Emery Loses 20% of its Teaching Staff: Dr John Rubio's Swan Song

Rubio's Swan Song: 20% Teacher Loss 
This Year

Emery Superintendent's Legacy:

Worst Teacher Retention in the Bay Area

a Net Failure for Academic Achievement 

Eight teachers are not returning to Emery in the fall according to recently released School District documents, marking a continuation of a four year trend of disruptive teacher churn that has earned the little district the dubious and ongoing distinction of having the worst teacher retention problem in the Bay Area. The teacher exodus is accredited to outgoing superintendent John Rubio who has claimed responsibility as part of a self described scorched earth program of jettisoning what he has characterized as the  “dead wood” of bad teachers.  

The eight certified teachers driven out so far this year represent 20% of the entire teaching staff at Emery, an improvement over last year’s epic 37% teacher loss but still far higher than any other district in the Bay Area. 

Critics of the Superintendent’s policies point out the fallacy of his claim he is merely firing bad teachers by noting the teachers he is now driving out (or firing) are the same ones he himself hired, a point conceded by an Emery teacher who told the Tattler recently, “He’s getting rid of the teachers he hired.”  The teacher, who wished to remain anonymous out of fear of losing his/her job, added that after four years at it (representing Mr Rubio’s entire tenure at Emery) almost every teacher left at this point is one he himself has hired.

Bold Experimenter in Teacher Purges:
Outgoing Emery Schools Superintendent
Dr John Rubio
He overturned the education status quo and delivered
maximum disruption in teacher retention as part
of a bold plan to raise student academic standards
by massive teacher churn.
The results for Emery have been failure.

 

For his part, Mr Rubio has thus far refused accountability for ill effects visited upon Emery as a result of the massive and disruptive teacher loss the District has been subjected to, effects universally recognized by educational professionals it should be noted, lashing out instead against his critics including the Tattler who has documented the teacher loss associated with his policies.

Educators commonly cite teacher retention as the single most important metric for measuring the efficacy of a school superintendent and also a school district.  Studies have shown districts with high teacher retention as being the best predictor for high academic progress regardless of student demographics.  Mr Rubio’s oft repeated assertion that the opposite is true; namely that the lower the teacher retention, the higher the academic performance, at least at Emery under his tutelage, is not indicated by the evidence; not at Emery or anywhere else in the world.  In fact, Emery’s academic standing has been markedly degraded since the implementation of Mr Rubio’s slash and burn teacher retention policies marked beginning in his first year at Emery.       

Lots of Bad Teachers at Emery?

Superintendent Rubio has often said the poor teacher retention numbers he has garnered at Emery are really a feature rather than a bug.  He states unequivocally that the academicians are wrong and he's right: low retention rates are a sign of a bold superintendent setting things right.  Besides testing people's skeptical nature with his claim, Mr Rubio's postulate assumes a strange and unquantified inability for Emery to attract quality teachers in the first place.  Implicit in his assertion is the notion that bad teachers really love Emery.  Somehow, other school districts can attract good teachers but Emery only seems to get the bad ones.  How else to explain the Superintendent’s astounding record of his firing and driving out teachers only to have to keep at it year after year with his own hires continually heading for the exits?  
In education, perhaps more than any other field, evidence-based policy has been the standard as opposed to whatever capricious policy has been coming from Mr Rubio, a man heretofore interested in keeping his employment at Emery.  As we search for a new superintendent,  Emery should try experimenting with what education academicians and sucsessful school districts around the world have for decades found to be true and leave the teacher purging experimenters for another district.

Board Meeting Date	School	Effective
4-25	ESS	6-30
4-25	ESS	6-30
4-25	AYE	6-30
4-11	ESS	6-19	Retirement
4-11	AYE	6-18	Retirement
4-11	AYE	6-30
4-11	AYE	6-30
4-11	AYE	6-30
4-11	AYE	6-30
4-11	AYE	6-30
4-11	ESS	6-30	Counselor

From EUSD Board packets:
Eight teachers quit or forced out, two retired and one councilor quit. 

Emery Schools Worst in Bay Area: Falling Behind

Emery at Bottom of Urban School Growth

Emeryville children get only 3.8 years worth of education for 5 years of schooling 

Alarming New Stanford Study: Bottom 6% Nationwide 

Emery Unified School District is revealed to be dead last among Bay Area school districts in academic growth over a five year period and in the lowest 6% of all school districts in that metric nationwide according to a new study conducted by education researchers at Stanford University.  It's another  bombshell for beleaguered little Emery Unified, still reeling from a terrible showing on the State 'school climate index' and revelations that the district's falling test scores have dramatically dropped Emery's ranking among rival districts as revealed in October.  The new study strongly hints that Emery's poor school climate can account for the plunging academic performance.

The data shows Emery starting out low and then moving lower over five years, counter to what would be expected according to a December 5th New York Times story on the Stanford study.  Emery represents a low performing outlier cohort in a story that highlights how urban school districts with high rates of poverty can overcome that seemingly debilitating existential condition and produce high rates of growth over time, commonly higher than affluent suburban districts.  Unfortunately, the Stanford data proves Emery goes the opposite direction and serves to reinforce negative stereotypes about under performing districts the Times story seeks to disprove.  However the story and data also show how a district such as Emery could turn things around, given better leadership.

Notably, Ravenswood Unified School District in East Palo Alto, the only district with lower test scores than Emery in the Bay Area shows an impressive 4.5 years growth on the five year chart and owing to the fact that testing occurs before the end of the school year, that district is shown to be growing at a good rate, right on par with expectations independent of its high enrollment of disadvantaged students.  Emery's low test scores combined with it's negative growth proves it lags far behind Ravenswood when viewed holistically and therefore it can be fairly surmised to be the worst school district in the entire Bay Area.

