School Board Meeting Debrief

I didn’t get to speak at the Cy-Fair ISD* school board meeting last night. That’s OK. It’s still an experience worth a debrief. (My sample speech was my last post.)

 

GATHERING FORCES

There was a crowd of us there by the time I arrived around 5:00, an hour before the meeting started. The citizen group who had notified people to come had a petition for people to sign if they couldn’t stay but wanted to offer support for our anti-CRT position. And we had a group prayer shortly after 5:15.

At 5:30 officials provided signups for public comment and citizen participation. Public comment is limited to items on the agenda, which was related mainly to showing honors earned by students, installing a new elementary school principal, and handling the budget. So we were signing up to speak during the citizen participation portion.

Only ten two-minute testimonies were allowed. When more than ten want to speak, they do a lottery. They do not tell you ahead of time who gets to speak. If they say your name, you go to the microphone.

It was not the dramatic event you’re seeing in Loudoun County, Virginia. But it also wasn’t the blasé meeting our board is used to. Since word got out about our plan to speak out against Critical Race Theory, there was quite a crowd joining us. Also, when you get the word out, the opposition hears about it. It was hard for me to tell how many of those there were against us, but there were people outside the building calling us racists. When we all settled inside for the meeting, nearly all audience chairs were filled.

 

PUBLIC COMMENTS

the first public comment speaker, Ms. Endomeo (?)
screenshot from here**

There was one anti-CRT speaker, A. C. (or something that sounded like possibly Aishane) Endomeo (I have no idea if I’m spelling her name right) during the public comment section, and that is when the room got a little unruly. This was a woman who addressed the board last month, which meant her comments were in the minutes and therefore an agenda item. She was interrupted by General Counsel Marney Collins Sims, who was asking whether this testimony should be moved to Citizen Participation. People yelled out, “Let her speak!” The woman explained why she should be allowed to speak now, and then was able to go ahead.

She had two issues. One was a video related to skin color that had been shown at her children’s school; she had gone through many sources to find out who recommended this video, and got told either Superintendent Henry or silence. She also talked about a discipline her child went through—because he didn’t physically distance himself from a disrupting child. She thought this was an odd thing to call a parent on, which means it was considered serious enough to go in her child’s permanent record. She asked if this was part of social/emotional learning—which is a CRT approach to socializing children. She was told it was just a teachable moment. Then why make such a big deal about it?

I think she’s giving evidence of harm to children by the infiltration of CRT. The board did not respond to her at that time.

 

BOARD COMMENTS

Before Citizen Participation was a segment where board members could speak on anything they chose without it having to be on the agenda. Several of them used this time to try to quell the furor over CRT in our schools.

CFISD board member Don Ryan
screenshot from here

First of these was Don Ryan, who said CRT should not be a concern. We’ve been misinformed. I’ve transcribed part of his comments, so you can see the Board’s position, which he wanted on record:

Let me start by saying that we teach the required curriculum from the state, and this does not include Critical Race Theory, and it never has.

Since this contradicted the testimony of Ms. Endomeo, it caused an outburst, followed by threats to remove her, and threats to clear the room, and calls for respect, since they had been respectful to us, etc.—failing to note that they had previously interrupted her speech and are at this point calling her a liar in front of all of us. So, yes, it took a bit of doing to settle down for the rest of his comments. I’m uncomfortable with the calling out and yelling in public gatherings, but I can see why people reacted. Mr. Ryan continues:

The state requires teaching social studies and history, and that is obviously going to include learning about historic examples of racism and the impact. But our teachers know how to teach this. And in fact we have a board policy that addresses how to cover this and other topics objectively. There’s been some confusion and misinformation out there about this issue.

Bridgeland [high school]’s No Place for Hate committee, which is led by students, recommended several different activities, including a video for other students to watch on implicit bias. The campus wanted parents to see the suggested video first and sent it out to the parents to watch and provide feedback. After hearing concern from parents, the principal did not include the video in the No Place for Hate activities, so the video was never shown to students.

