Are you a Californian who feels like your views on politics in California are not popular? Do you feel like no one will agree with you? Feels like when you meet someone who does agree you are part of a secret underground club of people who think like you? Then join us on the California Underground Podcast to hear others who share your views and solutions to save our beautiful state.
On this episode, we are joined by school board member of Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified, Leandra Blades, who discusses her run to get elected to school board as well as the challenges on enacting student first policies in her district while also pushing back on Sacramento overreach.
This episode was recorded on 9.26.23
*The California Underground Podcast is dedicated to discussing California politics from a place of sanity and rationality.*
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If you're a California conservative, A libertarian, A
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moderate Democrat, believe in common sense or just the same
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person, this is the political podcast for you.
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It's the California Underground Podcast.
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What's going on everybody? Thanks for tuning into another
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episode of the California Underground Podcast.
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I'm your host, Phil, as always with me, my trusty cohost, the
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best and fastest researcher in the West.
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And tonight we have a special guest who's on the front lines
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of the school board fight that is happening all over
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California. It's become sort of a a mini
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revolution, I guess you could say here in the state of
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California when it comes to parental rights and school board
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rights. Leandra Blades, welcome to the
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show. How are you tonight?
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I thank you. I'm well.
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How are you guys? Besides our technical
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difficulties, we're good. Yeah.
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We had a little bit of technical difficulties.
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So. So everyone who has been waiting
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patiently, thank you so much for waiting.
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We're we're now live, ready to take your questions.
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Leandre's here. She's ready to talk about what's
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going on. So why don't you take a minute
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or two to introduce yourself, Tell us a little bit about
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yourself. Who are you?
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My name is Leander Blades. I'm retired police officer as a
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police officer for 13 years and I was kind of just a stay at
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home stay at home mom until 2020 till all the COVID and all this
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school board stuff happened and that's when I decided to run for
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school board and ended up winning.
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So got into office in December of 2020 and from then it was
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just been kind of this wild ride of parental rights and.
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Seeing what's actually in our schools, what the teachers
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unions are pushing in, what, you know, Sacramento's pushing in
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and the NEA and the NSBA. And it's just been like you
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said, it's just been a ride. It's been a wild ride.
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I'm a mom of three kids. I have three sons.
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I'm married to my husband who's firefighter.
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So we're kind of just the, you know, kind of a normal family.
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And you know, we just kind of got the call in 2020 to.
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To step up and run and I happen to win and so here I am, so I'm
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sorry and I'm also trustee plus inch.
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Your Belinda is the district that I that I'm a trustee and
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I'm currently the Vice President of the board.
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Sorry, that's my district home school so.
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So you guys are neighbors? Yeah.
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I'm sorry to hear that. You home school.
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I would have probably told people to continue to home
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school. As well from all the things that
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have been going on, but I could say that in May of 2023 we have
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a new Superintendent who is absolutely student centered and
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who has done more work for our district, I would say in four or
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five months. And I've seen people doing
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years. And so we're really happy with
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way our school district's going next month on our October
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agenda, we're actually opening up a or actually they're trying
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to petition us to do our own conversion charter which means
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that our district. Is actually in charge of the
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conversion charter. We use our own students, we use
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our own teachers and it's going to be called the Orange County
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School of Computer Science and it's going to be a non Common
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Core charter conversion. And so we're actually going to
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have the kids engaged in computer science.
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So they're better prepared for the future, but they'll still
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have their core classes, you know, history, language, arts,
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math and so on. And so that's going to that's
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kind of on the horizon that's going to come to our district
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next month. And so we just been doing tons
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and tons of stuff. You know, middle school sports
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is back. They didn't have middle school
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sports. When I got on the board in 2020,
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there was no middle school sports whatsoever except maybe a
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yearly track meet for the kids. And so we we brought that back.
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All of our test scores have been low.
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So we're bringing back interventions, foundational
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math, just kind of doing a lot of stuff too, You know, like our
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fifth and 6th graders who were able to go to science camp that
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wasn't offered throughout the whole district.
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And so now every child in our district will have the
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opportunity to go to camp. And so just a lot of changes, a
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lot of, you know, extra money being funneled into the sports
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arts, just different things. And so I'm seeing a lot of in
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the past couple of months, what I've been really seeing a big
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change in our different district is that we are having a ton of
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money to actually go towards the students, which was not
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something that I was seeing in the first couple years, I would
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say the first few years on the board.