It has been long debated whether test scores measure school quality or poverty.  The better measure now being offered by Stanford is one that lists students’ growth rates.  This new database looks not at how students do on a single test but how much growth they achieve over time; five years.

This new measure does not look at where kids start but at where they finish.  This measure gives the advantage to schools that serve students that start out below average, as they have the most room for growth.  And that makes Emery's sharp move down from a low start even more alarming, but conversely, with a change in school climate, more hopeful.

The Times story focuses on Chicago Unified, a similar albeit larger urban school district to Emery with declining enrollment, three in four students coming from low income homes and a tight budget.  And yet Chicago and many other urban districts large and small buck conventional wisdom and their students achieve high growth over time, sometimes leaving rich white suburban districts in the dust, at least as far as growth is concerned.  The study clearly shows the possibility of "separating socioeconomics from what's actually happening in the schools" as the Times story relates.

The data from Stanford doesn't purport to prove what dynamics result in the high growth of these urban school districts however the Times story does indicate at Chicago and other high growth districts, school 'climate' is critical.  It's the culture of student connectedness to their schools that provides the space for academic growth.  As one Chicago principal put it, despite grinding poverty at home for these students and all the dysfunction that goes along with it, at school her students feel "this is where I belong".  Contrasting with Emery, where student alienation is near total; the 'school climate' California Department of Education study showing Emery ranking in the bottom 1% on student/school connectivity.  That study showed how retaining veteran teachers is critically important for helping student connectivity, and at a 37% teacher loss, Emery ranks at the worst of all school districts in the Bay Area.  Emery's worst in the Bay Area teacher retention ranking is a result of Schools Superintendent John Rubio, a three year employee at the district and his shake-the-district-to-its-core, near pogrom on educators.

Emery: at the Bottom of Bay Area Districts

Emery children shockingly only receive 3.8 years worth of education for five years of schooling. One would expect an average student to make five years of growth after five years. The data identifies 4.8 years as the median growth level, which is consistent with expectations as testing usually occurs three to four months prior to the end of the year.

From the Stanford Study
(Emeryville's median income is $74k according to the Census Bureau) 

Emery is Failing to Support & Care For Children Says California Department of Education

Study Shows Emery Fails to Engage/Support Students

Children Don't Have an Adult on Campus They Feel Cares About Them

Children Don't Feel Safe at ECCL Says DoE

A new study released by the State of California shows the schools at Emeryville's Center of Community Life failing to provide students with a safe campus and Emery Unified School District failing to support and engage students there.  The study, called the School Climate Index (SCI) and conducted for the Department of Education reveals Emery failing students in 'overall support and engagement', scoring single percentile digits against other school districts in the state.  But Emery is doing above average as far as providing a campus with low violence and low substance abuse among students the study also shows as revealed by surveys and interviews with students, parents and teachers.
Since 2011 however, the first year Emery participated in the statewide SCI survey, there has been a steady downward trend in student support and engagement.

For 2017, Emery High School emerged with a SCI score of 198 out of 500 in the domain of 'overall support & engagement' putting it in the bottom 2% of all schools statewide.  When compared with schools of a similar demographic, Emery rises but only just to the bottom 6% of schools statewide the study shows.  The two worst scoring sub-domains for Emery in the Index are 'high expectations and caring relationships' and 'school connectedness' both of which placed the school at the bottom 1% statewide or the bottom 2% when compared with schools of a similar demographic.  According to the study, it can be shown definitively that a clear majority of students at Emery don't feel there is an adult at the school that cares for them, they don't feel close to anyone at the school and they don't like being at the school.

Emery Unified isn't alone to blame for the bad numbers however; the District's partner, the City of Emeryville helped shepherd the Center of Community Life and that built facility net a SCI score of 228 for '[student]perceived school safety'.  That puts our new bond funded $200+ million campus in the bottom 8% for perceived safety among students statewide, hardly a ringing affirmation of the 'community' part of the ECCL.  Either through the campus as built or the programs run by Emery Unified School District or a combination of both, the students attending school every day on the new campus don't feel safe, a likely contributing factor in Emery's low academic achievement numbers.
Another contributing factor in Emery's low student support and engagement SCI numbers is the extremely low rate of teacher retention since Superintendent John Rubio was hired.  Supporting documents for the study indicate high teacher turnover, especially among veteran teachers alienates students and drives down student/school connectedness and engagement, both critical for effective student learning.  Accordingly, the Tattler has reported on how Emery's slide in academic achievement since Mr Rubio took over has translated into the District becoming the second worse ranked school district in the entire Bay Area.

The School Climate Index documents Emery's fall since 2011 in overall student support and engagement when the high school scored higher than average.  That year Emery ranked 77% compared with 25% this year and most of the fall has been in the student support and engagement domain.  The biggest fail has been in the category of 'caring relationships' where children feel there is an adult on the campus that cares about them; that has fallen from an above average 359 points in 2011 to just 200 now, and that translates now to the bottom 1% ranking (2% as compared with school districts of a similar demographic).

The SCI shows the District is clearly failing in its charge to educate and care for our children and the School Board will take up discussion of the disturbing trends revealed by the Index starting Wednesday but it is unlikely they will take action since the majority of members have repeatedly shown they will stand by Mr Rubio.  They have shown no propensity to be moved by the constant stream of bad numbers hitting the District and hence the children, be it teacher retention, academic performance or school ranking generated by the Superintendent since they hired him.

