we got him a show,
• 41:28
  Speaker 3: a weekly show, and it's it's an amazing thing to
• 41:30
  Speaker 3: see because he says it gave him a confidence in
• 41:33
  Speaker 3: his speaking voice. And you know, I wants to pursue
• 41:36
  Speaker 3: college education and music production. So shout out to Logan.
• 41:41
  Speaker 3: So what is so here we are? We've got this
• 41:44
  Speaker 3: Don Austin coming in. He's got a fairly good reputation.
• 41:48
  Speaker 3: Palo Alto's no slouch when it comes to a district.
• 41:52
  Speaker 6: What a what?
• 41:53
  Speaker 10: Not?
• 41:53
  Speaker 3: Only what is fuel's guiding principle? And hope? And what
• 41:56
  Speaker 3: do you? What do you do now? What's you know?
• 41:58
  Speaker 3: We can't change the past? These board members are what
• 42:03
  Speaker 3: there for another couple of years.
• 42:06
  Speaker 2: There's an election, But I think it relates to Don Austin. Again,
• 42:09
  Speaker 2: many of the members of the community really like him.
• 42:11
  Speaker 2: He has from pale to a great reputation. There was
• 42:15
  Speaker 2: some noise around his departure, as there was around Jason
• 42:19
  Speaker 2: Valia's departure here, so all that needs to be taken
• 42:21
  Speaker 2: with a grain of salt. But that said, this board
• 42:24
  Speaker 2: also did him no favors because they terminated Glass, who
• 42:28
  Speaker 2: was in a short time here, become beloved by the
• 42:31
  Speaker 2: parents and the teachers and his classmates, and the kids
• 42:33
  Speaker 2: were going.
• 42:34
  Speaker 4: To school here too, so you know, the students knew
• 42:36
  Speaker 4: him too, knew the kids. Yeah.
• 42:38
  Speaker 2: So, and within forty eight hours they had announced out
• 42:40
  Speaker 2: of closed session that Don Austin was coming and had
• 42:44
  Speaker 2: a press release ready to go. So in terms of
• 42:47
  Speaker 2: the optics around this, and there is the Brown Act
• 42:50
  Speaker 2: is a for those who don't know. Brown Act essentially
• 42:52
  Speaker 2: says that a majority of any any body can't communicate
• 42:55
  Speaker 2: or operate to coordinate outside of an open session.
• 42:57
  Speaker 3: So if there's five members, only two can meet at
• 43:00
  Speaker 3: a time, not three.
• 43:01
  Speaker 2: That's correct. And so this is a tremendous decision. And
• 43:05
  Speaker 2: there's also rules around negoshen contracts. I'll let my lawyer
• 43:07
  Speaker 2: friend here and so some of this stuff, but I'll
• 43:10
  Speaker 2: do talk more about the optics around this. So to
• 43:13
  Speaker 2: have this done in this way, they set up the
• 43:16
  Speaker 2: exact same scenario as to how they tried to get
• 43:18
  Speaker 2: you a Culverhouse to come in here. Now, I'm really
• 43:21
  Speaker 2: glad that Don Austin is around, because I think next
• 43:24
  Speaker 2: step Howard would have gone to exune the body of
• 43:26
  Speaker 2: the superintendent that was here in the sixties that he
• 43:28
  Speaker 2: keeps talking about. So I'm actually optimistic about this about him,
• 43:32
  Speaker 2: but they really did him a disservice, so he could
• 43:35
  Speaker 2: have gone through they could have done some kind of sham.
• 43:37
  Speaker 2: And also Sherry Morgan as of yesterday kind of admitted
• 43:40
  Speaker 2: she committed a Brown At violation in writing saying that
• 43:43
  Speaker 2: Don Austin was in the process of the last process
• 43:46
  Speaker 2: to recruit a superintendent that was SOOP search, last SUP search.
• 43:50
  Speaker 2: So that's a Brown Act violation to disclose that.
• 43:52
  Speaker 4: But that's closed session material. But going back to what
• 43:58
  Speaker 4: to Nuth's point about you know Don Austin's appointment, we
• 44:03
  Speaker 4: don't know Don Austin. I know there are community members
• 44:05
  Speaker 4: who know him from back in twenty eleven when he
• 44:07
  Speaker 4: was a principal, we don't you know, We've not been
• 44:10
  Speaker 4: been a part of that process, and he's obviously gone
• 44:13
  Speaker 4: on to have other things in his career, superintendencies and such.
• 44:18
  Speaker 4: So it's not an issue about Don Austin necessarily, right.
• 44:21
  Speaker 4: What Fuel has taken an issue with was the process
• 44:24
  Speaker 4: so supposed to be transparent and open to the public.
• 44:27
  Speaker 4: High performing districts have this whole process by which they
• 44:30
  Speaker 4: hire superintendent. There's kind of community input and stakeholder engagement
• 44:34
  Speaker 4: that's involved, and I think at some point, you know,
• 44:37
  Speaker 4: i'd either read an email or something where Sherry said, well,
• 44:40
  Speaker 4: not much has changed in the year and to half,
• 44:42
  Speaker 4: Well a lot has changed in a year and a
• 44:43
  Speaker 4: half since they were you know, actually installed onto the board.
• 44:49
  Speaker 4: And same would go for Don Austin, like there are
• 44:52
  Speaker 4: things that have happened since the year and a half
• 44:53
  Speaker 4: when he applied. I'm sure to now you know that
• 44:56
  Speaker 4: would have been the right thing to do, is to
• 44:58
  Speaker 4: kind of re engage in that process. So just to
• 45:01
  Speaker 4: give your listeners a kind of a time frame here,
• 45:05
  Speaker 4: February twentieth, Don Austin separated from Palo Alto USD mutual
• 45:11
  Speaker 4: mutual separation. February twenty sixth, we had a for the
• 45:18
  Speaker 4: first we had an off cycle performance review of doctor Glass.
• 45:21
  Speaker 4: So you just had a review. I think it was
• 45:23
  Speaker 4: like November ish there was an off cycle performance review
• 45:27
  Speaker 4: of doctor Glass which.
• 45:28
  Speaker 3: I read quote they called it an employee discipline dismissal
• 45:32
  Speaker 3: release off cycle I get that right.
• 45:35
  Speaker 4: That's so that's the government code you have to put
• 45:37
  Speaker 4: on the agenda. That's the category under which.
• 45:39
  Speaker 3: You have to doesn't seem very subtle.
• 45:41
  Speaker 4: No, No, it's not supposed to be subtle, because it's
• 45:43
  Speaker 4: supposed to be transparent. You're supposed to notify the public
• 45:46
  Speaker 4: what is going on.
• 45:47
  Speaker 12: So clearly they were already so six days later, yeah,
• 45:51
  Speaker 12: and on this So there's been accuser So one ahead
• 45:56
  Speaker 12: of Glass's departure, one of the people that you would
• 46:00
  Speaker 12: know in town that frequently sent emails out to people
• 46:03
  Speaker 12: with conspiracy fel Front rud Front, ran the Glass announcement
• 46:06
  Speaker 12: by throwing the guy under the bus some Monday Tuesday.
• 46:09
  Speaker 2: He's gone. So there's been accusations that we've been getting
• 46:12
  Speaker 2: inside information. But I'll tell you the people that like
• 46:15
  Speaker 2: Joan and Jason have been frustratingly closed lipped on all this.
• 46:19
  Speaker 2: But this agenda item had been on there for seven
• 46:22
  Speaker 2: months or seven times, seven.
• 46:24
  Speaker 4: Meetings, sorry, seven meetings, seven.
• 46:25
  Speaker 2: Meetings, and I a couple of weeks ago was a
• 46:28
  Speaker 2: personal reference for Glass in his next job. So we
• 46:32
  Speaker 2: kind of had some signals that something like this was happening,
• 46:35
  Speaker 2: not through inside information.
• 46:37
  Speaker 3: Well, I mean that's clear. If he's asking you for
• 46:39
  Speaker 3: a reference, something's up.
