BY ADRIANA HERNANDEZ
Daily Post Staff Writer
Parents of a school slated to close are alleging the Sequoia Union High School Board circumvented the state’s open meeting laws by discussing the school’s closure in private text messages.
A group of parents called TIDE Rising filed a Brown Act complaint against the district on Monday, alleging in documents they received as part of a response to a California Public Records Act request that Superintendent Crystal Leach directed the five elected board members to call or text her about the possible closure of the small magnet school in Menlo Park.
This direction to discuss TIDE via text or phone call is evidence that trustees deliberated without the public knowing, violating the Brown Act, according to the complaint, filed in San Mateo County Superior Court by attorney Jay Jambeck.
The district did not respond to the Post’s request for comment.
“Scripted’ moves
The parents also allege the district had started working with a consultant who put together detailed proposals on how to shut down the school five weeks before the board told Leach to reach out to parents about the school’s closure.
“Every step of the purported community engagement process, including ‘listening meetings’ and ‘feedback’ opportunities, had been scripted in ad-vance,” the complaint alleges.
The district held a series of community meetings between the board’s Nov. 12 vote to discuss closing the school and its Feb. 4 vote to close the campus at 150 Jefferson Drive and move the program of about 200 students to Woodside High School.
San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said he has not been made aware of any violations from the district.
January lawsuit
This is the second legal action the parent group has taken against the district regarding the school’s closure.
Parents alleged in a suit filed on Jan. 30 that the district is discriminating against children with disabilities by closing TIDE. U.S. District Judge Trina Thompson rejected the request to stop the closure because there was no immediate need for her to approve the request. Thompson set a new date for May as the district filed a motion to dismiss the case.
Other legal trouble
The district has previously been sued by a group called Parents Defending Education for withholding public records about the M-A Chronicle student newspaper’s copyright takedown of a video from YouTube.
The parents contend school employees were behind the student newspaper’s move.
The district continues to face a series of lawsuits related to ethnic studies and alleged antisemitism.
Chloe Gentile-Montgomery, a former ethnic studies teacher at Men-1o-Atherton High School, sued the district for alleged racial discrimination and harassment, claiming the district did not defend her when she was being harassed by students, parents and fellow district employees.
The district is also being sued by a group of parents who claim the district fostered a culture of antisemitism.
In determining the educational placement of a child with a disability a school district must ensure that the placement decision is made by a group of persons including the parents and other persons knowledgeable about the child. The IEP team must consider the meaning of the evaluation data and the placement options and consider educating the child in the least restrictive environment. (34 C.F.R. § 300.116.) Predetermination is an automatic violation of a parent’s right of participation under the IDEA. Where predetermination has occurred, “regardless of the discussions that may occur at the meeting, the school district’s actions would violate the IDEA’s procedural requirement that parents have the opportunity ‘to participate in meetings with respect to the identification, evaluation, and educational placement of the child.’” (Las Virgenes, supra, 239 Fed.Appx. at p. 344, quoting 20 U.S.C. § 1415(b)(1).)
They can try all they want but ultimately it will close down. Money has gotten way too tight and TIDE was originally supposed to be a STEM focused school, not a school that caters to kids with disabilities (I am not saying catering to disabilities is a bad thing).
Since the original purpose of TIDE was never fulfilled, there isn’t a need that TIDE give that other schools in the district can’t give.
Let those teachers find other jobs. The goods ones will land on their feet. The others ones, well good luck.