Emery scores for 2011 and 2014
Broken out are the categories in the two domains (overall support/engagement
and violence/substance abuse).  Together the combined score is called the SCI score.

Emery SCI scores for 2011 and 2014.

Emery scores for 2017
Broken out into categories

Emery Scores for 2017As translated into percentiles.

Dr John Rubio's Record in Vacating Teacher's Testimony

Tattler Called to Serve as Repository for School District's Archive

Letter to the Tattler: Malcolm Waugh

The following letter to the Tattler was received from Emery Unified School District teacher Malcolm Waugh.  Mr Waugh, a long time kindergarten teacher at Anna Yates Elementary School, expressed concern that his fellow EUSD teacher's heart rending and condemnatory testimony given at a June 15th School Board meeting would be lost; no record having been provided for it by the School Board.  At the following meeting, June 28th, the Board majority, inexplicably voted to approve official minutes of the now epic June 15th meeting penned by Superintendent Rubio himself, that removed all criticism of the Superintendent the nine teachers/educators had poignantly offered.  Of particular concern to Mr Waugh is the fact that the comments and criticism against Mr Rubio made by most of the nine teachers, served as their final outgoing statements, most of them leaving Emery to seek employment elsewhere owing to a crisis at the District, brought on they said by Mr Rubio.  The nine represent part of an ongoing mass exodus of teachers at Emery, the worst teacher retention record of any district in the Bay Area a result of a failure of leadership by Mr Rubio chronicled by the teachers on June 15th.
Malcolm Waugh is so concerned the public record will not be faithfully documented because of the School Board's revisionary minutes they approved, he is looking to the Tattler to provide a safe archive of the testimony of the nine teachers.  Mr Waugh painstakingly provided to the Tattler the following letter, the verbatim text of the teachers culled from a video provided by the Emeryville Property Owners Association.  
We are pained this teacher has abandoned the District and is looking to the Tattler as a refuge for keeping an accurate record of the testimony, but we willingly take on this role, at least until a change in the politicized culture at Emery Unified allows for a return to their traditional charge to properly account.

Mr Waugh lists each teacher/educator with a number representing their speaking turn at the meeting followed by the verbatim text from each.  The Superintendent's secretary, Lisa Taymuree is documented as she interrupted the speakers to remind them their allowed three minutes of speaking time had elapsed.  Many were permitted to continue speaking after colleagues yielded their time to the speaker.  

START

1. MEGAN McLAUGHLIN  

Hi, everybody, I'm Megan McLaughlin.  I just have a few comments.  I'm retiring, and I wanted to have a chance to talk to you tonight.  

When I was hired here in 2006 I was really excited to be part of Emery.  My colleagues Evan Pippen, Malcolm Waugh, and Audrey Miles were amazing co-teachers - smart, kind, funny - could not ask for better partners.  I remember telling my sister, a superintendent in Delaware, about the school and the curriculum.  'Wow', she said, 'you have TERC Investigations for math, Lucy Calkins for writing?  You have a literacy coach, and a math coach?  You have paid time for collaboration?  You must have a really progressive school'.  We worked as a school to improve writing across the grades, and across curriculum.  We had thoughtful, well-planned professional development that I looked forward to.  We had time in August to get to know each other and have a few laughs.  

This year, I'm one of many teachers voting with my feet.  I'm leaving Emery to retire.  I've a lot of good, positive things in my future; I have a lot of concerns for the students, for the parents, for the staff, for the teachers.  Here are a few points.  No one asked me for an exit interview, so I'm trying to fill you in here.

Teachers need a voice.  They need to feel that it is safe to speak up when there is an issue, and not receive retribution.  

When I had a challenging class last year with a high number of students with significant behavior challenges - this is the same class that is now the first-grade cohort - I asked for help.  Ms. Lang helped me to turn around the behaviors that were making the class unsafe and were making it very challenging to teach.  On the last day of school, at 3 p.m. - this was Friday, the day when I was the only teacher, I believe, at school except for Ms. Wren - I was called to a surprise meeting.  What a surprise.  What Dr. Rubio said broke my heart - he was present via phone.  He asked if I'd like to be one of the on-call substitutes for the 2016-2017 academic year.

I've seen many examples of his leadership.  He seems to lack the ability to reflect upon what he's done, to 'stay in his lane' as the superintendent and let the principal do her job.  There is a surface politeness covering a man I've come to distrust.  Not responding to issues, but instead, attacking teachers.  This is difficult for me to say, Dr. Rubio, but I'm trying to speak my truth.  

Communication can be improved on all levels --

"Sorry, your three minutes is up." (Lisa Taymuree)

O.K. (Megan)

"Could we ask that she be allowed to continue?" (Board member Barbara Inch) 

"My name is Lauren LaPlante and I'd like to defer my three minutes to Ms. McLaughlin." (Lauren)

I just need one more minute.  

For the good of all the students, for everyone in the community, I believe that we need better systems - how the students move around the school safely.  We need routines in place.  We need better supervision of the children while they're at play.  We need a few items of safety, such as the planters, which I believe are a lawsuit waiting to happen - those planters right outside.  I believe that the behavior issues that present themselves today are such - they're so challenging, even to a veteran teacher such as I - that when I spoke to parents today, were my kindergarten students, they expressed to me that they were willing to stick it out for one more year, but if things didn't change they were going pull their children out of Emery because they were afraid for their safety in the classroom.  Besides the point, they were afraid that their children were not getting anywhere near the education they expected because of the discipline issues.

I believe the best days are ahead for Emery.  I believe this community is amazing.  I've never met a staff that is so resilient and works so well together in the face of adversity, and I believe that Emery deserves leadership that reflects the efforts of the teachers.

