Please send this to our board members before Friday, July 14

In order for our voices to be heard and for there to be a special board meeting BEFORE the school year starts, we need as many people as possible to send this letter to all of the board members. Please copy all of these email addresses and send the letter as is. Thank you so much for your support! ruebuschd@mhusd.org arnettt@mhusd.org borgiolig@mhusd.org gerardd@mhusd.org murillot@mhusd.org pattersonm@mhusd.org woolfr@mhusd.org betandos@mhusd.org Dear Trustees and Superintendent, As you, the trustees and superintendent of the Morgan Hill Unified School District, know, there has been a multitude of complaints revolving around the poor math department at Ann Sobrato High School and Live Oak High School. We have made our efforts clear so far, but it appears they have not been clear enough. The deficiency in the math department is an outrage and is being ignored every day by the members of the board. Students have been going to the teachers and the math department with our struggles first and no change has ever occurred in the classroom. We have taken the next steps and brought the issue to the school board directly, expecting those who are supposed to have their best interests set on the students, to fix at least one of the problems. Now much time has gone by since our first efforts with the board and time has been wasted as the beginning of the school year is approaching quickly. It is difficult merely as students to attempt to call for action from the board, but we stepped forwards and spoke out anyway, yet our cries have been ignored and forgotten. We, and another trustee of the board, asked for this to be on the agenda and this request was a formal request and you, the superintendent and board president are violating ED Code section 35145.5 and Board Policy 9332 by not complying with a formal request. We now have no other choice other than to take other avenues such as legal and the county BOE to resolve this matter. It is ridiculous and unprofessional to ignore this request that has been presented to you by several students at a previous board meeting. As you know, there are 462 respondents to the petition that was released in May. If half of these respondents were to take a day and not show up at class, this will be a financial loss to the district. You are now running in a 4 million dollar deficit, again, which is yet another poor planning decision by the superintendent and the board. If students all over the district were to participate in this boycott, you will be losing $28 per student. If a mere half of the petition respondents were to participate, the district will lose $6,468, and will have no one to blame but yourselves for the lack of action and acknowledgement. An additional financial loss is not something that I think this district needs to suffer through at the moment. We recommend that our requests and complaints me formally acknowledged with a special board meeting, so that we are not forced to take this route of action. We are again requesting to give a ten minute presentation at a special board meeting regarding the math department so that we can shed some light to the board about what the math department is really like. The solutions we are asking for are not difficult to achieve. But we will be difficult to ignore. We will be there when you fail to help us. We will be there when you fail to do fulfill your duties. We will be there when we are struggling, and asking but not receiving help from our teachers. Like we have said over and over again, waiting until August to listen to us is simply inadequate. Not only does the grading system need to be changed, but the teachers must be taught how to teach with common core as their curriculum. The way things are taught now with group work and a lack of interaction with the teachers does not succeed in teaching the material. Tutors seem to be the only people who can teach students now, and not all of us can afford them. We are requesting in writing a special board meeting before the August meeting with a 10 minute powerpoint presentation and allotted time for speakers. This is necessary for our future and illegal for the Board of Education to ignore. We will seek legal council if our demands are not met within the month of July. Signed, The students of MHUSD