001we are now live good evening everyone welcome to a very special study session for the Santa Rosa City School Board of Education on November 9th 2020 and we are going to start as we always do with the Pledge of Allegiance please stand and join me and unmute yourself and all participants can stand and join as well I pledge allegiance Allegiance to the flag the United States of America and to the Republic which it stand na Nation god godis with liberty and justice that is not wait I'm gonna say okay but we do say the Pledge of Allegiance together and we do have new president elect all right so um I just want to say one more time that we are so thankful and grateful to our superintendent who um last Friday was celebrated um by
002the Association of California school administrators this is a Statewide award she was awarded their very highest honor their annual honor it's the thir kaisel award for exemplary leadership and education and there are 19 regions in California in our region our superintendent was chosen so congratulations Diane we're very proud of you and we're so glad you choose to work with Santa Rosa city schools so this is an extreme honor I just can't say this enough I know we've said it I'm saying it again thank you I want us to also recognize Victor Pena Victor Peno was chosen by our region to represent our region at the state level as well and so congratulation to him and all that he um has fought for and the barriers that he has overcome uh to be the student and
003the young man that he is so give shout out for to to Victor Pena as well okay so now I don't have to say that said that but he was next on my list Victor Pena sorry no go ahead and say it you said it congratulations Victor um all right so we have one thing on our agenda tonight and um again this is continuation of our um school resource officer discussion by the board and if you recall uh October 14th we had we heard the presentation from the ad hoc committee um about 33 32 people who put in hours and hours and hours easily double the amount of hours that we first asked them to sign on for and of course it was all done over Zoom so we thank thank them we're in gratitude
004to them for their incredible Community discourse I think it's a model for how communities can have discourse with respectful listening and presenting perspectives and honoring perspectives and so uh we heard that and uh we heard some public comment and we had some board um questions and we're going to go back to public comment because we want to make sure that we get to hear from our public and uh we are going to be limiting those comments to 2 minutes each for an hour hour total in length I don't I'm not sure where we are and I'm not sure how many people we have but let's we're going to start with that um but before we start with that let's have um Diane do you want to reintroduce this again and just kind of bring us
005back up to speed with you and uh assistant superintendent uh maer first of all uh Stephanie um director manetti's uh computer uh she needed to get it rebooted so she's back online now she's back here um actually you know the the uh appreciation I have for assistant superintendent um maera and Dr Tim mccardy in facilitating this um has been tremendous and so uh I actually I'm going to turn it over to Steve and Dr mccardy for any few words um due to all the work uh that they've done and and as um how thorough and thoughtful they've been in facilitating this process so uh assistant superintendent Mah thank you do thank you Dr kidura uh president Fong and board members we're gonna begin we kind of we left off um Dr mccardy if you recall
006had a summary presentation that kind of brought together all the different groups the parents the students staff um and kind of put it all in together and so we're going to start with that as just kind of a reminder and then president F we can go from there public comment or you know the next phases so let me share my screen and then uh Dr T we can begin as soon as this comes up see if I can go to full screen for you there you go do you have this um so that I can operate it no I don't unless I share it with you just yeah okay so let's just go to the first slide please thank you who is that the oh hold on a second we're getting glitchy excuse me guys
007guys there's can you not sh it's showing share okay this is not playing nice with Adobe so let me try a different version excuse me there you go everybody Dr T you can see that yes I can thank you so much though uh I do want to mention that uh uh Dr fer Kel was a superintendent in my first school district in the state in San Juan Unified School District um so I'm very well aware of his accomplishments in that school district and I believe that Dr kitamura was nominated and was chosen as the most outstanding superintendent across the state because of programs like the school resource officer program and I wanted to commend the board and the community for looking at very difficult issues and uh convening the community voice uh that was discussed
008during our last presentation it was a very long presentation it was hours long and I wanted to Comm in the board also for coming back and and having sort of a uh some Focus time on this on this and I did want to make some sort of highlevel comments about the school resource officer program and in the slide it says that the school resource officer program is more than the three police officers on the committee and certainly the six officers overall in the field what we all found was that this this really is a program and is a partnership not only with the school resource officers but with the schools side administrators um in particular with the classified staff many of whom support the school resource officer program whether it be counselors or uh staff
009who secure the campus at the classified level and certainly teachers um who work with the program also um if the the school resource officers and the school staff work together it's of course a much stronger program and in all of our meetings certainly it was surfaced that there were many opportuni vo by all the members of the committee uh that this program could be better and so I think that's one of the consensus findings that we found out through this program was that there are a lot of opportunities to improve um I also want to mention that um the school resource officer program it was very clear both in the research that we read and in the committee's discussion that that the school resource officer program in the S Santa Rosa City's program is affected
010by both national and local events and that was crystal clear because of the nature of school resource officers incidents that happen across the country are also influential in this program and Steve and I were talking as since in his area of responsibility when there is a person who has uh a difficult situation whether it be a student or a parent or a staff member uh especially um um if there is a death in any one of those areas we have a a known procedure in all schools and in in your school district to form a task force to quickly go in and deal with the emotional events and that was one of the things I think that we found out in this program was that it's not a static program there are incidents that happen
011across the the the country country which we're all aware of um in past years that this program has to be particularly sensitive to and I think that's one of the issues that we're really concerned about is the emotional safety of the students and how does this program um interface with this long-standing emotional issues in particular of uh students of color and how there have been interactions with the police and students of color across the country and how that has a bearing on our local school program clearly um that needs to be if the program continues that emergency response of this group um needs to be something that that is well thought through and in place um I also want to say that um we noticed that there were Key Programs and we talked about them
012in a SRO program and both in our chats and our our readings we knew that there had to be a shared purpose and that's something that the board will be discussing tonight what is the overall shared purpose of this program what is it trying to achieve and of all the stakeholders are who are involved in this program whether they be teachers classified um um uh the students everybody has to have clear roles and responsibilities and high levels of coordination one of the elements that really came and struck me during our discussions was when some of the parents were talking about we don't know what's happening with this program we've talked about the student data that many of the students were not aware of the program which was sort of a mystery to all of us
013and that certainly deserves further examination but the other point that really really was important to me and and to others is the parents says we don't know what this program really does we want to be aware of the roles and responsibilities of school resource officers are they being asked to be a School site disciplinarian or are they working with really serious issues and that level of communication between the school resource office program um and the parents was something that was really really important and so that's sort of what is meant by the external communication plans uh the other thing that was a huge issue was the whole notion of training and not just training for the school resource office officers about issues of equity um of social justice you know there there were concerns about
014in what ways are the school resource officers trained in these critical areas but that's also true for um um all of the members of the staff how sensitive are they to how some of the students might be feeling by the presence of school resource officers uh and then there was a lot of discussion about the importance of integrating the school resource officer program should it continue um into the school's existing programs especially the restorative justice programs lastly I wanted to say that it's very important I think to the committee members that if the program continues it's really evaluated and it was very apparent that this is a program that maybe because of many other responsibilities in the district it maybe didn't have them the um the examination about what are the program goals and how
015is a program doing from the point of view of parents students staff uh and administration and so if the program continues some kind of a comprehensive evaluation program with some kind of even limit about we will try the program for one year and but under these kinds of conditions so those are sort of the highlevel comments that we found out in our discussions with committee members and looking through the notes um so Steve the next slide see if it'll cooperate second I want move here we go this is basically a a text document of the slides and Steve let's just go to the slides because they sort of tell the story um I would say that there really is one consensus finding from everyone and that is on the first row where it says continue
016the SRO program as it currently is and the answer is no not one person across any of the groups felt that the program should continue as it is and I think that was one of the number one consensus findings and it's because of the reasons that I mentioned previously that there are a lot of places that the program could be improved on the modifications required I've mentioned a number of those and and we have significantly more more details should the board um ask us to compile all those which could be two things it could lead to an altered um U memor of understanding and also um ways to improve the program overall in terms of coordination and training of all stakeholders and then I think there was a small adjustment by one of the parents
017where it says discontinue this this school SRO program I think two out of nine there was one person that might have uh changed their point of view but I also want to emphasize and this is really critical well you could look at that last column and I know they all say number 111 but it's really the third item which says discontinue the SRO program it was true that two or three of the parents felt like the program should not continue regardless of any changes however I would I think that it would not be a misstatement to say that there were many parents in particular that said that if the modifications that the parent stated need to happen didn't happen that that would tilt them to discontinue the program so I think it's important not to
018overarcing thoughts so I think these are the key points that we want the board to maybe talk further about I know that you've had dozens of handouts and a great deal of student data uh but this is really the bottom line slide that we ended up with and uh those are my just overall comments uh that were mentioned briefly at the last session and certainly I'm willing to respond in more detail as as Steve or other committee members to board questions okay and with that President Fong um we're ready for the rest of your agenda if that be discussion or public agenda you very much Dr mccy and assistant superintend thank you you shephered this group well thank you uh we already have had time for board questions and we are going to return to
019public comment and so um again they will be 2 minutes and we have an hour limit for all of the comments put together for public and after that we'll uh work with the board on discussion and tonight again this is a discussion item and at the end of the meeting uh uh I will kind of summarize and uh Dr kidura will summarize and we'll decide you know next steps um all right moderator do we have public comment we do have some hands raised our first public comment is Matthew Crosby hi my name is Matt Crosby and I have served as a school resource officer for San Roosa High School in San Roso middle school for the last two years I would love to share with you some of my thoughts in the program this even
020the environment of a school campus has provided an everyday opportunity for students and myself to have conversation to learn grow break down wall to challenge the very assumption we have one another see blind spots that we may miss indiv this why has been some of the most important and rewarding work I've done in my career The evolutionary approach to restorative practices student do not threaten but more over welcome likewise my presence on campus should not be limited my of being in a uniform I believe the program has proven to be much more valuable than that I do however recognize the fear some students of color may have my very pleas on campus I choose to teach these students to confront this Fe or rightfully I know our shared experience of talking and interacting with each
021other will help take away the fear that can be harnessed and carried over life at some point in their Liv students will need to callif upon law enforcement potentially during the greatest times in need how important it is to have these conversation performing I recently heard a quote proximity brings care and distance BRS fear it's not just the influence have on students the impact students have had onos so how do we continue to measure success what do we know Matt I'm sorry you were time was almost up but your connection um it was unclear what you were saying at the very end so if it's possible to just say your last sentence or two well I think we we might have lost him but we got most of that thank you to officer Crosby and
022our next comment is from Alan worstell hi my name is Alan orell and I'm a resident with two children living in the Santa Rosa city schools district uh I would like to voice my opposition to have any police presence in Sant Roa City Schools I believe that having police in schools puts a level of fear into the children of our minority populations because they see how minorities are treated differently by the police than white people are a 2019 study by the Department of Criminal Justice at the University of louisvil found that both arrest and suspension rates were quote stronger for all the groups examined in schools with police particularly for black students and boys I attended Santa Rosa High School the very first year they had a resource officer in 1996 and I felt less
023safe at school having that officer there many things in our society are being re-evaluated right now due to both the pandemic and social unrests due to racial disparity in our justice system and I believe that right now would be the opportune time to make the adjustment so all children can feel safe in school and I relinquish my time thank you thank you Mr relle next comment is Sarah Basel it's actually a stepan bell sorry about that I couldn't change it after I entered the meeting as a law enforcement officer and a lifelong member of our community I acknowledge the challenging issues facing our community relative to social injustice inequality and racism the path forward must be based on ensuring a collaborative partnership between our community and law enforcement one of the most effective examples of
024this collaborative effort eort was the SRO ad hoc committee that was formed by this school board to evaluate the processes Effectiveness and need of the SRO program moving forward these types of processes will be crucial in the success of our community to identify and dissolve instances of issues facing us voices were heard data was collected and experiences were shared the ad hoc committee accomplished its mission of evaluating SRO program and determining its future of our school campuses the recommendations was resounding and affirmed to maintain the program with Mod modifications a decision and the SRO program and the relationship between us will not only negatively impact the efforts and credibility of this process but future processes created to hear the voices of our community most importantly the elimination of the SRO program will severely limit the
025ability of law enforcement to positively engage with our students at the end of every day we as a community have a common goal to create a safe and inclusive environment for all students to learn and thrive on our campuses the people in our community school system charged with creating the safe learning environment and those who educate our children have unequivocally stated the SRO program is a valued and necessary resource on our campuses as a police department and as a city we agree with this determination we are committed to accountability transparency evaluation and change to accomplish our unified Mission I am appreciative of the commitment of this board Bo and representing the community they are elected to serve I'm equally appreciative of the commitment of our agency in representing the community they are sworn to serve
026we have the same goals and together we can achieve these goals the opportunity just needs to continue to exist please continue to represent those who elected You by listening to their voices and commit to a program where sro's continue to exist and serve on our campuses thank you thank you next is Vanessa Ruiz good evening if the relationship between SRO and schools is broken this board in our community will be denied a meaningful opportunity for growth and change how many incidents are not captured in the data where SRO intervention does not result in an arrest I've seen some of my own eth grade students engage in Acts that could be arrestable and I can't even recall one of those resulting in an arrest app parent has previously stated that kids need to be kids and
