EDUCATION Parents erupt at school board meeting
Mb board meeting
Fred Taylor, a leader of the WeTheParentsMB group, speaks to the MBUSD school board.
by Mark McDermott
The Manhattan Beach Unified School District Board of Education’s November 30 meeting was forced into an early recess after a group of parents shouted down another parent who was speaking in defense of the school district’s vaccine policies and attempts at racial and gender inclusion.
The conflict centered around a cease and desist letter that attorneys representing MBUSD sent to at least three parents connected to the anonymous WetheParentsMB newsletter group. The group has accused MBUSD of teaching Critical Race Theory, and in October issued a newsletter that took particular aim at board president Jen Fenton, accusing her of abandoning the district’s goal for academic excellence and intending to hire “race and gender police” to do classroom walkthroughs, among other unsubstantiated claims.
The November 30 meeting was only the third in-person board meeting that has taken place since the pandemic arrived 21 months ago. It was evident early in the proceedings, when Superintendent John Bowes was booed by audience members, that this would be an unusually confrontational meeting. Bowes was reporting the district’s vaccination rates — 95 percent for students ages 12 to 18, and 51.9 percent for those between age 5 and 11, who are newly eligible.
“So we encourage everyone to look at our district website to learn more about vaccinations,” Bowes said, his words barely rising above a low rumble of boos.
Fenton then asked audience members to adjust their masks.
“I’m going to remind everybody in the audience to please wear your mask above your nose,” she said.
What followed was 10 consecutive speakers who were largely aligned in their criticism of the district, accusing MBUSD of practicing socialism and political indoctrination. They were outraged that a cease and desist letter had been sent on behalf of the district.
Lauren Harker was one of the three parents who received the letter, which she said accused her of defamation against Fenton. She said she had never before appeared at a board meeting, and acknowledged that she was a member of WetheParentsMB, but not one of its leaders. She defended the newsletter regarding Fenton.
“If some of our assertions were inaccurately reported it would have been more constructive for her to address them and correct them without accusing parents of maliciousness,” Harker said. “It was out of bounds for Ms. Fenton to interpret our assessment of her leadership as a personal attack, to escalate the conversation to an adversarial one, and use taxpayer-funded attorneys in an attempt to defend your individual reputation and to silence opposition. These are the tactics of a bully, not a leader. Our district deserves better and we expect an apology.”
Pamela Davidson also received the letter, which she described as intimidating and disturbing.
“To begin with, it goes against our First Amendment rights to free speech,” she said. “Second, and even more shocking, is the fact that our Manhattan Beach taxpayers are funding this law firm as a bullying tactic to try to deter us from speaking publicly about the board’s decisions and indiscretions.”
Charlene Harding said she’d spent a career in the military fighting against the forces she now sees within MBUSD.
“After serving a career fighting Communism, mostly during the Cold War, and then socialism, across the board, it is so disturbing to come home and retire in a community that is actually infusing socialist tactics in our schools,” she said.
Fred Taylor also received the letter, Taylor, along with Davidson and Harker, was identified by the national website RedState.com as a leader of We the Parents MB in a three-part series that at its outset referred to the MBUSD board as “5 Woke Crackers.” Taylor also was quoted in the RedState.com article as saying he felt personally threatened by the reaction to his criticism of the district, particularly regarding emails he has received from other parents. “I’m concerned about my family, and I’m concerned about our physical welfare,” Taylor told RedState.com.
Taylor, as he stepped to the lectern, appeared to at least somewhat relish his local notoriety. “What’s he going to say?” he said, referring to himself. Taylor began his remarks by noting he has been a follower of Jesus for 30 years. He said the newsletter that provoked the cease and desist letter was simply an opinion piece and was in no way threatening.
“You guys didn’t have to do this. You went overboard,” Taylor said. “For months, our grievances have been ignored, and now you’ve attempted to intimidate us with law-threatened government force. I have no personal animosity for Jen Fenton or anyone on the board. I just want to extend grace.”
Taylor asked for an apology and challenged the board to produce a “diversity advocate” for a public debate in January. He, like most of the speakers who came to speak on this matter, received a standing ovation from the audience.
A man identifying himself as Louie Pastor (“Louie Pastor, vaccines,” he said, laughing, as he introduced himself) said that he wasn’t a conspiracy theorist but that if you follow the money the names of Anthony Fauci and Bill Gates keep coming up in regards to vaccines.
“We have medical professionals that have been warning us about these vaccines,” he said. “So I urge you to think before you start mandating because my opinion is….It’s not about science. It’s about compliance.”
(A broad scientific consensus, in fact, supports vaccination against COVID-19, including every major medical association in the United States.)
Heidi Rayden thanked the board for listening but chastised Fenton for her body language. Fenton was visibly distressed, and mostly looked down as the speakers talked. She spoke quietly when introducing each speaker.
“Ms. Fenton, you have not looked at any of the nine speakers,” Rayden said. “No one is saying anything offensive. They are speaking from the heart. And that is really awful.”
“Ms. Fenton, please leave,” Rayden said.
Former Pacific Elementary principal Christine Norvell said the board was misguided.
