加州一个学区的整个董事会已经辞职，此前有人在本周的一次现场虚拟会议上听到几个人对父母发表贬低性评论。
奥克利联合小学学区在公开会议两天后的周五宣布了董事会成员的辞职，其中一部分被记录并在YouTube上分享。
董事会成员显然认为，当他们开始讨论来自父母的社交媒体批评时，周三的会议尚未向公众开放。
“我们是一个人吗？”一位董事会成员金·比德问道，然后说，“如果你要叫我出去，我就把你叫醒。”
学校董事会主席丽莎·布里曾丹(Lisa Brizendine)哀叹道，学校官员因对重新开放面对面学习感到沮丧而成为目标。
“他们忘记了在他们写的信的另一面有真实的人，”布里曾丹说。“他们想找我们的麻烦，这真的很不幸，因为他们想要回他们的保姆。”
第三名学校董事会成员里奇·马萨达斯(Richie Masadas)回应道:“我完全听说了，因为我哥哥有一家医用大麻送货服务公司，客户是带着孩子上学的父母。”
“当你让你的孩子在家时，不要再吸烟了，”他补充道。
这些评论是在与主管格雷格·赫里克讨论将公众评论限制在三分钟后发表的。
“我认为这将是惊人的，”一名董事会成员说。
有一次，董事会成员之一意识到会议不是私人的。
“哦哦，”比德说。"我们现在让会议对公众开放。"
“不，呃，”布里曾丹说。
“太好了，”一名董事会成员说，然后出现了一个黑屏，上面写着“正在进行练习”。
观看会议的人说，他们是在“一名董事会成员说该地区学生家长的坏话”后开始录制的，并于周四将视频匿名发布到YouTube上。
“我只希望我们当地的公立学校由更好的人来管理，”这位人士写道。
家长们对这些评论感到愤怒，因为位于旧金山湾区康特拉科斯塔县的学区的学生已经在偏远地区学习了将近一年冠状病毒大流行。
“我认为董事会成员也是我孩子的支持者，并且把她的最大利益放在心上。在(星期三的)事件之后，我真的认为他们不会，”阿什利·斯塔尔夫，一位奥克利工会的家长，告诉三藩市美国广播公司KGO站。
“他们看到我们每月、每周给董事会成员写信，详述我们对远程学习的压力和悲伤，”她补充道。“对他们来说，说我们什么都不做，坐在家里抽大麻，这远非事实。”
会后发起的网上请愿要求董事会成员辞职，“因为他们的恶劣行为”。奥克利市长也发表了看法，他在一份声明中说今天对东郡的声明董事会成员应该“做正确的事并下台”
到星期五，管理员更新的系列四名董事会成员布里曾丹、比德、马萨达斯和埃里卡·伊波里托已经提交了辞呈。
在信中，赫里克还分享了比德、伊波里托和马萨达斯的联合声明，称他们对会议上的评论“深感遗憾”，并道歉。
他们说:“这是一个艰难的决定，但我们听到了社区的关切，我们相信屈服于你的要求，我们下台将使该地区向前发展。”“请不要让我们的判断失误给我们的老师、管理人员和勤奋的员工为这个地区的学生所做的出色工作蒙上阴影。在你前进的过程中，他们应该也将需要你的支持。”
四年的董事会成员布里曾丹也在一份声明中道歉对水星报的声明对于她“照看孩子”的评论，她说她之所以这样做，部分原因是她“迫切”希望学校开放让学生亲自学习。
“我的话是无情的，没有必要的，我真的很抱歉，”她写道。“作为奥克利30年的居民，我一直支持社区里的孩子们，从童子军，到家长教师会服务，到我自己的教学生涯。”
“我递交了辞呈，因为我不想成为会对我的社区产生负面影响的事情的一部分，”她继续说道。“学生、教职员工和家庭应该得到最好的，要安全地重新开放我们的学校还有很多工作要做，我将祈祷我们作为一个社区能够一起度过这次事件，我们的孩子永远是焦点。”
Hetrick在他的信中写道，更多关于学区重新开放计划的信息将在“未来几天”提供。
他写道:“这种不幸的情况不会阻止或削弱我努力重建对我们社区的信任，并尽快让我们的学生安全返回学校。”
California district's school board resigns over comments bashing parents during virtual meeting
A California school district's entire board of trustees has resigned after several were heard making disparaging comments about parents during a live virtual meeting this week.
