Elections matter. Even within the tiny Sunol Glen College District with a single Ok-8 college that enrolls fewer than 300 college students.
District dad and mom discovered that onerous lesson Tuesday night time as chaos broke out at a college board assembly. Finally, the viewers of about 100 folks was thrown out of the assembly earlier than the three-person college board handed a decision by a 2-1 vote that forestalls the district from flying the Satisfaction flag.
Past the dangerous, devastating message it sends to LGBTQ members and supporters all through the neighborhood, it raises essential points in regards to the values of the board members and the district — points which are more and more being raised at school districts in California and all through the nation. One other election yr is quickly approaching. The Sunol debate factors to the necessity for voters to make each effort to grow to be as educated as potential about candidates earlier than casting their votes in 2024.
The Satisfaction flag was reportedly connected to a chain-link fence on the Sunol college in June 2021 and June 2022 to rejoice Satisfaction month. However final June, the flag was ripped from the fence across the college. To guard it, college officers hung the flag on the college’s flagpole together with the California state flag and American flag. Quickly after, the college board launched a decision that will solely permit the college to show “flags required by regulation” — particularly the California and American flags.
Following heated debate that featured shouts and insults from the viewers, the three-person board cleared the college cafeteria earlier than voting on the measure. Board President Ryan Jergensen and board member Linda Hurley have been in help. Board member Ted Romo opposed the decision.
Jergensen argued that the flag decision was misunderstood and that it will merely deal with everybody the identical by not prioritizing any group’s flag over one other. That’s a weak argument, as anybody watching the culture-war effort to wrongly restrict or take away homosexual rights is aware of. The board also needs to be involved about what dad and mom mentioned was the chilling impact the decision would have on enrollment. Almost 200 of Sunol Glen’s 275 college students come from out of the district by alternative.
Serving as a college board member is a way more difficult job than most individuals notice. Other than guaranteeing the monetary stability of a district, board members are liable for hiring and supporting the superintendent and setting district insurance policies. These insurance policies ought to mirror the values, beliefs and priorities of the communities they serve, together with the LGBTQ neighborhood.
Sunol board member Hurley’s seat will likely be contested in 2024, together with dozens of seats all through the Bay Space. It is going to be as much as voters to determine whose values, beliefs and priorities govern their communities’ faculties.
