001i second the motion to hear all the callers waiting on hold no one else wants to back it up really i had my hand raised to make a comment being the only committee member that was at all four town hall meetings i agree that we need to listen to the callers because i think this is the first time in the first avenue where they have those that have been in favor of the name change have felt comfortable enough to speak up and i would really like to hear them out thank you here may say you have a motion in a second on the floor so you do need to get consensus from your community so this is a consensus to hear all out all the callers um committee uh please put your hands up if
002you are in favor of this motion okay we have one two three four five six it looks like they want to hear all the callers finally harrison get mad i'm sorry this is point of order we don't need those comments i would like you to refrain from making those comments we are here to take a vote and we have one two three four five six seven eight nine ten that would like to hear all of the public comments so we will move forward with public comments and please again refrain from the commentary so what are we waiting for names and mascots i urge you to listen to the cries of those that are currently being affected by this name not only not only for those who have no attention hold on please the timer hasn't
003been started erica erica can you hear me can you can you restart i apologize we were we were muted and they didn't start the timer so we're going to start you off again go right ahead whenever you're ready okay hello committee i urge you to ask and meet the community demands by removing racist names and mascots i urge you to listen to the cries of those that are currently being affected by these names and mascots not only to those who have not to those who have ties to it no ties other too sorry not only not to those who have no ties to it other than it being a minor inconvenience and only care about the monetary costs i acknowledge that this is unseated yokus plan i urge you to push for true history and
004true healing i urge you to stop a perpetual cycle of lies and pay homage to those who are truly worth honoring yes let's move forward in truth and in kindness we have so much to gain with this name change and only money to lose thank you our next caller is janine cosey educator and fresno substitute teacher for central unified hi janine you're on with the committee you have a minute 30 to address them uh make sure to turn down your listening device so we can hear you loud and clear again a minute 30 and your time starts now good evening my name is jeanine cosey i'm a longtime educator in fresno i currently teach at fresno state but for many years i was a substitute teacher and blessed to teach students in central unified school
005districts i have two nieces and a nephew who attended central unified schools and my nephew's children will attend central unified schools in the future i'm calling in tonight to support the courageous students parents teachers and committee members who are leading central unified toward a path of acknowledgement and healing as many of you are aware fresno state is undergoing a process right now to rename our library because it's the right thing to do i'm proud of our university's leadership and grateful to the courageous students staff and professors who are leading this effort when my students and i learned about racist place names and the indigenous communities efforts to rename s valley we met community leader roman reigntree he shared many powerful lessons with us and invited us to take action one thing he said was we're
006not here to blame anyone for the past what we're saying is that it's important to acknowledge the truth as an important step in the healing process and after we're faced with the truth to hold ourselves accountable in the present and to create change these words resonated deeply with us that night and i hope they resonate with everyone here this evening to the committee i urge you to listen to the youth who are leading us toward a path of acknowledging opportunity of healing please do survive stand with the students thank you so much [Music] our next caller is josefa vega community member hi joseph you're on with the committee you have a minute 30 to make your comment uh make sure to turn down your listening device so we don't get any feedback and we can
007hear you again a minute 30 and your time starts now thank you i demand the committee and board act rename the schools to honor black and indigenous people while also incorporating curriculum for students to understand why the removal of these names and mascots is so important and how leaving them as they are is not progress and not at all learning from the past but rather ignoring facts and erasing experiences of black indigenous and people of color the formation of the committee was intended to study why the names are harmful which was a frivolous process support change while findings were made even though they were already brought to the district's attention months before this information wasn't readily available to folks in the district and community was largely left out the board could have acted on this
008when it was first brought to their attention like we've seen throughout fresno by addressing names like henry madden forkner and the warrior mascot central unified needs to take action and value their concerned students and community members thank you [Music] our next caller is elaine long central alum hi elaine you're on with the committee you have a minute 30 to address them make sure to turn down your listening device so we can hear you clearly again a minute 30 and your time starts now thank you first of all i'd like to thank the committee for volunteering um all your time for this um to deal with this matter this committee was tasked by the central unified board to gather feedback regarding changing the names of seven schools and two mascots the results of the survey are
009in and the results overwhelmingly show and reflect that the majority of the people that participated in the survey want all seven schools and the two mascots to remain the same and no names changed that is what this committee should recommend to the board that is what the community has expressed to this committee by the result of this survey any money that would have been spent to change any names would be better spent on educating the students of central unified to help improve their math and reading scores in hopes of raising the school scores in the state to above the 50th percentile instead of below the 50th percentile after all the students there are are there to learn and again i want to thank the committee for their time and to listen to the results of
010the people that have taken this survey thank you very much [Music] our next caller is harman singh central alum hi you're on with the board you have a minute 30 to make your comments make sure to turn down your listening device so we can hear you clearly again in minute 30 and your time starts now okay good evening central unified school district uh i've had the opportunity to attend a couple of these meetings now um but over the past couple of weeks i've taken the time to go and engage with our local central unified youth at local parks and community events and ask them about their knowledge about the school renaming process just because i was kind of curious about how involved the youth are out of about 40 different middle school and high school
011youth who attended uh central unified out of the folks i spoke to only three of them knew about the survey after explaining the purpose and reasoning of the survey every single one of those 40 students agreed that school's names should be changed i do not believe that anyone including myself anyone's voice is more important than our youth um additionally i keep hearing about the money uh being wasted on this that is not how our school board's budget works money cannot be reallocated to different funding so this is very much a worthy endeavor to take on so additionally please correct me if i'm wrong according to the last school renaming committee meeting it only cost 32 000 to change the name previous elementary school i would like to refer back to mr solis's comment at our
