Keep on keeping on!

Hey all- 

So, here’s the latest. On Thursday afternoon I emailed Matt Hill and Board of Education members Armond Aghakhanian, Steve Frintner, Steve Ferguson, Charlene Tabet and Roberta Reynolds to urge them, again, to consider adding a third option to the Reopening Commitment form which is due today.

I also shared with them a PDF of the signatures and comments collected to date and made sure to mention the groundswell of support our petition had received from Burbank parents and teachers alike in less than a week. At the time of my email the petition had garnered 550-plus signatures and been shared more than 220 times on social media and beyond. 

Unfortunately, Dr. Hill responded with a canned form letter (practically identical to one he sent to many other parents this week) which made no promises and also made no mention of the petition at all. The only encouraging take-away from Dr. Hill’s reply was his statement that BUSD “will definitely consider whether or not we stay in the current model before deciding to switch to a new model.” 

That is not enough for me and it shouldn’t be for you either. I encourage you to keep emailing and calling Dr. Hill, the board and anyone else you know at BUSD (or even the media at this point) until BUSD responds appropriately to our concerns.

Overnight, the number of signatures has risen to 625, which is amazing! Thanks to your shares and grassroots word of mouth outreach we are definitely connecting with new supporters every day. So, please keep at it! The more signatures and comments we can collect the stronger and louder the message we send to BUSD will be.

Regarding the Reopening Commitment form, I heard from a parent yesterday that refusal to chose either one of the options offered will result in BUSD automatically putting your student in the hybrid model category. This too is outrageous!

And while I don’t want to advise you on how to complete the form, I do think that if enough parents select the individual learning option as a placeholder until we can get our demands heard, we would at least have a shot at shooting down the hybrid approach favored by BUSD. This is even more important if BUSD is indeed planning to automatically place students of parents who refuse to chose an option into the hybrid model.

In the meantime, I encourage you to continue to share our position with anyone who will listen, even AFTER the Reopening Commitment deadline passes today. There is power in numbers and I am confident that if we work together on this we can make our voices heard and do what is right and safe for our kids and teachers moving forward. 

Thanks again for your support! 
Tomás