• 46:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right. So and of course it was one
• 46:43
  Speaker 2: of these things. I didn't really want to do it
• 46:45
  Speaker 2: because I wanted the guy to stay around, but also
• 46:47
  Speaker 2: knew he was an awesome guy, and I hope he
• 46:48
  Speaker 2: gets the job.
• 46:49
  Speaker 3: So I guess what then, What what you guys are
• 46:51
  Speaker 3: platforming for is as concerned parents and involved citizens is
• 46:56
  Speaker 3: first of all, transparency, troop transparency, collaborate, maybe even a
• 47:01
  Speaker 3: seat at the table, not formally, but you want your
• 47:03
  Speaker 3: voices heard this they seem to.
• 47:06
  Speaker 2: Be actually, and I think what happened last week was
• 47:08
  Speaker 2: the exact opposite on purpose. This was the raw exercise
• 47:12
  Speaker 2: of power and act.
• 47:14
  Speaker 3: All shove it up your butt kind.
• 47:16
  Speaker 2: Of you're going to take it and I'm going to laugh.
• 47:18
  Speaker 2: And there was people smiling when they announced Clatch's departure.
• 47:21
  Speaker 4: There were board members smiling, smiling.
• 47:23
  Speaker 3: Well, we've all seen this video that circulated of Howard,
• 47:27
  Speaker 3: you know, gloating and baiting Jason Very. I thought just
• 47:32
  Speaker 3: was kind of disgusting cringey where he made him repeat
• 47:37
  Speaker 3: over and over again, who do you get your power from?
• 47:40
  Speaker 3: I can't hear you what you know? This acting job?
• 47:43
  Speaker 3: And I thought, who the hell does this kind of thing?
• 47:45
  Speaker 3: That was mean spirited and it said to me that
• 47:50
  Speaker 3: Jason's his own person and he's been standing up to
• 47:52
  Speaker 3: the board, and so he wanted some acknowledgment that you
• 47:56
  Speaker 3: report to us any insider knowledge of what transports there.
• 48:01
  Speaker 2: So subsequent to that, this is kind of when things
• 48:04
  Speaker 2: were freed exactly when that was, but probably some of
• 48:07
  Speaker 2: the disciplinary stuff had already happened. I think these meetings.
• 48:10
  Speaker 3: He was chafing under this, like, you know, hey, you're
• 48:13
  Speaker 3: paying me to run the school, and now you're telling
• 48:15
  Speaker 3: me and you will let me well.
• 48:16
  Speaker 2: And they took the agenda setting authority away from away
• 48:19
  Speaker 2: from home. There are plans to take away communication authority,
• 48:22
  Speaker 2: even disciplined, so they were slowly sucking up all of
• 48:26
  Speaker 2: the authority away from him at the same time they're
• 48:28
  Speaker 2: bulleting them in public. There's emails that are available from
• 48:31
  Speaker 2: Personal PR's records requests. How he was treated via email
• 48:37
  Speaker 2: by the board members was just as atrocious as what
• 48:39
  Speaker 2: you've seen on social media. So it was a pattern
• 48:43
  Speaker 2: of treatment to him that had been going on for
• 48:45
  Speaker 2: a while.
• 48:46
  Speaker 4: And fuel has been you know, we'd been watching the
• 48:48
  Speaker 4: board kind of trying to consolidate power, like a little
• 48:51
  Speaker 4: at a time, a little at a time a little bit.