012last public meeting uh renaming committee meeting that this is not an all-or-nothing process no one group should be dominating the voices of our youth and diverse central community with that said i would like to suggest that the board proceed with recommending a name change for folk elementary school since time permits i would also like to advise the renaming commission committee california's task force to study and develop reparations for african-american issued a report from my readings and understanding of it we should we're just changing the names of our elementary schools but we are upholding a legacy voice firm thank you our next caller is prefer car student hello you're on with the committee you have a minute 30 to make your comments make sure to turn down your listening device so we can hear you clearly
013again a minute 30 and your time starts now good evening central unified renaming committee my name is preet carr i'm currently a student at central high school i'm calling in tonight because my friends told me that this renaming process was happening but i had no idea of this earlier i'd like to ask you to change the name of polk elementary school because their school should not be named after racist slave owners even if they are our former president all of my peers at school want to say the same thing and honestly some of us are just upset that we were not told about this process or this survey thank you for listening to me tonight [Music] i'm waiting on the name of the next caller give me a moment here all right our next callers
014are crystal cabrera parent phoenix suarez student and malachi suarez student hello you're on with the committee you have a minute 30 to make your comments make sure to turn down your listening device so we can hear you clearly again a minute 30 and your time starts now hi my name is crystal cabrera i'm a parent i have two students in central unified i'm also a resident of this area i'm calling i'm in favor of changing the name of polk elementary and of all the problematic names and mascots in central unified i'm disgusted by the comments that we are quote-unquote erasing history or that it costs too much this is just thinly veiled racism if you notice no actual reasons are provided as to why these people deserve to have schools named after them really what
015these what the callers want to say is they don't want to change it because they like that the schools are named after these racist white men they want it to stay oppressive they want our students of color to stay oppressed i'm also disgusted by the fact that gina sellers and monica meza were allowed to participate on this committee it's a joke for central unified to have allowed them to participate not only to participate but to lead it and if you notice neither one of them voted in favor of hearing the public comments that's disgusting and i move that both of them be expelled from the committee immediately if they don't want to hear what the public has to say they should not be on this committee that's the whole point of the committee is to
016listen to what the public has to say you know i'm i'm just i want to reiterate that i'm embarrassed as a as a as a parent a central unified student that this is what's having to go on the board needs to do what's right um the survey results the survey results no matter what they are in the end the board still needs to do what's right they need to do the right thing and they need to change they wrap up your elementary and all the problematic schools i want to pass the um phone to my son who wants to speak next my son phoenix juarez and i would ask that you allot him one minute and 30 seconds as well and after him my other son malachi juarez would like to speak so here's phoenix
017can i have my time yes go ahead a minute 30 go right ahead i am phoenix what if you need to change your racist school names and and sexual unified male kind of proposal a year ago and you guys have done nothing to make the changes you should be ashamed of yourselves by letting adults blame my brother i don't want to i don't want to be called a pioneer at school because pioneers killed native americans and stolen they want to destroy people like me would you have jewish kids celebrating nazis at school that's not very that's not very different from celebrating pioneers now kids are calling me a liar for saying that folk was a racist slave owner now kids are telling me to go to another school it makes me feel like that makes
018me now want to go to school because people because people are bullying me for telling the truth central centralized people boy students were telling the truth disgusting all right clock is set for a minute 30 go ahead and start whenever you're ready this is malachi's juarez i want my minion in 30 seconds the minute and 30s is in the process can we restart it jason okay go right ahead my name is malachi suarez the committee was created because my proposal exchanged racist school names and mascots in the district is ridiculous how long is taking for the board to vote on this my petition has three times as many signatures as how many people participated in the community survey do not say that my signatures don't count because you don't know where they came from and
019because we can say the same thing about your survey it was open to anyone and you don't know where they came from almost 40 percent of people in your survey feel the same way feel that my feel that the name of my school should change how much more do you need don't say the change costs too much because you're because you chose to name it after an american hitler that's disgusting and discouraging don't tell me about your tradition either would you tell a slave that you couldn't end slavery because it's a tradition or for generations of people that didn't want to change you should be ashamed representation matters [Music] our next caller is alexandra alvarado they are a community organizer and part of the central community hi alexandra you're on with the committee you have
020a minute 30 to make your comments please turn down your listening device if you're streaming on youtube that way we don't get any feedback and we can hear you clearly again a minute 30 and your time starts now thank you good evening central unified relations lady my name is alexandra i have friends and family who are part of the central unified school district along with my nephew i'm calling in tonight to urge you to change the name of hulk mckinley and madison during a time when students and young people more than ever need safe spaces to learn and thrive we need to listen and acknowledge their voices a safe place includes many things including an active anti-racist place of learning the students are asking the committee and greater school district to make a name change
021removing the name of persons who have made who have had a racist history that is it this will be a great start to acknowledging the needs and demands of students of color which represent a majority of the students in this district thank you [Music] our next caller is anthony utterback community member hi anthony you're on with the committee you have a minute 30 to make your comment please turn down your listening device if you're streaming on youtube so we can hear you clearly again a minute 30 and your time starts now anthony are you there can you hear us anthony how would you like me to proceed with with with uh anthony here would we like anthony to call back i don't know if you're if he's having any any phone issues can we take
022the next caller and then see if he's um able to participate after the next caller yeah anthony if you can um if you can hear us please call back we cannot hear you [Music] our next caller is hashid kasama parent and central alum hello you're on with the committee you have a minute 30 to make your comment uh please turn down any listening devices that way we can hear you clearly again a minute 30 and your time starts now good evening everyone i'm hashid kasama and i am a parent a father and also a product of central unified school district i attended teague elementary school in highway city throughout k-6 el capitan middle school for 7th and 8th grade and even central high school west campus during my freshman year i am deeply concerned about
