Attend a School Board Meeting

Help represent AAUW’s commitment to
honest, inclusive public education.

Join members from our branch at a San Ramon Valley Unified School District (SRVUSD) board meeting!

Let our numbers show our support. The meetings are held monthly at the SRVUSD Education Center at 699 Old Orchard Drive in Danville at 6:00 PM. Please arrive by 5:30 PM and, if you have one, be sure to wear your DAW t-shirt.

If you’d like to make a public comment on behalf of AAUW DAW, please contact Laurinda Ochoa, our DAW Public Policy Chair, at least a week prior to the meeting and submit your comment for review.  Thank you!

Meeting dates are:

  • July 23, 2024 
  • Aug 13, 2024 
  • Sept 10, 2024 
  • Oct 15, 2024 
  • Nov 19, 2024 
  • Dec 10, 2024 
  • Jan 14, 2025 
  • Feb 25, 2025 
  • March 18, 2025
  • April 22, 2025
  • May 13, 2025
  • June 10, 2025
  • June 17, 2025

If you’d like to observe a meeting virtually, SRVUSD Board Meetings are live-streamed on the District’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@SRVUSDSchools/streams.

Questions about AAUW’s advocacy for inclusive education? Contact Laurinda Ochoa (DAW Public Policy Chair) at ochoalaurinda@gmail.com, or Ogie Strogatz (DAW Program Co-VP) at ogstrogatz@gmail.com. If you would like to receive email reminders about the school board meetings and related activities contact Deborah Wechsler (deborah.wechsler@gmail.com).

(October 2024) Two new branch members, Dr. Rhiannon Shires and Rian Dindzans, raised the bar for all community speakers with their inspiring comments to the board.

Here is Rian’s draft of her statement to the board –

The tolerance paradox is a concept I believe is very relevant when it comes to discussion about the presence of queer materials and topics in our schools. The tolerance paradox describes how, in the face of unlimited tolerance, the intolerant will eventually take over, because their intolerant beliefs were tolerated. We as a community strive to be accepting of all walks of life, so we try to accommodate as many viewpoints as possible. As noble as this is, some of our community members are putting their intolerant beliefs over the wellbeing and education of our children. The fact of the matter is, queer people are not inherently bad. We are not a bad influence, our existence is not pornographic, our presence is not grooming the vulnerable. We simply want to exist in public in peace, and we want queer children to be able to do the same. Contrast that with the brimstone and fire speeches from our well-meaning community members, who claim that acceptance of queer people in our schools is grooming children to be queer – as if that’s how grooming works, and as if being queer is a bad thing. That is intolerance, however well-meaning and misguided it may be. I wish to remind the Board that their continuing policy of queer acceptance is the right thing to do, and to commend their strength in not bending to the intolerant beliefs that harm our community’s children. Thank you.

Here is Rhiannon’s write up for her comments to the board –

Hello, I am Dr. Rhiannon Shires, a Clinical and Educational Psychologist, a mother of 4 children who all attended this school district, and a grandparent of two. I’m also a member of the American Association of University Women.

As Americans, we all have the fundamental right to raise our children and instill our values in them. As parents, we can and should play an active role in supporting our children’s education. We have the right to tell our own children what they can and can’t read. But I do not have the right to determine how you raise your children, nor what your child can read. Our freedoms stop when they infringe on the rights and freedoms of others. My rights do not supersede yours, nor do your rights supersede mine.

In America, we have always recognized that people will not always agree. That is why our founding fathers advocated for, and wrote the First Amendment, which protects the freedom of religion…  freedom of speech…  and freedom of the press.

Our country was founded on the principles of freedom of speech and the marketplace of ideas. Restricting access to books not only violates these principles but also hinders our children’s ability to develop critical thinking skills and understand diverse perspectives.

In every public space…, including public schools…, our children are exposed to people from various backgrounds who have various identities. The targeting against marginalized groups is disheartening. We are a diverse country filled with differing beliefs and it is not my place, nor yours, nor the school district’s to dictate whose beliefs are right and whose should be oppressed.

Our individual rights are protected so far as they don’t suppress anyone else’s rights and imposing one’s beliefs on morality through censorship of reading materials in schools is an act of suppressing other children’s rights to self expression, access to knowledge, and to practice their own beliefs. While every parent has the right to guide their own child’s reading, we cannot impose our individual standards on an entire school community.

Thank you

(January 2024) Fourteen DAW members attended the San Ramon Valley Unified School District (SRVUSD) board meeting on January 30. Barbara Blalock and Ogie Strogatz each gave thoughtful, impactful comments to represent our branch during the evening. All the members there made a great impression with their presence and with our new branch T-shirts!

Branch members at the SRVUSD board meeting

 

(August 15, 2023) Fifteen DAW AAUW members attended the San Ramon Valley Unified School District’s first 2023-2024 school-year Board meeting August 15th. Our branch’s attendance was sparked by the CA AAUW Public Policy School Board Project, launched in July to pull through one of our Public Policy Priorities: “Equal Access to Quality Public Education for All Students”. The School Board Project is developing and disseminating materials to help branches respond to membership concerns about local instances of the nationwide movement to ban books and censor curricula in public education.

Learn more about the California AAUW School Board Project – watch their introductory webinar to learn what they are doing about the issues and how you can help. Click here for the video and more information about the project.