027allowed to make mistakes anecdotally I have seen our sro's let that happen because of their relationships with the school and our students this moment should be harnessed to grow understanding and Common Ground person by person conversation by conversation and group by group to address these fears from all sides head on to turn sros away would imply people or institutions are never able to change or learn or grow or reform and this seems anical to the whole idea of restorative justice and growth mindset sro's want to stay because they love our community despite how some people may feel about them they find immense value in working with Santa Rosa youth so please we need to work together recognize the different filters and lenses we all wear to educate further not to alienate one another is it
028really progress to cancel police on campus because they may appear to represent a larger systemically inequitable system why isn't it progress instead for this board to lead out work to rebuild the program to heal and reform towards true community policing and maybe this could be a model for other communities why isn't it not why isn't it progress to have the SRO ad hoc committee continue their work as they have asked for or listen to the members who have asked after hours and weeks of dialogue to have recommended maintaining the SRO program with modifications and isn't that what progress can look like too how powerful and Progressive would it be if this board extended their hand in partnership with our community agencies and is it possible to dream of a future where students and families do
029not fear police or the badge is it possible to dream of a future where the community works with law enforcement to bring about the change towards a more Equitable Society that's what we should dream and work for thank you thank you Miss R next is Casey Thornhill hey how we all doing so uh my name is Casey Thor I'm the assistant principal at in high school um been there for eight years and um I was there the first year when the tragic Andy Lopez incident happened where there were protests on campus an anarchist coming Anarchist groups coming to campus and promoting violence um this was a scary Time for Kids teachers staff and parents um with that being said I met Orlando msas who was our first um her first officer on campus who on
030at SSU who was passionate loved kids was empathetic and compassionate and I see that in officer AJ as well so my experience is only at LC Allen High School but in my opinion they have worked very hard to develop a relationship with the community and the kids and to rebuild the trust um families come to talk with AJ because they trust him kids come and talk with AJ because they trust him um they've worked very hard uh in this eight years that I've been at LCL in high school there's definitely been a change in switch um I think we need to find a happy medium uh I think both extremes are bad I don't think uh staying stagnant and doing the same thing that we're doing right now is good nor do I um completely
031discarding the program is a good idea as well I believe it was just about a few years ago we were talking about as a community um giving teachers guns to go to school okay not a good idea not a good idea but um I think discarding the program only reinforces distrust um I think there's room for growth uh in with Equity uh and bias and I definitely think there needs to be evaluations but I also think there needs to be somebody on campus who knows the campus just in case there is a school shooting which uh still happens if we just have officers coming on campus that don't know our campus uh lives are at stake where if we have someone that knows the campus knows the kids um he is keeping the school or
032she is keeping the school safer uh thank you for every time and I very much appreciate all that you guys are doing thank you so much thank you next is Will lion well are you there I made it I made it can you hear me yes oh goodness gracious it's good to see you guys um I'm will Lon I'm the president of San Rosa Teachers Association uh representing 900 of our members who work in our schools um I want to specifically thank Steve maera for being the boots on the ground and making this committee work uh Dr McCarty's leadership has been invaluable we're learning a lot from him about how to work together and have process and conversation uh I I want to thank president Fong who's worked so hard to make this happen and
033who's LED on the fact that we need to talk about it so however this goes whether we're happy or sad about the outcome we got the process right and so I really want to thank the board for prioritizing that conversation in this process uh as our T stands with the teachers on this committee and the CCA staff and the site administrators who are unanimously recommending that we continue the program like big bold letters with modifications there absolutely have to be modifications um those modifications are mandatory for this to work if we can't get those modifications and we can determine that in the next year you know if we get a new mou and those modifications there and it still doesn't work we can go back in a year and say hey man we tried and
034it's still not right for our students and staff but the right thing to do now is to let give those modifications a chance to work we know that there has to be adjustments to address the very real issues that have surfaced in this process we know the program has to be evaluated as far as I can tell this is the first time in 25 years that we've ever evaluated the program that's unacceptable for any program um we need more connection with our students so they know what the SR program is and why they're there we need more of training for teachers I'm out of time but I thank you for listening to me and thank you for listening to the community and I urge you to take the community's advice and give this program a
035chance with modifications thank you president Lian next is alra Wilson hi um my name is alra Wilson I'm a mom of two I actually was a student of Mr Lions back in the day um so hi and I just wanted to say me and my family live in the Santa Rosa city school district and I do not believe that it is in the best interests of my children or of any children to have a law enforcement presence on campus data shows that there are negative impacts particularly on students of color it is not the work of the schools to build relationships between law enforcement and children as a feel-good measure or to assume the positive intent of police towards vulnerable populations equity and bias training has not been proven to prevent this other elements that
036you've ident identified of a successful SRO program require more and more resources from already underresourced schools racism and white supremacy are baked into policing and not something that the district should throw more money at attempting to resolve furthermore it is wrong to normalize the policing of children and their families it creates an environment of fear and suspicion not support and learning we have evolved past the policies of the 1990s when kids were labeled as super Predators this SRO program should be left in the past as well thank you thank you next is Natalie Hoy good evening can you hear me all right yes we can awesome first I would just like to thank the school board for their commitment to implement a new ethnic studies curriculum I appreciate the board's dedication to equity and Justice
037in their school and your diverse curriculum offerings are the primary reason that we put our daughter in this school district that being said I am very concerned about the SRO program resource officers were put into schools to prevent violence such as school shootings but there's no evidence that they are effective at doing so this board publicly stated that we rely on data and evidence to guide our actions toward equity and transformation the data and evidence do not support resource officers making schools any safer in fact they disproportionately punish our bypass students in your letter to the community on June 10th you ask parents students and members of the community to hold you accountable for your promise to strive for more Equity compassion and justice for all of your students tonight I'm here to hold you
038accountable to that promise you said you were committed to making changes now you must actually do the hard work and remove officers from our campuses and make them a safer place for all of students especially those of color our school should be a place for teachers and counselors the police department is just a call away they do not need to be on our campuses thank you I yield the rest of my time thank you next is Remy Newman thank you can you hear me yes okay so um I am the mother of a 14 14-year-old freshman at Maria CIO he's of mixed race and I mentioned to him about this meeting and he said why don't they just have more psychologists on campus instead of police and I must say I agree with him I
039agree with um especially what Allegra Wilson said I very much do not see the the the place at all for uh law enforcement in our schools in fact there's so many other wonderful if we really wanted to highlight and you know Foster a relationship between other adults in the community and our schools I can think of many um others that I feel like would be far more valuable and I would feel safer with I do not trust our local law enforcement to protect my child so why would I send my child to school where that's the Pres there's a presence of local law enforcement it does not make any sense to me I feel like this conversation we're living in an upside down world you know exactly what the last person said counselors teachers that's
040who we need in our schools maybe a nurse that would be a nice idea but Law Enforcement Officers as far as I'm concerned have no place in our schools thank you thank you uh next is Lee Lee could you please State your full name for the record yes it's Lee andir um I also want to Echo what algro Wilson and the other few people have said um it it seems appropriate to Value the voices of those who suffer oppression from law enforcement and and create a safe feeling for all students it seems appropriate to spend a lot of money on um offering white educators anti- racism um education with local bipo Educators it seems appropriate that we would find Resto money for restorative justice teams and have counselors and perhaps nurses and stop whatever relationship
041that has been established between schools and prisons because we do not have evidence that any of these presences are good health experts are actually educated to be able to deal with students who are in trouble law enforcement's a phone call away as as has been noted in not only in studies but by other people and also we have a human rights violations report on our law enforcement in this County and I think it's really important for the school district to um to honor that and to honor that by making sure all children every single one of them especially those who feel very unsafe around law enforcement feel safe thank you and I yield my time thank you Lee next is Roy Roy could you please State your full name for the record Roy Mitchell thank
042you yeah so just a few points um that I took away from the last meeting um that this this service is completely free um so there is no cost um to to the uh taxpayers um the other piece is that the majority approved uh keeping the program um so getting rid of that would be a disservice to the majority of the folks that approve that would put them at risk um the third point is being that there is absolutely no plan for proceeding without the services um so if we get rid of those Services there is absolutely no plan to move forward um I think that you're not going to solve the problems um by turning our back on things um so I think that the program is very important and I'll concede my time
043thank you next is summer brellini uh it says that summer is on an older version of zoom and would need to be uh promoted to a panelist to be able to talk hi can you hear me um I'm not summer I'm Cecilia did you mean to call me okay no you can comment now okay thank you hi I'm Cecilia I am a resident of Santa Rosa and I just wanted to specifically first off address an earlier caller who was talking about how we need elos in schools in case of a school shooting um I actually have called into a prior meeting about this the stats are out there the numbers are out there that show that Leos are very very infrequently they're in time to stop a school shooting it just has very infrequently happened
044many times um the shooter will take some drastic action to end their own life when they hear that cops are coming but much of the time um that's simply not the case and elos do not help and it's too late and the damage is done so we don't have a lot of help with that in that regard we could put resources in general across the board towards mental health care so that we do not have school Shooters as often and focus that in other places but that is a fallacy that that is super helpful it really is not the numbers are there and it doesn't happen super often the risk that outweighs this this uh dream of them helping with school shootings the risk is that we do have children of color who are profiled
045and are traumatized and are harmed and are put into the system early and that is a a huge detriment to their lives and their education and their ability to function in the world it's an early Pathway to often uh Juvenile Detention and that profiling is not okay and until we have fully addressed the cop system and how they do profile people of color it is not safe to have cops in there because they will profile children of color and the children of color in our community in Santa Rosa are hugely important to us and we have a community that deserves to feel safe and they do not feel safe so please please hear the people tonight who are speaking to that experience because that is huge and now is the time to take action on
046that and I strongly urge you to please do that tonight thank you so much I yield my time hey Cecilia could you please State your full name for the record Cecilia Shen thank you sure next is Kelsey Vero hi can you hear me yes yes we can hello okay you have a bit of an e yeah my name is Kelsey barl oh how's this better thank you okay um yeah I wanted to Echo what a few people have said about how the experiences of bipo students and their parents are um being shared and that they should be uh treated with the utmost importance and regardless like we have studies we have statistics however it has been done in the past we can change and we can rethink it um we really in terms of the
047school meeting the moment that we see here in terms of approaching racial Justice differently when those experien are shared we need to turn all of our attention to that if it's going to take work if it's going to be big changes we want to see all efforts put towards that um we know that there's a different way to do this we know that we can put our resources into it we can back it by science and we can put always bipox students and parents at the center of that conversation and listen to them we do not want minor reforms we want change uh they want change and we're here to support that so thank you thank you next is Samantha irelli hi guys can you hear me yes okay um so I just wanted to
048address that there's been a lot of talk um specifically from the public and at the last board meeting about um adding additional supports to our schools for our students to replace the sro's I I just want to make it very clear that nothing has been put into place as a backup plan for these SRO there is no move to have additional support additional therapists additional anything to be placed at the school and if your the decision is to be made that we don't have SRO then those additional supports should be put in place the exact same day that you move s remove SRO from schools you're putting your staff and your students at risk by not having some form of support in place for them um I would also like to just address the fact
049that as a board who did in this situation have an ad hoc committee it's important that you look at the data that is coming from that ad hoc committee that ad hoc committee came back almost fully unanimous that they do want the program to continue with modifications um and those modifications are something that can be made we have a lot of talk about wanting reform wanting change and wanting to bridge the gap that some of our students are feeling and them feeling targeted but no one is wanting to actually do the work to do that they would like to sever the ties with our SRO and just turn our backs to that I don't think that that is the right approach that is not what we would re recommend our students to do if they
050are having a conflict or if they are facing a Crossroads in their life and I feel like we need to lead by example and do what we would want them to do excuse me thank you thank you next is Raphael Raphael if you could please State your full name for the record and once again um I am not able to bring Raphael over um so Samantha um actually not Samantha summer and Raphael I've been unable to promote you to give comment if you don't mind please phoning into the meeting apparently you're on an older version of Zoom um if you could go to our uh website SRC schools.org videoboard meetings there's a Callin number there and a meeting number thank you sorry about that so next is River Espinosa I need to unmute uh hi
051my name is River I am a Santa Rosa resident I used to work as a substitute in Santa Rosa city schools um my experience uh working with students has been that school resource officers aren't uh people who have been really effective in working with students and uh I would much rather see you know more counselors more of what people have called for than to than than to see police in schools I just don't think it's uh it's something that's really helping our students it in in my experience it hasn't been and I'll yield the rest of my time thank you next is Rex Rex would you please State your full name for the record hi there my name is Rex my pronouns are they them theirs um can you all hear me yes could we
052have your last name for the record green like the color thank you okay um I just wanted to call in and say I just wanted to call in and say that I think that today's youth need more support emotionally like counselors um access to things that are culturally competent and teachers that are culturally competent um teachers who know about for instance African-American studies teachers that um know about the history of immigrants in this country uh teachers and counselors who are competent dealing with lgbtqia kids who might also be bipo children um and I have discovered that police officers are not competent in any of these subjects um and I don't see how they would be helpful in schools it seems the only reason they are there is to plant a seed for a child to
053become a police officer and I think they can do that on their own time and not on the time of teenagers uh and youth who are trying to learn and become fully fledged adults I just don't think that police officers are there to offer compassion and kindness and guidance like they claim they are um that is all thank you thank you next is Pamela Kowski and I just wanted to mention um before Pamela speaks if you did phone in and you want to raise your hand you can push star9 to raise your hand if you called in on a phone thanks good evening Dr kidura and board members my name is Pam Kowski and I am a PE teacher at Brook Hill andella Elementary I sure do hope that our board listens to the people