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And as you know to some of our our, our issues in the past have
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been, you know we were one of the first, one of the first
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school districts in Orange County or in the State of
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California to actually ban critical race theory.
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And so that was kind of one of the things that was probably the
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first stand that we actually made.
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You know that and we didn't really hear too much from
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Sacramento, not like we're hearing like our friends in a
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Temecula Valley and and others are hearing from the state quite
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as well. But you know we did it.
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We're very thoughtful about it and we were very.
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You know it took about six months when we did it because we
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made sure the community was involved, our attorneys were
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involved and that our intentions were you know exactly what they
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were when we decided to to do that critical race story ban.
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So that's kind of where we've been and you know it's kind of
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continue to push forward, but what our main focus has been is
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extremely student centered and doing things that's best for the
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students, keeping the noise and the politics and the social
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topics out and returning to. You know, just curriculum based
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education. So I want to go back to, you
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said you were elected in 2020, correct?
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Yes, Yes. Was there something around that
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time, I think there's something that was happening around that
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time that prompted a lot of parents to get interested in
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school board. What What was the thing that
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kind of said lit the fire to go, OK, I got to run for school
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board. This is ridiculous.
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I got to get in there and do something about it.
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So I would say I was kind of watching.
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I was, you know, it's kind of in the political arena slightly.
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You know, like I helped someone with the school board campaign
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and there was like a, a recall, like, you know, in another city,
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someone's trying to recall. So I was just doing like little
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social media things and some research for them.
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And so then COVID happened. And I remember when I picked up
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my kids. You know, like, even before
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COVID. One of my kids told me that one
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of their teachers was a communist.
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That I thought, what do you mean?
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You're 12 years old. How, you know, like how, how are
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you saying this? And then and then there was a
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there was actually a choir class, like the my carpool kids,
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Everybody was in the same choir class and nobody was singing
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because the teacher was arguing with them about their politics
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and their parents politics. And I thought that that was very
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odd. And then COVID happened and then
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the online classes started to happen and you could hear some
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of the teachers, you know the lessons were phenomenal.
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I actually sit in and listen because I was getting a history
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lesson and then others were just a little bit controversial.
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And so, you know through COVID and stuff, I think parents
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started to band together and we all started talking and I was
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doing some back the blue rallies in our town you know and trying
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to get the. The community, you know,
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together and stuff and outside again and kind of functioning.
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And then so a group of parents asked me to run for school
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board. And I thought and I was like,
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no, why would I do that? And then their story started
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happening. And then, so I think it was like
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a connecting of the dots that this was not just happening like
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at one school, this was happening at multiple schools.
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And then they would bring in the heavy hitters to like, really?
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Give you the like broader picture that this is coming in
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from Sacramento, It's the teachers unions and had all the
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stuff. And so as I started doing more
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and more research, I did see exactly what this, you know, the
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California Teachers Association was pushing.
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You do see what the NDA is pushing.
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You do see all of this And it's kind of like shocking that the
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California Teachers Association was calling police officers
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terrorists, like domestic terrorists.
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I mean, it was just very strange, the stuff that was
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coming out of there. And it was a little bit like
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really, is this what they're telling our our children?
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Because we have a community, you know, we're very diverse
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community in Placentia, in your Belinda.
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But I know that we have a lot of law enforcement, we have a lot
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of firefighters, first responders.
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And so I wouldn't want anybody in.
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My thoughts on this was I would never want anybody to tell them
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one of my kids that I was some type of terrorist or I was
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whatever that they were saying from this website.
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And I don't want the teachers saying that.
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So it's kind of a little bit appalling to me at first what
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was actually being taught. And so after this kind of deep
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dive, I probably had maybe four days left to file.
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And so I ended up filing and then it was kind of like a
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whirlwind after that, you know, after you're signed, put your
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whole campaign ready to go. So yeah, so that was kind of
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kind of it. I didn't know if I would win.
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I just knew the type of campaign I needed to run.
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And I needed, I needed to, you know, stand up for parental
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rights. And I need to stand up for, you
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know, the kids as far as too as just getting a fair education
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and being taught, you know, the curriculum and not a bunch of
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extras, you know, noise. And so I knew some of the things
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that were happening to my kids too.
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It just wasn't right. So how was it campaigning in
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2020? It must have been a little bit
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of a struggle to campaign right in the heart of COVID.
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Well, I went door to door and I talked to a lot of people.
