Pleasanton school board to review hate-motivated behavior policy

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After hearing about a growing problem of students using a racial slur at different school sites, the Pleasanton school board will be discussing and looking to approve an update to its policy on addressing hate-motivated behavior on Thursday.

Staff will also be presenting all of the steps the Pleasanton Unified School District will take to prohibit any discriminatory or racist behavior and speech at each of the campuses and school-related activities.

“The governing board is committed to building a positive school climate that promotes student engagement, safety, a sense of belonging and inclusion, healthy racial identity, as well as providing academic and social-emotional support for students and implementing school policies that prohibit racial and ethnic slurs, (i.e., the n-word), and any other epithets, symbols, or other forms of racist speech,” the updated board policy states.

This board policy change discussion comes after a couple with three kids in the district spoke up during the March 28 board meeting to inform the trustees and the district about what they said was an ongoing issue of students using the n-word at school and kids asking Black and African American students for a pass to use the racial slur.

The father, Simon Atkinson, shared the story of his own son being asked if he could give other students the pass to use the word and how his son broke down crying when he came home that day.

The district’s board policy subcommittee discussed and updated the hate-motivated behavior policy at its April 22 meeting before bringing the final edited version for the board to approve.

According to the presentation that staff will go over during the meeting, the current board policy states that the first time a student uses hate-motivated language, the district contacts the student’s parent or guardian, suspends them for one to three days, refers them to counseling, takes away school privileges and possibly changes their schedule.

After the first violation, the consequences go up to more suspension days and the student faces the possibility of expulsion.

Pleasanton Middle School has had the most discipline incidents or race motivated behavior over the past three years compared to the two high schools and the other two middle schools, according to the presentation. The data shows that in the 2023-24 school year, there were 14 incidents at PMS.

During the presentation, staff will also go over the school-wide approach it plans to implement for staff and teachers to deal with hearing students use the racial slur. Employees will be advised to respond with “For 400 years that word has been used to destroy a people. We don’t use that word out loud at (whatever school they are at). I don’t care what ending you put on that word. It’s offensive and not allowed here.”

All adults at any school site will also be instructed to consistently enforce to all students and staff that the racial slur has no place in any academic setting and that if the word comes up in literature or historical documents, students and staff will say “n word” rather than reading the full word out loud.

The board’s open-session meeting is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. Thursday (April 25). Read the full agenda here.

In other business:

* The board will be voting on approving two contracts with Verde Design — a landscape architect firm based in Santa Clara — to begin designing the field and play surface renovations at Hart Middle School and Harvest Park Middle School.

The upgrades to the play surfaces and athletic fields at the two middle schools were both projects listed under the $395 million Measure I bond project list.

“These upgrades will create a new synthetic field and track, revitalize the remainder of the natural grass, resurface the existing blacktop play area and re-stripe the existing blacktop play area,” according to the staff report.

Once the contracts are approved, Verde Design will begin designing the projects and the district’s Facilities and Construction team will begin meeting with groups to get input on the design. After that is complete, the design will be submitted to the California Division of the State Architect for final approval before construction can begin.

According to the staff report, both of the projects are within the Measure I budget — the Hart design will cost just under $531,000 and the Harvest Park design will cost just under $434,000.

Verde Design is also currently working with the district on the Pleasanton Middle School field upgrade project as well.

* Staff will be seeking approval for an agreement to rent two more temporary portable classroom buildings from Mobile Modular for the Village High School Temporary Campus project.

One of the big Measure I bond projects was the construction of an Educational Options Center, which would replace the existing Village High School.

The center would serve as a new Village High School and also offer other PUSD services.

But in order to construct this new center, the old high school must be decommissioned and demolished. While that happens, the district will construct a temporary campus right next to the high school by using portable classrooms.

The board had already approved the rental of five of those portable classrooms and one portable restroom and the district was originally planning on using those classrooms as well as part of the old district offices at the Bernal site to house the students.

However, according to certain regulations, staff learned that some of the current classrooms and portables that are at the Bernal site already cannot be used, which is why the district must now rent two more temporary classroom buildings.

The rental, installation and removal of the two additional portable classroom buildings will cost the district an additional total of $196,966, which will be taken from the Measure I bond funds.