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Several points of contention that have been boiling up in Sunol over recent months — such as the infamous flag resolution and efforts to censure not just Board President Ryan Jergensen but also Trustee Peter (Ted) Romo — were discussed during the last school board meeting.
As has been the case during these Sunol Glen Unified School District Board of Trustees meetings over the past year, many residents, parents and other community members were conflicted on these various issues, except for a resolution brought forward by Romo to relook at the flag resolution at a future board meeting in order to allow for more leniency
“We don’t need to ruin the resolution we already have, (but) we may need to amend it so that we can allow for banners and that kind of thing here at the school,” Trustee Linda Hurley said at the May 14 meeting. “So maybe further discussion is warranted.”
Last September, the school board majority of Jergensen and Hurley approved a resolution that specified the school would only display the state and U.S. flag at the school after concerns were raised by a small group of people who argued that the school could be liable to lawsuits if certain special interest groups were not allowed to fly their specific flags.
Some people criticized the resolution saying it effectively bans the LGBTQIA+ Pride flag and other flags and banners that teachers have been hanging in their classrooms. Others argued the state and U.S. flags are the most inclusive flags and the community needs to move past this contentious discussion because all Jergensen and Hurley tried to do was prevent potential lawsuits.
Kindra Mendall, a former Sunol parent and eight-year staff member at the school, was one of the people who pleaded with the board during the May 14 meeting to revise the resolution and even gave visual examples of how the resolution hasn’t been working.
She held up seasonal welcoming flags that she hung up in front of her classrooms and banners her leadership team students had created for the school before dropping them all on the ground as she explained how the resolution didn’t allow for any of those at the school.
“Apparently we can’t announce to the public that Sunol Glen is against bullying,” Mendall said. “Students picked this out. I thought it was a banner but apparently banners are flags.”
Romo said in a May 11 letter to the editor on the Inform Sunol newsletter, two banners were also displayed the previous weekend — one for the annual Sunol 4-H pancake breakfast and one displaying County Supervisor David Haubert’s name — which brought him to draft the May 14 resolution.
Romo’s resolution, which the board unanimously agreed should be placed on a future agenda, states that the school’s flagpole should be used for the U.S. and state flags but that any other flags, banners, signs, posters can be hung on other areas in the school with authorization by the superintendent.
While Hurley, and others who have staunchly supported the flag resolution, didn’t agree with the length of Romo’s resolution, they agreed that a quick amendment to the original resolution to include such banners and posters to be hung around the district would be a good idea.
“Why can’t we agree to (add) ‘in addition the superintendent or designee are authorized to display such special interest flags or banners as might be requested in other areas of the campus as well as the historical fence location?'” Sunol resident Bob Frillman said. “That takes care of it all.”
But the real turning point during this portion of the meeting occurred when Sunol resident and former school board candidate James Lowder presented a flag to the board and said that if they didn’t fly it then the school would be violating his first amendment rights.
Lowder was one of the people who first brought up the issue when he wrote a letter to Superintendent Molleen Barnes stating that if the pride flag was being raised, why couldn’t he put up Christian flags or flags of the National Rifle Association.
He held up a photo, which could not be seen in the livestream, of some type of flag that was not supposed to be flown and said that if the school is allowing that flag to be displayed, then he should be able to display his flag. He also mentioned a First Amendment attorney that Lowder spoke with who told Lowder “he would be happy to take this case.”
“Oh my, the irony. You wanted a flag resolution so we wouldn’t get sued, Linda,” former Sunol board member Vic Cloutier told the board. “And yet one of your dear friends James Lowder has just come up and in front of us all threatened to sue the school.”
“The issue before us is that we have a flag policy that you instituted that is unenforceable,” Cloutier added. “Banners keep popping up at the school anyway.”
Romo’s resolution will now come back to the board either in June or July, Jergensen said, depending on discussions with the district’s legal team regarding the resolution.
In other business
* After voting down Romo’s proposed resolution to censure Jergensen — which is a publicly denouncement his actions — after leaked emails were published showing Jergensen’s attempt to get the district’s former lawyer to get a copy of the signed petition for his upcoming recall, Hurley and Jergensen voted to place a resolution on the next meeting agenda to censure Romo.
Hurley said Romo has broken a myriad of bylaws and other codes of conduct such as unauthorized calls to the district’s attorney, editing of meeting minutes and other instances where he overstepped his authority.
* Citizens Bond Oversight Committee member Debbie Ferrari will be keeping her position on the committee after several people had called for the board to remove her following what many said was a racist email she sent to a fellow Sunol resident back in February.
The board had previously decided not to do anything before talking about the situation further with the district’s legal team, but on May 14, the board was faced with a resolution to actually remove Ferrari. Romo motioned to approve the removal but neither Jergensen or Hurley seconded the motion, meaning that Ferrari will stay on the CBOC.