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I knew there were some people who didn't appreciate me out the
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door without a mask on. And then there were some people
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who were, you know, ready to have the conversation.
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So it's very, you know, it was hit and miss.
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I knocked a ton of doors and I had a phenomenal team with me
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who was knocking doors. I mean it was just it was a
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seven day a week process. You know, we did so much.
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We did, we did a ton of work, but we had a lot of support.
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We had a lot of negative. We had a lot of negativity from,
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you know, the teachers union and you know from people who don't
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agree with parents rights which. That was really the first thing.
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I never really thought that, that there was people out there
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who didn't believe in parental rights and they believe that,
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you know, whatever the school is teaching your kids that that's
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just fine. Let them handle it.
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And so that was kind of my first, that was, that was really
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my first. I would say, like brush with
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with people who don't believe in parental rights and just think
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that whatever the school is pushing, whatever people push.
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So that's okay. But I think we had a winning
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message because. We were for I think people don't
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want their kids to go to to school and have the school raise
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their kids. I think they want them to be
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able to teach their values and their traditions and and their
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morals at home and then send the kids to school for reading,
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writing and rest for tech. And so that's the that was a
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winning message in 2020 and I still think it's a winning
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message now, but I think you know.
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I was concerned because up until a few months ago, we really
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hadn't been able to implement that because besides, you know,
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even though you have a critical race theory ban, was there
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anybody there was your Superintendent and was you know,
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your staff, were they actually implementing it and you know,
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holding people accountable for it.
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And so I would say that I believe lately we have become
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student centered focused and very curriculum driven.
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And so I'm super confident that. The test scores that are failing
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all across the nation because of COVID and just because of, you
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know, the direction education is going, I really think of the
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next year in our district, you're going to see our scores
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start to soar. So I I'm not obviously as
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involved with school board issues or public school.
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I I don't have children in public school.
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Correct me if I'm wrong, but this is how an outsider sees it.
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COVID happens. Kids all have to go home and do
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remote learning. Parents now get a peek at what
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their kids are literally sitting through in these classes.
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Parents now come out of COVID seeing what their kids are
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learning in school. They all of a sudden are getting
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more interested in school board. So now it's a continuation of
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that frustration of what they saw their kids go through in
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COVID. Parents are starting to show up
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at school board meetings. They're starting to ask
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questions, and now you're starting to see a lot of parents
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stand up for their parental rights, and you're starting to
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see a lot of these parental rights, parental notification
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policies being put into place. Do you think that's the logical
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kind of progression of how COVID pulled back the curtain and
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parents are now so more involved and we're starting to see a
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result of that? No, definitely.
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I mean I think that was the the main thing is what parents could
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hear, what was going on in the classroom.
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Like I and and I think for some parents, you know it was it was
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kind of appalling. And I think you know some of the
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questions that I would hear like asked of my kids and stuff or
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one of my kids, I should say. I thought it was it was strange.
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But you know this. Yeah.
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I think everybody just kind of woke up.
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I mean, I didn't know. And I have a whole family, you
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know, I think too. If you don't have people that
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you know who are kind of pushing this stuff.
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And I think that there's a ton of of excellent teachers who are
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actually just there to educate the kids because I know a lot of
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them and I know a lot of them in our district.
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But then, you know, we've also seen, you know, many of the
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things that the parents and even the students are turning into
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us, you know, pictures of their work, videos from their
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classroom, things like that. And so you are realizing that.
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You know, there are some, some agendas that some people want to
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push, which was why we did the Critical Race Theory ban,
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because we were seeing a lot of things that weren't following
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with the district curriculum. And I will say that this was the
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case of the Critical Race Theory ban.
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It wasn't because it's only theory and because there was,
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it's a controversial topic. But I would also say too is that
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the district spend millions of dollars on curriculum.
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And so for people not to teach the curriculum that you're
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spending millions of dollars on, like what?
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What uses a school board, especially too, with all of your
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standards and all of the instruction geared around
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towards tests and quizzes and all of this stuff?
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If you have a teacher who's not teaching that, is that fair to
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the student who's trying to, you know, not only pass this, but
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then go into the next to the next grade level?
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And so, you know, we really or I was really, you know, asking for
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pacing guides and things like that during that time, you know,
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to keep everything on track. And so that was one reason for
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this ban was because we really needed to keep a deep dive on on
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our curriculum and what the students are learning.