And I think there’s confusion about No Place for Hate as well. This has been a popular program in schools for years, especially the past ten years or so as part of our anti-bullying education at many of our campuses. The committees are led by students and promote a positive school climate. It is not a program about Critical Race Theory.

Critical Race Theory, as far as I know, is something taught at some colleges. But it has never, ever been a part of the school district curriculum. In the school district, ever since I started on the Board in 2000, we’ve talked about educational equity as part of the requirements of No Child Left Behind. As part of No Child Left Behind, and now, whatever the law is called now, as a Board we are required to look at our test scores and other achievement data that is broken down by race and create plans to close any achievement gaps between groups.

This is part of what the Board is asking administration to do as part of the equity audit, to help create plans to address the gaps. Our anti-bullying programs and the educational equity plans are things we have responsibility to create—and are not Critical Race Theory programs.

And I just want to take a minute and clear up that confusion. If any parent or patron has a question or concern about our curriculum, I want to encourage you to contact our administration. And if you can take one thing away from my comments, I hope it would be that we are not teaching Critical Race Theory. It is on the record. I’ve made the statement. So now you’ve got me.

I’m afraid he didn’t allay any fears. Let’s look a little closer. The prior testimony had asked who provided that video as an option for the students; she couldn’t get an answer, unless we assume the Superintendent personally recommended it to them. No one wants to say, because they’d be the target of blame—because clearly that video was CRT, and the parents were against it. We hear later testimony about an offensive video shown in a third-grade class; Ryan’s statement asserts that this cannot have happened, regardless of what parents are testifying.

I personally have problems with the educational equity effort he mentions. Remember, equity, as opposed to equality, is about equal outcome, not equal opportunity to achieve potential. Equal outcome is a Critical Race Theory concept. You might have heard it called social justice rather than CRT.

The failure of this district to provide for the special needs of my three gifted children (all tested into GT in this district, as well as the district we’d moved from) led us to our decade of homeschooling. Mr. Ryan says they want to close achievement gaps between groups; improving opportunities for gifted students would interfere with that goal, so they ignore high-performing students and concentrate on low-performing students. Equity—not equality. I’d also note that students perform individually, not as groups. So, when he’s talking about groups, he’s talking about race. That means they will especially provide opportunities for black and Hispanic low-performing students while especially ignoring white and possibly Asian high-performing students.

So that equity audit they’re doing? Don’t worry. It’s not called a Critical Race Theory program; it’s just educational equity to get rid of those pesky performance gaps between racial groups.

I’m sure he thought he cleared things up. I’m sure he doesn’t know he verified our fears.

Board Member Gilbert Sarabia was brief but echoed agreement with Mr. Ryan. And we got plenty of scolding and being put in our place by President Bob Covey when he took his turn later. But next we heard a rather long lecture from Board Member Dr. John Ogletree. He went through some statistics about racial percentages of students. He told us that, of the more than 9,000 graduates from the district this year, “not a one has been taught Critical Race Theory.”

CFISD Board Member John Ogletree
screenshot from here

The equity audit, he says, is just to unify, to meet the needs of all children regardless of race. And he says that’s quantifiable. And this board is not political. That got a gasp and a laugh from the audience, because this board member, beyond all, is profoundly political. If there’s ever an issue where parents and taxpayers disagree with a direction the schools are taking, Dr. Ogletree will be on the side of teacher’s unions, against the parents and students. And he gets teacher union support for that. And, while school board trustee is a nonpartisan position, there is no doubt how Dr. Ogletree votes.

Then he lectured this room full of people who carry a pocket Constitution around with us by quoting from the Declaration of Independence and the Preamble to the Constitution, as if we were ignorant of those documents. He emphasized particular phrases: “establish justice” and “blessings of liberty.” The way he said them told me he doesn’t mean the same thing our founders meant. He means social justice—equal outcome—and government “blessing” us with those equal outcomes.

