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Sandee Everett's atrocious behavior during last night's @ConejoValleyUSD board meeting has left many of us appalled & struggling to sort thru her crimes against civility & good governance. @ReporterDawn'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's expense--wasting hours of time, keeping business from getting done, while pursuing "outsider" status after 4 years on the board. /
(There's a reason Everett isn't using the word "incumbent" on her ballot designation this fall. She doesn't want voters to associate her with the district--though she hopes they'll be impressed as she calls herself a "school counselor," even though SHE HAS NEVER WORKED AS ONE.) /
Everett led off last night's war against the district with a cynical, corrosive set piece. She did something she knows perfectly well she's not supposed to do: use "board member comment" time to launch a screed on a topic agendized elsewhere (the district'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'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'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's a "personal" feed (it's all school-related) & whining she's been "bullied" on social media. (She's a public official. Who was it who said, "If you can't stand the heat..."?) /
Everett proved, once again, that she's an extremist who's happy to launch crazy criticisms & conspiracy theories against the district & everyone in it, but emotionally can't handle political opposition. Or else she feels an entitlement to go unchallenged as she runs roughshod. /
One thing'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't be bothered to answer emails from constituents who aren'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's plan for reopening under CA's existing restrictions, but about articles she had read about schools in Europe, studies claiming children don't spread Covid-19, etc. /
Everett's blather had nothing to do with CVUSD's current situation...except to position herself in opposition to any plan that doesn't put kids back in classrooms immediately. She was cynically eager to sow discord in parents' 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'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's response. /
Here's a zoomed-in & enhanced version of @KyleBJorrey's photo of Everett last Sunday, supporting @Rob_McCoy_'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's reopening plans, Everett ate up more than 60% of that discussion. /
As the meeting approached midnight, Everett'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's plan for the evening? Such a question is best left for Everett herself. /
This was hardly the first time Everett's filibustering has kept the board from important business. Last night they didn'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'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' rights." But here's a coda (because this thread isn't long enough already): /
Trustee Jenny Fitzgerald also felt compelled to raise issues surrounding the reopening plan: specifically, the administration's failure to communicate sufficiently to stakeholders (including parents) why CVUSD's remote-learning model is better than other districts' plans. /
Fitzgerald was passionate in an extensive critique, saying that as a parent she couldn't "blindly trust" the plan--& that community partnerships & credibility will be threatened "if we just say 'trust us'" (on reopening) & it backfires. /
Supt. McLaughlin took ownership, calling it a "lesson learned." But here's the thing: Fitzgerald's criticism didn't drip with malice, the way Everett's (usually illegitimate) gripes do. Fitzgerald was mournful as she raised issues that had to be raised; McLaughlin was, too. /
Fitzgerald wasn't intent on trashing everyone around her or undermining the district, as Everett always is. She didn't invent problems that weren't there. Fitzgerald was a LEADER last night--a concept Everett can't begin to comprehend as she carries out her petty plots. /END