• 48:52
  Speaker 4: It's not sexy, right, and so when you try and
• 48:55
  Speaker 4: talk to your community members and your neighbors, you're like,
• 48:57
  Speaker 4: I don't really understand what's going on because it's not really,
• 49:00
  Speaker 4: you know, kind of shocking in any sort of way. Unfortunately,
• 49:04
  Speaker 4: this has become a galvanizing moment because it was the
• 49:07
  Speaker 4: shocking thing, which we for sure did not want it
• 49:10
  Speaker 4: to happen this way. But when you fire someone who
• 49:13
  Speaker 4: has won the hearts of your student, you know, parent community,
• 49:18
  Speaker 4: and then forty eight hours you announce cool, cool, we're good,
• 49:21
  Speaker 4: we have another person, and you send out a press
• 49:24
  Speaker 4: release twenty minutes after you announced it while you're in
• 49:27
  Speaker 4: the middle of a meeting. Still right, So we're in
• 49:30
  Speaker 4: the meeting and our phones are blowing up with the
• 49:32
  Speaker 4: press release that Don Auson is the new superintendent. And
• 49:35
  Speaker 4: what we found out now is well not what we
• 49:37
  Speaker 4: found out. What we don't have is a contract. So
• 49:40
  Speaker 4: the law requires a school district anytime a contract involves money,
• 49:45
  Speaker 4: you have to agendize that in an open session and
• 49:49
  Speaker 4: people can comment on it.
• 49:50
  Speaker 3: So we have no idea. What we don't have a contract.
• 49:52
  Speaker 4: No, they don't have a contract, so they've announced he's
• 49:55
  Speaker 4: a superintendent, but they don't have a contract. Where's the
• 49:59
  Speaker 4: negotiat power right now?
• 50:02
  Speaker 3: Where he holds the cards? There you GOE Which sounds
• 50:06
  Speaker 3: like some kind of collusion going on here? Is that
• 50:08
  Speaker 3: a legal term? I can get in trouble for I
• 50:10
  Speaker 3: don't know.
• 50:11
  Speaker 4: You're not going to get in trouble.
• 50:13
  Speaker 3: So okay, let me ask you this too in a
• 50:15
  Speaker 3: limited time we have left there. There are other student
• 50:18
  Speaker 3: or parent organizations out there that say that FUEL doesn't speak.
• 50:22
  Speaker 4: For them, and I don't know of any other parent organization.
• 50:27
  Speaker 4: Fuel doesn't speak School the Power what Oh I got you?
• 50:30
  Speaker 4: I see where you're going with this. Yeah, So school
• 50:32
  Speaker 4: Powers its own distinct five oh one C three they
• 50:35
  Speaker 4: are They support you know, they do grants for student
• 50:41
  Speaker 4: projects and staff projects. They help the district with you
• 50:44
  Speaker 4: know kind of test piloting, you know, test piloting programs
• 50:48
  Speaker 4: like you know, that's how we have Social Emotional Wellness
• 50:52
  Speaker 4: director because the first year, I believe, don't quote me
• 50:54
  Speaker 4: on this, we can ask Sarah Durant, but you know,
• 50:56
  Speaker 4: the first year, school Power kind of helped fund that
• 50:58
  Speaker 4: grant to see, let's see how that works. It was
• 51:01
  Speaker 4: an incredibly successful addition to our district, and district said great,
• 51:04
  Speaker 4: let's take it over. So they do a very they
• 51:06
  Speaker 4: do a very different work. They are they are not
• 51:09
  Speaker 4: an advocacy organization in the way that we are set
• 51:11
  Speaker 4: up as a five oh one C four. So, yes,
• 51:13
  Speaker 4: we do not speak for school Power in school Power
• 51:15
  Speaker 4: does not speak for us.
• 51:16
  Speaker 2: So the common thread there is that I was not
• 51:18
  Speaker 2: involved in school Power, but Shaheen and Eva and some
• 51:21
  Speaker 2: of their members were in some cases are and donate
• 51:25
  Speaker 2: and what have you. But what you're seeing there is
• 51:27
  Speaker 2: no grand conspiracy. You're just seeing the activities of engaged
• 51:31
  Speaker 2: and involved parents.
• 51:32
  Speaker 4: Yeah's like any school district. It's largely the same group
• 51:36
  Speaker 4: of families and parents that are volunteering and okay. And
• 51:39
  Speaker 4: then once you start volunteering, someone says, hey, can you
• 51:41
  Speaker 4: volunteer he as well, and okay, cool, I'll volunteer. That's
• 51:45
  Speaker 4: it's not nefarious, it's just we get asked all that.