023the committee acting as gatekeepers not being transparent about this meeting bullying is a serious issue and keeping the name of a school after a racist slave owner is very problematic for several reasons other people have brought up the issue of testing and reading math and arithmetic scores and students need schools that reflect positive figures named after their respective cultures to boost their self-esteem and self-worth so that they can feel empowered to achieve those results the dignified thing to do is to listen to the majority of your community members who are taxpayers and change the name of the school anyone who opposes the name change stands with apartheid the district is majority people of color board members can be recalled for not complying with the demands of the majority of the community and we will not
024hesitate to kick off our campaigns to do so do the right thing change the name we support malachi and stand behind your efforts and commend you thank you our next caller is lance cruz community member hi lance you're on with the committee you have a minute 30 to make your comment please make sure to turn down any listening device so that we can hear you clearly again a minute 30 and your time starts now thank you hopefully we see some leadership on this and not acquiescence to some poorly disseminated survey those are commonly commandeered by reactionaries in the community um we have a community and a country that still thinks the terms manifest destiny and settler colonialism are a positive epithet to early american history we see the leftovers of you know growing up going
025to school being told manifest destiny it sounds such a pretty sounding word right uh that it that it that it's our destiny is literally part of why we're here and we wouldn't be here without it so we should be proud of our manifest destiny and the fact that we're a cephalo settler colonial project unfortunately we see all of that every day in our structural serial intentional discrimination building throughout all parts of the american system um i wasn't sure if i was going to call in but i heard a caller earlier say you know it's the past and things weren't the best in the past and we should learn from the past she's right we should learn from the past one of the things we need to learn from the past settler colonialism is evil manifest
026destiny is evil and the only way even though pope has a impressive resume um and some of the larger things he did he was a manifest destiny guy he won his election because of manifesto please wrap up your statement okay and i think you get my point manifest destiny and settler colonies need to be unlearned and the way to start that is to unname these schools our next caller is chris chris schneider a central parent and resident hi chris you're on with the committee you have a minute 30 to make your comments please turn down your listening device so we can hear you clearly again a minute 30 and your time starts now good evening my name is chris schneider all four of my children graduated from central high school and i have numerous nieces
027nephews great nieces and nephews that have attended or are currently attending central unified schools i'm calling to support the student-led effort to change the name of the school the student articulated very well the reasons that the name should be changed so there's no purpose am i repeating those but as a taxpayer in the district who is very close to polk elementary and passes it on a daily basis i have always voted in support of school bond issues so the district can prove can improve while i always get mailings about bond issues the district school made no attempt to inform me and the other residents of my household and my neighbors of um the district undertaking this process i believe had you done so that many many many more people would have expressed support for the
028change the flawed survey methodology that you've used is meaningless those results are meaningless and not taking action should not rest on meaningless results i'm also very concerned about the attempts to limit public input up through the very context of this meeting we serve as a thank you [Music] our next caller is navdeep car alum uh hello you have um you're on with the committee you have a minute 30 to make your comments please turn down your listening device if you're listening to us on youtube that way we don't get any feedback and we can hear you clearly again a minute 30 and your time starts now thank you hi my name is navdeep and i am a cus alumnus i'm calling in tonight to urge you to change the name of poke elementary because so
029as so many men before we mentioned century unified is a predominantly black and brown community and yet we don't see that reflected in school names or mascots um someone mentioned that to not erase their history but i like to ask them and you to reflect on whose history it is and what the history is why is there so much pride in history that has connections with enslaving and dehumanizing people why so much pride in history that stems from white supremacy we see we keep seeing mass shootings that's usually by young white men and then we wonder why this where this violence stems from letting white supremacy pass even in the most micro levels can feel difficult to racism also my current cousins currently attend central unified and they told me that they and their friends
030never received any survey uh regarding the name change so this committee needs to hold itself accountable and actually send the survey to the entire studio student party and make a decision based on what the students want and feel um before you all actually make the decision and then someone also mentioned about uh the money the money is already there it's already paid for there's money set aside so it's not like it's gonna cost us anymore the other thing is someone also mentioned that you know this is our history might erase it we should learn from it yes we should and that's what critical race theory is for yet when it comes to that you're protesting against that if you don't want that and then you definitely want to stop sentence would be you know it
031this is time to make a decision whether you make it now or not your time is up well eventually it's gonna happen so uh [Music] the next caller is pedro navarro cruz his nephews go to central hi pedro you're on with the committee you have a minute 30 to make your comments make sure to turn down your listening device so we can hear you clearly again a minute 30 and your time starts now thank you good evening committee my name is federer thank you all for your time and the opportunity to speak i'm a fresno parent and resident with nephews attending central unified schools i am calling to support the renaming of polk elementary because of polk's legacy of theft exclusion and exploitation on people of color and a school district of 85 percent students
032of color it's quite clear that the school district is continuing the legacy of polk's exclusion with the way that this process has been handled however you as a committee have the power to begin writing this in a better direction the verdict is clear on the evil person that pope was let's move in a direction where families as of students of color would be inc at the central unified school district board meetings this can start by renaming the name of the school of polk elementary we are not erasing history by renaming the name of the school we are accepting the wrong the president and moving to a future where all of our children can thrive do not base your division on the process that was incompetent and intentionally exclusive do what is right just because it's
033right i wanted to thank you all for allowing me to speak but above all thank malachi for leading this good fight our next caller is rajdeep tour student ah hello you're on with the committee you have a minute 30 to make your comment please turn down and uh please turn down your listening device so we can hear you clearly again a minute 30 and your time starts now okay hello everyone my name is roxy i'm currently a student near central high school west campus previously and i'm here to support the name change of the schools what the schools are is institutional racism they're based off of racism they continue to support this racism and obviously it's history but we have to learn from this history and change it we're currently in the present we're not