054who are actually on a School site that would be teachers staff SRO and students based on what they feel and have been saying and what the committee who got together said for months to do the research on the topic so the committee was researching right for months for weeks they presented it at the last board meeting and it most definitely would be the right choice to keep the sro's on campuses with modifications again these are people who are on school sites I understand that people in the community have their opinions but they aren't at school so they aren't actually seeing what is happening I feel that what has been stated based on that committee finding has been pretty clear those who are saying counselors psychiatrists nurs Etc should be on campus instead of sro's I
055agree we do need people like that but I do have an important question where is this money going to come from we don't have that in place please do remember the SR program is free we have been so lucky to have this and they are willing to work with us with modifications I feel it would do our district a big disservice to take take away the sro's and I can't say it again bring them to the elementary level bring the SRO to the elementary level so that the kids can start there building the relationships I sure hope again that the board listens to those who are on school campuses thank you thank you next is Colin medcafe hi can you hear me yes hi my name is Colin MF I'm a lifetime resident of Santa
056Rosa um I grew up here and I went to school at re Rey Elementary School and then to rank and Valley Middle School and then to Maria Creo high school so I have been going to school here my entire life I'm in the JC now um and to the folks who were talking about how great a resource the SRO is to our students and how members of the community should not be speaking about that some members of the community went to school here and we remember how the sro's behaved and they were all very buddy buddy with the white students and very aggressive and just uncompromising towards students of color uh students with uh different socioeconomic backgrounds um they would often and this is well recorded all across the country as well as in Santa
057Rosa I'm sure the school of the prison pipeline um where so-called school resource officers plant types of Warrant seeds and early convictions with students who make mistakes um students who may be dealing drugs for whatever reason who may have committed crimes for whatever reason um they keep an eye on them they they put it in their little record and then they wait for them to turn into adults and then they chase after them with a car system um police officers have no place in our schools they're just setting up kids who will become adults later so that they can throw them in the jails and prisons and then just pass on those dividends to the prison industrial complex I would hope that you would reject that and get SRO alleged SRO out of campuses you
058want more money take money away from the police department talk to the city council see if you can get less money in the police department you put into education instead it's ridiculous thank you uh next is Raphael I'm hoping this is the same Raphael and that uh this will work this time and you can give us your could you give your full name for the record yes my name is Rafael salano thank you yeah I pretty much want to Echo what Colin was saying um I've been involved on my kids education since when they went in into Helen Layman Elementary School uh I already have one who graduated from Piner high school she's currently at uh um Sacramento State uh my kids never had any issues with the SRO but I do still believe that
059there is no place for police officers uh to uh Compass um the fact that we talking about the after this program has been in place for the last 20 plus years I think there is an issue I think we should stop the program um and and if we want to bring it back many people keep talking about oh they take it away they're not going to bring it back they're not going to do this well how do they know have they ask have they asked the question that's what I want to know I think we should start all over again but before you implement the program or bring a back make sure you have all the requirements that the uh the hug committee recommended and then bring the program back to me I don't think
060the program is is working so I think it should stop thank you thank you next is Lauren kellerer hi can you hear me yes all right um I just want to first like start off and note that um as a student at Sosa High School I can't say that the SRO have had a positive enough impact on me and my friends to necessarily keep them on campus if they are providing such difficulty to other students um especially when it comes to um students of color uh another thing I want to mention is because students aren't in school right now I don't think this decision should be rushed we need to take the time that we have to design like we can make the decision of course of whether or not they're going to get rid
061of them or change them but ultimately deciding each individual part of that needs to come with time and we have that opportunity right now so we should use it if it is rushed and we end up getting a poor solution solely because of that and that's and like the solution we create isn't necessarily the cause I I don't know I just I think we should really utilize the time that's given but um if in the event that they are removed I would like to have some kind of um considerations for uh protections against school shootings because in the students I know a lot of them their only want for SRO are solely to protect against school shootings so whether it means having some other preventive measure or um having more Mental Health Services on campuses
062it would be really helpful thank you thank you and next is Zach Ross hi thank you uh board for your time um my name is Zach Ross I do work at San Rosa high school and I've been listening to some of the comments that were made tonight um coming from a person who works at the high school um I feel supremely confident and growing my weight behind the SRB program I think it's done a lot of good with our students at the high school has a has had a positive impact and I really urge the board to um move forward with the ad hoc recommendation there was a parent earlier who spoke about this seeming like we're in an upside down world that would be crazy why would we have SRO there I do feel
063that um that's exactly what I'm experiencing when I'm listening to some of these phone calls um I get that there's statistics out there but those are nationwide if you were to narrow them down to our high schools I'm sure you'd find way different ones I could talk about Santa Roosa High School you want about it and I can tell you that those statistics do not line up with what happens at San Rosa high school so if that doesn't happen there we can't be the only School in the entire area that doesn't really get affected by that I would also like to say that um I do agree with that student who called earlier about let's take our time on this um let's take our time and let's really work through what this means um while
064we can uh I think um also the statistics that we did the poll that we made was too small 2,000 is not enough we have one SRO at our high school for 2,000 kids alone it's just not enough um so we need to do more research I think we need to dive into it more and we need to look at modifications we need to look about uh bringing bringing our community closer together and not bringing them further part the police aren't going to go anywhere they're not going to go away so what are we going to make them our bad secret it's going to have to be something that I think needs to be met head on and I think that we have a progressive enough board that we could look at this and really
065make a positive impact and really set something up good thank you for your time everybody thank you next is someone who's called in on the phone um with a phone number ending 1783 and if you could please uh St your name for the record hi hello this is summer brat chelini can you hear me now yes I'm glad you called back thank you okay thank you sorry about the the mix up um I'd like to read an email that I that I uh sent to the board today um hello board members of San Rosa city schools my name is Sumer brat chelini my stepson graduated Maria Creo high in 2013 and I'm the parent of two Santa Rosa city school students I have a son that is a sophomore at MCHS and a son that
066is a seventh grader at rvms I'm also the wife of a swarm police officer University I'm a registered nurse here in Santa Rosa and I've cared for patients in our community for over 17 years I grew up here and graduated San Roose oh high in 1994 in our world our community has changed drastically from the time when I was in school I do not remember the concept of a lockdown or even having the fear of meeting such a drill let alone the real thing times were more simple and times were less violent the current climate for law enforcement in America today is rough as a young girl I was always taught to wave to police officers when they drove by and if I was ever lost or needed help that I could go to an
067officer in Kill space nowadays that is not always the case my husband tells me that most people look away and avoid eye contact or instead will glare with an angry or dis disgusted look lately the latter I won't even begin to tell you the awful things he endured from our community during the protest this summer this is not the climate we should be raising our children in we should be teaching acceptance and understanding for all I see am disgusted by the injustices we have seen over the past few years I to desire change I believe we cannot all be judged as a whole and condemned for the wrongdoing of the evil done by others I teach my children the same the change will begin with us and our children will see that and the climate
068will change I'm hearing many adults projecting their negative feelings of law enforcement onto their children and this is going to be the common culture for years to come as we continue down this path I think we can all agree that it is not fair to paint everyone with the same brush removing SRO from our schools is sending the wrong message to our children and to our community it is buying into the idea that all law enforcement offices are bad and do not belong in our day-to-day lives we are confirming to our younger community that it is okay to judge and react don't we all want a community that we can be safe in of course why are we making them believe otherwise don't we want to strengthen our relationship with our own officers thank you
069thank you thank you for calling back in um next we actually have officer Crosby raised his hand again and we were unable to hear the end of his comments and so I believe we um are allowing one more minute because of the bad connection from the previous call officer CR are you there yes can you hear me now now we can hear you much better um could you just take a minute to wrap up your comments please sure I was um we uh respectfully requesting if I can have two minutes again to to go over what I was saying earlier and to start over if that's okay president Fong is shaking her head yes so yes okay thank you uh my name again is Matt cros I apologized earlier for the miscommunication and the bad
070connection but I've been a school resource officer at San Roa high school and San Roosa middle school for the last two years I just want to share some of my thoughts tonight the environment of a school campus has provided an everyday opportunity for students and myself to have conversations with one another to learn to grow to laugh to break down walls and to challenge the very assumptions we may have of one another to see blind spots that we may miss individually it is why it's been some of the most important and rewarding work I've done in my career The evolutionary approach to restorative practices with students do not threaten an sro's position of authority on campus but moreover it's welcomed likewise my presence on campus should not be limited to my Authority or physical appearance
071of being in a uniform I believe the program has proven to be much more valuable than that I do however recognize the fear that some students have color may have of my very presence on campus I choose to teach these students to confront this fear forth rightfully and with courage I know our shared experience of talking and interacting with each other will help take away the fear that can be harnessed and carried through life at some point in their lives students will need to call upon law enforcement potentially during their greatest times of need how important it is to have these conversations and interactions with each other I recently heard a quote proxy breeds care and distance breeds fear it's not just the influence sros have had on students the impact students have had an
072SOS is equally as important we must always continue to prioritize safety on campus having been a part of two recent lockdowns I know this firsthand but not all school safety is measured in statistics it's not enough to Simply know the data available supports a decision or Direction you cannot always quantify or measure the underlying level of security students know students have knowing an SRO is present who didn't bring a weapon to school because an SRO thank you next is Greg Hower uh hello can you all hear me yes uh I I find it very fortunate that I get to speak after officer Crosby because this idea of modifications is interesting to me um and I think it has to do with what director De La Cruz was asking of officers in one of our SRO
073meetings previously which was what is your understanding of the Immigrant or even undocumented experience what how do we go about vetting the officers that would be at our schools I think that that's an important question to ask but I also agree that there's this potential of building relationships and building understanding when we have SRO at our schools if they are not there that relationship is not going to be built um and also the understanding of fear that happens particularly with undocumented students what is the professional development that can happen for people that become SRO at our schools I think are really really important questions and with that I yield the rest of my time thank you thank you next is Blair Murphy Blair are you there yes I am I'm sorry can you hear me
074yes okay uh the ad hoc committee did a thoughtful and thorough job of discussing important issues reading articles and studying much of the research available on the topic of school resource officers I appreciated being part of this process we listened to different viewpoints and had in-depth and heartfelt conversations on the topic over the last three and a half months 14 meetings 28 hours all the while with an ultimate shared goal of what is best for all of our students in Santa Rosa city schools I am hopeful that board members are coming to the table with open minds and hearts to hear the committee's findings to ask pertinent questions and discuss the Myriad and complicated ways that this important issue demands it was rather disappointing when it didn't feel that was the case at the last
075board meeting I assure you that all we all took into account the students that may be uncomfortable having an officer on their school campus everyone on the committee cares deeply for all of our students the staff and administrators on the committee have many years of experience in education the SRTA members that took the survey and agree that the program should continue with improvements have many years of experience no one is downplay CL that there are students that may be uncomfortable having an armed officer on their school campus the goal and purpose of the SRO program is community engagement and to improve relationships with our community in my experience as a school counselor in the district for the last 14 years they have been reaching that goal every experience that I've had with the school resource
076officers has been positive and I've had many over the years they are a support to our students and to our schools and they help create a environment theou would only be for a year and reviewed yearly please allow srpd and the SRO program to show that they are committed to the process of improving the program and building relationships with all students including marginalized and students of color we are being given an opportunity to provide students the ability to learn the positive aspects of police officers and the many benefits they provide in keeping our community safe on a daily basis have having knowledge and a positive outlook regarding police officers will be a benefit to our students Futures please don't give up on this invaluable program that is working and that the srcs community clearly wants
077and needs thank you thank you next is Charlie Charlie please State your full name for the record it's Charlie ctly and I was on the ad hoc committee as well I'm hearing a lot of people saying that police don't belong on our campuses but then turn around and say they want to live in a society where there is no fear well this is the moment this is the time this is this is where we need to be at this moment so that we can work together we all need to face our fears we all need to do the work we all need to meet in the middle that includes working with the SRO that includes facing everybody's fears and listening so that we can all understand what's happening on our campuses is so that all
078the kids marginalized underprivileged white privileged whatever everybody has a say everybody has um a moment to speak their truth this is a free program and we need to work together to be the change that we want to see we need to make this program work it's free the schools don't have a lot of money and while we do need a lot of other mental health professionals and counselors God knows we do need that we don't have money for that so let's take this program in the direction that we want to see it let's make the positive changes that we need and let's just move forward in a positive way with our SRO and building our community and positive relationships with police officers that these kids they're going to be running into them their entire lives
079we need to give them the tools so that they so that it's not negative for them we need to give them the courage to you know walk up and start a conversation or even speak up and say you know what you make me super uncomfortable and let's talk about that this is the time this is our moment to really take this in a positive direction thank you thank you next is betab apparicio hi thank you I just want to voice my support for keeping the resource officers in our school um I've been hearing a lot of the um public comment and I know some people are strongly in support of keeping them and some people are strongly opposed I'd like to know from the people who are opposed to having resource officers I'd like to
080know how they are going to step up to keep our children safe what are they going to do to keep our teacher safe what are they going to do to make sure that someone doesn't go into our schools and cause any harm I'd like to know what's what are the steps how are they going to help fund more counselors how are they going to help fund all of the great amazing things that we do need but there is no funding form so along with that opinion I'd like to know what are the next steps and I think the School Board needs to also think about that those are great opinions but if we are just taking away a great resource that we have right now and we are not actually thinking about how we're going