He accused us of coming for political reasons, while they on the board are here for education. Yes, that got an uproar. But I’m surprised it didn’t cause a greater uproar than it did; it was disrespectful, and intended to stab. His lack of self-awareness is staggering.

He followed up by quoting Mark 12:31 (he’s a pastor) on caring for your fellowman, further insulting us by implying that’s not what we are doing when we come to a meeting to express concern about our schools.

One of my biggest frustrations with this district is the inability to remove this man from our school board. He has been there since 2004. He’s up for reelection this November, along with Don Ryan and Board President Bob Covey. These three pioneered running as a slate supported by PAC money, a first in this district. It’s an unpaid nonpartisan position; so why does some PAC put so much money into them, unless it’s about power and control?

 

CITIZEN PARTICIPATION

Of the ten speakers during Citizen Participation, seven were testifying against Critical Race Theory. Three were saying it doesn’t exist in our schools—followed by statements about how racist we are. Not a way to persuade. One of them said he’d looked up the data, and it showed black and Hispanics in this district earn $.65 for every dollar earned by whites—and the only possible reason is systemic racism. He failed to notice all other possible reasons and factors, the most prevalent being lack of father in the home.

I was generally pleased with our speakers. The first, a man named Richard Feiden (no guarantees I’ve heard and spelled names accurately), said,

Richard Feiden speaks at CFISD
board meeting; screenshot from here

Though we’re often told that CRT is not being taught in schools, maybe, maybe not, but we want to be sure that it is not added to the curriculum in Cy-Fair School District. Obama said, “You can put lipstick on a pig, but it still is a pig.” CRT has been around for a while, and it’s covered in lipstick.

There was a 15-year-old girl, Danielle Browning, who gave a very powerful testimony. It was destroyed immediately afterward by Board Counsel Sims, who made sure the audience knew Browning was a student in Tomball ISD, just to the north, not Cy-Fair. Browning responded from her seat that her family does pay taxes in Cy-Fair ISD, and she has many friends in Cy-Fair with the same experiences she has had. Someone in the audience yelled out, “Don’t cross-examine her,” but damage was done.

15-year-old student Danielle Browning speaks at CFISD board meeting
screenshot from here

I’d nevertheless like to repeat a good chunk of her testimony, because my concerns are not limited to this one school district. And I suspect she’s right, that similar things are happening here and elsewhere:

End of October last year I was sitting in my freshman English class, and we were about to receive the selection of books we got to choose from for our end-of-semester reading project. I was expecting the classics, such as To Kill a Mockingbird or The Great Gatsby. However, to my surprise, the only books we had to choose from focused on Black Lives Matter and police brutality stories.

Of course, having been fully educated on the current events preceding the election, I immediately knew what this was all about. I was overcome with rage as I flipped through one of the novels about a black girl whose best friend was killed by a white cop—a story that seems to be copied and pasted on the news every week. What I noticed was that the author emphasized the fact that the cop was white, but failed to highlight the part of the story where the boy resisted arrest.

It soon became crystal clear to me what the intentions behind this reading assignment were, as I saw every student in my class marvel at the girl’s bravery for yelling, “F*** the police!” at a protest.

Critical Race Theory in schools is a mission designed to brainwash vulnerable children into adopting the Marxist or CRT ideology that all whites are racist and all other races are oppressed…. It is being put into action by infiltrating the developing minds of our precious youth. I have experienced this myself, and refuse to succumb to these diabolical ideas. I am 15 years old, and I am ridiculed at school every day for my political beliefs and skin color. This is the 1960s all over again, but flipped inside out. History repeats itself, and it’s our job to save this country we call our home. It starts here with the next generation.

Tom Nobis speaks at CFISD board meeting
screenshot from here

My friend Tom Nobis, our SREC Chairman, who was sitting next to me, got called on to speak. He started out bluntly, stating, “There is Critical Race Theory, even though people say there’s not. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be having all these people here to talk about it.”