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And I can say that, you know, in some cases that that wasn't
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happening. And so the parents, you know, I
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felt like too, if we ignored it, we were going to be ignoring the
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parents. You know even if it was like 1
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teacher out of 20 that's that classroom that that that that
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was happening and we owed it to the students to be able to like
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say okay, that needs to be removed and we need to focus on
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the curriculum. But yeah, for sure and like this
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whole parents writes notification too.
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I think what many districts have found is that there wasn't
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anything in their policies or the procedures or any type of
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manual about how to handle that these type of situations.
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And so I think that as we looked, there's nothing in our
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district that said anything about this.
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And I think that there was a lot of these topics that there
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really wasn't any way to handle this.
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So I think the parental notification is a good thing
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because now you know, there's there's a policy, there's a
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procedure on how things like this, you know are accomplished
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and what you know, what the parents rights are, what the
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teacher should do, what's the school's job and all of this.
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And I think what should be, I know there's a lot of
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controversy and people say have like a lot of different opinions
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about this. But the way I look at this is
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that this is giving everybody this parent notification is
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really giving everybody a chance to work together.
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It's giving the teachers, you know, the students, the
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teachers, the parents, everybody, a chance to like work
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together to make sure that that child is okay and you know that
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their needs are met and that they're safe at school.
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It. Looks like she was about to say
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something. Yeah, you were the one that I
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saw had posted, I think it was 51513 of the Edco of California
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and how they like, you know, obviously we've seen what's
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happening with Chino Valley and Temecula.
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Is placenta Linda going to need to pass anything or are you just
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saying we're just enforcing this?
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It's already in Edco. How is that?
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Well, so the EDCO that I posted, it was actually because a lot of
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these things was happening is you're going to see some surveys
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coming around and so. There's a child healthy.
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It's called checks. They say CHKS.
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And so it's like the California Healthy Youth or Kids Healthy
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Kids survey. And so in that you, the district
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usually will send home a notification of the parents
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saying we're going to take the survey and you can opt out of
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it. And so there are some of these
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controversial questions in there about, you know, are you
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depressed, are you suicidal? Do you, are you more than one
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gender? And so you can opt these kids
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out and so. Or you can opt them in, whatever
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one you want to choose. But then there's other surveys,
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as you've been seeing in other districts, where this is not
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part of this survey and this parents have not had the
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opportunity to opt them out. And so they are asking
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controversial questions about pronouns and about gender
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identity. One district I saw was asking if
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there was any guns in your home, if your parents shrink alcohol
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or do they use drugs. And I was sitting there.
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Why would you ask that stuff? And so that was actually that
00:18:01
that was against that particular Ed code.
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Because there was no parental permission for that.
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And so from what I was hearing is was pulled.
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But so I think we need to look at that Ed code for everybody.
00:18:11
Because when your teacher is asking for pronouns, like one of
00:18:15
my kids, their first or second day of school, their teacher was
00:18:18
asking them for their pronouns and to ask them to write an
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essay about what their pronouns meant to them and why.
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And I said we're not writing this paper, He goes, I don't
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know what my pronouns are. I said we're not, we're not
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going to write this paper. I don't know.
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A lot of parents said that they weren't going to because.
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First of all, I didn't think that was correct.
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But also too, why do we treat kids differently than we treat
00:18:38
adults? If you were going for a job
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interview and somebody asked you what your pronouns were or what
00:18:42
your, you know, sexuality was or any of these questions, I mean
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that would that's a lawsuit waiting to happen.
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But we have adults asking these kids these questions and it's
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just so inappropriate. What does that have to do with
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the language arts class? And so that's kind of my outlook
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on that. What age of grade was that
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student? The one with the essay, I've it
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was 10th grade. Yeah.
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And then there's been some others, you know you know lower
00:19:11
asking for pronouns and and other age groups and stuff.
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And so that's why I put that out there because it just seems like
00:19:19
all over the state of California.
00:19:20
I because you know you follow other groups you follow the
00:19:22
districts and stuff like that and they parents start posting
00:19:25
this. This is what was just given to
00:19:26
my kid, and so that was when I was.
00:19:29
Researching all the stuff about parental rights, when I came
00:19:31
across this dead code, I said, well, look at this like this is
00:19:34
what you tell the teacher. This is what you turn into that
00:19:36
principal or that district that says, no, you're not supposed to
00:19:39
be asking my kid this. And so I think as many as more,
00:19:43
the more tools that parents have and the more the more knowledge
00:19:47
that everybody gains. This is how you can push back
00:19:49
against this. Because is it appropriate?