081to keep our children and our teachers and all of our faculty safe we're in denial because if you don't look at the news and clearly you're not seeing what's happening all over the world we cannot expect somoma County to never have an incident we've already gone through two lockdowns just last year and if that doesn't say like the world that we are living in I don't know where these people are hiding so I would love it if the school board can take take into consideration the recommendations from the ad hoc and listen to the parents listen to The Faculty listen to the students and keep our school resource officers in our schools thank you thank you and um our hour of public comment is very close to coming to a close so if your hand
082is raised right now I have it listed otherwise please do not raise your hands and we will be allowed to just take the hands that are raed right now and the next is Francis Pomroy hi my name is Francis Pomroy and I'm a senior at Santa Rosa High School throughout my years at Santa Rosa High School um our officer Crosby has done nothing but provide a positive service to our students and our community being that there was a school shooting at our neighboring campus Ridgeway High School I think that it is mandatory that we have an officer on campus rather than abolishing this program that is helped so many students why can't we work with our sro's to help create an environment that makes everyone feel safe and protected as previous speakers have said police
083and law enforcement will be a part of everyone's lives forever and creating new bonds and relationships with our officers such as officer Crosby is mandatory for everyone to get along and to create a safe and responsible environment thank you thank you and thank you for making your comments a little bit shorter next is anony Mora unfortunately Anthony um you need an more updated Zoom to be able to make a comment in the meeting I apologize for that next is Gabriel ala uh good evening director Fong superintendent board members um I I really wasn't going to speak today but I just keep hearing things and um since the last meeting there's a lot of things that been resonating in my head and I feel obligated to speak I want to take the um um the opportunity
084to uh acknowledge Greg Hower who kind of stole my thunder a little bit but um I really appreciate uh director Medina and Director D Cruz and the questions that they posed to our law enforcement uh brothers and sisters um and in those conversations uh there was questions that were posed that were tough questions and they had to be asked they definitely had to be asked um as much as our administrative team was you know unanimous in having um the SRO uh program continue and with modifications I really would like to hear the response to those specific questions that off that director Medina and Director D Cruz posed um as an administrator as an ad administrator of color it behooves me to know the answers because even though I might be able to control what goes
085on in my school um we are a school district and we got to look at all of our students and so the specific questions were um the question about immigrant children and the question about Prejudice racism in the in the department those questions have to be answered and um I need to hear that answer because again not only am I looking out for the students of my school but also the students of the district so thank you and I appreciate that and I yield my time as well have a great evening thank you and uh next we're g to try Anthony Zamora again hello can you hear me yes okay uh Emanuel h house said proximity breeds care dist breeds fear the purpose of the srr program is to put students and our officers into
086that proximity that allows for the kind of community relationship that is based on trust if we are able to improve our community we must do this together having worked in our schools for 25 years I can attest to how much care I've seen demonstrated by our officers a lot of folks are mentioning National statistics but what we must look at our Solution on a local level arrest rates by SRO are lower than the arrest rates of juveniles who are contacted by Patrol officers more important than the overwhelming support by staff that we've seen from our staffs is the overwhelming support that has been demonstrated by our students through the surveys we must find support for the few students who may fear police we recognize that but we do not do that by stripping this resource
087from the majority of students it would be great to have more counselors and support services for students but those cost money right now we get this support for free and again is it's supported by most of our students I implore this board to listen to your staffs and your students do not ignore their words the words of those who are actually here with the sro's day in and day out long after the board makes its decision on this our community will be stuck with the decision you make thank you thank you for making abbreviated comments next Monica Harrison hello thank you very much um I appreciate the opportunity to speak to the board I too served on the ad hoc committee um and I'm very grateful for the opportunity to have participated um after our
088last session I really left the meeting feeling like we had failed to make an important point and that we as the committee and we had failed to communicate um how much was Unknown about the program and I think Tim alluded to that earlier that we spent a large part of our time together trying to understand what the program is what the program has be been what the expectations were of the officers what the expectations were from the admins and it it took a huge amount of time to come to that common understanding and um I was at at the end of our last meeting uh director De La Cruz made a comment and I don't want to take your words out of context um but you mentioned the importance of getting everyone to a common
089starting point and I I feel like we did that we put a lot of that work in in the committee um it took us most of our time to get people to acknowledge systematic racism to acknowledge the weaponizing of the SRO and to acknowledge desperate need for improvement and and we are there our group reached that common starting point and I I just feel very strongly that if the program were to be discontinued we would be depriving the community the opportunity to come to that common starting point because I think that there is a lot of Miss understanding about what the program is and what the program has been been um I want to make one other point because a lot of people have said the program is free the program is not free my
090tax dollars are still paying for the city police okay and my expectations as a taxpayer are that the police officers are doing more than pal around and take pictures with students I want to see educational programs I want to see measurable metrics I want to see milestones and deliverables thank you very much thank you next is Amy Weiss hi thank you um my name is Amy whis and I know it looks like Weiss that's what happened when I married a German husband um and while I am uh in visual pasty Irish of skin I have blood relatives who are Bengali and African-American and I have observed them throughout my life having to deal with systemic racism systemic racism is absolutely real it's an is that we need to deal with as a comp as a
091country and I agree things need to change I'm hopeful that Nationwide a movement has truly begun that being said working on a school campus as the vice principal at Maria Creo High School I see all the benefits of the SRO program campus safety campus-wide safety is only one of those benefits our SRO build relationships with our students they look into cases of suspected child abuse they have been vital in preventing student suicides weal they do welfare checks for our atrisk students and when a teacher raises a concern to me about a student safety someone that they're concerned about I am able to immediately touch base with our SRO to look to see if there's any history in the system and what are the next steps we can do to support that student do we all
092as a district need to be part of a movement to bring Equity to all of our students yes absolutely absolutely Exclamation point Exclamation point and most definitely for our bipox students I am an advocate for for them especially and I implore you to keep our s so resource SRO resource and continue to move in a direction that provides a safe and welcoming environment for the students and staff thank you thank you and just a reminder to everyone we're no longer taking raised hands just the few that were up uh right as we were nearing our hour of public David mcgallen is next thank you I do want to start by saying that I was part of this ad hoc committee as a parent and as I sat here for the first meeting the task I
093hand was to look at officers in our schools given the reason why why I was in this meeting National and here locally it was a tall task to look at that and how do the school going play a role for a community issue that's going on I walked in with this thinking that this is probably not possible this is a bigger issue I left saying with conditions I am for this the first thing is relationships we have we're talking about maybe 10 schools and we have over 40 schools here community commity policing starts in the community I also heard free and Monica mentioned it as well too this is not free nothing comes free with anything around that and my last point I just want to say is that those conditions as Steve mentioned at
094the very beginning of his presentations a lot of us we're saying that if these conditions were not met we do not want the police officers in our schools if that's going to be possible or not I do not know that was not the task of our mission thank you your time is up thank you next is Lily Lily if you could state your name for the record Hi how how um can you hear me yes what is your full name Lily my name is Lily um and I don't understand the point of sro's on campus um who does this ultimately protect I can't think of a single SRO who has stopped an active school shooting in America um look at Parkland for example that cop waited outside and hid while the kids were being shot
095all leros do is police the students targeting people of color and fostering an environment of being policed why we policing our students how can children flourish and learn and grow when they are in that kind of environment I think that's something to really consider and I firmly believe in getting sro's off our campuses and I yield the rest of my time thank you thank you next is shaswat Carl this is another um Zoom that is not allowing me to allow you to comment so shaswat if you want to call in quickly on a phone line um otherwise I'm sorry about that next is Aaron hary good evening Dr kidura director Fong and members of the board I hope that my voice is coming through all right um this is my first year my fifth year
096in Santa Rosa city schools I have been an administrator and AP at Montgomery High School and I now serve as an assistant principal at Santa Rosa High School like Mr Al Vera I also was not intending to speak tonight so I hope that this goes well but I agree with many of the admin and teachers that have spoken and Educators that have spoken about the good works that our SRO have done and that I have seen them do I also also feel that having offices for law enforcement on public school campuses is antithetical to our mission as public schools and Educators students uh should not uh SRO and srpd and law enforcement should not have schools as a consistent and open access point for law enforcement into the lives of our students and their families
097uh this is more about principles than about intentions and personalities it's about eventual outcomes which are very clear Nationwide and our county is no District or our county is one of the more punitive counties in California um I do not feel that involving law enforcement with school in school with students should be a default option for administrators that oversee or support discipline I think that we should be forced to explore all other options I also speak as a parent of a daughter coming up in public school whatever happens for my daughter as long as her life is not immediately threatened at school I would love for a caring adult to explore other options with her and the other adults on her team on campus prior to calling in um an officer and then after letting
098the family know something happen thank you thank you and president Fong um all of the hands that were raed during our designated public comment um have been allowed to speak I saw that Katie bar her hand up did she just fall off of that list she did okay all right we are going to take a break right now we have concluded public comment thank you to all of you who who took the time and effort to um to speak to the board we really appreciated hearing every single one of your comments and um thank you so much so we'll come back in uh about Adena are we live we are live we Jenny she'll be right back technical difficulties I think we've all lived through that all right again thank you to all the people
099who uh commented took the time to comment tonight and with that I turn this discussion over to our board and um I think the last part of discussion was partly part of questions last time but of course that was like near midnight so I don't think anybody was there besides us and I don't remember so it is open for a discussion and I'm going to be writing down the hands I see and I'm going to keep better track of it and the first hand I see is director McCormick and then director Medina um I just have a a question real quick about um before I dive into discussion but uh is there any way we can I remember it I believe in the last presentation um is there any way we can see a list
100of the recommended modifications while we're having this discussion that the committee came up with Dr T do those were those encapsulated in your summary or do you want me to try to pull up a different uh PowerPoint to get that Steve I think that we could pull up that table um um I could pull it up and we could sort of talk it through okay you know from the chat meeting that we looked at that's right okay director mccor we might need a moment to pull through that that's fine okay so president Fong I'm gonna wait and get collect my thoughts and wait for that so if someone else wants to go right now that's fine director Medina he had your hand was up next yeah I think you know as we discussed this and
101and you know going back to something that I brought up at our last discussion on this topic was the fact that um in the recommendations that the committee made um I don't think that um we have a full scope of accurate representation of what the recommendations could be in the sense that um what that third option of no SRO is what that could look like um because it's it doesn't offer anything different and I think that what's missing is a conversation um between us the district and um the city council as to what alternatives can be offered what alternatives towards meeting the actual needs of our students that could benefit um our educational outcomes and our community in meeting some of these needs that um some that are were kind of reflected as things that
102srl would do but that ultimately there's better people um that are more specialized in doing those can accomplish and I think that we need to um allow ourselves um in terms of making the decision um those options having that conversation seeing like what willingness in terms of better investing the money that's being spent on SRS um how can that be better invested to um be a more efficient use of money especially now that you know um theyve told us that they're decreasing from five to three SRO right in in their budget um I think social work workers for me is a perfect example of a better use of money and I think we if until we take the opportunity to ask the city council are they willing to to divest from from SRO towards maybe
103better Alternatives um I think that we um can't really make that full decision um we need to know that information I think I would like to know that information um and and you know reiter what others have said that this isn't really free it's our taxpayer money that's paying into this um so how can we best spend it so I think um you know I definitely value all the time and effort that the committee put into this work but I think um they needed a better option to to be able to say no we don't want Sr Rose um because just saying know SRO doesn't really offer offer an accurate reflection of what can be done and and that's kind of what I me last time when I said a we can do better okay
104um other hands and I only see I'm I'm missing a a column here so speak up if I don't see your hand I see uh director um mmi's hand back up director Lopez had his hand up before director Sheffield director chef was actually after director Medina it's all right I I I have plenty to say so so it's okay director McCormick uh you want to go next and then I'm going to have director Lopez go next and then director Sheffield so I actually just um I just had another request which was I'd really like to hear from directors De La Cruz director Sheffield and president Fong since the three of you served on this committee as well and I don't feel like I've really heard from you and I'm really interested in hearing from you
105and we obviously haven't been able to speak with you about this because that would be brown act violation so I'm just requesting I'd really like to hear from the three of you who served on that committee all right we'll let um we'll let director Lopez speak and then director Sheffield and director del Cruz and then I will speak so uh I know we're doing comments but I had a I actually did have a question just regarding the process of this and how it's going to relate because we're not the only party in this discussion there's also srpd the police department the police Union and those aspects and I know director Medina had kind of U mentioned this in our last meeting but I think uh I guess my point is uh clarification what this process
106will be on our end especially regarding these modifications and going the uh going to the table with them inou talks was that a question director Lopez or and would you like an answer on that yes I I it is a question and I just for me personally I guess maybe some people might have the same question would you restate that question uh so what will the process look like since it is some since we're not the only party in this discussion there is also the police department and the police Union how will these uh how will we go to the table with these uh if essentially what is the process going to look like for us what will we be voting on when we'll be vot be voting on it and how will that come
107into play with the other aspects of the people involved so we will take direction from the board tonight about whether it is to develop mou whe whatever that direction is okay and we will um utilize what the committee came up with if it is anou which is what you're asking about um what the committee came up with there will be some discussion with the um um not necessarily the police Union that's not who the city schools would talk to um actually I would I would actually engage in a conversation with um uh Chief Navaro and potentially city manager um Shan mcglen to show or or uh present what it is we've come up with as Santa Rosa city schools all right and then uh so from there how I I think I think uh what
