California father presses to reopen classrooms
Oakley, Calif., Claudine Zambrana and Thomas Will residents react to city council members resigning after being caught mocking parents who want schools to reopen at a meeting.
California parents reacted on Saturday to the resignation of Oakley’s school board after mocking people who are pushing to reopen classrooms after a long closure during the coronavirus pandemic.
“One of my biggest concerns is to see this dragging further and further into where I have the concern that when my kids are ready to go next year, school will be back to normal?” Oakley, Calif. resident Thomas Will told Fox & Friends, alongside Claudine Zambrana, another concerned mother in the city.
Will said prolonging the school’s closure is a “fear that many parents have”. He also said that the school board has not “listened” to parents’ needs.
“I think we all need to take a step back and realize how shocking it is that there has been no real progress to go back to face-to-face learning, because we see that out there. Private schools are back. My daughter is going to a private preschool school . She is in personal learning. “
FULL RESULTS FROM THE CALIFORNIA SCHOOL COUNCIL AFTER CHANGING PARENTS IN THE SCHOOL’S OPENINGS
The president and three other Northern California school board members resigned on Friday after reports that they made mocking comments about their parents during a public video meeting about the reopening of schools.
The resignation of President Lisa Brizendine of the Oakley Union Elementary School District was confirmed to Fox News by School Superintendent Greg Hetrick.
The other members – Kim Beede, Erica Ippolito and Richie Masadas – who make up the rest of the board, resigned on Friday, Bay Area FOX 2 reported.
Hetrick filed an apology on Thursday for what he described as “really inappropriate comments” from board members, which were made during a virtual meeting on Wednesday. One group posted a video of the meeting showing board members complaining about parents who wanted teachers to return to classrooms.
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Noting that he has seen children go through “virtual schooling” and “virtual playground with an adult supervising the activity,” Will said public schools should have found a way to make the school work during the coronavirus pandemic.
“Why isn’t a public school coming back? I think this video shows why. Not because we can’t, but because we have a school board that doesn’t have children’s interests at heart and they don’t want parental feedback,” he said. Will.
Will continued, “And we are not going back to school because we can’t, we are going back because nobody really wants to make the effort because we saw it elsewhere.”
Brie Stimson and Audrey Conklin of Fox News contributed to this report.