Published April 18, 2022
Demand Change and Accountability at the 04/20 Board Meeting
by
CFER
Dear San Dieguito parents, community members and concerned citizens,
The San Dieguito Union High School District (SDUHSD) Board of Trustees will discuss "Tolerance and Understanding" (Agenda Item #8b) and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI, Agenda Item #8c) at its upcoming Wednesday (04/20) regular board meeting. Please attend this board meeting and give public comments to demand change and accountability (Agenda Item #8).
The Californians for Equal Rights Foundation (CFER) has monitored the situation closely and promoted two action alerts (#1, #2) last week, encouraging the public to engage the SDUHSD board for discussions and resolutions. To our disappointment, the SDUHSD Board of Trustees has not accepted our request for a special board meeting. The problems of politically charged narratives and stereotyping exposed by the incident are systemic and require thorough deliberations. The isolated incident only highlights the need to re-examine all school district policies and initiatives that attack fundamental American and liberal values of merit, equality and liberty.
This new agenda item was added in response to rising community demands to address SDUHSD Superintendent Dr. Cheryl James-Ward's recent comments on student performance and race/ethnicity during the district's 04/11 DEI training session. Sadly, Dr. Ward's responses (#1, #2) have completely mis-characterized the issues at hand and promoted further divisive race-based policymaking.
Specifically, the community should be alarmed by Dr. Ward's proposed resolutions that would only make matters worse, doubling down on more DEI staff training, story-telling exercises and contentious ethnic studies teaching. All these are nothing but tribalistic non-solutions that mis-diagnose the root problem and perpetuate SDUHSD's engagement with illiberal and un-American political ideologies. The bottom line is this: Public narratives and policies that divide people by race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin are fundamentally wrong. Without tackling the real issues of political indoctrination and ideological hijacking, neither the school district nor the community can meaningfully move forward.
In this urgent spirit, we need you to attend the Wednesday 04/20 board meeting and demand a special board meeting be held to openly review SDUHSD's "Equity & Access" policy and competencies of Superintendent Dr. Cheryl James-Ward. The board meeting will be held at 6pm on 04/20 at 710 Encinitas Blvd, Encinitas, CA 92024.
Thank you in advance for supporting this much-needed initiative!
Contact:
Wenyuan Wu
wenyuan.wu@cferfoundation.org
About Californians for Equal Rights Foundation (CFER):
We are a non-partisan and non-profit organization established following the defeat of Proposition 16 in 2020, with a mission to defend and raise public awareness on the cause of equal rights through public education, civic engagement and community outreach. In 1996, California became the first U.S. state to amend its constitution by passing Proposition 209 to ban racial discrimination and preferences. Prop. 209 requires that “the state shall not discriminate against, or grant preferential treatment to, any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in the operation of public employment, public education, or public contracting.” CFER is dedicated to educating the public on this important constitutional principle of equal treatment.