• 51:48
  Speaker 2: You gotta be careful about raising your hand because I'm
• 51:50
  Speaker 2: now on wreck committee. I'm on your advisory committee on commission. Yeah,
• 51:54
  Speaker 2: full discoolasure or conflict here. Yeah, So once you raise
• 51:57
  Speaker 2: your hand, you get pulled into a lot of things.
• 51:59
  Speaker 3: Yeah. So so school Power sounds like for one thing,
• 52:02
  Speaker 3: they are a very vibrant fundraising community for the schools,
• 52:07
  Speaker 3: and they put their money into programs specifically, so they're
• 52:10
  Speaker 3: involved in the curriculum we raise.
• 52:12
  Speaker 4: So school Power raises about you know, call it a
• 52:15
  Speaker 4: half a million dollars a year, and that benefits all students.
• 52:18
  Speaker 4: It's not like they silo that money in any way
• 52:20
  Speaker 4: to cording off just to school Power trustee parents. It
• 52:23
  Speaker 4: gets deployed for programs across you know, across alls, for
• 52:27
  Speaker 4: sites across the district.
• 52:28
  Speaker 2: So, yeah, another good one. Our kids don't have to
• 52:31
  Speaker 2: buy school supplies. You remember that as kids you have
• 52:32
  Speaker 2: to go to the pharmacy or whatever else. And so
• 52:34
  Speaker 2: now the kids come in with all that. All the
• 52:36
  Speaker 2: kids have the same pencils, the same paper, and so
• 52:38
  Speaker 2: it kind of equalizes things and takes that little piece
• 52:41
  Speaker 2: of stress off. So that's the kind of thing that
• 52:42
  Speaker 2: school Power does.
• 52:43
  Speaker 3: So they're like in the trench just doing programs where
• 52:45
  Speaker 3: you guys are more at the ten thousand foot level,
• 52:48
  Speaker 3: wanting to look at the overall quality of the education
• 52:52
  Speaker 3: and make sure it aligns with your values with other
• 52:56
  Speaker 3: parents who come here.
• 52:57
  Speaker 4: So the mission of fuel was always about holding you know,
• 53:01
  Speaker 4: holding a school board to be transparent and accountable, and
• 53:05
  Speaker 4: that is why partly, and youth can also add to this,
• 53:08
  Speaker 4: but partly why we organized as a C four was
• 53:12
  Speaker 4: to hold our own selves accountable, to be transparent with
• 53:15
  Speaker 4: the community. You know, we have to do public filings
• 53:17
  Speaker 4: and reports and all the all the things like we
• 53:20
  Speaker 4: added more work for ourselves to do it the right
• 53:22
  Speaker 4: way because we are expecting that of all of our
• 53:25
  Speaker 4: community members who decide to take public office.
• 53:27
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, and the other ability is beyond that, looking beyond
• 53:31
  Speaker 2: kind of this immediate crisis, we realized very quickly that
• 53:35
  Speaker 2: part of the reason why this happened is because parents
• 53:37
  Speaker 2: didn't have a voice in town and families didn't have
• 53:40
  Speaker 2: a voice in town. Now there's lots of voices in town. Certainly,
• 53:43
  Speaker 2: anytime someone tries to remodel a house, there'll be lots
• 53:46
  Speaker 2: of voices, and there's organizations that will come after that.
• 53:48
  Speaker 2: But on the other side, there wasn't There wasn't a
• 53:50
  Speaker 2: group of parents. And you say it's only twenty percent,
• 53:53
  Speaker 2: but we're affected by what goes on here and so
• 53:57
  Speaker 2: since and beyond the beyond the school we've advocated for
• 53:59
  Speaker 2: the promenade for some of the other projects in town
• 54:02
  Speaker 2: because we think they benefit for kids.
