1400 E. Janss Rd, South Building. 

If you can only attend for part of the time, please come anyway. Your community needs you!

We had a great showing at the last school board meeting August 15th. (see recap)

Background: In recent Conejo Valley School Board meetings leftist progressive groups have dominated the public comments speaking opportunities and they have acted out with gasps, outbursts and disdain for any opinion other than their own. They are determined to use the power of government for ONLY their agendas. They are serious and organized. It’s time to respond in a loving yet firm manner. We need to engage here, and we need to start engaging now.  

For further research please see letters to the Editors in the TO Acorn, ,VC Star dating back to early June, and school board meetings videos (public comments) on June 20 and 27, and Aug 15) in reference to alleged ‘book banning’. http://www.conejousd.org/BoardofEducation/BoardMeetingsAgendas.aspx  

The issue is simple:  

• R-rated books and Objectionable books have been already approved for the district.
• We must advocate for a policy to fully inform parents and allow them an easy way to opt out.

OUR STATEMENT IS EASY & SIMPLE YET POWERFUL:  

We are large and active. – Polite and in love, but powerful and willing to rise up in defense of our community and our country. If you wish to speak please do so, but don’t feel obligated at all. Just being there in those seats is the very statement we want to make.  

Recap from the last School Board meeting:

In order to get 6 minutes to speak vs 3 minutes, someone must submit a comment card with yours that says they are yielding or deferring time to you, by name.  The yielding party must be present to yield their time, so you can’t just submit a card and leave. 

Good:

1. We had some excellent speakers, during the public comments section and we took up about 50% of the speaking slots.  I was very impressed with each speaker and for some reason the Lefties in the audience did not heckle our speakers like they did several months ago.  Some speakers I had not counted on but were pleasant surprises:  Sam Sorbo, Nick Kidway, Tony Dolz, and a few others I am too tired to try to name.  Thanks to ALL OF YOU!  THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO SHOWED UP TOO!
2. Sandee Everett was very vocal and far more forceful in her rhetoric defending the concerns over content in books, and she cited very useful data and some credible testimony of her own.  I encourage all to review the video of the board meeting and comments to pay attention to hers.
3. Both Andersen and Everett were very prepared to ask many questions of the ‘resident district expert’ who gave a good presentation about the process of administrative approval of new books to the curriculum.  Mike Dunn contributed here as well, with Connolly and Phelps seeming far more indifferent to the information made available to them, just not engaging much.  
4. Mike Dunn stood his ground on principle and voted against the approval of the [Part-time Indian] book.
5. It appears (and I am not 100% certain yet) that the board will address the creation of an actual(*) policy to Opt Out and enhanced parental notification.  

Bad:

1. The Board did approve the inclusion of the [Part-time Indian] book in the core curriculum, which means that if a teacher selects it, it will be required reading with only (so far *) a past-practice of opting out, short of having a formal district policy.  This means that should a teacher deny a request to opt out, the teacher could not face any discipline and would be LEGALLY right in doing so.   Since it appears that the request for use of the book has been withdrawn for the Fall, there appears to be time for the board to agree upon enhanced parental notification and a formal opt-out policy which SHOULD NOT place a burden or pressure on students who choose this.   
2. We were under-represented at the board meeting.  We needed three times as many, not only to fill those seats, but to be a bulwark against Indivisible Conejo and the AAUW folks, who actually had a weak showing compared to a meeting I attended in June.  The hard truth for us is that we MUST triple the size of our showings in order to really make a difference.  The Left was able to out-applause us, out speak us (in numbers/time only) and the evening did end with a perceived victory for the.  During the Agenda item speaking portion we were out-spoken 11 to 2 with only Nick Kidway and Angie Simpson prepared to speak.  

Summary:

If we do not triple our numbers AND get people to a central place for information to be shared (the Facebook Unified Conejo group page is all we have right now!) then we won’t be more effective than we were August 15th. , which resulted in a 4-1 vote in FAVOR of the inclusion of the Part-time Indian book.  

PLEASE HELP ME POPULATE THIS CLOSED GROUP ON FACEBOOK WITH PEOPLE WHO WANT TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN DEFENSE OF OUR COMMUNITY:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/1431335183620013/

NOTE:  IT IS A private GROUP, SO YOU MUST BE INVITED BY A FRIEND YOU HAVE ON FACEBOOK WHO IS ALREADY IN THE UNIFIED CONEJO.  If you need me as your friend or I am already, please send me a friend request and/or check your notifications to see if I invited you already.   https://www.facebook.com/timothy.bond.18 

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT:  Do not assume the 4-1 loss for us is the end of this issue by any means.