108director know was bring up was also kind of a good point is that it's very un for me at least it it kind of is hard for me to make a decision on this because there's so many unexplored areas of this especially in regards to what would happen if we get rid of the SRO so I I think that's sort of where some of my confusion also comes from I think you have to from from from my point of view if you look at the original four questions that were provided to the committee to explore um that was not one of them I in my opinion I and I if you want to bring them up we can take a look at them it wasn't if the I think if the committee did not come
109up with if the committee decided that the the partnership with SRO should end um I don't know that we were charged or the committee was charged with and find the alternatives to that if the partnership should end um am I mistaken on that uh Steve I I don't recall that that was we a charge of the committee we however built some of those in it wasn't the charge you know the four questions that we were charged with were understand the SRO program in the SR srcs schools uh seek and understand people's experience with the sro's on the SRO srcs campuses what do schools require and need for safety physical psychological emotional safety um and what role or roles should the SRO play in our campus and in our children's experiences so those were the original
110components we did have some proposals we we we kind of did among the way of what would we replace and we asked that question um but the the committee members didn't all have to require that so we have some feedback but I wouldn't want to represent as a consensus from the committee that we all agreed on these ideas and I and I I agree with you Kore I was on there as well and it we did not tackle those questions I do think that when we do come to look at a decision from the board I think it is sort of important for us to at least look into that a little bit before making a decision I I think that's that's um you know I I get that I totally understand that I just
111want to remind us that the funding for these positions is not something that we necessarily have control over um um so so I think that the the supports that can be provided would have to be something we would look at in terms of funding I don't think it's necessarily something that I know for a fact it's not necessarily that we that's that's a whole another entity that's the supervisors and so they would be making decisions on what funding or not funding would would occur so okay I I think that's all I have for now now thank you director Lopez director Sheffield all right um I am going to well I'm going to start by just thanking Steve and Dr T and again everybody who participated in Yad Hawk um the dedication that you had all
112summer long um through the pandemic and the start of the school year and now into the fall and fires and you stuck it out um and just again to the people who who spoke tonight public comment in at our at our meeting last month as well there's just you know a lot of value in your input um I'm gonna talk for a bit so um this has been really five months in the making and for me to gather a lot of perspective and then I'm going to listen to my colleagues and then I might talk some more this is a study session um so I'm going to talk about the ad hoc Jill um The Experience on the ad hoc I'm going to give a little bit of perspective on black lives matter and how
113the movement is connected to the discussion on SRO and I'm going to share a bit of perspective from my point of view as a black person in this country and in Soma County um and I'm just going to add that I I just came from participating in a cap Sonoma County Community conversation on Race so I'm a little bit fired up and so what we're discussing this evening um has been turning in my head for a long long time um and all day today um so I will start by saying that at the root of the SRO discussion um as we heard in the presentations last month um and in some comments tonight is um race and policing um and the discussion we're having is a necessary discussion despite it being painful um and it's
114painful because some people don't want to hear it and it's painful because some people don't want to believe it and it's painful because some people just don't like change and it's really painful for people of color who um find the discussion TR izing um but again these uncomfortable conversations they are um starting to happen all over snowa County and they should definitely be taking place in our school communities um Last Summer the ad hoc started the process by meeting to examine the impacts of having police on campus and one thing that was Apparent from the beginning was how politicized and polarized the issue is and when the board met last month and this was an agenda item so we had public comment um and at the time there was one of our students who spoke
115um and she recognized the same thing that the issue is politicized and her observation was that over the past few months um I think she meant meaning from since uh George Floyd that the issue's been politic ized and what I wanted to share with her at the time was that the issue of police reform and race and policing has always been politicized and it's been this way my entire life and before that and that this country has spun its wheels on race and policing for decades for two prior Generations protests and demonstrations and the needle hasn't moved at all um it's politicized so much um that some people in our community in Progressive North Bay right um on the issue of BLM they still see only rioting and damaged property and not the frustrations of
116a social movement that um has exhausted the people who were trying to affect change and has yet to find a way to address the root causes of why incidents of police brutality committed against people of color particularly of black men keep on happening and in the recent years with the deaths of Trayvon Martin and Eric Gardner and Michael Brown and Tamir rice and Walter Scott and Alon Sterling and fander Castile Stefan Clark bana Taylor Daniel prud George Floyd wal Walter Wallace just recently our students and particularly our students of color have heard these names and they have seen how these people die young students and old students and the discussions are there in their households and these are just the high profiles right these are the high profile incidences um the they come with haunting
117video that we see again and again on our news feeds it's almost like it's every month right because it is it's every month and in our community Jeremiah chess and Andy Lopez and black lives matter and the call for police reform came from these incidences um but race and placing is a decades old unresolved matter and here at home it was somoma County's Youth who asked the school districts to review our policies on police on campus the youth came to us which then sparked our discussion on SRO um and I think that with the exception of measure P oversight passing last week I think that most discussions in this County in our community in Santa Rosa of reforming police practices has gotten shifted or politicized it's been s railed um it's lost in forgotten conversations
118that really aren't much more than talk or some sheld reports or recommendations that are presented to police departments and City councils and to our boards of Supervisors and I just hope this isn't the case here I'm going to be really careful with my words because the issue of police reform and race and policing is just so sensitive as we heard from a lot of the public comments and from the conversations that I've had and the emails that I've received um I will say that to some of the people that we heard from lines were drawn in the sand even before we started talking about SRO some people see this conversation as a defund the police discussion and I've talked to them and they don't care much from my point of view and they've already stopped
119listening and to these people the discussion of sro's on school campuses is interpreted as you're either for law enforcement or you're against it it's the black lives matter versus blue lives matter right and for some people the notion of how in 2020 law enforcement practices that impact youth particularly youth of color takes a backseat to politics and ideology um I'm going to keep talking I'm sorry Lori maybe I'm speaking for too long but you know I paid a lot of attention last summer to BLM demonstrations here in Santa Rosa and I attended many um I took my kids to some and we kept safe distance in the time of the pandemic right but it was really important for them to be a part of what's happening and a movement that's taking place that is youth
120directed in this country and I noted that here in our community the kids who attended are the kids that go to our schools um or they did attend our schools and they're the voices at these valleys and that the name Andy Lopez is spray painted on every building in downtown right we can't ignore that law enforcement in this community never addressed his death not with our youth not with our students and neither did our schools we might have had some assemblies we might have had SRO on campus who came out to comfort us and and let students know that they should feel safe on campus of course they should feel safe on campus um but we never continued the conversation and so it festered just like the BLM conversation is festered in this country um
121our schools right now the students that attend our schools they're the ones that have grown up in the aftermath of Andy Lopez and Jeremiah chass and our grad graduates are the students who knew him personally and they're the ones that are asking for change they're demanding police reform um and it's on our campuses when we do open up campuses there's going to be a conversation whether we choose to have it or not we will have students that are going to speak up just because we haven't talked about it doesn't mean that it doesn't exist and I'll say I said it before and I will say it again I'm glad that it's a youth in the front line because it's their turn and because it's their future and um I know I said it last summer
122that my generation and my parents generation we didn't do it we didn't affect change go back two generations go back more go back 70 years go back to Brown V Board of Education um racial Justice this wasn't achieved by my generation or my parents generation and because as a person of color in this country and in Sonoma County people like me live in a Perpetual state of fear and every time a black person sees another incident of police killing of a black or brown skinned person the fear escalates and when our president blows dog whistles for white supremacists the fear escalates and it it's there on our campus and I'm going to say to be clear again my position is not against our local police or the safety of all of our students absolutely yes
123but what I'm saying is a perspective shared by a minority population and the fear that I talked about is how a person of color a person with brown skin like me an adult with a college education a public servant can psychologically consciously subconsciously physically feel intimidated by law enforcement and even intimidated by speaking on this position and I didn't ask to be a part of the ad hoc and I was really nervous about sharing my perspective with a group of mostly white participants who I do respect immensely our administrators and our teachers and our parents and especially law enforcement who I personally work with in the community um and I don't want to offend you this is a perspective that is really hard for you to understand um it's like that talk that you hear
124about that black parents s have with their kids about law enforcement and my dad who grew up in Jim Crow segregated South we had that talk because of his experiences he also taught his kids that if you speak up you need to be prepared for the consequences and if you speak up you'd better watch your back that's what I learned going through school watch your back and if you know what best for you you don't speak up at all sometimes it means don't raise in your hand in class maybe it means don't participate on a survey right my dad had seven kids five African-American boys and the national statistic when I was growing up that was constantly reminded to me in my household was that one in five African-American men have been incarcerated and my
125big brothers George and Tommy they constantly reminded me don't be that 1% and in 2020 and I just look this up 34% of the nation's prison population is African-American and in the ad hoc committee someone um pointed out that black people are three times more likely than white people to be killed by police in this country yet we only make up 13% of the popul and some people will say that these black people were criminals and thugs or they shouldn't have committed the crime right we looked at the data during the ad hoc meetings and we heard from our students we looked at the student survey and I gave um I I gave a lot of attention to the information of the student surveys um because I think that the student voice is Omar your
126group and your presentation last month is really what we need to listen to and in the survey as inaccurate as it probably was did capture some really important information and it revealed that 8% of the respondents felt negatively or somewhat negatively about sro's on campus that's 1,200 students if the service is accurate right and Steve what's the African-American makeup of Santa Rosa schools under 12% of this time yeah right so it's pretty small percentage right by far most of our students and our teachers and parents they feel safe with sro's on campus and we do need to acknowledge that um we we definitely need to see that perspective but as for the 1,00 other students who responded on the survey they're the minority and when you're in a minority your issues and concerns get ignored
127or they get outvoted by the majority 8% 1,00 students now are we voting against them um I shared with you my own experiences of why black people don't speak out at all on issues like this and I'll tell you that this is the reason why black people lose faith in the system and this is why we protest and why we destroy property it's because we don't have a voice we're always outvoted and here's a perspective that you might not want to hear but what if you're a kid or what if your daughter came home from school and said that there's an adult on campus who's making them feel uncomfortable and it's maybe just a look or a comment made or I don't know some type of threat intimidation or if it was a dozen kids
128that we heard about a dozen kids that were reporting feeling uneasy or afraid of an adult on campus and what would the school district do right what would the school do what would the parents do right and the politicized counterargument you know to this scenario is that we're talking about adult adults who are respectable and they're authority figures and it's their job to uphold the law like pre priests or athletic trainers or city council members right people we know we can trust there's only a few bad apples and we can take care of them Jill on the ad hoc committee I heard themes like safety for our students and for our teachers and physical and mental well-being that was presented to us um students rights and engagement and care and support for our students and
129most important I think a willingness to compromise I also heard a um willingness to listen to other perspectives I want to believe that that was there um I Heard and learned more about fear and intimidation and uneasy easiness felt by Youth and expressed by their parents and again maybe in our schools this is just a small percentage right that feel uncomfortable that feel uneasy or that feel threatened um so I heard all these different points of view and I shared mine and I'm sharing mine tonight um but what I also heard on the ad hoc and in comments tonight was the denial of fear and Trauma around law enforcement that police officers um they do a great job in our school and that we need them in our school um but I also heard this
130denial that a small percentage of students have a real issue have a real problem with this right I believe that at the national level policy makers are paying attention and that things will get better um and at the local level that they will get better too that just because we're having these discussions we're going to get there it's a it's it's a hope and optimism that from my perspective I'm not feeling because I don't think that policy makers have paid enough attention to this and I don't think things are getting better and they haven't gotten better in my lifetime right I think earlier in the summer I talked about Spike Le's movie do the right thing right for all young people out there you never saw the movie I'll tell you what it's about it's
131about black lives matter right movie came out 1989 right when I was in high school um there's just been I think too much of a lack of action and and too much talk I think last summer when the students took to the streets and they demanded action and they demanded police reform um to finally address the situations that keep happening I think that they were talking about Community meaning our schools are part of the community um I think that black lives matter is an acknowledge that institutional racism exists we've heard that before and that over policing disproportionately it impacts people of color whether it's in the streets of Santa Rosa or it's in our schools um I just I cannot be convinced that youth of color aren't traumatized by what's going on what they see
132on TV um what they hear in the news what they read in the papers um and they have grown accustomed to seeing it and it's too frequent and they're speaking out now I'm just going to stop by saying that I'm voting for local police reform and I'm voting to remove SRO from our campus right now while we're in the pandemic and off campus and away from our school um and in the meantime we need to have discussions with the city we need to have discussions with the police department we need to do a lot more listening and we need to really start taking some action and that if the students are saying that we need to reconsider this and that this is their generation and that this is their time and even if we're only
133talking about 8% of and our students of color hey it's their turn and I'm giving it to him and I talk for a long time and I apologize but thank you thank you Ed I really appreciate that I really appreciate that um hope everybody listened to that that was truly from your heart thanks for sharing that um director De La Cruz was next Ed I'm feeling a lot like you are just really full of emotion and full of my history um full of what I learned and what I've seen as the daughter and granddaughter of civil rights organizers and your point about the fact that generations of people who have fought and bled and died for justice in our country and we're still not there and those are my people and that's where I come
