Community Schools

NBOE Board Meeting 12/21/21

Peace and blessings. Have a safe, blessed, and prosperous New Year.   

Yes, for 2022 there are required changes necessary so NBOE students, families, faculty, and staff can progress and prosper. 

1. The Board is no longer an Advisory Board where the DOE appoints the Superintendent. You all need to govern appropriately or you’re all guilty of Newark losing Governance under QSAC.  You all are responsible for the NBOE and the allocation of its resources.  Appropriate support and resources are necessary for success. The amount of funding received for mental health services was squandered on services that do not address mental health.  The consequences of that squander will be felt in the lives of students, families, faculty, and staff for years to come, SOCIAL and EMOTIONAL LEARNING is a tool and does not replace a mental health professional who can provide appropriate supports to the students, families, staff, and faculty.  Some of those supports are treatment, education, referrals, and consultation.  SEL DOES NOT DO THAT.  It is a disservice someone would think that was appropriate to allocate the amount of funding to that area instead of mental health services which is a sustainable solution.  SEL is not an actual solution to the problem.  Again, which one of your friends or someone in your network received that contract?  Inquiring minds want to know. I am disgusted this happened and it perpetuates the negligence of your fiduciary responsibility as a Board and mental health stigma.  Also, it creates an impediment to learning and academic success.  The community fought hard to acquire full local control and FULL LOCAL CONTROL is necessary to maintain and sustain. Whatever training you need, seek it out. Your responsibility and accountability impact people’s lives. It is a matter of life and death. Hopefully, you all know the consequence of losing Governance and will make the necessary changes for governing NBOE.  
2. Josephine Garcia still needs to resign from the Board and be held accountable for her disrespectful remarks towards the community as she is elected to serve. 

Now, I would like to discuss my main point about community schools. This is a model that encompasses the school as the hub of the community.  If the community had input about the allocation of those funds received for mental health services, the propaganda would not have won for SEL services and actual mental health services would have been contracted with behavioral health treatment providers here in Newark.  Again, I’m disgusted with whoever squandered that money.  There needs to be a Social Worker with a social work degree supervising School Social Workers.  That needs to change immediately because this will make a huge difference.  NBOE disregards the voice of the community because the school is no longer the hub especially under the neoliberalism auspices of “choice”   My son is in the 8th grade and there is silence from the central office about graduation preparation.  This is horrible.  The current One Newark Enrollment plan needs to be immediately dismantled.  Families being required to choose 8 schools is not a “real choice”.  As a community, we must reject the neoliberalism notion of choice because it is destabilizing our communities. 

The Board needs to have more transparency and include the community in making decisions that impact the lives of NBOE students, families, staff, and faculty. These same efforts were done under state control and are continuing under local control. Collaborate with parents and invested community members for the success and safety of NBOE schools.  It is a matter of life and death.

Practice social distancing, wear a mask, wash your hands for 20 seconds, get vaccinated, get boosted.

The remaining board meetings for 2022 need to be virtual as a matter of safety.  Peace and blessings.