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It was another long and contentious Sunol Glen School Board of Trustees meeting last week that included criticisms of the two board members who are facing a potential recall and disagreements over several items on the agenda.
The tension during the Jan. 23 board meeting was heightened during several moments of the meeting. However, things particularly escalated when Sunol parent James Lowder said disparaging remarks about Superintendent Molleen Barnes and Trustee Peter (Ted) Romo.
“As a self-absorbed jerk, you failed to earn the respect of your colleagues,” Lowder said of Romo.
Lowder’s insult to Romo came after he mentioned the previous meeting where the board voted 2-1, with Romo dissenting, to reappoint Trustee Ryan Jergensen as the board president.
Lowder also called Sunol teacher Chris Wheeler a “self-promoting political hack” for talking negatively about Jergensen even though Wheeler has two of Jergensen’s kids in his class. He also called out Barnes for allowing the teacher and staff unions to hold meetings for “political activities,” which he said was not allowed per the district policies.
After his comments about Romo, Jergensen interrupted Lowder for his language even though he still had time on the clock. Many in the audience were heard protesting Lowder’s comments and one woman was heard saying “that was awful.”
Prior to being cut off, Lowder kicked off the meeting by calling out Barnes during the public comment period for the overall agenda.
“I am requesting that investigation and potential disciplinary action be taken and request the resignation of our superintendent Ms. Barnes for her continued pattern of disregard for district policies and California (educational) code,” Lowder said. “Mrs. Barnes has blatantly ignored the law in an attempt to further her personal agenda.”
Lowder cited several district policies that Barnes allegedly broke like not respecting differing opinions, creating uncomfortable situations — like when several teachers spoke out during the Sept. 12 meeting where the board voted on a controversial flag resolution — and not working with the board to create unity at the school.
Lowder’s two public comments during the meeting were among many moments that showed how divided the crowd was on several issues.
While Lowder spoke out to defend Jergensen and Trustee Linda Hurley, others did the opposite and spoke in favor of the recall effort.
“Please consider, if you don’t owe it to yourself and this community, to take a hard look in the mirror and reconsider whether it may be best to resign so you can stop tearing this school down and let Sunolians step in to build it back up so we can all get the community we love back on track and put this mess you’ve made behind us,” Sunol parent Kelly Goldsmith said. “Or at the very least please stop spreading lies and do your jobs while we wait for the voters to remove you at the ballot box,” she added.
Goldsmith, who is on the recall campaign, was referring to what she said was misinformation being spread by the two trustees on the confidentiality of recall signatures and the cost of a recall election.
She said that the information on the anti-recall campaign website stating that the recall petitions will be available for the public to view is false and that the two trustees are falsely telling those who are sharing the petition that their information will be made public.
“The truth provided directly to me by the Registrar of Voters and the California Secretary of State, per state election code and outlined in the official record procedures guide is that the right of examination is not available to the public,” Goldsmith said.
“Why are you lying to and threatening Sunolians in an attempt to prevent them from participating in democracy by exercising their right to recall you from office?” she added. “Sunolians have shared that they are concerned about the privacy of their signatures and votes specifically because they are afraid of you and your supporters, both here in town and the outside hate groups you attract to Sunol.”
Wheeler, along with the president of the Sunol school staff union, spoke during the public comment section to also voice their concerns and distrust of Jergensen and Hurley. Both the teachers and the staff unions have previously issued votes of no confidence in the two trustees.
“Linda and Ryan are using the Sunol Glen School as a platform to crap political theater,” Wheeler said. “As a parent, and a teacher, that seems inappropriate, unethical. As a human being, if you use a school full of kids and young parents to jumpstart your political career, (it’s) unconscionable, kind of sad.”
After the nearly half hour of speakers who gave dozens of reasons why they wanted to remove Jergensen and Hurley from the board, two other speakers jumped in to support the trustees by shaming the people leading the recall.
“I find that recall leaders to be closed-minded, exclusionary … self centered, vicious, bullies and rude,” Sunol resident Debbie Ferrari said. “I took the time to talk to Linda and Ryan, and of course I’m not saying they’re perfect and nobody on the board or anywhere is perfect, but they’ve proven to be earnest and honest in their efforts and most people have not taken the time to talk it through. They never wanted to talk this through,” she added.
Longtime resident Margie Quarry even went as far as saying she was “disgusted by the way all of you here are behaving” and went on to call people in the room rude before she defended Hurley and Jergensen and said that the community has never been as divided as it is now. “The division in this community is so sad,” she said.
Other portions of the meeting also sparked spirited discussions.
The first issue was brought up by former Sunol school board trustee Victoria Cloutier who called Jergensen out for failing to attend over 60% of the Tri-Valley Special Education Local Plan Area (SELPA) meetings.
SELPA is a regional office that provides special education support and services and is made up of a consortium of five districts across the Tri-Valley. Board members, like Jergensen, volunteer to attend SELPA meetings.
“The Tri-Valley SELPA have also claimed that you have missed critical meetings about budget, resources, structure and program support,” Cloutier said. “At this point, it appears you have the highest absenteeism rate of any elected official from either Dublin, Pleasanton, Livermore or Mountain House at these meetings.”
Cloutier also ended her comments by calling Lowder’s opening remarks about Barnes “truly vile” and said that the community stands with Barnes.
Moving forward, Jergensen said he will do better to let other trustees know when he can’t make the SELPA meetings, even though he said he does notify Barnes.
Toward the end of the meeting, there were other agenda items where Jergensen and Romo went back and forth, adding to the existing tension.
One moment was during the discussion to have the district bring on a third party consultant to help repair the working relations between the board members and Romo asked if Jergensen was apologizing for filing a temporary restraining order against his wife, former trustee Denise Kent Romo. Jergensen said that was not the item they were discussing and shifted the focus back to the consulting service, which would cost the district about $3,000, so that they can unify the board and move forward.
Romo said that he thought it was too little too late and that if they were to discuss bringing on such a service, he wants to wait until the community sees the results of the possible recall election before having that discussion, which is what the board agreed upon.
Romo and Jergensen again butted heads during the discussion of bringing on an additional member to the Citizens Bond Oversight Committee, which oversees expenditures for the $10.9 million general obligation bond to repair the school. Jergensen wanted to bring in three people rather than just the one, which was what was on the agenda.
The board eventually voted to unanimously bring in one person but had to vote on Jergensen’s motion to bring in the other two, which passed 2-1 with Romo dissenting.
Jergensen said that if there were any issues with the board not being able to do that because it wasn’t outlined in the agenda, as Romo had said, that he would address it after speaking with the district’s attorney.
Romo then brought up other issues on public records requests and on past meeting minutes that he said were altered and Hurley challenged Romo for going after her while Jergensen repeatedly told Romo that he didn’t want to answer questions as he felt he was being interrogated. The questions referred to Romo’s assertion that Jergensen had taken too long to respond to public records requests.
Hurley ended the meeting with two items that had to do with the deletion of the meetings and extending the amount of years the district held on to meeting recordings. She also brought up that she wanted to begin a discussion about how the board handles public meetings.
She said she wanted to look at the policies of how long people are allowed to speak and how long the public comment section should be, which she said should be a balance between allowing as many people to speak while also being conscious about the time.
Hurley will be bringing this item back at a later board meeting.
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