Thank you very much.

"Any additional public comment?" (Board President Donn Merriam)

***

 2. ANTHONY RODGERS

My name is Anthony Rodgers.  I've been a middle school teacher here for 11 years.  I mentioned to the staff yesterday that I never thought that I would leave here so early in my career.  I took those three guiding principles that we had years ago to heart, about ending classist and racist practices and creating a sense of family and using innovative practices in our classroom.  And this is my family. [Now I ask and plea] to the board is, make sure there's more horizontal and vertical communication and articulation in the district.  We are administrative-heavy in this district with two schools.  Anjali Kamat and myself, we have 22 years of your institutional memory for your middle school.  We're the dinosaurs of the middle school here.  We were the instructional coaches of the middle school this past year.  We both finished our administrative credentials, and yet there is someone else from the outside coming in with not as much experience as us to run our middle school.  And so, if - and this isn't personal to anyone, this is about business and this is about our students - so if we're in a position to end these racist and sexist principles and classist principles, we need to do it now.  I'm asking the board to please work as a united front, no matter what our differences are, let's come here and do the work for our students.  That's what we do every day when we pound the pavement in the school as teachers.  But I'm actually leaving - I'm leaving.  And with myself, Ms. McLaughlin, Ms. Coombs, Ms. Brunick and Ms. Kamat, and even Ms. Lang, you have about a hundred years of your service leaving your community.  A hundred years of service.  And I don't care what you and who you bring in, that's not bringing in that same institutional memory of families.  Our reputations with families, it precedes us.  Families want to come to us because we taught their families.  I just think that's something to really think about.  We really have to think about that, but again, we're administrative-heavy, and I would say with some of the new administrators coming in, they're not culturally sensitive.  They come in with a hierarchical approach to life and treat everyone as if we're roaches and dogs.  And that's not the way to treat anyone, even if you have a title, wherever you bought it from, even if you have that title, it's not acceptable.  In addition to that, when I - I had to reapply for my position on Ed-Join, had to submit my resume for the same position that I was teaching.  So I really want to ask you all, please look at the practices of how teachers are moved around here, because if it isn't equal, then that's discriminatory.  I had to reapply for my position in the classroom that I was in.  And that's not personal - that was personal to me.  I'm not a person who's vindictive in that way.  I kept moving, I kept pounding the pavement, but if we have other teachers that are moved in this district, please look at skin color, please look at gender, and please look at how people are being moved around in this school.  Thank you.

[Marcelline Krafchick speaks]

***

3. LESLIE THORNLEY

Good evening.  My name is Leslie Thornley.  I'm one of the teachers planning on returning in the Fall, and I have some concerns and worries, and feel like my esteemed colleagues that have been here for many years can address better than I, and it feels a little safer to have other people speak for me.  So on behalf of that I'd like to donate the rest of my time to Holly Coombs.

***

4. HOLLY COOMBS  

Hello, Board.  I'm Holly Coombs, and I have been teaching at Anna Yates for 15 years, and I'm going next year to teach in San Francisco.  Anyone who asks me I say I'm going to teach to be closer to my house, I have two little kids, the commute is killing me.  But people who push a little farther, they find out a little more about why I feel it's right for me to leave.  So, I'm here to just tell you why I, all the reasons why I'm leaving.  So, first of all, I came to work at Anna Yates because I really wanted to work with some colleagues - Gabrielle Thurmond and Anakarita Allen.  I really respected them and the equity work that we were doing here, and I felt like I was really part of something very special, something very important.  Our work with BAYCES and the connections that we were building through our retreats, and I felt like I was learning how to be a culturally relevant teacher, which is really important being a white educator with mostly kids of color.  It was really important for me to tackle my own racism, and this school district was teaching me how to do that, and I felt like we were really creating something here.  What I've noticed over the last 15 years is that I feel like our best years were when we were K-6, and Anakarita was our principal and we were really moving forward.  And then there was a few things that happened here that didn't really feel like they were the best for the students.  The middle school got put with K-6 and there was no real middle school program, and Anakarita got moved, and BAYCES, we didn't really work with them, and it just gave me pause because I wasn't sure that that was best for the students, and it felt like interference but it didn't really interrupt the core of this solid group of teachers.  The last few years have been so difficult, however, that I feel like I must leave.  I feel that it has become so difficult to be here and watch the institutional racism that I see around me, and that we're not really deeply doing the equity work that we need to be doing.  It's sort of on the surface.  There's a lot of dysfunctions at the school that I can't really go into here because this is a public, formal setting.  I haven't actually met any board members except for Brynnda.  She's the only one who's come up and talked to me, but had any board member come up --

"You're out of time." (Lisa Taymuree)

[time donated]