The Oakley Union Elementary School District announced the resignation of the board members on Friday, two days after the public meeting, a portion of which was recorded and shared on YouTube.
The board members apparently thought Wednesday's meeting wasn't yet open to the public at the time they started talking about social media criticism from parents.
"Are we alone?" one board member, Kim Beede asks, before saying, "B---- if you're going to call me out, I'm going to f--- you up."
The president of the school board, Lisa Brizendine, laments that school officials are being targeted amid frustration over reopening for in-person learning.
"They forget that there's real people on the other side of those letters that they're writing," Brizendine says. "It's really unfortunate that they want to pick on us, because they want their babysitters back."
A third school board member, Richie Masadas, says in response, “I totally hear that, because my brother had a delivery service for medical marijuana, and the clientele were parents with their kids in school."
"When you got your kids at home, no more smoking," he added.
The comments followed a discussion with Superintendent Greg Hetrick on limiting public comment to three minutes.
"I think that would be amazing," one board member says.
At one point, one of the board members realizes the meeting isn't private.
"Uh oh," Beede says. "We have the meeting open to the public right now."
"Nuh uh," says Brizendine.
"Great," says a board member, before a black screen with the text "Practice session in progress" appears.
Someone watching the meeting said they started recording after "one of the board members spoke poorly of parents of students in the district" and posted the video anonymously to YouTube on Thursday.
"I only wish for our local public school to be run by better people," the person wrote.
Parents took umbrage with the comments as students in the school district, which is located in Contra Costa County in the San Francisco Bay area, have been learning remote for almost a year amid the coronavirus pandemic.
"I thought the board members were also advocates for my child and had her best interests at heart. After [Wednesday's] incident, it really has me thinking that they don't," Ashley Stalf, an Oakley Union parent, told San Francisco ABC station KGO.
"They see us writing letters monthly, weekly, to the board members, detailing our stresses and grief about distance learning," she added. "For them to say we are doing nothing and sitting home and smoking pot is far from the truth."
An online petition launched after the meeting called for the board members to resign "due to their egregious behavior." The mayor of Oakley also weighed in, saying in a statement to East County Today that the board members should "do the right thing and step down."
By Friday, the superintendent updated families that the four board members -- Brizendine, Beede, Masadas and Erica Ippolito -- had submitted their resignations.
In his letter, Hetrick also shared a joint statement from Beede, Ippolito and Masadas, saying they "deeply regret" and apologize for the comments made in the meeting.
"This was a difficult decision, but we hear the community's concerns, and we believe yielding to your request that we step down will allow the district to move forward," they said. "Please do not let our failure in judgment cast a shadow on the exceptional work that our teachers, administrators and hard-working employees are doing for the students of this district. They deserve and will need your support as you move forward."
Brizendine, a four-year member of the board, also apologized in a statement to the Mercury News for her "babysitting" comment, which she said she made in part because she "desperately" wants schools to open for in-person learning.
"My remark was callous and uncalled for and for that I am truly sorry," she wrote in part. "As a 30-year resident of Oakley, I have always championed the kids in the community from Boy Scouts, to PTA service, to my own teaching career."
"I tendered my resignation because I don't want to be a part of something that would negatively impact my community," she continued. "The students, staff and families deserve the very best, there is much work that needs to be done to reopen our schools safely and I will be praying that we as a community can move past this incident together and that our children always remain in focus."
Hetrick wrote in his letter that more information on the school district's reopening plans will be available "in the coming days."
"This unfortunate situation will not discourage or detract me from working to build back the trust in our community and return our students safely back to school as soon as possible," he wrote.