“Your goal should not be getting the parents to be quiet, but getting the parents to be involved in the children’s education,” she said. “We would not have become National Blue Ribbon schools if our parents weren’t involved every single day in all three levels of education.”
Liz Cabula cited biblical scripture (Matthew 22:37) and the Golden Rule (“Do unto others as you would have done unto you,”) as models for MBUSD. She suggested the district’s declining enrollment, which has dropped from 6,524 to 5,860 students since the pandemic hit, was due to MBUSD not opening classrooms earlier and to alleged changes to the curriculum (Classroom reopening was governed by the state and county, and curriculum changes have not occurred).
“It certainly concerns me that one of our own principals said, and I quote, ‘Pornography is subjective,’” she said. “Call me a square, but pornography is not subjective. That alone makes me question if MBUSD is the right fit for my children.”
The final speaker during the public comment portion of the meeting was Laura Kiely. She said she’d been watching at home and felt compelled to come and speak in defense of the board and the district.
“I’d like to be here today to support the board for recognizing that there are children that go to our schools that don’t follow your religion,” she said. “This is not a religious school district. This is a school district is tasked with teaching all kids, regardless of your sexual identity, or gender preference or identity. This is a school district that is supposed to teach kids accurate history. Don’t be afraid of it, even if it’s ugly.”
Kiely was interrupted by laughter and turned to address the audience directly. “You talk about respect and you sit there laughing at people and boo the superintendent for talking about how good our [vaccination] numbers are,” she said. “Why do you think they are good? Because the state of California — we follow the science, and we know masks work.”
The room erupted in shouts. Fenton attempted to intercede.
“In this room, we have a speaker who listened to everybody and…” she said, but her voice was drowned out by more shouts. “Who are you?” several people asked Kiely, repeatedly. Fenton called the meeting into recess for 30 minutes.
When the meeting reconvened, Kiely continued her remarks, again addressing the audience.
“You boo the superintendent. You laugh at people. You call me a profane name in front of students,” she said. “You can’t dish it out without expecting a reaction. I support the board in helping to allow all students in our school district to feel represented, to be taught critical thinking skills, to have academic rigor, and to have their voices heard.”
Responding to an email inquiry, Jay Fernow, an attorney with Fagan, Friedman, Fulfrost, the firm that represents MBUSD, provided an explanation of the cease and desist letter.
“The letter was intended to help clarify what appeared to be serious points of misunderstanding among members of WeTheParentsMB,” Fernow wrote. “Specifically, the group accused the Board President of contracting services, assigning work and setting goals for the District, when in fact, only the Board of Education has authority to direct such work. Legally, only the Board has authority, and it acts through a majority of the Board.”
“Because authority rests with the Board and not an individual, the accusations targeting the Board President indicated that there was either a misunderstanding regarding how school boards operate, or there was purposeful intention to mislead the public regarding Board and District business. The latter was concerning because that would mean there was a desire to question an individual Board Member’s integrity and unnecessarily compromise public confidence in the District’s commitment to legal and procedural compliance.”
Fenton will no longer be board president when the gavel rotates to another board member on December 15. In part, the tumult she has faced is similar to what is occurring at school boards across the nation, first when parents agitated for the reopening of classrooms, and then as a movement arose countering the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement. Many of these parent activists were not previously involved in school board proceedings but have been inspired by a sense of crisis.
In smaller school districts such as MBUSD, where school board members are parent volunteers rather than professional politicians, this newly heightened political environment often veers into the personal. More than almost any other elected position, those who join local school boards do so outside any kind of partisan political affiliation or motivation. Most come from a volunteer background and are simply driven to make the schools their children attend better. In California, school funding has been volatile ever since local control of property tax revenue was largely ceded to the state in 1978, leaving school budgets tied to larger economic vicissitudes and local leaders scrambling to fill endemic funding gaps. This is how Fenton’s involvement began.
Fenton was a PTA leader before she helped spearhead the Measure MB parcel tax campaign in 2018. Measure MB raised $3 million annually and staved off massive education cuts within MBUSD, while still keeping local residents’ tax bills lower than most surrounding communities, in which parcel taxes have been enacted to help schools. Fenton’s star rose quickly as a result of Measure MB and she was elected to the school board later the same year.
Hilary Mahon, executive director of the Manhattan Beach Education Foundation, said Fenton has had a hugely positive impact on local schools
“Board President Fenton has been extremely instrumental in the success of our public schools in Manhattan Beach,” Mahan said. “She has a long history in our community as a leader and advocate for high-quality education, reaching back to her initial service as PTA President at Robinson Elementary in 2015 through 2017.”
Mahan said that Fenton also served on the MBEF board and its grants committee, and then provided unusually savvy leadership in the Measure MB campaign.
“Ms. Fenton is a highly intelligent and thoughtful leader who carefully considers all decisions with respect to their impact on the success of our schools,” Mahan said. “She is an asset to our efforts to maintain excellence in our schools while also addressing the realities of today’s society. She is a bridge-builder, embracing the needs of MBUSD students and staff with both mind and heart.” ER