School board’s action explained





In John Anderson’s Aug. 11 letter in the Thousand Oaks Acorn regarding the adoption of a ninthgrade health text, he makes statements that support his position, but he omits some important facts.

On the issue of the yellow cards that allow speakers to take a position on an issue but not speak to the board, it has been past board practice to record the number of cards “pro” and “con” into the minutes of the meeting. That night there were 118 yellow cards submitted both “pro” and “con.”

All of the “pro” votes had complete addresses, including a city in the address and were in the Conejo Valley Unified School District (CVUSD) attendance area.

Twenty of the “con” votes submitted were outside the CVUSD attendance area (such as Los Angeles, Northridge, Camarillo). Some did not have complete addresses, were not legible or didn’t indicate the city in the address.

When Mr. Anderson says, “Seventy-five percent of the evening visitors spoke in support of the traditional definition of marriage,” he distorts the facts.

Of the 60 speakers who spoke at the June 28 board meeting on the textbook issue, 34 speakers spoke against the adoption of Glencoe and 26 spoke for. That computes to 56 percent against, not 75 percent.

The school board majority, with Mr. Dunn voting “no,” adopted the Glencoe ninth edition. The reasons for the selection of this text were (1) it was aligned with the state health framework, (2) the teacher selection committee recommended the text and (3) it was deemed more “student friendly” by the teachers who piloted the textbook for several months.

On another issue, Mr. Anderson again chooses to refer to the March 22 board resolution that supported Proposition 98, which guarantees that about 48 percent of the state budget go to public schools, as a “highly politicized resolution sponsored by the very liberal education coalition.” This important resolution received four votes “for” with Mr. Dunn abstaining.


Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *