Elections matter. Even in the tiny Sunol Glen School District with a single K-8 school that enrolls fewer than 300 students.
District parents learned that hard lesson Tuesday night as chaos broke out at a school board meeting. Eventually, the audience of about 100 people was thrown out of the meeting before the three-person school board passed a resolution by a 2-1 vote that prevents the district from flying the Pride flag.
Beyond the harmful, devastating message it sends to LGBTQ members and supporters throughout the community, it raises important issues about the values of the board members and the district — issues that are increasingly being raised in school districts in California and throughout the nation. Another election year is rapidly approaching. The Sunol debate points to the need for voters to make every effort to become as knowledgeable as possible about candidates before casting their votes in 2024.
The Pride flag was reportedly attached to a chain-link fence at the Sunol school in June 2021 and June 2022 to celebrate Pride month. But last June, the flag was ripped from the fence around the school. To protect it, school officials hung the flag on the school’s flagpole along with the California state flag and American flag. Soon after, the school board introduced a resolution that would only allow the school to display “flags required by law” — namely the California and American flags.
Following heated debate that featured shouts and insults from the audience, the three-person board cleared the school cafeteria before voting on the measure. Board President Ryan Jergensen and board member Linda Hurley were in support. Board member Ted Romo opposed the resolution.
Jergensen argued that the flag resolution was misunderstood and that it would merely treat everyone the same by not prioritizing any group’s flag over another. That’s a weak argument, as anyone watching the culture-war effort to wrongly limit or take away gay rights knows. The board should also be concerned about what parents said was the chilling effect the resolution would have on enrollment. Nearly 200 of Sunol Glen’s 275 students come from out of the district by choice.
Serving as a school board member is a much more challenging job than most people realize. Aside from ensuring the financial stability of a district, board members are responsible for hiring and supporting the superintendent and setting district policies. Those policies should reflect the values, beliefs and priorities of the communities they serve, including the LGBTQ community.
Sunol board member Hurley’s seat will be contested in 2024, along with dozens of seats throughout the Bay Area. It will be up to voters to decide whose values, beliefs and priorities govern their communities’ schools.