-- I would have been able to go into more detail.  So it just matters to me about where I work, and I was willing to do this commute for 15 years because I felt like I was part of something really important, and I'm not sure that the work San Francisco is doing is as focused on equity.  And so, what I've been thinking about is the implications of this.  The first is that I really feel that the town of Emeryville needs to recommit to public education - the people of Emeryville - and that the school board - I haven't worked with you, so I don't know your practices, I know you're new - but, in general, the school board needs to be culturally competent and really committed to the community.  So in the past the school board members, I had their numbers on my cell phone, they came, like [former board president] Josh [Simon] came and helped me set up my classroom - he brought me books.  They all knew my kids, you know, it was very familiar.  They either had children who went here or they went here themselves, and they were just very much part of the community.  So I just want the school board to be, to really reflect on their practices, and notice if they are actually being culturally competent themselves.  I really appreciated the board policy that I saw, but I was wondering, well, how would you do that?  How would the board and our current superintendent actually be the ones to help create this equitable environment?  I was thinking maybe you needed a how in that plan.  And I want to let the school board know that you set the tone, and so if you need to - I'm hoping that you will create some kind of reflective practice on your own work - but also on how you hear from teachers, because this, this is not really the way you're going to find out what's going on with teachers.  But it also needs to be fair.  So some sort of fair process where you really know what's going on, and if anyone interferes with that or tells you that you don't need to hear from teachers, that that person can tell you themself, then that should be a red flag for you.  And finally, I've seen a lot of superintendents at our district and I feel like it's difficult to be a superintendent of this district - it's difficult, it's small town, there's all these politics.  Please, in the future, please look carefully for a superintendent who's an experienced educator and also has all of their cultural competency in place, either because they are a proud person of color, they grew up in the community, or they just know our kids, and it will just help resolve, it'll help prevent a lot of the pain that a lot of people have felt, particularly the people of color.  I have not felt any pain, but the people of color, my colleagues, have felt a lot.  And also there's just a lot of things I see all the time, that I don't actually believe a deeply culturally competent person would allow --

"You're out of time." (Lisa Taymuree)

Thank you (Holly).

[time donated]

That's O.K.  That's O.K. (Holly)

"Another three minutes." (Donn Merriam)

I'm done.  Thanks.  (Holly)

"Thank you.  Additional public comment?" (Donn Merriam)

***

5. DIANE LANG

Hi.  Good evening to the Emery Board.  I'm Diane Lang.  I've been the principal of Anna Yates K-8 school for the past three years, and so some of the people you've been hearing from have been on my staff during that time.

I'm really happy to say that today I closed out my final year here in Emeryville.  I was on campus until our last student left for home, safely.  It's been three years.  

I wanted to come before you to talk about leadership.  And to lead means to go first.  But leadership for me is also about putting my name and myself before the community, because when there's a challenge in the school building, it's me that they want to see, it's me who they hold accountable, and so it's important to me that I express to you the difficulty that it creates when I as a leader, the face of the school, cannot with full confidence communicate things to community members, members of my staff, with the confidence that it will come to fruition without changes or without things being possibly even undermined.  It makes it hard.  It makes it difficult.  So I want to be really up front about that.  

As the principal who has been here for three years, we've done work, findings, about what works and what does not, best practices, and ultimately what works best for our kids.  It is unfortunate to ever have that work, those finding, dismissed as opinions, when my feet are on the ground every day, here with the teachers, in classrooms, in hallways, in the lunchroom, on the field.  How could my finding be just opinion?

I wanted to make sure that everyone is aware of the challenges of selective accountability.  And we talk about equity - it needs to be more than just a buzzword, but a real set of practices that we put in place.  And we are letting ourselves off the hook in terms of equity when we say things like 'Oh, I forgot to talk to you, the principal of the school, about this decision that's being made that's going to impact our students, and that parents and community members are going to hold me accountable for.  How could you forget to speak to me, or to remember that I'm the principal of the school?  How could anyone forget?  And if it happens once, we all make mistakes, and if it happens twice, I've certainly made two mistakes, three mistakes, but if it happens on a regular basis, perhaps there's something else that's the issue, in terms of remembering I'm the principal.  And when things are good, I get the credit, and when things are not so good, I get the blame.

"Your three minutes is up." (Lisa Taymuree)

[time donated]

"O.K., go ahead, please." (Donn Merriam)

We have a partnership with the city of Emeryville that has built this lovely facility here.  I want to remind everyone the importance of mutual respect, that considers the need of students first, always.  This facility is for our children, and our children need to be educated, and that is what we have been tasked with, providing them with an education.  Recreation is optional.  Their foundational skills of being life-long learners and scholars is not optional.  So I hope that everyone is fully aware and engaged in making sure that a partnership is truly a partnership that centers around the need of students.

I am not done leading schools.  I will be leaving - this is my final year.  I'm very excited that we've reached the last day of school.  I will continue my work with a very similar community.  This is the community I want to serve.  But just looking for the opportunity to be remembered and respected as a black, female principal who's been here every day doing the very best I could in spite of whatever the circumstances presented.  So again I just ask that equity be a real set of practices that lead our work, not just something that we write down or say, something we really live by and really do.  Thank you.

***

6. KEVIN BOYD

Good evening.  My name is Kevin Boyd.  I used to be a colleague - well, these are my colleagues.  I've been here in this district since 1999.  I've seen, I've seen a lot of superintendents come through here.  I've seen a lot of principals.  I've seen a lot of what was constructive for this school but also what is destructive, but also watched how many of these teachers - many of the faces that I see work their asses off, you know, to make things happen for these kids that we dealt with.  I was with the old school, and the hats we had to wear were, you know, many.  Ms. Taymuree, Ms. Collins were two women that I admire very highly as they worked with me.  A lot of people here know what I dealt with, this kids I dealt with, and how I dealt with, and was unorthodox, but I did get support, and I was always support for my friends and colleagues who worked here.  What I see the lack of here and have is just that.  There is no support.  I mean a serious lack of support for our teachers in their classrooms, for our kids, you know, and right now I sub at the high school in the office because I refuse to go into a classroom where teachers just don't seem to have it all together and that's all over the place because so many of them are just being, you know, just drowned by what's going on.  Now with that I just want to say I, like I said, I've been through quite a few superintendents.  I've never seen the lack of leadership as I've been seeing here right now, the lack of personal pride, because I could always talk to the superintendent.  I could go into that office at any time and speak to them.  I just didn't see that.  I haven't seen that in a few years here and it's very, you know, it's not cool, it's not cool at all, so I just wanted to say that because I'm here every once in a while, but I still see what I don't like seeing.  We need to see more support for our students, for our teachers, a lot more support for these students, and generally just we got to get this, get what we built here back on what it should be, back on track.

