In a recording of the meeting posted anonymously on YouTube, the superintendent and board members are heard discussing the agenda for the meeting before then-board member Kim Beede says, “Are we alone?” Beede then tells other board members, apparently referring to a parent’s social media message, ‘B * tch, if you’re going to call me, I’m gonna fuck you. Sorry! It’s just me. ‘
Then-council president Lisa Brizendine stepped in and said parents “forget that there are real people on the other side of the letters they are writing.” She added: “It is very unfortunate that they want to choose us because they want their babysitters.”
During the video conference, councilor Richie Masadas suggested that parents want their children in school so they can smoke marijuana in their homes.
“We deplore the comments made earlier this week at the Education Council meeting,” they said in a statement. “As trustees, we realize that it is our responsibility to model the behavior we expect from our students and staff, and it is our duty to build trust in district leadership; our comments have failed you in both respects, and we our sincere apologies. “
The wave of shock and disappointment led to members of the community creating a petition from Change.org thanking the board. Oakley Mayor Sue Higgins also asked the council to resign in her own statement.
“I do not need a babysitter,” says the parent
The member of the public who posted the recording on YouTube on Thursday wrote in the description of the video that the meeting was announced on the council’s website, which also provided the login information.
“I reported to the meeting a few minutes before I started recording,” the poster said.
The poster said they did not want to be interviewed, noting that their sole purpose in posting the track was “to have our local public school run by better people.”
OUESD, a member of the parents ‘teachers’ association, Katie Patterson, told KPIX that it was Brizendine’s suggestion that parents only want ‘babysitters’ to make her angry.
“I do not need a babysitter, I am a stay-at-home mom,” said Patterson, who has two children in the school district.
“I am educating a ten-year-old with special needs and having them at home during this pandemic, while also occupying two jobs to support my family, was a huge strain,” her statement said in part.
“I suffer from many of the same things that parents go through … my remark was numb and unsolicited and for that I am really sorry,” she said.
As of Sunday, there were five vacancies on the OUESD’s website of the Board of Trustees.
Meanwhile, the chairman of the Contra Costa County Board of Education, Annette Lewis, has appointed herself and her co-board member of Contra Costa County, Mike Maxwell, to the OUESD board. Hetrick’s letter quotes a section of the state education code, which makes it possible for the provincial council of education to appoint members to a district council until new ones can be elected.
“I look forward to working with the OUESD community to determine the best way to fill these seats with people who will represent the best interests of students, families, teachers and school staff,” Lewis said in a statement Friday. said.