• 54:04
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and I think if you're a homeowner in this community,
• 54:07
  Speaker 3: you know the quality of education it correlates to your
• 54:09
  Speaker 3: home values. So everybody has a stake in this, and
• 54:13
  Speaker 3: you want to be proud of your community. You want
• 54:14
  Speaker 3: to turn out the best and the brightest, even if
• 54:16
  Speaker 3: you don't have kids in the system.
• 54:18
  Speaker 4: I mean, generations of people worked to build this school
• 54:21
  Speaker 4: district so that my kids and youths kids could come
• 54:24
  Speaker 4: here and benefit from all of that hard work decade
• 54:28
  Speaker 4: after decade after decade. Nuth and I and the other
• 54:30
  Speaker 4: FUEL board members are fully committed to making sure not
• 54:33
  Speaker 4: just our children, but generations of children coming after my
• 54:36
  Speaker 4: kids and youths kids can also benefit from an exceptional
• 54:40
  Speaker 4: school district. Right, so that you're going to have other
• 54:42
  Speaker 4: families that say, I moved here for the schools. I
• 54:44
  Speaker 4: think every penny I had you.
• 54:46
  Speaker 3: Should be getting a lot of money from the real
• 54:48
  Speaker 3: estate agents.
• 54:50
  Speaker 2: But along those lines, in terms of the future, there's
• 54:53
  Speaker 2: there is in potential for this. There's a bond that
• 54:57
  Speaker 2: comes up and so if you I have say a
• 55:00
  Speaker 2: million dollars assessed value. Assess values what you pay property
• 55:03
  Speaker 2: tax on. You currently pay about one hundred dollars per
• 55:05
  Speaker 2: year for a bond that was done twenty seven years ago.
• 55:08
  Speaker 2: That bond will be fully paid off next year. One
• 55:11
  Speaker 2: of the things that the board in the New Glass
• 55:13
  Speaker 2: was in the middle of is getting the bond on
• 55:15
  Speaker 2: the ballot again in November to extend it so no
• 55:19
  Speaker 2: one gets a property tax increase and eighty million dollars
• 55:22
  Speaker 2: can go under the schools up to one hundred and
• 55:24
  Speaker 2: twenty depending on matching money that comes from the state
• 55:27
  Speaker 2: for various things. And if you look at the facility's
• 55:30
  Speaker 2: master plan, there's a few sexy things in there, but
• 55:33
  Speaker 2: for the most part, we're talking about hardening for fire response,
• 55:36
  Speaker 2: roof repairs, plumbing, et cetera. So that there is this
• 55:41
  Speaker 2: moment of crisis crisis right now. Hopefully with Don Austin
• 55:44
  Speaker 2: things calm down, but beyond that, looking forward, there is
• 55:48
  Speaker 2: this kind of generational opportunity and that our kids probably
• 55:52
  Speaker 2: won't benefit from most of that money that goes in there.
• 55:54
  Speaker 2: My youngest is in my oldest is going into high school,
• 55:57
  Speaker 2: so he'll be graduated before all these construction projects start.
• 56:00
  Speaker 2: But it's it's the goal is to leave something better.
• 56:02
  Speaker 4: Than what we found it sure, and looking to November
• 56:05
  Speaker 4: and looking to November, so I'm gonna do that plug
• 56:08
  Speaker 4: real quick. Yeah, please, So to that end, you know,
• 56:11
  Speaker 4: what we want is stability, and we want people to
• 56:15
  Speaker 4: look to the future of this district. And I maybe
• 56:17
  Speaker 4: I did a plug for real estate agents. I don't know,
• 56:19
  Speaker 4: but I'm serious. I mean, I'm very genuine about really
• 56:22
  Speaker 4: wanting to leave this better than we received it. That
• 56:25
  Speaker 4: should always be the goal, right, So so looking to November,
• 56:29
  Speaker 4: there are three seats up, d Joan and Jim. Joan
• 56:32
  Speaker 4: has announced that she's running again and Jim is not,
• 56:36
  Speaker 4: and we don't know if d is or not, but
• 56:39
  Speaker 4: basically three seats are up. Fuel is going to endorse
• 56:42
  Speaker 4: a slate and we're asking community members to get engaged
• 56:46
  Speaker 4: with us. We have vetted the candidates and believe strongly
• 56:51
  Speaker 4: in them, and they'll announce on their own time and
• 56:55
  Speaker 4: then please vote with the slate. Okay, So that's the
• 56:59
  Speaker 4: Sport majority and let's take back our schools.