034in the history we're in the presence we gotta move on we gotta make a future without racism because everybody is treated equal we can't keep this manifest destiny going also the survey i keep hearing about i never heard of this survey no i asked my friends and classmates nobody heard of this survey this is completely biased only people that do not want the name change are filling the survey out so obviously they're going to use that for them but if the survey was never properly distributed that's not accurate it's not factual it's not representing the population it's representing a small portion of the population most of the population wants this change we do not want racism in our systems in a matter of fact the whole government is based off racism to some extent and
035we're just slowly trying to get rid of it which is great and this is just one small step that we need to take we need to get rid of this institutional racism and we got to learn from the past and change it my cousin told me that in a previous meeting they said something about these turban heads need to go back to their country i personally have a turban i felt so disrespected there why do i have to go i'm a citizen here my parents work hard they came with nothing and they've worked their way up so i want this change i don't want my kids growing up in a racist environment everybody's people inside we're just nothing i want to [Music] our next comment is from anthony utterback community member hi anthony you're on
036with the committee you have a minute 30. make sure to turn down your listening device so we can hear you clearly again a minute 30 and your time starts now hi everyone this is anthony ederbach i am a community member in the fresno area first i want to thank the board and everyone who organized this meeting for creating the space to share and for hearing out the people i'd like to express my support for malachi family and the work they're doing to change the james k polk school they're really bringing positive change to the community you know to better represent the black and brown families of you know the fresno area and central unified school district and um really i want to call out the the unhealthy behavior that people have been inflicting on on
037this family and other supporters of the name change um you know we can't bully our youth and we can't bully our families that's toxic and an unhealthy way to go about this work and so i'm hoping to address that and and really next time uh this happens that there's a healthier way of doing this um because our youth don't deserve that our students don't deserve that and so um malachi is a strong young man and what he's doing is really powerful and um you know he represents the native community and what they're doing and so um i i fully support uh malachi and his campaign to change the name thank you our next caller is roman reigntree they're a parent roman you're on with the committee you have a minute 30 to make your comments
038make sure to turn down your listening device so we can hear you clearly again in minute 30 and your time starts now yes all right thank you um i'm calling in support of the renaming of polk elementary um i stand with malachi suarez and um in a gift you know public funding for public education is for the community and the community is supposed to be of welcoming of everybody our parks our government building they're all welcoming of everybody despite your creed socio-economic background the color of your skin all human beings are welcome and as well all as all of our institutions of higher learning as in this case polk elementary and it's it it's startling and very very disturbing when gina sellers and monica meza who have admitted to tearing down mr suarez's posters are
039appointed and allowed to be on the committee that is going to interpret the solicited responses from the community and report back it just seems like it's biased it seems like um this is a dog show we're just going through it for formality and the judgment's already been made please reconsider renaming polk elementary thank you [Music] our next person is peter beale district employee hi peter you're on with the committee you have a minute 30 to make your comment please make sure to turn down your listening device so we can hear you clearly again a minute 30 and your time starts now thank you i am a district employee and first i am very proud of malachi suarez and his campaign i find his triumph uh treatment by this by the head of this committee and
040the committee at the large to be unacceptable an apology is is required for him this issue is not over as central students of many different school sites have expressed their feelings about not being fully and adequately represented in uh this in this process not getting enough opportunity to participate etc personally i have been unnerved and disappointed at the unequal uh treatment and deference and overall uh treatment afforded a minority of parents in this district operating out at strictly personal agendas james k polk it should be reminded of 40 slaves while president of these united states that weren't very united at that time i should say aggressive war against mexico was committed and stolen half their land being stolen finally participation in genocide of the native american people by that same president this process is not
041over and i thank malachi suarez for inspiring me to look uh into this more fully personally thank you very very much i yield the rest of my time [Music] our next caller is geneve verk student hello you're on with the committee you have a minute 30 to make your comment please make sure to turn down your listening device so we can hear you clearly again a minute 30 and your time starts now um ahead and start hi my name is guinea burke i am a junior at central east high school and i was just and i would like to express my complete support for the name changing of folk elementary and i i'm i'm sorry go ahead make sure to turn down your your listening device if you might be getting feedback uh jason can
042we pause on the time you might be getting feedback and that's what you might be hearing in the background so go ahead and start whenever or continue whenever you're ready okay thank you i just needed it um my name is geneve i am a junior at central east high school and i would like to express my support for the changing of james polk elementary [Music] all right our next caller is dorothy cabrera grandmother ah hi dorothy you're on with the committee you have a minute 30 to make your comment make sure to turn down your listening device so we don't get any feedback and we can hear you clearly again a minute 30 and your time starts now hi my name is dorothy cabrera and i'm i'm a malachi swords grandmother he has been working
043on this project over a year now and i am in support of the school name change we need important role models who want important change to teach our children what is right and wrong and the man who has the name pope is just lying to the children so we need to change that name and it's time for the board members now to make that change and stop lying to our children and give them the important role model they deserve listen again malachi is a little boy who's 11 years old and he has been working very hard on this project and he has a lot of votes from the community so it's time change it change it do something about it don't just talk amongst each other get in gear and change it it's time there's
044been other schools that have been changed because of this remember he is an important role model and you are lying to our children by teaching them this they need an important role model to move forward and succeed in their lives and get rid of this hate that's what he did he did hate change change now change it don't go to bed and say this is okay this is not okay you as adults know you it's time for you to change i'm not going to say it overnight again change it please wrap up your statement our next caller is jenny french retired teacher alum hi jenny you're on with the committee you have a minute 30 to make your comment please turn down your listening device so we can hear you loud and clear again a
045minute 30 and your time starts now thank you i have four generations of my family who've gone to the central school district i spent 33 years teaching at central high school i'm against changing the name of any of the schools or mascots you're taking away the alumni status of hundreds of thousands of students who've gone through these seven schools with these mascots who would i be an alumni of if you change how kearney who would somebody be an alumni of if you change peak if you change any of the schools you are nullifying the alumni status of all of the students who've gone through these schools i agree with looking at these criteria for naming schools for all of our future schools but to change the past isn't going to do anything for the students
