The entire board of trustees of a Northern California school district resigned after making inappropriate comments about their parents during a Zoom call that was being broadcast to the public without knowing it.
Oakley Union Elementary School District Superintendent Greg Hetrick in a letter to families in the district on Friday, announced the resignation of board members after Wednesday’s meeting, a portion of which was recorded and posted on YouTube.
The Oakley Union school district council, which serves about 5,000 students east of San Francisco, on a call from Zoom initially thought the meeting was not yet open to the public, according to ABC news.
In the call, part of which was posted on Twitter by NBC News Bay Area reporter Bigad Shabad, curator Kim Beede could be heard saying, “Are we alone?” before adding, “B —- if you’re going to call me out, I’m going to fuck you.”
1) When employees of the Oakley Union Elem. The school district thought they were meeting privately, they used profanity to insult and threaten upset parents with the prolonged closure of schools in the district.
That was when they realized that their mtg was being broadcast to the public.
“Uh, oh.” pic.twitter.com/OXbHWq9FMy
– Bigad Shaban (@BigadShaban) February 18, 2021
School council president Lisa Brizendine went on to describe the criticisms she received in letters from parents who were pushing for schools to return to face-to-face classes. The primary school district is currently allowing only distance learning amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Brizendine said in the call, “They forget that there are real people on the other side of the letters they are writing” and then added, “It’s really a shame that they want to chase us because they want their nannies back.”
Another member of the school board, Richie Masadas, said then that his brother had a medical marijuana delivery service and that his main clients were parents with school-age children.
“When you have your kids at home, don’t smoke anymore,” he added.
Beede could finally be heard saying, “Uh-oh. We have the meeting open to the public now. “
“Nuh-uh,” replied Brezendine, after which the meeting was switched to private.
At the end of the meeting, Brezendine apologized for the group’s previous comments, saying, “We were having a private conversation because we were really struggling at the time with all the comments from the board coming in because we want what’s best for the children.”
Herrick also issued a statement apologizing for the incident, calling members’ comments “truly inappropriate” and on Friday announced to the community that the board had resigned.
The letter to families in the school district included a statement by Beede, Masadas and their colleague Erica Ippolito, who wrote that they “deeply regret the comments that have been made” and that they have failed to fulfill their “responsibility to model the conduct we expect from our students and employees “and their” obligation to build trust in district leadership “.