• 57:01
  Speaker 3: I think you just nailed the takeaway that I was
• 57:04
  Speaker 3: looking for, like why you're on this media campaign and
• 57:07
  Speaker 3: going around then being public about this because I said,
• 57:10
  Speaker 3: what's the endgame here? And I think you just stated it.
• 57:12
  Speaker 3: There's an election coming up and you want stability.
• 57:15
  Speaker 4: Yes, we got to flip the board majority, bring back
• 57:17
  Speaker 4: you know, strong, stable school board that's future focused, wants
• 57:23
  Speaker 4: to understand what the long term goals are of this
• 57:25
  Speaker 4: district and make sure our kids are well taken care
• 57:27
  Speaker 4: of it.
• 57:27
  Speaker 3: It's hard for me to imagine any personal agenda surrounding
• 57:31
  Speaker 3: being on a school board other than wanting the betterment
• 57:34
  Speaker 3: of you of your children, you know, and getting your
• 57:37
  Speaker 3: ego out of the way and whatever that is. I
• 57:39
  Speaker 3: can't imagine that that's the place to trump trumpet yourself
• 57:44
  Speaker 3: right word, you know, to toot your horn and bring
• 57:47
  Speaker 3: attention and with theatrics and whatever else there is going
• 57:51
  Speaker 3: on here that, as you guys said, creates this instability.
• 57:56
  Speaker 4: It's hard to imagine. But here we are.
• 57:57
  Speaker 3: Here we are.
• 58:00
  Speaker 2: Since this has gone on real quick, and I'll let
• 58:01
  Speaker 2: you go, let's wrap it up. But since from the
• 58:04
  Speaker 2: very beginning some of the stuff that was happening, we
• 58:06
  Speaker 2: can only laugh and say this is like parks and rec.
• 58:09
  Speaker 2: Now I've since been corrected, it is like parks and
• 58:13
  Speaker 2: rec but in the upside down do you know what
• 58:15
  Speaker 2: the upside down is? From stranger things? So that that's
• 58:17
  Speaker 2: shut up with those younger kids.
• 58:19
  Speaker 3: Got it all right? Well that's the great wrap up funk.
• 58:22
  Speaker 13: Who else was on the board of fuel by the way, Yeah,
• 58:25
  Speaker 13: go ahead, So Eva Paulling is on the board, Julie Gersten,
• 58:30
  Speaker 13: Danielle and Jeff Rohdershiner, Emily and Matt Gummow and my
• 58:34
  Speaker 13: wife Claudia.
• 58:35
  Speaker 3: Well you got a big board.
• 58:36
  Speaker 4: There's nine of us.
• 58:37
  Speaker 3: Well, well, keep doing what you're doing, and now you
• 58:39
  Speaker 3: have the interest of our community, and you know, fight
• 58:43
  Speaker 3: the good fight, because I always say the Gunna Beach
• 58:46
  Speaker 3: is a country club. And you know what the definition
• 58:48
  Speaker 3: of the country club is five hundred people who never
• 58:51
  Speaker 3: had it so good, who all think they should have
• 58:53
  Speaker 3: it better. That's great, Billy appreciam. We'll be back with
• 58:58
  Speaker 3: Pat Parnell in a moment. Stay tuned.
• 59:01
  Speaker 2: Awesome, man, that was really good.
• 59:03
  Speaker 3: He thank you.
• 59:20
  Speaker 10: Can line and you can go your own way from
• 59:26
  Speaker 10: my facial follow you down and fail your dreams. Stars
• 59:33
  Speaker 10: can keep your seat crass. I don't want to bold
• 59:36
  Speaker 10: them anything, So I will draw a line, draw a line,
• 59:47
  Speaker 10: draw the line