046i have many many students who are successful teachers doctors lawyers orthodontists that have gone through our school system and become very successful despite the name of the school i do not want to see any schools or mascot changed look at this criteria for future schools and i want to thank the committee for their time and their efforts that they've spent on this next we have ganev burke we had some technical difficulties when she called so she's calling back to give us her full comment you're on with the committee please make sure to turn down the volume all the way down um if you're listening on youtube that way you don't hear feedback you have a minute 30 and your time starts now yes thank you so much i apologize for whatever it was happening with
047the audio before it was muted but i'm just glad i'm being able to speak now um i'd like to express that i do completely support the changing of james polk elementary name because that is that has an extremely racist history and is extremely um discriminatory and insensitive to the black and african-american communities that we that we have extensive populations of in this school but i would also like to express my concerns about elementary school names such as roseville and i know roosevelt is not inherently known as a evil being in our history but right franklin uh roosevelt was known as an active imperialist and was known uh to believe in manifest destiny and to control native american populations he also believed in um believed in enslaving south american countries such as cuba and mexico so
048i'd also like to recommend that we change the roosevelt elementary name to maybe something like eleanor roosevelt who was a teacher and an educator in her time and she also was part of many progressive movements during this time to end discrimination in the united states and i think she would be a much more accurate representation and name for our community and represent our diverse community and especially our educators um and i'd also just like to mention that um the racist history that we are trying to uphold is very discriminatory and insensitive towards the history that we had the inclusive history that we try to teach in our very classes thank you we have another caller give me a moment here and i'll get you i'll let you guys know who that is uh our next
049caller is dana suarez their family member goes to central hello you're on with the committee you have a minute 30 to make your comment please make sure to turn down your listening device so we can hear you clearly again a minute 30 and your time starts now hi i'm calling in support of changing the name of hulk elementary school i think that the board should see through supporting their students when they are asked to complete community service projects and this is uh it shows their commitment to their students when they're asked to do what is assigned so um i think this is following through with malachi as far as his school assignment from i believe almost two years ago so he's just committing to seeing his project through and hopefully the board will support that
050as well thank you all right that concludes public comment i should have just i have a parent who's been trying to call in she got disconnected she tried calling back got disconnected i have her right here and she wants to talk she's a black mother she has several kids in this district and you administrators you make a ton of point of order no no no you need to stop with that because they make a lot of money off this you are shouting this is your warning what are you warning him about based on what which roberts will rule this is we're talking about public comments and that there were no callers at that time he's saying something about a parent being waiting trying to get on here mr suarez i think you're out of order
051with your calling to order any what roles are you what what are the robert's rules are you calling us on that you're calling our interruption we're trying to move the meeting along so we can get to the committee work um public comment has [Music] we don't have a timer going for the public comment any longer we have to give the committee meeting along so the next committee meeting item is letter g is to approve the meeting minutes um from may 17th um i'd like the committee to take a minute to review those minutes uh okay and the bill your hand is up go ahead thank you uh chair uh i had a quick question about the meet uh the minutes it says that uh i just want to clarify for some of the those community
052members that expressed concern um in our ministry so the staff did due diligence to make sure the survey was distributed um could we please um go over um just briefly how the survey was distributed and if it was at all distributed towards students thank you so this is jason horstmann i can speak to the student survey um after the board meeting um and and excuse me i don't have the dates in front of me the tuesday board meeting there was a public comment saying that we should have more student input and so the next morning the student survey was sent out to all students in fifth through twelfth grade via both student email and through our student portal which is called clever as students log into their chromebooks they use this portal to get to
053their various school classroom um you know their ela and math curriculum there's a pop-up in that system that then alerted students that they were allowed to participate in that survey with a hyperlink to the survey the the survey was also distributed uh via parent square to our entire central unified school district it was also distributed through social media and it was promoted on our website page under our news section which is right on the front page okay um mr suarez your hand is up okay um first i want to i want to say first that this um survey was distributed in a rag tag manner in which some students found out about it on the day of and the survey itself had some confusing information along with not very thorough information about why these names
054are being considered changed i sense i was muted i made a motion to allow that parent i'm speaking right now so don't interrupt me but you're out on you you are out you're i'm calling you you are out of order i am not out to allow a parent to speak and it was seconded and i don't understand why we're being muted and also i think that needs to be addressed and if you don't want to hear from the public then you should resign in the minutes from the last meeting that we had we went through when people were still trying to speak and the motion was made up after you meeting point of order mr suarez okay you're out of order we're on the the um lineup there are still people that are trying to
055speak from the community the public comments you cut it off unjustly and unnecessarily here yeah may i speak um what i would suggest is you are in the minutes right now please um work through the minutes and get action on that and then if you can go back to the motion uh that was made and address that and finish the one that you're on and then and then go back to that one great thank you um so for the minutes uh would we like to make those changes to add in what how the um survey was given from the last meeting and add that into the minutes um that was what you had pointed out correct correct thank you chair uh chairwoman uh i would just i'd like to amend the minutes to include uh
056or amend that there would be specifics on how the survey was distributed and to which community members be they uh residents whether it be homeowners versus apartment dwellers versus students and adults thank you i feel like that more information will be helpful toward the community okay can we have those minutes amended and then um how would we approve those since this is our last meeting miss davis i think anita's got you she was about thank you anita we need to take a moment because it was seconded that this parent gets to speak go ahead mamas we're um i'm sorry we will get to that in a moment we just want to wrap up the minute since we're in the middle of the minute what are you going we're trying to move back to that and