00:19:51
Was I upset that this person's asking my son for pronouns?
00:19:54
Like should my 10th grade son have to think about pronouns?
00:19:57
And what does pronouns mean to him?
00:19:59
I mean, he was like, well, what do I even say?
00:20:02
And I don't know. I mean, I felt like I could say
00:20:05
a lot, but probably wouldn't be appropriate.
00:20:11
Man, I had a question right on the tip of my tongue.
00:20:13
I hate when that happens. What are some?
00:20:18
I mean when you went through this and and you pushed through
00:20:22
and you got this complete I shouldn't say push through.
00:20:24
When you got this completed the Critical Race band, what were
00:20:27
some myths that were thrown around about Critical Race
00:20:31
Theory? Because there's always these
00:20:32
people who are like, well, Critical Race Theory is not this
00:20:34
and not that. And they try and like, diffuse
00:20:37
the situation and make you seem like the bad guy.
00:20:39
What are some myths that you kind of found out and debunked
00:20:43
along the way to say, no, actually this is what Critical
00:20:45
Race Theory is. I'm on the school board.
00:20:47
I see this happening. So what are some of those
00:20:49
things? I would say that there's a lot
00:20:52
of opinions, Like, a lot of people think America is
00:20:55
systemically racist, racist, but a lot of things too.
00:20:59
That was in Critical Race Theory.
00:21:01
Like if you actually look at the aspects of Critical race there,
00:21:05
a lot of it is that, you know, if you're white, you're the only
00:21:08
white people can be racist. And any other type of minority
00:21:12
group or any other type of group can't be racist.
00:21:15
It's just impossible. But there was just a lot of
00:21:18
different things of, you know, that there was always an
00:21:22
oppressed, you know, someone's always oppressed and someone's
00:21:25
always going to be the oppressor.
00:21:27
And what we were seeing with some of this thing was a lot of,
00:21:32
a lot of these like recent books like maybe the last 10 or 20
00:21:35
years to talk about, you know, anti racist and different
00:21:38
things. And a lot of it was saying that,
00:21:40
you know, what they were saying to us was that we were no longer
00:21:43
going to teach history. We're no longer going to be able
00:21:45
to teach about Martin Luther King.
00:21:47
We're no longer visit, you know, teach about Rosa Parks, about,
00:21:52
you know, Japanese internment camps.
00:21:53
I mean all the stuff that is actually our, you know, our
00:21:56
history. And so our response was, well,
00:21:58
no, we're not. That's in our curriculum.
00:22:01
That's what we want to teach. We don't want to.
00:22:03
We don't want somebody to bring in a different narrative that is
00:22:07
not a part of our curriculum and is just an opinion or a theory
00:22:11
that you're getting. And we don't want people to feel
00:22:14
like one child is an oppressor. You know, we don't want a fifth
00:22:17
grader to feel that they're an oppressor and then for another
00:22:20
child to think that they will never be able to be anything
00:22:24
because of the color of their skin.
00:22:26
And so that was our kind of thing is like this is this, it's
00:22:29
critical race theory. This is a theory that you have.
00:22:32
And so is that in our district curriculum now?
00:22:35
And So what? People are fighting so hard,
00:22:37
they're saying, well, it's not in our curriculum, so why are
00:22:40
you trying to ban it? And I said, well, if we're not
00:22:42
in our curriculum, why do you care if it's banned if we're not
00:22:44
teaching it? And so that was kind of a lot of
00:22:47
the things that were floating around.
00:22:48
And so, you know, we were racist for, you know, banning it.
00:22:53
I mean, it was just, it was a little bit of an, I think it was
00:22:57
a little bit of a nightmare. But, you know, when the kids
00:23:00
would come home and, you know, people are teaching
00:23:02
intersectionality in the classes and they're, you know, just
00:23:07
teaching a lot of the critical race theory concepts, even
00:23:10
sometimes they weren't even saying, you know, the word, but
00:23:13
they're teaching the concepts, you know, and then, like, you
00:23:15
can come home and identify it. And they're asking questions
00:23:17
like, well, why would he say this?
00:23:19
Like, there was a teacher who told my son that they were
00:23:22
racist. If you see a group of, you know,
00:23:25
like a, you know, maybe a typical race across the street
00:23:28
or like you're on their own same side of the street and you cross
00:23:30
the street, you know, because it's like the safer thing to do,
00:23:33
that you're racist. And I was like, and he says,
00:23:36
well, how is that? And I said, well, I said, I
00:23:39
think in any situation, if there's any type of person who
00:23:42
you just don't feel safe and you cross the other side of the
00:23:43
street, I don't think that's just you being racist.