134from I come from people who were arrested before they did anything wrong there is an amazing story from 1966 when the Kern County Sheriff arrested Strikers before they violated an injunction because he was scared that they were going to violate the law and then Attorney General Robert F Kennedy came to Kar County where I'm from and reminded the sheriff and the district attorney to read the con Constitution of the United States my people include does wera who when she was 58 years old was beaten so badly by San Francisco police that they ruptured her spleen and they broke two of her ribs she's 52 she's 100 pounds I come from people who have been teargas and jailed for fighting for their rights for their rights to be respected like everybody else's those rights include being
135paid having water in the fields having bathrooms in the fields not being sexually harassed at work having having their kids have the same educational opportunities as everybody else's not being put into a special ed classroom because you're a Spanish speaker those are my people and that is our history with the police and I know that history because we're proud of who we are and we still have a whole lot of work to do and we've started that work on the ad hoc we've started that Community conversation and I was grateful to hear openness and curiosity and I was moved by people moving when they heard stories that they had maybe never heard before in their lifetimes and there is still as Ed said a significant amount of denial and a frustration and of anger when
136you hear these things and of deep politicization over these issues that it makes me so sad that they're politicized these are just these are about people and these are about brown and black people and these are about trans people and these are about all the people that our kids will be who our kids are right now and we went to these rallies this summer too my kids and I my family and I we went and one night we were walking down Sonoma AV when the rally was coming up Sonoma AV and we were right by the police station and my kids started getting scared because there were a lot of police around they weren't scared by the March they weren't scared by the protesters the protesters were kids and families and moms holding their kids
137and people on bikes and they were angry but they weren't in big cars with shields and guns and I remember them asking why are why do the police have so many Shields and so many guns why are they so scared why are they so ready to fight people those people don't have any guns those are the kids who are going to be in schools when those when our schools reopen with those same police officers and I don't think that the work has been done going back from as Ed said from what happened in our community when Andy Lopez was unjustifiably killed when Jeremiah Chas was unjustifiably killed we haven't healed and restoration requires that people who have caused the harm recognize the harm caused that's the defin it's like the definition of restorative justice and
138I don't think we can restore Justice right now in our systems if we don't hear from our institutions a recognition of the harm that they've caused and I haven't heard that yet and I don't think that we're there yet I think that's a scary thing to admit harm and I think it's really necessary in order for us to be able to move forward and to heal you can acknowledge systemic racism exists you can start to see a different way of seeing the world and one that you may have never had to because you are privileged and that is coming to a point of recognition of its existence but it's not solving it and I think what we did on that ad hoc for hours and hours and hours of conversation and getting to know each
139other was at least getting to the point of acknowledging that systemic racism exists and that's something that we as an entire Community now have to do and I don't think that we can do that as long as the people who have caused that harm in our community continue to be in those institutions and if it's our responsibility to make the decision about whether they're in the institution while we are also trying to restore that Justice or outside while we negotiate the terms of that healing I'm going to vote for them to be outside while we negotiate the terms of that healing because you cannot heal in the presence of your traumatizer unless there is a recognition that they have caused that AR this is not just recent events these are this is generations of State
140sanctioned violence against black and brown people and that's going to take a lot for us to acknowledge that together and then to figure out what to do about it we're also talking about who burden this work is this is not the burden of our children children it is not their work you cannot use our children to do your work for you you cannot build relationships with a community with children as your guinea pigs that work has to happen throughout the entire community um and you can't start in the schools or alone and you can't start with the kids um without some recognition of the harm it's not about discomfort it's not about giving them courage when you use an equity lens to make a decision you place the people in the center who are most
141impacted by the decision it doesn't matter how many there are when we look at we look at who is most impacted by this decision it is that Minority of kids and I'm totally okay with making a decision on behalf of a minority that has never been centered in that way before that has always been the Target in the focus but never the center of care and Ne never the center of love and never the center of responsibility for care and love and so so I I can't I can't vote to support the SRO program continuing even with modifications at this time we have a whole lot more negotiations and conversations to have we need to develop an ethnic studies program we need to make sure that kids know the history of their people and how
142proud they should be of the generations of people who have fought for them to be just to have for them to have just lives for them to have equal rights and to recognize that that battle is not over yet um and that they have a place in taking up that mantle with us and that that's why I'm making this decision is for those kids for that next generation who still have the work to do but not alone and not just them and not on their backs and I really really really also want to talk with the city of Santa Rosa the the police department I want them to know that trying to start an ethnic studies program with a cop in another school district without finishing the conversation that they've started with us here is
143really disrespectful to our community if you're going to teach about s in the lordis worth up to Third and sixth graders you can't teach that history without telling them what your institution did to those people and that's an inappropriate conversation for third and sixth graders so please stop that program and please continue the healing in this district with us those are the kinds of requests that and those are the kinds of conversations that we're not done having yet and the harm continues until you heal in the place where you're really working where you're really deeply doing the work right here right now I have a whole lot of hope I am gonna We Are GNA do this work we are going to have these hard conversations there is nothing that I'm shying away from there
144is no cutting off of this of this kind of trajectory and this and this and this jump that we've taken if anything we're saying we're just we're going to renegotiate the terms of where we're starting and I feel really proud about that and I feel like that's a really strong place for us to be as a district and it's it feels like it's the responsibility that I am excited about taking on to start in that place thank you Ed and Lori thank you Steve and Dr T thank you to all the members of the of the of the committee who did such hard and amazing work you know making change is so hard it's uncomfortable that's where the discomfort is and making change that's where that's where we can be uncomfortable but I I I
145want to make sure that that's that's on us it's not on our kids adante thank you Alig had a big day today she spoke for an hour to the Santa Rosa JC staff today about Equity about our new job as the chief Equity officer for all of sowa County the very first one and she mentioned it tonight and she mentioned it earlier today that what if we design for the kids who are most harmed that we put them at the center and I really thought about that in terms of how we approach education so if in education we're talking about math or we're talking about English scores or whatever we're testing you know we we we say that 70% of the kids are doing well let's move on with those kids and 30% of the
146kids aren't doing well so let's give them a class or two that supports them but we're really not designing for those kids were designing for the majority and then it's kind of well we have mtss now we're spending a lot of effort on those kids I there's not to deny that but I think historically it's kind of like the majority with the minority just lags along um so what if we really put the kids who are harmed the most and I was talking about that also and we design for them the adoc committee did a good job and we took a long time and I actually designed the pieces that we had to do flushed out by uh Tim and Steve and and uh Diane Kimura and um to Omar's question that wasn't what we
147were planning because I knew that as a teacher I knew that people had to get to a certain point of understanding before they could create something else so that wasn't that wasn't it and after we had this decision about the SRO program that might be it what would we do now no matter which way it went so that's why it wasn't there um practically by design it took a long time for people to understand the scope of the the whole scope and to really understand it from everybody's perspective like teach staff perspective parent Community member because in the parent section there are community members and their parents um and then the administrators so everybody had a different come from and then we had to listen you know and then we listen to everybody's come from
148and the sro's their share their lived experience as school resource officers as well um and how it affected them as well so that took a long time it took so long we had double the meetings right I think as we move have moved thankfully into restorative justice restorative practice that it's really important that we recognize harm done and I'm not saying that the sro's particularly have done harm I don't think anyone's saying that but we're talking to about the bigger picture of law enforcement if it was Sheriff that is not Santa Rosa Police but it is law enforcement um and when a when a child when a when a teenager a child uh is somewhere on the street they don't make a distinction if it's a sheriff or if it's a Santa Rosa Police or
149Nevada police or heaven forbid those roner Park police who went all the way up to Cloverdale to stop cars so what have we designed for the kids who are most harmed I'm a firm believer and I've said this before that we establish relationships and we keep working at these relationships and that our school district is not an entity and is not an island and that we all I'm begging people to be our partners we need to be our partners with everybody because we all have a piece of educating the Youth of this town and actually the county because so many districts look to us as well smaller districts so how do we keep a relationship and not cast out a partner but bring in a partner and work with a partner this isn't working and
150it's not working because of things that have happened in our community to Kids to Kids of color people of color everything that we know and every and you need to recognize it and we need to talk about it we need it's not it's not a blame thing it's like how do we learn how do we grow how do we how do we grow together as a stronger community that when you harm any one of us you are harming all of us and schools are a part of that the kids just happen to come to school you can also find them at 7-Eleven and the parks and the beaches so I've said this before and and and my vote will be that we are going to uh ask for anou ask for a new one and
151that we are going to create it together and until we vote on that mou until we and we create thatou together until we are satisfied with that mou until we know that we are taking care of all of our kids we will not have police back on campus but that's because we are creating a program together and it's going to be an exemplary program and it's going to design with those kids at the center how can we restore how can we repair harm but we are not casting out a partner CU that will not fix anything we have a powerful position here in our community our schools you can see it right with Co we have to be there we have to bring people up we have done a lot of work our district has
152done a lot of work Diane you've leted us we cannot we need to keep shining that out we need to keep sharing it we need keep we need to keep being the drum beat and if we the leader in this County then we are the leader in this County and I want to be that leader I want us to be that leader we have a strong board we have strong voices strong perspectives I want a chance to shape the future not to make it worse I want I want to shape this future and we have to we I want us to get there I believe we will get there Jenny close was the next person who's going to talk and then uh director medine I see your hand up director CL thanks president um thank
153you um everybody who's spoken um Dr Sheffield especially um you for your comments and um and Dr de Cruz and well everybody and and to um director M Medina for um bringing this issue forward and uh forcefully and I'm demanding that we take a real hard look on at this and uh before our last meeting I was pretty certain of my position and it was um we have to keep keep the the sro's on campus with some modifications and I thought you know significant modifications there needs to be some real education and there needs to be anou that that um that is very clear on um accountability and uh how we interact with uh with each other um all partners and and I felt pretty um I pretty good about that and uh but that
154last meeting really shook me and what shook me was the officer's responses to um directors Medina and D La Cruz's questions um and they were tough questions and they probably weren't expecting um them to that degree they weren't expecting that to be um uh under the gun of a uh well qual trained litigator and Dr Medina who I think went to law school in his spare time it seems um but I um the lack of acknowledgement of the the problem um the lack of acknowledgement that our students of color um would be impacted by what they have grown up with um even if not personally even if only in the news even if only on TV even if only stories from their friends and parents even if only that um the the lack of acknowledgement
155that um we as white people are part of the problem if we're not part of the solution even if we individually have not behaved in a discriminatory way that really shook me um because it is not it is not the job of people of color to point this out anymore it is our job because it was our problem so can only fix ourselves you know we can only police ourselves and it shook me so badly um because the other thing that I couldn't shake was that I still had this like um feeling that like oh but our schools will be safer with police in them even though there's like no data to show that at all and I say I'm a data driven person you know and I still couldn't shake that and um and
156and I just and I think of and I think that partly has to be personal like what are what are all of our personal experiences with with police officers and I'll tell you I've real to and and I'm going to take some time too um director Sheffield so thanks for um open up that door but um I have two really close experiences with um police officers as a young person that that kind of shaped my view of um police officers and and the first one is when I was 17 and I was with a couple girlfriends both white um in a in a local park in my neighborhood on a night when nothing was going on and so we decided to um sit on top of the uh play structure and um do tequila shots
157because what else are we going to do this is not a good choice young people there are better things to do and there's nothing to do and you're 17 um but let's just be real here um and uh a a uh police officer rolled up and he he came out pretty casually hey girls what are you doing and um and then he talked to his from minute and then he put us in his car and gave us a ride home and um and and talked to my parents and and they laughed and um and that was it so we got a free ride home um thank you srpd um for that and and nothing else um so I've heard a lot about different stories from from lots of friends of mine um uh people of
158color and and how they were dealt with as young people for doing the same stuff um the same kind of stuff not you know just young people being young people being Knuckleheads so the second the second experience which I've I've shared with some classrooms was when I was in LA and I was 21 years old and there were two of my friends also uh White young women and we went out uh to a dance club um with our friend Ken who drove us and Ken was a um young African-American male who was um driving this uh sweet retro ride and and um on the way home uh Ken who didn't drink and was a designated driver uh was pulled over we were pulled over and officers LAPD approached the car on both sides um and
159they both put their hands on their guns and we watched them both uncp their holsters and lean down in and ask Ken what he was doing and then lean in and ask us if we were safe um because I guess the assumption is that they needed to make sure that the white girls in the car with the with the black man were safe um and it took a while for us to um to convince the officers that we were fine um and to leave our friend alone who was um the most responsible of the bunch by far um and and and so that stuck with me and and so I really knew from you know personal experience that the statistics you know I knew what the statistics the statistics look look like in real life
160you know how how we're treated differently how the assumptions are different not by all police officers I know there are some great ones and I and I think people like Tom schwedhelm our current mayor a really kind one of the kindest men I know um and one of the most openhearted men I know who I know is a different kind of police officer and is one of the reasons he rose to the Le leadership ranks the way he has for for kind of restoring some of my hope in in some police officers because I know that they're not all in that way but but but the St the statistics are not just stats they're real and and just like um you know my view of of uh or my experience with police officers shape me
161um and uh have impacted how I deal with them and that that's the same as happened with our students so our students are are not only impacted by the behavior of officers whether it's good or bad or biased or not but but also by um the fear and Trauma um the fear that they might have by being traumatized by experiences with them or or hearing of the experiences of them or reading about them and seeing them on TV and knowing that it is real and happens and so um you know I had to really look at my this like bias that I had that somehow our kids were safer at school with police on campus even though they they don't show it and so um at any rate now I'll just kind of keep repeating