057i will get back to that in a moment oh you're not time i would like to hear what anita has to say i think i need a bigger audience i think i need to go to channel 47 24. you're unmuted you can go ahead mama anita yes the the minutes will be adjusted based on what mr uh nabil stated and then um they will then be presented to um well i'll email them to you and the committee as well with it with the um adjustments and then um they'll be signed off at that time okay great thank you you're welcome all right so we have a motion that was in the chat um and it was to allow um someone to speak the mother when you first monica finish your motion in second for your
058minutes with that change and take it okay since it's for that and then i know you're eager to get to that next okay um so making a motion to have those minutes adopted or i'm sorry i want to speak on that i have a question i have a question nabil made a email thread that was violating the brown act and he said that he emailed people about distributing the survey i want to know why he was emailing people and what and why he was taking it upon himself to do that and also this survey was open to anybody who had access to the link so that means that they're not necessarily from central unified so if the survey is going to be considered in this decision i motion that malachi's 30 over 3 300 signatures
059that he has collected on his change.org petition also be considered in our findings because it's the same type of scenario where we don't know where these people who feel that the survey came from and that's what we were told about his petition so if they're going to count this then it should also count they should also count as petition and a motion for it to be cons for it to be pointed out in the findings are we motioning the minutes mr soros you have a motion by you and a second by mr solis please move forward on that yes can i get a raise of hands um for the minutes to amend the minutes vote please with your um reaction button anita are we good i'm not seeing i've got one two three four five
060six seven eight oh they moved around um two i got one two three four five six seven eight i have nine hands up that passes thank you okay moving back to the last motion that i had um spotted in the chat is to allow someone to speak um suarez made the motion michael seconded it i would like to get from the rest of the committee a vote on that motion two three four five six seven eight nine we have okay can we get the timer back up so we can allow for that one public comment okay mama so this is a mother of several children in this district she's a black mother and she has enough trauma she does every black person in this country has enough trauma they don't need to be traumatized can
061you please put her on the line so we can start the timer you go ahead mamas like i was saying my kids are black children that go to that school all i want you guys to think about what you guys are teaching my children you guys are teaching our children that political racism is okay and it was okay for them for their ancestors to be done like they were done and that in a moment of time if somebody wanted to take us back into slaves that that's that's that it's good it could be done you know what i mean and that's okay that's how you feel that's what you're teaching my children that my children don't matter that my children's feelings don't count that malachite feelings don't count he may not he i don't i
062don't know what minority he is but he is feeling some type of way about the name of that school how do my kids go to that school and be proud of going to that school who they are when they when they put his name across their chest a person that was okay with separating children and killing everything just the whole distinct point of everything of slavery my kid you want them to wear that across their chest and be proud this mesa what if you were black and and the shoe was on the other foot and your children went to this school and maybe it was your son's project that was on that window and a mother walked up and snatched your son's project down because why he told the truth how would you feel what
063would you teach your children what would you tell your black baby about that specific scenario right there i just want to know how you guys see fit to leave this name what comment i just want to let you guys know that i'm in support of the name change and that i don't even know if i even want my children to go and yeah that's cool we are out of time at this time about my children that they won't know better everybody gets a minute and a half you're out of time thank you for your public work it's crazy to me that none of you guys feel like something's wrong with our children something today and you're mad i went and used everything that they locked it up go ahead kiss miss can can i get
064your first and last name please believe believe and stand up for what he believed in make that change because if it wasn't for all okay go ahead go on to the next item okay can you hear me okay great so moving on to the next item so we already know what our scope of the committee work is we're at the last one where we're discussing um we discussed state holder input at the last meeting this meeting we are to develop the recommendation based on the analysis and the community community input that we have received to make a recommendation to the board and present it to the board at the end of this month i believe that meeting is june 28th so knowing we went over the survey the last time um i do see some
065hands up annette can you hear me yes okay so um i did go to the uh community input meeting at el cap and one thing that was brought up and i wanted to address today was um liddell and antique school that there was no controversy that was brought up and i wanted to know if anything has been um brought up since our last meeting on those two schools and if not to recommend that we remove those two schools from our list i don't believe at our last meeting there was anything brought up about those schools just what was in the survey okay so being that there is no controversy that's been found attached to those two school names can we do a motion to remove those two schools from the list we would need a
066second on that motion hello madam chair you have lots of hands up on that yes uh just need to let mr horseman know who to call on i believe charisse was next yes i just wanted to um bring up to the group that the feedback from the community was to help us align our criteria so after reviewing the information and from the public does anybody feel that we need to make changes or adjustments to the criteria that we had established back in april march um i'm gonna go in order okay because if i mean i know we can't make a second but if i would like to be able to second at least the criteria if we don't have any changes to make on it based on public um opinion and output to at least
067keep that the same so that we can move forward with that part of it um the data analysis part can you state your motion again no i was just saying that if we don't have any additional information to add to the criteria based on public feedback and the data we received in terms of the survey sent out that i'd like to make a motion if we haven't already to at least solidify the criteria since there's nothing more to add to it so that we can make that part of our referral process referral to the board chairman yes we have we currently have a motion on the floor to remove tegan liddell we would need to complete that in order to continue with uh miss butler's uh motion okay does anybody second that motion to remove
068tegan liddell i second the motion that's melissa okay i would like to speak on that i would like to speak mister okay mr sorry i will because you guys move real fast and you use these rules against us to get things done in a slippery way so um i saw on the survey that several people said that school names should not be named after someone just because they donated money so i would call that a controversy and second i do want to clarify that cost is not a criteria for our consideration on name changes right now and i want to point out that i think teddy davis and richard solis intentionally left that out from the community that cost is not part of this decision right now i think it needs to be cleared up