***

7. TAUHEEDAH WREN

Good evening, Board, and superintendent, and principal, fellow staff members, and friends.  Ramadan...This is a month of fasting for Muslims - I'm a Muslim - and this is a month of peace, so not to minimize anything that was said, because I agree with everything that was said from our teachers and our staff members.  The colors here are changing in this community from black, brown, yellow, to white, and that's not a good thing.  Our children are watching us.  They're looking at how we lead, not only them, but how we interact with each other.  Children know things that we don't even realize.  I know it because they come and tell me.  Ms. Wren, did you know that, you know, Ms. Lang is leaving, Mr. Rodgers is leaving.  You know, he's like a father to me.  She's one of the best principals I've ever seen.  We have parents crying to me in the hallway.  Ms. Wren, are you kidding me?  I'm having to leave my son, take my son out of this school, and the son is crying because he's leaving his friends.  She said, but I'm so afraid for their safety.  Things are changing - that is not cool, not O.K., and we have to stand up, we got to be, we are resilient staff members, we are, and we're going to make lemonade out of the lemons.  But we can't do it without you recognizing - we see, we see that you are not being equitable with our staff, with our children, with our parents, and we don't like it.  And we're going to stand up, we're going to fight, and we're going to protest in the ways that we know, and we got to ask God to help us in this fight, and we know we're going to win.  We know we're going to win, because we're here, it's about the children.  We're here for the children.  We love these children, as much as the hell as they put us through, and you know, I told one student, you know, this has been a difficult year, and he said, Ms. Wren, we've given you fifty gray hairs this year, and I said I know you've given me about a thousand gray hairs this year.  I've used the dye more often than I normally do.  But, you know, to make things more serious, our children are suffering, they're crying.  Their father is leaving - Mr. Rodgers is like their father.  And that's not to say that he's not going to be a father where he's going, and I'm real proud that he's moving on to another place.  They got, they got our gold.  They're going to enjoy him, they're going to learn from him, they're going to respect him, they're going to do their community meetings, they're going to love themselves, they're going to stand up with pride, and they're going to love each other, they're going to acknowledge each other, they're going to be on the hot seat and let each other know, we love you, and what I like about you is this, and I didn't realize it, you, you would come to me when I needed help.  These are the values that he has given not just one classroom but many, most of the classrooms.  Am I right?  We do community meetings.  So it's not about the teachers are leaving, it's about our children.

"You're out of time." (Lisa Taymuree)

Thank you. (Tauheedah)

"Thank you.  Further comment?" (Donn Merriam).

***

8. AUDREY MILES

Good afternoon.  Audrey Miles, TK teacher.  It's been a very difficult two months, but we continue on each and every day to give our kids the best that we can give every day.  We walk in and we find ways to find joy in each other every morning.  Many of you don't know my room is the coffee room, you know, and we find that opportunity to have community together, and hug each other and start our day off with a positive when often there are no positives, when you don't feel loved, when you don't feel supported.  We find ways to find opportunities for our children.  Today we took 77 TK and kindergarteners on a bus to San Jose to a farm.  We provided a community meal buffet of everything that they would want to eat - hotdogs, everything - and we paid for it ourselves.  We paid for it by fundraising, we paid for it by writing grants.  Every family that was there, there's an extended relationship with each one of those parents.  I have taught their siblings, I have taught their aunts, their cousins, their uncles, even.  I've been here for 14 years and I've never felt sadder than right now because, I heard Mr. Rodgers is leaving, it broke my heart.  And then I was walking down the hall and Ms. Kamat said 'Can I talk to you for a second?', and she came and she started talking to me and she told me that she was leaving and it broke my heart and I just stood in the hall and I just started crying, because it's just painful that - and everybody always thinks that Ms. Miles is a rock, you know, Ms. Miles has got a marshmallow heart, O.K.?  And I love each and every one of these people in here, from the high school up and I saw my class graduate yesterday, first class I taught here.  Those were my kids in K and 1.  I have his history here.  I need to be respected.  I need to have my voice heard.  It's important.  This is my community.  Not only do I work here, I live here, and I vote here.  So I want you to know that as you sit here on the board, many of your faces that I know.  That's one of my students right there.  She's graduating next year, O.K.?  I'm an important part of this community, and I'm an important part of this school and my voice needs to be heard.  And you need to respect me for the work that I do each and every day.  And I respect you, and respect is a two-way street.  You get what you give.  So if that's what you want from us, if you want that hard work to continue, you need to give us the same amount of respect, and listen, and understand who we are and not just pass us over and say, well maybe there's a new teacher who is better qualified, which is the things that we hear sometimes, O.K.?  So, hear our voice.  That's all we're asking you to do is to hear our voice.  And this right here is our future, O.K.?  The same amount of effort that I give to my TKs - this is my grandchild, O.K.?  And she can do everything that I give my kids in the classroom and more.  Thank you.

"Additional, further comment?" (Donn Merriam)

[Joshua Simon, former EUSD Board president, speaks]

***

9. LESLIE EPSTEIN

Hi, my name is Leslie Epstein.  I've been here 14 years, and I used to be so proud to work here - sorry - and I don't feel that way anymore.  And seeing so many people leave makes me - I thought about it - and the only reason I stay is because I have the most amazing group of students and families.  I stay with many of my students for years as special ed. teacher, and I always thought when, particularly years when Simon's daughter was here, Maya, all those years I thought when I have a kid my son or my daughter is going to go to this school, and I can say now I would never send my son here.  And to me that speaks volumes.