162myself and rambling but um you know there is an Institutional problem in law enforcement and it has to be reckoned with um at every level and um and we have to really really call it out um when when white people are not taking responsibility for this and and when I say we I mean white people and so I'm going to take the time to do that if we're the problem we have to we have to be the solution to it to our own problem so um um you know I think it is um yeah at any rate I um have really uh so I've I've sat with this a lot and thought about this a lot and I can't you know right now with Co it makes it kind of easy we not at campus
163you know it also gives lots of time for for there to be some real um a real hard look at um at at the the program or a potential program or a part ship with the with the city and we should absolutely talk with the city um but right now if we were going back to school next week I would vote to um not uh continue the program and um and would and you know I guess I have to um vote to uh to not continue the program assuming that we're going to go back to school as soon as we can so that would be my vote and um and I would you know the city of C Arosa um they are a good partner and they just I think started to become a better
164partner and um and I think that we can ask them to have this conversation and to say you know I think that they're not operating this like a jobs program they want to help this the kids if they and if they really want to help the kids and it's not part of a jobs program for the police um for the police department and I don't think it is then I think that they would be open to saying what how could this uh money be reallocated if there's a better way so let's open that conversation um and that's where uh that's where I'll leave my comments thank you director Medina was next I think thank you um there's so much uh to say you know just listening to director close right now was reminded of a
165situation here in interaction with srpd when I was just sitting in the parking lot with my girlfriend a white girlfriend once and the cop just pulled over and took me out of the car Fred me just because I don't know why you know Brown guy white girl that's been one of my interactions earlier I was uh one one of the speakers during public comment talked about like making eye contact or no eye eye contact with officers and immediately I clearly remembered two very specific instances where while driving I established eye contact with officers and immediately uh they pulled a U-turn and got behind me and eventually pulled me over um but you know all that's irrelevant to this I think uh um Ed um I got emotional with you speaking because um a a lot
166for me a lot of like why I'm here and and why I've run for Schoolboard is is in part um because of so much that I've seen over time and experience um and it's not just people of color in general but for me it's more specific young men of color um which me my friends uh the children of my friends um seeing their interactions with law enforcement uh friends that have gone to jail because of the trajectory their life has taken because of the problems that I I think in part um have been part of like the educational system what I you know what we con we call the school to prison pipeline um and and someone said uh earlier that you know that there's no evidence that um some of these issues are caused
167by SOS but there's also no evidence that they're not um is the the counter to that um I don't have an issue with Sr Rose as individuals to me it's it's become the idea of just School uh schools being a place for for education and that I don't believe police belong there um part of that you know the students that that share my experience that we just don't feel comfortable in the presence of law enforcement um I think that you know sometimes I feel like everything that that I'm doing is towards bringing those better educational outcomes and and Ed Ed mentioned the idea of like so often not having a voice and sometimes I I feel like like we could scream at the top of our lungs but nobody hears us right and and and
168it's like what else can we do and we get that frustration and and you know I get angry at times because it feels that way um but I think we have to be consistent in our work and these are very difficult conversations to have I think everybody could acknowledge that um I think to to Lori to your point about Partnerships and relationships um I I think our relationship with the city and with srpd is a very critical relationship to have I think we as a district a very critical component to the community um and so are they um but I think that um for us to make the decision to not have SRO on campus um um is not um reason enough for them not to have a partnership and a relationship with us if
169anything it should be more motivation to like really engage with us as partners for the betterment of our community I feel like with law enforcement um I I want to say just do your job I want to feel safe around you I want to know that that that um you'll provide a feeling of safety for me the security that I feel was the purpose of law enforcement but actions don't reflect that and to me one of the things that I feel most right now is a lack of respect um a lack of respect in the sense that I don't see enough being done to address some of these issues of of of racism within uh departments um I think the imbalance of power is a very critical component to that because so often we can't
170do nothing we fear say something because we know that they have power over us and there's a lack of accountability and fortunately you know measure P pass and that provides accountability for at the county level but still with an srpd I feel there's resistance to that and and that lack of accountability and is a big problem problem for me and and until there's some sort of further accountability which I think is part of one of the recommendations within SRO um exists um we I I don't feel comfortable establishing that relationship and I think that needs to happen um within srpd as a whole if that's the type of relationship that we're going to have like I feel they need to respect that sentiment that's coming from the community you need be held accountable um because
171just simply going on paid administrative leave that to me sounds like the vacation honestly um the we we as a district are in a position right now to to push that conversation right to let them know to speak loudly with a vote saying no we don't want to continue this program but we do want to engage in a conversation about safety we do want to partner with you um to to figure out how could we continue to work together to ensure that our schools are safe that people um that are parents know that the children in our schools are going to be safe what types of Protocols are we going to have in active shooter situations or in trainings that we're going to have so you could still provide trainings to our teachers around gangs
172and active shooter drills and whatever even though you don't have SRO that's a relationship and partnership that we can have and continue to develop about you know one of the things that I think I hear is part of the purpose of sro's is community engagement Community relationships I think do that in the community your actions reflect those relationships you know start a Big Brother Big Sister program do something get involved at that level but in the community but our schools I think until until you change what what your institution reflects um I I think it's going to be hard and and it's unfortunate that it's not just our local departments um because what happens in other places reflects upon them right but I think we need to see some leadership um on their part just
173like I feel we're expressing leadership by engaging in this conversation right and um I think the one of the other things that um I think is really important is how do I put it I forgot go I I don't know I I'm in the evening what was that too early in the evening for you to to forget yeah I need another two more hours um it it's right now as it is I I don't don't support um keeping the SRO program I think we we we do have time I think we we have an opportunity to further engage with with our counterparts at the city um but also with with having those conversations um with the city manager the chief those about what can be done but I think one thing that's important for me
174to acknowledge is that I I I know not all police officers are bad you know I have had very good interactions with a lot of good officers but I think there's also a lack of courageousness that exists out there because um there's this institution of law enforcement and sometimes those good officers um need more courage to push internally towards change within their departments and towards these more difficult conversations I think more of that needs to happen um so that we could actually see change and I know step Bell spoke earlier um you know uh from the Police Association um I think that also needs to happen internally from like a union perspective I think um you know I'm I'm totally for unions and the the protecting your members but I think also defending the institution
175is really important because um if you don't allow for more I want to say citizen oversight and and more accountability it reflects badly upon your institution and the on your organization and I think we need to we need to bridge those relationships and create a better relationship within the community and part of that involves y'all engaging in that conversation being a part of that solution um so I think that's all I really want to say thank you director medinaa um director manari and then I think director Lopez again yes um well I I just want to um start off by thanking the the committee members and um director De La Cruz and director Sheffield and um president Fong for um engaging in really difficult conversations and for being open to sharing that experience um with
176the rest of the board and with with the rest of our community um I am really proud of our district for for doing that for taking that risk and I'm leaning into that feeling of um being vulnerable and being uncomfortable um I think that to director Medina's point I think that demonstrates a great deal of leadership um and I hope that more institutions here in our community can see that and and can model um Can model that process and um and to the community members that participated and to the students um director Lopez and Miss basos um likewise it's it's very difficult um just to to be the the um to not be the loudest voice in the room and so to to have that courage um to come publicly and and express your experience
177is Brave and and I really commend that so I I just wanted to say that because that's definitely from the heart um since the first conversation that we've been having about SRO and what to do with the program um I've I have been in my own time trying to Center the voices of um of those most affected by this kind of decision so um I've been talking to our our students of color to my black friends who went to the same schools I did um and the consensus is pretty clear and so I just want to say that to validate the 8% that number that I have no idea how um accurate that number is um but if if it is 8% then that 8% um in saying that the conversations that I've had um
178validate that experience and it's really clear that um that there has been harm caused to our community and these are a a lot of people the same age I am and in the in in this discussion there's so much emotion around this conversation and so what I really see is um a lot of healing that needs to happen and I know that's been talked about already so the only thing I want to add to the conversation is that I don't want to work toward anou I want to work toward healing and I don't know how long that's going to take um but I think that we can be leaders in that process and and it you know I think director De La Cruz said it so powerfully that our kids cannot be used in in
179that way and in this process that brought me a lot of emotion um and so I um again because I think about my family and I think about my cousins who are you know still in school um a one of my cousins participated I think I've I've shared this before in the uh the youth design crew and basically said what those 8% of students said so um I am here for him and for those 8% of students for my friends for my peers who um have been working really hard to organize our community around around change real change and um as a public health professional I also understand that there is a short window of time to create long and sustaining change and I think that we are living in that window right now and
180so I think there's an opportunity here to um you know we just passed measure o I think someone mentioned that already too and I think there's an opportunity there to really look at how we can leverage those resources to strengthen our our response to Wellness in our district and I'd like to I'd like to go after that opportunity i' I'd also like to say that I'm really proud of our district for doing that and I see that as as um as the exit the I don't want to call it the exit path but I guess it is the exit path of the SRO program um I I do see a future where where we have the response needed and and the like the ab the abundance of it so that our students feel safe and
181so that we can prevent a lot of these things that our community is very um very afraid of and rightly so I mean we things H are changing and um and we need to be aware of that and I don't want to invalidate those those feelings and those fears but I do want to say that if if we can work toward prevention and not reaction then that is that's the path I want to take and that I want our district to take um and so and and just a couple couple of last points too you know there's been a lot of conversation around data likewise I'm a very data driven person um and unfortunate we've had 20 years to collect data since the beginning of this program in our district and we and and that
182that hasn't happened so when we talk about State and National Data it's because that's what we have um and so you know we had the opportunity to collect data locally um that's a big failure um on our part here locally um and so we have to work with what we've got and right now um again I want to work toward healing and not anou um and and I don't think that that can happen in the presence of the institution that has caused so much harm to our community um and and I just want to uplift a comment that was made earlier that community policing starts in the community um and there's a lot of opportunity there and I think that our police officers and and the SRO um Team um I do think that they
183care about our students I really do um I I think that there's a lot of work to be done and I and I don't think that they're going to stop caring for our students just because they don't have um access to our students on campus um it's a very specific environment and um our students are there to learn and to feel safe and I think there are a lot of different ways that we can do that without um putting 8% of students in in In Harm's path so um that is those are the comments that I would like to contribute to the conversation um and um and I think director Lopez is next and I'm actually really interested to hear what he has to say thank you director manieri yes director Lopez so um thank
184you director Maneri and director Medina and everybody else who has spoken tonight I think you all sort of took the words right out of my mouth and put them in a much more eloquent way um I I you know personally I am thankful to have never had a negative experience with law enforcement but there are so many people people out there who have and that is something that does reflect in this decision especially for me because I've talked to so many of our students who do feel uncomfortable with the presence of law enforcement on our campuses and like it's said before I don't necessarily feel that this is the place where we need to start healing I think healing needs to start outside of schools and I think at some point in the future there
185may be an opportunity for us to bring them back into the fold to have maybe have some more interaction with law enforcement at our schools but I don't think this is the time I think um you know I don't want us to turn around and Molotov the bridge that we just crossed I think um there's a chance sorry my Siri just activated uh I I think there's a chance for us right now to take time we have time and that was something that was brought up during public comment is that we should not rush this so I think you know we should take time to look at this not just us but I think the other side as well um and just personally I know there is some reference to voting we're not officially voting
186but what I I would recommend is for us to not look uh to not bring back law enforcement to our to our school campuses at this time and for us to take time to really look at the resources available to us and to really look at to really allowed the other side to start rebuilding in our community to start making connections that are necessary before we bring them back on thank you director director McCormick um I definitely didn't jockey for having the last word here because I don't necessarily want to have the last word um but I just I just need to listen you know I just need to hear from everybody and process and you know try and make sense of this uh based on our last meeting where this was presented to us
187and um you know I'm writing down these in incredibly powerful statements like you know and I'm just going to say your first names because it just feels weird to call you by our last names tonight um so Ed when you talked about Generations have failed over and over you know and alria you talked about you know whose problem is this who whose burden of responsibility is this it's not our children's responsibility and um you know several of you said you know we need to recognize the harm that's done or the harm that's been done um you know I need to I need to start with a you know thank you I think we've had a lot of thank yous but we need to say it over and over again thank you to the committee and
188particular thank you to the uh board members in including you um uh member Lopez and um for all your time and commitment on this and and the comments that um that we've received from the committee and from the public and you know I'm just I'm just really I'm just really torn and um I will admit that I'm part of the problem I will say that right now I am a person of privilege I am white and I'm part of the problem so I'm just going to say that and I'm GNA own it and so I'm trying to figure out what my responsibility is and not just say I'm a part of the problem and I don't remember who said I think it was you Stephanie that we to work toward prevention and not reaction and
189all these things keep coming to me but this this is where I'm really struggling and I I hope the board members are not disappointed in me when I say this but I'm really having a hard time with you know and I can see um and I I I deeply respect and um honor everybody's opinion and everything that's been shared tonight but I am having a hard time um not uh going with the recommendation of the committee and and I'll just tell you why because um and may maybe my understanding of where voices need to be heard or whose voices need to be heard is not uh I don't know accurate but I feel like we put together this committee to to bring in and elicit those voices and I very much want to honor the