069and very clear that cost is not part of what makes a school name appropriate or not uh costco isn't part of the criteria that we developed correct can i can we just continue this discussion after we've completed the vote on the motion um that was made regarding teagan liddell we have a second on the floor and i'd like to take a vote so we can go ahead and move on to the other day i want to counter that with uh disregarding that because there is some controversy regarding those names and you guys are disregarding information from the survey if you're going to try to say that there wasn't can we please take a vote everybody please use your reactions go ahead and vote on this motion i do not have enough hands up for um
070for the motion to pass oh hold on yeah i'm only uh one two three four five six seven i have eight um that motion passes to remove ledell antique but um also who um chairman motion to emotion to district please stop interrupting in front of people you're violating the norms excuse me um i did not hear who um who did the second i know miss dilly did the first motion motion but who was the second i was melissa melissa thank you melissa you're welcome okay so i want to comment that that is going against what people put on the survey and this committee is showing that they're going against what the community is stated on the survey there was some controversy not really mr suarez only because if you look at just the survey and
071what we've talked about and if you had attended the committee town hall meetings nobody had a problem with liddell ortig's name okay so um um first of all i need you to direct me when you're ready to talk um we're gonna move on to the next person who has their hand up um i believe that's uh josh did you want to speak to this oh i'm just saying hands up so if you don't mean to have your hand up please put it down um okay there are no hands up um and that motion was made and it was carried and i believe there was another motion on um someone motioned something else mr solis um i believe miss butler made a motion to accept the criteria i'll second that let's take a vote on that
072um that is to accept the criteria that we have um previously placed out i won't clarify that we're in the middle of voting mr suarez i want a clarification on the vote and i can ask for that go ahead i want to be clear that cost is going to be explicitly stated as not part of the criteria because if you consider cost in the survey a majority of the people that are against the changes of the names cited cost as a reason and if that's not one of the criteria then that doesn't really count mr solis if the member was paying attention to the motion that was made the motion was made to accept the current criteria the point that he's bringing up is mute because it the current criteria clearly does not include that
073so he's arguing against his own point shall we continue with the vote since there is a motion on the table on the floor and there has been seconded can we please take a vote at this time hands up please i'm sorry i just wanted clarification um we do have the eight okay um at this time please lower your hand so i know who um is on here to speak thank you [Music] um we at this time have a survey we do want to survey the committee um jason has a survey that is ready to go this survey um does require you to answer all of the questions it is i believe the very same survey that was sent out to all of the schools or has some of those questions um jason are you ready
074with that survey sure yeah just to clarify the the nine questions that were included in the community survey um uh the nine schools or mascots are just on the zoom poll for the committee members sure so hopefully it's popped up on your screen as you scroll through you'll see there's one through nine each one is a yes or no vote um and uh when when everybody's done i'll end the poll and we should then all as a group be able to see the the results together i know and obviously um you know we just took out um tegan tilly or liddell i'm sorry um of of this so to submit this i believe you have to answer all of them but just know that it's not gonna obviously they're not in it um i'm on
075my phone and i don't see the survey i don't see the survey either i i don't see it either is our way to resend that jason so it pops up on the screen uh it i i apologize it may be the the version of zoom that they're on right now i have five of 17 people participating have voted what we may have to do is take a verbal vote for those that that don't have the survey on their screen can i i want a motion that we can see how each person on the committee voted i think we should our vote should be attached to our name i motioned for that i think the community should see how people are voting in regards to this um the central unified having racist school names and mascots
076and where people stand on this i think this should not be an anonymous poll i'm emotional from there soros i motion for this to be something that's made public and attached to your name so please don't cut me off a verbal vote if you can't get anybody on a roll call vote monica you've got four hands for that by motion to have a roll call vote on each of these items so the community members can see where each person including kenny davis and the rest of the people from the district i want everybody to vote so people can see what they really stand for it looks like you have michael kernesoft put his thumb up for a second on that so you'll need to get consensus you've got a motion on the floor to do
077this one by one other than the two and the criteria already done and you've got a second for that anita second was michael cornison i will take a vote at this time put your hands up if you're in favor of that motion i am only seeing four hands up we do not have a majority okay madam chair before the rest of us feel can i make a short comment yes right so i believe that uh there are some problems with the survey that was presented to the public that uh need that should have been addressed um since unfortunately haven't already one there is no way to verify your address um on that survey if you're taking it uh meaning that not only could people from outside the central community vote on it but also it
078would be very easy to astroturf to uh create create a bot and uh skew the results unfairly one direction uh one thing i have noticed uh was on facebook i noticed the fresno high school facebook group had uh people encouraging uh people from outside central unified to fill out the survey and be opposed to renaming uh james k polk i think i tried submitting evidence of this to uh uh gilbert when i couldn't attend a meeting but it was uh not allowed so uh that's why i'm bringing up now because i have seen people organizing from outside central unified to skew the results and i think regardless of how any of us feel on this issue it should be up to the central unified community not those from outside um that's why i think we
079need more time to tweak this poll and make sure that people's voices are being heard we heard many students today who were concerned about this who feel unwelcome and our students uh mental health in light of everything that's happening really should be a top concern for us as community members as parents as board members um yeah that is uh what i wanted to say i think we really should have more time on this i don't think uh the poll as is give us a good view of how the community feels about this especially because students are saying that they did not know about this or not have time mr sullys um i think i might be able to help um if you go by to go back to the approved criteria and you look at
080the last bullet points those are the items that i feel the committee needs to focus on and do any of these schools submitted uh fit the criteria if you look at the criteria that has already been approved by the committee basically there's only two schools that stand out how hounton kearney because of mr kearney's racial views and james pope with that i would make a motion that those two schools would be passed on to the school board for consideration also uh under the mascot i would also make a consideration to keep the name madison warriors as the mascot but change the logo okay i disagree with you richard um point of order i i'm everybody's taking turns i need your squad over me i can't order on you i'm calling your i'm gonna have to
081ask you to leave you're out of order okay we'll go as orders of hands so nabil if you're done i'd like you to remove your hand just so i can get an accurate um assessment of who can speak next um just so we can keep this going um mr solis did make a motion here um and that is for houghton kearney and polk um to stay on the list to go to the board to make that decision if if their names should be changed is that correct mr solis am i getting that right that is correct but the third part of it is that the mascot for madison also be included uh just the logo they can still stay warriors okay so that is the motion on the floor um do we have a second