"Thank you.  Further comment?"  (Donn Merriam)

"Could we allow the people that donated their time to go ahead and speak?" (Member Barbara Inch)

"Yes, please, whoever did donate time, whatever's remaining on their allotted..." (Donn Merriam)

10. LESLIE THORNLEY

Thank you, Board.  Thank you, esteemed colleagues, I appreciate your voice today and you've inspired me.  I am coming back in the Fall.  I have every intention of returning, and on my plate I see a brand new reading series; I see a brand new math series I'm going to be piloting; I'm going to be working with a new colleague that I haven't worked with before.  There's equity and PBIS, which I think I mentioned fourth, which should have been mentioned first.  There's technology, and I'm excited and thrilled that students are going to be having computers in their classrooms.  I'm going to need a lot of training to leverage and use that program well.  I'm also going to be doing this without my family.  I'm going to be forming new relationships, and I hope time and space is given to do that, because to the work of equity requires a lot of trust, and it requires openness, and it requires safety, and that work has to be hallmark if we're going to serve the needs of our children.  I was watching a videotape that I put together for my class, you know, one of those slide-shows for open house, and I was looking at it and feeling pretty good about it myself, and then all of a sudden I paused and thought, now wait, I really need to look at this through some of the work that I've done in this district, and I looked at my slide-show again, and I had far more children in that slide-show of children with light-colored skin than dark-colored skin.  I figured that out myself.  I was appalled.  I'm feeling that it was really brave of me to even say that right here, but this is the work that needs to be done if teachers like me are going to help children of color, and this work needs to continue and it needs to be at the forefront, and I need help with the introspection.  I want the help with the introspection, because I don't think I can serve these kids well if I don't have it.  But, again, what I need for that to happen is I need a lot of trust.  I need to be in a place where I feel trust, and I'm going to need time to get to know my new colleagues, and my new administrators, and to do the work that we have to do.  It has to be here.  So, thank you for letting me speak.

"Thank you." (Donn Merriam)

Testimony finished.

EUSD- Emery School Board = Jun 15, 2017

Emeryville Property Owners Association.  Published on Jun 21, 2017.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3U7fASj-FYM

Time stamps:

Megan McLaughlin 01:12-04:53

Anthony Rodgers 06:10-09:02

Leslie Thornley[1] 14:10-14:33

Holly Coombs 14:37-20:50

Diane Lang 21:04-24:40      

Kevin Boyd 24:58-27:38

Tauheedah Wren 27:52-31:14

Audrey Miles 31:26-34:32

Leslie Epstein 40:18-41:05

Leslie Thornley[2] 41:49-44:44

Black People at Emery: Nameless and Not Heard

School Board to Black Teachers:

'We Are Not Listening to You'

Board President
Donn Merriam
'The minutes will not be
made to reflect what
the teachers said.'

News Analysis
Despite Emery teacher's charges directed towards the Superintendent of the Schools, outlining his bullying and racist practices, made at a now infamous June 15th School Board meeting, the Board gave a big thumbs up to embattled Superintendent John Rubio last week when they voted their approval of a scrubbing of the public record; erasing the teacher’s public testimonies in the official minutes.  The teacher’s testimonies condemned a top down racist culture that has risen up at Emery Unified School District and a Superintendent that ignores or subverts the concerns of African American educators at the district.  The official minutes of that meeting, written by Mr Rubio himself and now approved by the the School Board (4-1 Member Barbara Inch dissenting), play down the teacher’s concerns and expunge even any mention of the Superintendent and his central role in the existential dysfunction at the District the teachers testified against.  

The minutes approved by the Board at the follow on June 28th meeting, give ample space for two other (white) speakers at the June 15th meeting who came to praise the District, respectfully providing their names for the record but the black teachers (and their white colleagues) got short shrift, their concerns ignored, their names not even mentioned.  The Board majority approved minutes, by proving the teacher’s claims in its naked ablution, brazenly affirm and help support the racist culture at Emery Unified.  

Board Member Cruz Vargas
'The Board is fine with ignoring
black teachers.'

Some of these black teachers have worked at Emery for years and now, as they quit because of the venality of this Superintendent, the Board disrespectfully ignores their specific concerns, leaving no record of their professional accounting.  These honorable District employees were not even given time to properly say their piece; they were only given the same three minutes to address the Board given to the general public.   

Board Member Bailey Langner, an attorney, said it best among her colleagues at the June 28th meeting; the minutes cannot be used to accurately record any of what the teachers said or even to casually mention that they are dissatisfied with the job done by the Superintendent because according to Ms Langner, “Minutes are not meant to be verbatim.”  We’ll leave it to an authoritarian minded attorney to use a straw man fallacy like that.
Even African American Board member Brynnda Collins, who upon hearing the teacher's testimonies said the "time for action" is upon us June 15th, bizarrely voted with her three colleagues June 28th to approve Superintendent Rubio's minutes to take away from what the teachers had said. 

Presciently and informatively, one of Mr Rubio's first acts as Superintendent almost three years ago was to amend Emery's official Mission Statement.  References to ending racist (and classist) policies, central in the former mission statement were expunged by Mr Rubio with the Board's approval.  At the time it didn't seem ominous to most. 

Board Member
Brynnda Collins
"Now is the time for action"...
and then she voted to approve
the minutes.

