Read on Twitter
Sandee Everett& #39;s atrocious behavior during last night& #39;s @ConejoValleyUSD board meeting has left many of us appalled & struggling to sort thru her crimes against civility & good governance. @ReporterDawn& #39;s tweets are always a great starting point, but context is crucial. /thread
The way Everett ( @SandeeCVUSD) spent the evening cannot realistically be called "governing." She was campaigning for re-election at the district& #39;s expense--wasting hours of time, keeping business from getting done, while pursuing "outsider" status after 4 years on the board. /
(There& #39;s a reason Everett isn& #39;t using the word "incumbent" on her ballot designation this fall. She doesn& #39;t want voters to associate her with the district--though she hopes they& #39;ll be impressed as she calls herself a "school counselor," even though SHE HAS NEVER WORKED AS ONE.) /
Everett led off last night& #39;s war against the district with a cynical, corrosive set piece. She did something she knows perfectly well she& #39;s not supposed to do: use "board member comment" time to launch a screed on a topic agendized elsewhere (the district& #39;s reopening plan). /
Everett knew her fellow trustees would try to cut short this first filibuster of the evening, and Jenny Fitzgerald obliged, asking for a Point of Order as Everett began describing emails she& #39;s received from her supporters. Everett immediately played the victim card... /
... whining that she was being "censored" & "bullied" by trustees who were just trying to maintain regular order. Everett picked this fight during her first opportunity to speak this fall, with no rational basis...except to build her anti-district "brand" for her re-election. /
Everett also, in those opening remarks, managed to insult fellow trustee Bill Gorback with ageism, saying her counseling credential is "newer than yours," even though it& #39;s done nothing but gather dust on a shelf since she obtained it. /
AND Everett defended her indefensible blocking of constituents on Twitter ( @SandeeCVUSD), saying it& #39;s a "personal" feed (it& #39;s all school-related) & whining she& #39;s been "bullied" on social media. (She& #39;s a public official. Who was it who said, "If you can& #39;t stand the heat..."?) /
Everett proved, once again, that she& #39;s an extremist who& #39;s happy to launch crazy criticisms & conspiracy theories against the district & everyone in it, but emotionally can& #39;t handle political opposition. Or else she feels an entitlement to go unchallenged as she runs roughshod. /
One thing& #39;s for sure: Everett CANNOT legitimately claim to uniquely "represent parents" on the school board when she blocks so many of them & when she can& #39;t be bothered to answer emails from constituents who aren& #39;t demonstrably on her "side" in the culture wars she has created. /
The SECOND time she had the opportunity to speak, Everett spent 15 minutes pontificating--not about the district& #39;s plan for reopening under CA& #39;s existing restrictions, but about articles she had read about schools in Europe, studies claiming children don& #39;t spread Covid-19, etc. /
Everett& #39;s blather had nothing to do with CVUSD& #39;s current situation...except to position herself in opposition to any plan that doesn& #39;t put kids back in classrooms immediately. She was cynically eager to sow discord in parents& #39; minds--never mind the REAL safety issues we face... /
...and REAL facts about Covid spread at school, the nearly 100k recently reported cases among kids, etc. One might say Everett is less honest than, but just as callous as, a trustee in another community whose attitude toward Covid at school involves "acceptable casualty rates." /
Of course, Everett& #39;s string of stories from Europe neglected to mention that those nations have controlled Covid far better than the U.S.--largely because denialism & irresponsibility from ideologically driven right-wingers like Everett have sabotaged America& #39;s response. /
Here& #39;s a zoomed-in & enhanced version of @KyleBJorrey& #39;s photo of Everett last Sunday, supporting @Rob_McCoy_& #39;s violation of a restraining order & illegal holding of indoor services at Godspeak church. No social distancing, inside or out...but, wonder of wonders, she masked up. /
Between her irrelevant & ideological attempts at epidemiology & her insistence on reciting the themes of one complaining email after another that she had received from her friends about the district& #39;s reopening plans, Everett ate up more than 60% of that discussion. /
As the meeting approached midnight, Everett& #39;s mic-hogging kept the board from considering important agenda items--including new literature titles for our middle schools that will advance the cause of racial equity in the curriculum. Also a new board policy on equity. /
Was delaying the consideration of equity-related issues actually part of Everett& #39;s plan for the evening? Such a question is best left for Everett herself. /
This was hardly the first time Everett& #39;s filibustering has kept the board from important business. Last night they didn& #39;t even finish discussing the reopening. But Everett, hypocritically ignoring her ritual instigation of board dysfunction, exploded at her colleagues... /
...claiming without merit that the failure to resolve every one of the complaints Everett had brought up meant parental input (there& #39;s her "brand" again) was being ignored. She briefly demanded another meeting "tomorrow"...until reminded that state law requires 72 hours notice. /
So, Everett (once again) dominated a meeting with her own agenda, keeping the board from achieving actual goals that benefit students & families. All while claiming to be the "watchdog" for "parents& #39; rights." But here& #39;s a coda (because this thread isn& #39;t long enough already): /
Trustee Jenny Fitzgerald also felt compelled to raise issues surrounding the reopening plan: specifically, the administration& #39;s failure to communicate sufficiently to stakeholders (including parents) why CVUSD& #39;s remote-learning model is better than other districts& #39; plans. /
Fitzgerald was passionate in an extensive critique, saying that as a parent she couldn& #39;t "blindly trust" the plan--& that community partnerships & credibility will be threatened "if we just say & #39;trust us& #39;" (on reopening) & it backfires. /
