Issue link: http://educator.cta.org/i/1509126
cease-and-desist notice to the district while it was con- sidering the two new policies. After their adoption, the local filed an Unfair Practice Charge in August with the California Public Employment Relations Board, stating that the pride/flag policy could improperly restrict union speech and that CVUSD failed to collectively bargain with ACT before enacting these new policies. The board policies targeting LGBTQ+ students and community come after changes on the board following the last election. Despite ACT members' efforts to elect more mainstream, pro-public-education candidates, those with more extreme views prevailed — including the current board president Sonja Shaw, who narrowly defeated ACT's endorsed candidate in an expensive race that saw at least one $50,000 donation to Shaw from a local contractor who does business with the school district. e new board has drawn national notoriety for the new policies, and community members have packed board meetings to share emotional voices from all sides. President Goldberg, CTA Board members and presidents from other local associations attended a recent school board meeting to support ACT and oppose the outing policy. ACT President Brenda Walker has been leading efforts to have the policies rescinded. "Unfortunately, our board is creating headlines by focusing on things that don't benefit students and only divide our com- munity," Walker says. "ey need to rescind these harmful and divisive policies and join us instead in focusing on things our union is fighting for, such as better support systems for special education students and recruiting and retaining quality edu- cators for our community. Chino has already been struggling to attract teachers; the extreme views being imposed on the district and unfavorable publicity this board is garnering will only make it more difficult." Walker continues to check in with her members and says a clear majority strongly oppose the new rules. She hopes one of the multiple avenues being used to get the policies reversed ends with them being rescinded permanently. "Our members just want kids to be safe at school and to learn in supportive environments. ey don't want to be forced to go against state laws and policies in order to further the divisive culture war priorities of a majority of the board," Walker says. Attorney General Bonta said he is committed to challenging school policies that target and seek to discriminate. "Students should never fear going to school for simply being who they are," said Bonta. "Chino Valley Unified's forced outing policy threatens the safety and well-being of LGBTQ+ students vulnerable to harassment and potential abuse from peers and family members unaccepting of their gender identity. California will not stand for violations of our students' civil rights." Orange: School board embraces distraction over students OUEA members are organizing and fighting back to defend Orange Unified School District from an extremist majority on its school board. Following a contentious election in Novem- ber, a new school board majority took control on the back of a razor-thin 221-vote margin in the deciding race — and wasted no time cleaning house, firing the superintendent and assistant superintendent before taking aim at the district's sex education and gender identity curriculum. e politics of the new board majority have created an envi- ronment where a single parent complaint about a misclassified book caused the district's digital library to be shut down for weeks, disrupting learning and instruction for thousands of students. Chaos like this has caused 30 percent of district lead- ership to either retire early or resign and change school districts. Educators say there has always been a political movement in Orange to undermine public education, but never with the Orange Unified Education Association members joined a campaign to recall extremist board members and take their school district back. 28 cta.org Feature