190work and the recommendation at least as it's been presented to us um that that committee did which is uh don't keep the sro's as it currently is and the strong majority it wasn't unanimous and I definitely recognize that um but the strong majority was maintain this program with this list of modifications which is why I was desperate to see that list of modifications again tonight that's why I asked for it right from the get-go um hang on one second um and I understand that if it's not there tonight but I still need to see before we make a a decision on this um but I just don't I don't see how we don't honor the what came out of that committee because that is I don't understand how we get voices heard if we don't
191honor the work done by a committee like that and so that is the rub for me that is the rub for me and I I won't say that uh I don't believe people's stories I won't say that I I don't feel like we can be better I Won't Say I'm 100% in one camp or the other and I don't want to be in this you know this side or this side but we are making decisions for um our children and all of our children um I was just moved by President fongs you know focus on you know what are we going to put at the center we talk about it it's our Target all the time but are we actually going to center it but I'm just having a really hard time I I desperately
192want to honor the process of the committee and accept the recommendation of the committee because I believe in that process so much and that's what I'm having a hard time with and I'm thankful I don't have to make a decision tonight I'm thankful it's not an action item tonight and um you know like uh director close said you know earlier that you know I've kind of come into some of these meetings you know thinking this thinking this and I'm just trying to listen and be open and not come into these meetings with a decision and actually go through the process and listen but I really I am leaning towards accepting the recommendation of the committee because of the process that was involved there and that's really scary for me to say in in the in
193the position of privilege that I'm in and I want you know I'm terrified to say that out loud in front of you my colleagues and in front of everybody who's listening um because it's just scary and hard to say that but I feel like you know I'm wondering where do we where do we safely create these Partnerships where do we safely create these relationships what is the environment we should be doing this in um you know and I understand the argument that maybe schools isn't the right place to be doing that in but I also UND I also do believe that I could argue that it it might be a really good place to do that in and that's why it's really important for me what however we move forward on this in our next
194meeting or when it's formed into um some sort of action item you know I need to see what the committee's recommendations were and I want us to kind of think through you know can we do these things if so how what does it look like I really want those things hammered out um I don't want something kind of fuzzy and vague I want you know really specific things and again maybe that wasn't the the full charge of this committee at this time and maybe it is the one good thing about covid right now that it does give us a little bit more time and maybe we keep the same committee maybe we get another committee to just look on that I don't know more voices is better usually um so that's where I am tonight
195but I just have to say that I I respect everybody's um truth and stories that were shared tonight and I respect this board I respect the committee I respect the students that um gave us these surveys all of them I respect the the teachers administrators and police officers I really do and um this a really hard decision but um yeah I want to honor the work of the committee that is where I am sitting right now that's it board members um follow of comments I see Jenny close I'm writing this it was Omar Medina first and then Jen close Omar Medina Jen close who elsea um so so just for me just a quick question maybe for director McCormack um I think one of the points that that I've made and and in relation to
196your you know wanting to rec like respect the recommendation of the committee um one of the points that I made is that I don't feel that the committee to no fa of the was presented it and uh a possible recommendation of something different without SOS right um and us being the ones that have to make that ultimate decision um I think we have to also be able to see what what could also be and that's again going back to we can do better and and in terms of respecting the work of the committee I completely respect that and I feel it's very valuable but I also feel that that process um in terms of presenting USA recommendation was flawed because it didn't offer that as something they could possibly recommend um so I mean do
197do you recognize that that's kind of my question I do I do I do recognize that and I think that's why this is really really difficult for me but um yeah I mean I recognize that and so that's why I want to go back to that list of modifications and I want to you know get into it and maybe you're right maybe it's another level of what we need to do before we make a decision but yes I recognize what you're saying director close thank you I just want to um say that uh I sort to Echo Omar's comments about the committee I think that um we can respect the work of the committee and um ultimately take a different make a different decision but I don't say that to to sway your position Joly
198what I want to say is um thank you for your courage because um I mean part of the reason this is a strong board is because um people speak their minds and share their divers perspective and are supported um when doing it and so I want to just really publicly thank and support you for being brave because it is not easy um to be the one or the two um and I've been there and and it's that is the hard position to take and sometimes it's the most important position to take so keep on doing that to you and to everybody um so support to you director de Cruz um Joel I just want to say that I love your bravery and you know I think this this question of how do we really respect
199the work of this amazing committee was was really was really Weighing on me too and I think what I what I really want to make sure that we understand here is that I I don't think a vote to you know continue a really critical conversation with a community partner about what kind of presence the srpd has in our schools is is disrespecting that work um I think what we heard from that committee was you know such a critical recognition of a need for a conversation that was deep and meaningful that reset sets the relationship and um and so you know I I want I want that also to really be clear in in my position tonight is that it is with deep respect and recognition of the hard work that was done and I'm hoping
200to take it one step further um and to be bold and to be brave about the way in which we engage in that next step with a partner who I think is you know deeply important and critical to the safety of our kids into our community um and who is going to be in this with us for a long time to come um and you know and it's with that respect and and recognition of how important it is to to not cut that off to not say this is this is ending this is done but to say this is where we're starting um and you know it's really in that spirit that um I hope you know my comments tonight can be understood in that context of you know let's let's do this let's do
201this hard work together um and you know and and do it and do it and just you know let's do it I do I do want to say for the record that I was not implying that any of you were disrespecting the work that the committee did because I know you I know you don't I I know I know that so I'm sorry of what I said made it sound like that I know you guys respect that work do you know how hard it is to have really really close personal deep learning and discussions in a committee of 30 on Zoom super hard committee members did an amazing job I really loved how they really really listened and really really research as much as they could you know I really am so heartened that measure
202P and measure o passed and that we have an equity officer in our County because I think the conversations in our County are going to be different and I am looking forward to Santa Rosa city schools being part of these discussions and we invite to the table every single entity every single organization needs to be at the table of course including srpd sheriffs everybody but for us in Santa Rosa it's the Santa Rosa Police so we invite them um Jill thank you for saying that about the committee but I think we're not there yet and you know what I think every single one of the committee members are willing to continue the work they want to get more deep they want to get deeper into the work they know know that they barely scratched the
203surface and they they have they have publicly said that they would volunteer to continue this to work on this no matter what their you know no matter what their opinion was um so I think you know and Dr Kore you can also chime in after let me just talk I Omar Medina about option about no sros and we need a description of this option and you painted a picture of that and I and I get that um one of you said we need to have discussions with the city and the police um Al agree you said we you wanted to negotiate the terms while they out outside the institution not inside the institution and right now they are outside because we have stopped it um and we don't have a current mou so we effectively
204don't have an agreement I talked about redesigning with kids at the center design for the margins um and we have to call out the institutional racism and it's kind of um you're either a racist or an anti-racist you're either working Against Racism or you're okay with the status quo if you're not working for it so I you know I want us to be on the side of working to make things good to be anti-racists [Music] um we also need to hear from our city our city council Diane I'm gonna ask you to ask you to repeat what you heard where where a direction is the direction right now doesn't sound like it's create a new mou right yet seems like we're still talking still listening and and calling calling people in yeah I I I'm
205not going to repeat what I heard because you just did it what I'm going to do is gonna tell you what I think and this has been I to have been torn completely in so many different directions on this because I come with a history as well as all of you and my my history um is different in that uh first and foremost I come from a history a culture of compliance and being a model minority and when you have that placed upon you you struggle I struggle because I know what is in my heart and then I look to think uhoh what am I going to do because then I wouldn't necessarily be in compliance I come with a history of over 25 years of administrative EXP experience where I work very closely with
206SRO um at the site level um very well um it it was a good partnership and has been a good partnership I come to Santa Rosa city schools where that same partnership with SRO has been um was has been good a as well as with srpd as well as with the city however as you acknowledged me at the start of this meeting for a Statewide award it is as a champion of children of all children so I asked myself what has our School System created that we feel the need to have law enforcement to feel safe why don't my kids just feel safe because I'm there and their teachers are there and their principles are there so that has me questioning as well I am saying to my my colleagues uh who are sro's and
207uh those who I've worked with very closely I can't be a champion of children and also there not be acknowledgment of what has happened to our children our children of color I also think about our children who are not of color and the environment that they are witnessed to and how we are are helping them to understand how to be a part of a tremendous change to the institution so I have gone back and forth back and forth and I I I will tell you just it's it's difficult to the I know the police officers that are out there listening to me knowing I've been behind you and and there I'm still behind you I'm still there but we have to look at this differently we have to be able to talk about where every
208single child is with regards to feeling safe not hesitating to speak out uh not growing up maybe like me who didn't feel I had a voice to say say anything because I had to be that model so I can't talk about design for the margins in the educational world if I'm not also talking about design for the margins in the society in our society so I would say this to the board that I hear all the different things that you're saying I think that we are in a in a place right now where we don't have anou and I think that the agreement whatever that looks like whatever you want that to look like is that this dialogue must take place we must work on this together before we move to the next step that
209that is what I think now it it do in the committee now is thinking oh my gosh the superintendent has just you know said that the work we did is of no use that is absolutely not true you are to be commended because we would not even be having this conversation if you hadn't done the hard work to unravel it all so what you've done has not gone to to any kind of waste it really has opened the doors for um a deeper longlasting real commitment to change um so with that um I I I say that I think we have again like you're saying we have an opportunity um we don't we don't have to have anou right this minute we don't what we can do is we can whatever the wording you want
210it to be from the board but what I want is that it is a promise it is a promise between the city and Santa Rosa city schools to delve into this and to to Really um acknowledge where everything we heard tonight is someone's experience and reality and that attached to that someone in this on these boxes right here our family and children and people who live in this community so that's where I am and that's what I would say in terms of moving forward it's that it's an agreement to work together on this and it's a agreement and acknowledgment of where we are because until that happens I I until that happens I think it'll be difficult to move to another to transform to transform and move to that next step and and I will
211say this this is not a Santa Rosa city schools and the city of Santa Rosa issue this is a community issue that we all need to be a part of and even uh Chief novaro has said that to me over and over and over again so I appreciate that here's one other thing I'm going to end with and that is a couple of weeks ago um I got the most um horrific email for having a black lives matter banner up at one of the schools horrific as I tried to engage in a dialogue with this person I actually realized it wasn't on one of our schools so she was mad at me but it wasn't at one of our schools but I still defended that other school so we have a lot of work to
212do if the superintendent is being called what I was called for having a black lives matter support on a on a school Marque and also on our website we've got we've got some real work to do I turn it back to you president I have to share a story um I visited um steel Land school today and had a long talk with principal Amber Williams who's actually been uh also at Layman and also at Hidden Valley so she she knows she knows some of our schools our elementary schools she told me a story about uh the police department and how uh a family called the police department to come help with the domestic violence issue and the officer went out surveyed the scene calmed everything down and came back to the principal Amber and told
213her about the kid at the house and uh how what the house was like and he said this kid doesn't have any place to study there's no place for the kid to be no no desk no nothing and he said what if we bring something over so the officer and the principal and the family engagement coordinator piled into the police car piled in a desk piled in a chair piled in a full backpack full of supplies and brought it over they called earlier to make sure family wasn't too surprised with the police car pulling up again um and delivered that and that officer was Matt Crosby and he was the SRO at a Santa Rosa high school and so I want to also just say that it's not about catching kids doing wrong it's about
214supporting and keeping kids safe and this officer did that it's one story there are many many stories you could find all different stories for whatever you want to you know whatever you want to support or whatever you whatever the stories you want to tell but that is just one example that the principal told me right away today and couple times and I just promised that I would say that tonight because it was it was one of the SRO who really understood and interesting that he was the one assigned to that case all right any other things for the good of the order and if I don't see your hand it's because you're not on my screen all right so I will see you we will see each other all next Monday night for another uh
215regularly scheduled board meeting which is on a Monday however is that right superintendent see that is that that is correct it is on Monday um I don't have a time for close session yet because we have some cases that we're working on right now um is as far as this this is there what is our what's my next step I'm I'm going to ask you uh was board what's my next step I think you're going to be talking to um our mayor and our police chief and tell him what tell them what transpired here tonight I think I only saw um the SRO lead was here tonight um and get a sense for shared work moving forward so I think we're waiting to hear is that do I see not so right now we don't
216have police on off police on campus we don't have anybody on campus we're not we have noou we we're not going to be starting with anou but we are going to be starting with I'd like to hear back from from them to see what they have to say you'll bring that back to us Diane and then we'll make a decision so I think maybe at the next board meeting I don't know if Monday is too soon for you um yeah I'm not going to be able to do it by next Monday um I don't think not but not we have to get ready for the 16th and we have a big thing with the RTS plan that's coming on Monday um possibly can you bring us back something in our one meeting in December yeah
217get ready to figure out what to move forward in in January sure okay board members thank you so much thank you to the people who have participated the committee and I really want to Echo what superintendent camura said about your work was critical to help move us along and it is all still archived documented we probably will be going back to us and again Dr mccardy thank you so much for holding that together for us and assistant superintendent missa holding that together for us for so long and making sure that nothing was dropped and so I I appreciated that process a lot and thank you president Fong for your leadership through this this whole process as well you gave the meetings a lot of structure the ad hoc meetings and just really did do an
218amazing job um juggling all the all the balls and all the personalities and um and really putting together some pretty solid agenda and instruction for us well that was Tim and Steve well I already thanked them so thank you good night everyone thank you thanks everybody