082please use your uh reaction button nabil seconds that thank you okay so we have a second on the floor i'd like to take a vote please utilize your raise hand button we have the eight for the motion to move forward okay so that is a motion um to move those schools forward for uh the board to make the recommendation um to change them and we have finalized the criteria any other comments learning what we voted on um melissa go ahead sorry i was trying to unmute um i'm thinking i guess earlier today that i kind of like to add to future school names when we think about re you know when we think about naming a school that we stay away from [Music] controversial things which would be political figures religious figures or activists and
083i know some people will be upset about that but i think those are three hot topics where you're always to come up with controversy religious figures political figures so that would be any president because even some of our modern presidents there's controversy over them so political figures religious figures and activists um is this michael if you want to speak put your hand up so i can call on you to speak and you can make a motion to bring the real choirs back into the meeting i'm sorry this is i'm gonna second it it was his son that sparked this whole thing does anybody want to back up malachi does anybody want a second bringing gabriel back um thank you so we are i believe concluding this meeting except for the fact that uh melissa um
084you're talking about the criteria that we made the motion on to finalize mr solis yes i was talking about that i wasn't able to get anything in when we were trying to vote on that one before i just think if if we're going to name him after people we should name them i mean this is my personal feeling obviously after people that were part of central community that would bring about change like we have janessa ramirez who was tragically killed as a you know bystander and a drive-by that that people would ask why are we naming this after a student and you could say it was a tragedy or we just lost a student this year robert pickett at rio vista and these are names that could truly bring about modern day issues and awareness
085and if we're going to name it after a person i don't even think we should be naming it after anybody that can cause any kind of controversy it should be somebody who was part of our community and there was either they they implemented some great program for central or we lost them tragically way too young to something and it would bring about awareness mr solis madam chair i'd like to go ahead and motion that the criteria be forward to the board uh for future naming of schools as well as and also a second recommendation that the board recommends that it's not binding on any future board i'll let you know that now but it's sure it sort of gives a direction that the they do no future board considers uh the the names of any
086of the existing schools for the next 15 years with that um i'd like to say um i'd like to thank the members of the board for taking their time to come here you took time away from your families to be here i learned a lot sitting on this board from the community i met some very interesting people both sides were heard i've already spoke once about my experience on boards when people tend to attack the process that means they've run out of ammunition for their their their opposing view um to tell you the truth i can see both sides of this and um i'm going to be taking a position that i'm for the kids and i'm for the community and because of that i i was looking for a a win-win situation though people
087that oppose the name changing of the schools will notice that a lot of schools were taken off the list it's a win for that's a win for them the ones that want a change of the names two of them will be considered by the ward that's a that's a win for them um in in reality of life there's you're not going to win everything a hundred percent especially when you're dealing with the views of a lot of people all we can do is try to find a middle ground that everybody can stand on and have balance and i hope that's what this committee has done today so with that i'll stand on my two motions i don't know if there's a second or not a second and so i have seconded that motion um can
088we take a vote over there please one two three four five six seven eight i have the eight [Music] i have the eight two um yeah i have the eight to move forward great thank you um if everybody we're done voting lower your hands and raise your hands and you have anything more to add um yeah i just wanted to speak to i think there was a couple of people that were questioning the criteria um melissa one of them it is in the packet from the march 1st meeting towards the back so you can see the criteria there i believe that it does cover what you were requesting so just go ahead and look there that's all all right okay i don't i don't know if it actually listed those three specific things that that's
089why i brought it up but uh mr solis said there were two motions and i cannot remember what both motions were so i was just wondering if we could repeat what the second motion was anita can you do that i'm sorry i um i was trying to watch everyone that i did not catch mr solis's um motion i know the first one was to motion my was too motion to um my first motion was to send the approved criteria from the committee to the board as criteria for naming new schools the next motion was that we put a time limit on it with the understanding and i want everybody in the community to understand and the committee to understand it's not binding on future boards but we put a time limit that this item cannot
090come up before the board for 15 years to change the name of any existing school thank you mr solis thank you so we have a we have mr solis motioning ms meza second so we just need to vote you already had your vote of eight anita we had eight yeah there was just a clarification to reread the motion okay any other concerns or questions anyone would like to address i i think that wraps up our work yes i just want to clarify then so the next step would be at the board meeting on june 28th that um you'll bring forward those motions and we'll provide all of the input that was collected all of the survey all of the comments made at each of these meetings in minutes to provide that on behalf of this
091committee to the board um chairman says that uh the plan that you will you will get i'm going to ask joshua sellers and nabeel to join me at the next meeting board meeting on june 28th to hand this over to the board thank you navel mr sullys also i would just like to ensure if we have uh the students petition that that was stated earlier that that is also submitted to the board we'll make sure we add that thank you all right i'd like to uh at this time uh make a motion to adjourn the meeting oh gina harry did you put your hand up now to speak oh go ahead before i adjourn all right um i also wanted to ask if we are able to forward information to the board as well before
092their decision is made for some outside websites that have been published that are also naming some of the committee members by name in a negative light with slander so i would like that to also be presented to the board as well before they make their determination and so you're asking if we can that information can be sent by email and whatnot to the board just wanting permission to um send the information to the board so they can review it teddy is that something that's being allowed yeah so what we'll do is we'll provide everything that was discussed in a part of the committee work and if there is anything additional as members of the community um you you have access to submit those as well to the board and speak um at board meetings or
093submit those by email what we'll do is we'll take everything that was the work of this group and make sure it's also represented there thank you okay i'd like to make a motion to adjourn the meeting do you have a second and vote please we have the do we have the votes to for the motion to pass okay great meetings jason can you take us off youtube thank you everyone