California parent pushes to reopen classrooms
Oakley, California residents Claudine Zambrana and Thomas Will react to the city’s school board members stepping down from their position after being caught mocking parents who want schools to reopen in a meeting.
California parents reacted Saturday to Oakley school board members resigning after being caught mocking parentsand otherswho have been pushing to have classrooms reopened.
“One of my biggest concerns is, we see this being dragged out longer and longer to [the point] where I have the concern of — by the time my kids are ready to go in next year — is school going to be back to normal?” Oakley resident Thomas Will told “Fox & Friends.”
Will was accompanied by Claudine Zambrana, another concerned parent in the city.
Will said the prolonging of school closures because of the coronavirus is a “fear a lot of parents have.” He also accused the school board of not “listening” to the parents.
“I think we all need to take this step back and realize how shocking it is that there’s been no real progress forward to get back to in-person learning because we see it around,” he said. “Private schools have been back. My daughter goes to a private preschool. She’s been in in-person learning.”
ENTIRE CALIFORNIA SCHOOL BOARD RESIGNS AFTER CAUGHT MOCKING PARENTS OVER SCHOOL REOPENINGS
The president and three other members of the Northern California school board resigned Friday after reports that they made mocking comments about parents during a public video meeting about reopening schools.
The resignation of President Lisa Brizendine of the Oakley Union Elementary School District was confirmed to Fox News by Schools Superintendent Greg Hetrick.
The other members — Kim Beede, Erica Ippolito and Richie Masadas — who constitute the rest of the board, resigned later Friday, FOX 2 of the Bay Area reported.
Hetrick had issued an apology Thursday for what he described as board members’ “truly inappropriate comments,” which were made during a virtual meeting Wednesday. A group published a video of the meeting that showed board members complaining about parents wanting teachers to return to classrooms.
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Highlighting that he has seen children undergo “virtual schooling” and “virtual recess with an adult overseeing the activity,” Will said that public schools should have found a way to make school work during the coronavirus pandemic.
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“Why isn’t a public school going back? I think that video shows why. Not because we can’t, but, because we have a school board that doesn’t have the interest of kids at their heart and they don’t want the feedback from parents,” Will said.
Will went on to say, “And we’re not going back to school because we can’t we’re going back to school because no one really wants to make the effort because we’ve seen it elsewhere.”
Fox News’ Brie Stimson, Audrey Conklin contributed to this report.
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