He talked about MLK’s vision, based on character instead of color, and about the purpose of education, which is to “get knowledge useful for future endeavors”; and the role of parents in teaching their children how to live, which “is not a function of the school.”

I appreciated that he added a point for school choice:

If education is for children, then you should support school choice and the opportunity for those economically disadvantaged to better the education for their children. You should have supported Senate Bill 1968 by our State Senator Bettencourt.

The minutes from the May meeting show a fair amount of antipathy for our effective state senator, by the way.

Judy DeHaan, one of the community leaders bringing the CRT issue to our attention, got to speak. She asked a good question about the district’s Resolution Condemning Racism, which is at issue, and then adds more good info, so I’m including much her testimony:

Judy DeHaan speaks at CFISD board meeting
screenshot from here

It [the resolution] also states you want to eliminate systemic oppression and racism. What are your examples inside Cy-Fair ISD?

One of your staff indicated in Monday’s meeting that social and emotional learning was to be imbedded through a new program. Please note: this is known as CRT and social justice learning, whether you want to believe that or not. Is this the result of the equity audit?

Treating white children differently today to make up for past discrimination is still discrimination—and racist. That is the framework for CRT, looking at everything through the prism of race and identity, regardless of someone’s character or abilities.

Ladies and gentlemen, I don’t know your story, and you don’t know mine. What I can tell you is these constructs have caused hurt and despair in my own family, when seeing my loved ones’ pain over these racial issues. I have sat across from parents who are intimidated to speak for themselves tonight, telling me about this Brain Pop BLM protest video that was shown to a Cy-Fair ISD third-grade class, that guilts white children for structural racism. And others tell me their concerns about these activities associated with, yes, the Anti-Defamation League No Place for Hate program. And you were putting this back off on the children for making those decisions, when you’re giving the activities to choose from….

All we’re asking, in summary, is a public policy be implemented to prohibit CRT and the tenets thereof in Cy-Fair ISD.

Michael Godsy speaks at CFISD 
board meeting; screenshot from here

The final speaker, Michael Godsy, was a father of four sons in CFISD schools. His wife is black; his sons are mixed race. They attend a school that is, he estimates, 90% white (unlike my neighborhood which is pretty nearly majority minority). He sees no racism there. He asks his kids, are they experiencing racist comments or behaviors, getting left out, hearing slurs? No. Always they say no. He ended with this, and got cheers:

I’ve come to the conclusion that all of this stuff is being taught to us through the media. We’re not racist towards one another; we’re being taught to hate each other through liberal propaganda that we see on TV. And if everyone would just stop for a minute and look at one another, and appreciate each other for who we are, instead of what other people tell us that we are, we could do a lot better.

 

SUMMARY

The school board says there’s no Critical Race Theory in our schools—just educational justice, social/emotional learning, and whatever else an equity audit tells them they should implement to get rid of performance gaps between racial groups. So, no CRT by that name, but plenty of CRT that they refuse to recognize as such.

But parents and students are experiencing CRT education in our schools.

So, what to do? The next step is to report every single instance we can find—to each member of this board, with a warning that, if they don’t deal with it, they’ll be facing a lawsuit that forces them to. And we could use a good lawyer for those lawsuits.

And, once again I say, yet another reason to homeschool. This school board isn’t going to do anything but ignore us, because they think we’re just ill-informed “political” complainers who are coming out to annoy them.

We don’t have the money, power, and people to run against them and replace them. Yet. 

Whatever we can do, we should probably keep doing. But, as I recognized when I pulled my kids out, nothing I did as a volunteer could make changes that would come soon enough to get my kids what I needed, let alone other kids like them. But by pulling them out, I’d at least take care of their education, which was my first priority.

If enough families escaped, they’d have to take notice and change. But don’t wait for the others to join you; save your own kids.

____________________

* The name comes from the Cypress-Fairbanks area; ISD stands for independent school district.

** I've taken screenshots from the "Formal Board Meeting 6/24/21" YouTube video, but video is also available on the CFISD website.