There’s a silver lining that’s been revealed by the Board refusing to adjust the minutes of the June 15th meeting to reflect the truth if not to respect the teachers; the good news is the real agenda of the School Board is now irrefutable.  The easiest thing in the world to do would have been for the School Board to adjust these white washed minutes.  It’s actually required by law but here at Emery it seems what matters more is for this Board to support the Superintendent, apparently no matter what; even to lower themselves into this degraded racist culture the teachers alerted us to. Not this Superintendent’s deplorable teacher retention record, the worst in the Bay Area, not even his failure to follow the Mandated Reporter law leaving would be sexually assaulted children and their parents disbelieved at Emery can sway this Board as they go about their prime directive: protecting the Superintendent.

Board Member
Bailey Langner
'Sorry teachers, minutes cannot 
be made to reflect reality.
Not when we have our own
narrative to push.'

The Board’s vote June 28th to disregard the teachers, especially the black teachers at Emery serves now to focus all teachers, parents, and regular citizens to the importance that elected officials not act as renegades but instead to reflect a community's values (appointed Board members Langner and Collins were not elected by the people).  Emeryville is not racist and we won't countenance racist institutions paid to speak and act for us. A correction in the form of a plebiscite will likely be due Emery coming soon to a voting booth near all of us. 

Correction: Board member Collins was appointed to her Board position along with Member Langner.  The story has been changed to reflect that.  Thanks to the commenter who brought it to our attention.

Emery Schools Superintendent Dr Rubio Blasted by Outgoing Teachers

Teachers Blast Rubio,

'Bullying, Incompetent, Racist'

A roomful of vacating veteran teachers at the June 15th School Board meeting blasted Emery Unified School District’s Superintendent John Rubio for what they said was his incompetency, lack of leadership and racist practices he has instituted at Emeryville’s schools.  Among the nine speakers one of whom said by quitting she was “voting with my feet”, was the Anna Yates Elementary School Principal who is also leaving, citing that she was being “undermined” by the Superintendent.

The spectacle was summarily dismissed by Mr Rubio who tersely said of the criticism, “I’m not perfect. I’m trying my best” after the near 50 minute onslaught but before he urged the Board to move on to the business at hand.

The united teacher front, colleagues granting extra time by yielding their allotted three minutes to those speaking, is but the latest in a series of exigencies highlighting a school district in chaos led by a dysfunctional superintendent.  The portrait painted by the onslaught of distressed teachers is of an Emery superintendent that is a bully, leaving "even parents crying” as one teacher recalled, her colleague adding “I’ve never seen a lack of leadership as I’ve been seeing here.” 

The bullying recalled by the fleeing teachers has had a negative consequence for the District: the speakers excoriating Mr Rubio represent but a fraction of the 37% of teachers that have fled Emery in the last year, a hard number provided by the District itself but nonetheless refuted by the Superintendent.  The teacher retention crisis, brought on by Mr Rubio, has given Emery the dubious distinction being the worst among all school districts in the Bay Area.

Superintendent Rubio has faced a rocky road here at Emery, starting with his hiring of an abusive predator as the elementary school principal as his first act as superintendent, an act for which the District lost almost $100,000.  Mr Rubio also over saw a program wherein he turned over students private confidential information to a for profit online corporation without the consent of parents. He also made draconian budget cuts he claimed would improve educational prospects and he moved to cut community engagement in the building of the Center of Community Life.  The local press took Mr Rubio to task when he met with three allied Board members behind closed doors to work out details of an upcoming vote in an egregious Brown Act violation.  But perhaps the most distressing development has been the recent emerging story on his alleged violation of State ‘mandated reporter’ requirements in the on campus sexual assaults case. 

The teacher comments at the June 15th Board meeting however were mostly directed at Mr Rubio’s hostilities to teachers, treating them as “roaches and dogs” according to one of the teachers.  Teachers noted how the Superintendent ‘talks a good game’ especially on equitability at the District but “There is a surface politeness covering a man I have come to distrust, not responding to issues but instead attacking teachers.”  said one.  Another noted how racist practices had grown since Mr Rubio was hired on, stating “It has been difficult to be here and watch the institutional racism that I see around me” she said.

Teachers came to the defense of the elementary school principal.  One commented how Mr Rubio would subvert the principal, stating “I’ve seen many examples of how his leadership seems to lack the ability to reflect upon what he’s done, to ‘stay in his lane’ and let the principal do her job.”  For her part the Principal took the Superintendent to task for his “selective accountability”, her finding based work derided as ‘opinion’ and for keeping her in the dark about new directives coming from on high.

Teachers spoke of a changed district since the hiring of Mr Rubio, an “administrative heavy” district and that the fleeing teachers represent a loss of more than 100 years of institutional service and connection to the children. One teacher lamented the loss of the Anna Yates Elementary School campus before the building of the new Center of Community Life or Mr Rubio as Superintendent, “Our best years were when [Anna Yates] was Kindergarten through 6th grade” she said.

That same teacher finished her comment by informing the Board and Superintendent Rubio “The last few years have been so difficult that I must leave.”  She warned the Board they should be careful when hiring a new superintendent, presuming they would do that, stating, “Look for a superintendent that is competent and culturally sensitive.”

One particularly popular teacher (as confirmed by his colleagues) gave a heart rending accounting of the district under Superintendent Rubio and finished by saying to the assembled crowd he was leaving now and “I never thought I would leave here so early in my career.”

Another fleeing teacher was more circumspect about Emery Unified School District under John Rubio; standing with her young child at her side, she said simply “I would never send my son here.” 

Video provided by Ken Bukowski (action starts at the 1:10 mark)