00:23:46
Maybe that's just like how you feel safer or, you know, like
00:23:49
what neighborhood I like. So the whole thing is like it
00:23:53
was just weird concepts that were coming across.
00:23:55
Like how did that come across in once again, like, you know, a
00:23:59
language arts or history class that just these type of
00:24:03
conversations. And so it was, you know, I think
00:24:08
it was, it was a rough time and you know, like I went on CNN and
00:24:12
did an interview and it was actually very good interview.
00:24:15
I thought it was going to be awful, but I was just like, OK,
00:24:18
I'm going to do this, you know, I'm going to do this.
00:24:20
And actually ended up being a really good interview.
00:24:22
We had a really good conversation.
00:24:25
I mean I will say it was like an hour and a half conversation for
00:24:27
like 3 minutes on air. But you know, it was I think
00:24:32
people are understanding is that this isn't in our curriculum, so
00:24:36
why is it being taught? And then I know that Cal State
00:24:38
Fullerton, they kind of made a political move and they pulled
00:24:42
their student teachers from our district because they said that
00:24:45
their student teachers are ready to come into our school district
00:24:49
and teach Critical Race theory from ages K through 12.
00:24:53
And so when they did that, that was when I knew that the
00:24:56
critical Race Theory ban was the correct thing to do.
00:24:59
Because you have this group saying that Critical Race Theory
00:25:02
is not taught in school, but then you have this college
00:25:06
willing to pull their student teachers because we weren't
00:25:09
allowing Critical Race theory to be taught in the classroom.
00:25:11
And they're come ready, you know, ready to teach this.
00:25:14
So it is a very real thing that's being taught.
00:25:18
And I know that some teachers have, you know, have said that
00:25:20
they can't wait for me to get out or to lose power or to, you
00:25:26
know, lose the next election so they can go back teaching the
00:25:29
way that they used to want to teach, which tells me that, you
00:25:33
know, they weren't sticking to the district curriculum, maybe
00:25:36
some of them. So I just think it's important.
00:25:38
I think it's like I think if we start to look at this whole
00:25:41
thing as an employee, an employeremployee type thing.
00:25:45
Like if you have an employer and they tell you to do something a
00:25:47
certain way and you deviate from it, is there repercussions for
00:25:51
you? Can you possibly get fired if
00:25:53
you're not doing what your employer asked?
00:25:55
And I've and I've said this in a board meeting before and I don't
00:25:58
think it was well received by some and not well received by
00:26:01
others. But what is the difference
00:26:04
within the teaching profession? If you have a school district
00:26:06
who hands you curriculum and says teach this to these
00:26:09
students and you don't, and you're pulling things from
00:26:11
YouTube and you're pulling things from other books, are you
00:26:15
really doing what your employee told you to do?
00:26:18
And is there is there and should there be a thing about teachers
00:26:21
autonomy, that which basically means when these students enter
00:26:24
your classroom, they are yours and you can interject whatever
00:26:28
you want in there. That means politics, possibly
00:26:30
religion whatever. Or are you supposed to just kind
00:26:33
of do what your employer says and this is what you teach and
00:26:36
this is what, you know, the kids learn and then they move on to
00:26:39
the next grade just like the district has, you know,
00:26:42
instructed you to do? That was kind of long winded.
00:26:45
Sorry, no, sorry, a little long winded.
00:26:49
I talked a lot. That's the point of these
00:26:50
podcasts is so you can actually answer, not in like these
00:26:53
two-minute sound bites that you know, when people go on the news
00:26:56
and stuff like that. Somebody in the chat said the
00:26:58
supporters of CRT tried to argue that it wasn't being taught, so
00:27:03
it didn't need to be banned. Then when it was banned, they
00:27:06
said they can't teach it, can't teach without it, and we were
00:27:09
racist for banning it. Sounds like they were kind of
00:27:12
contradicting themselves. Yeah.
00:27:14
It was kind of a big contradiction.
00:27:16
I felt like if when when you sat back and you're hearing the
00:27:18
arguments and, you know, there was a lot of examples that
00:27:22
parents and students were sending in that we couldn't, you
00:27:25
know, like people were like, well, show me, show me these
00:27:27
examples. And it's like, well, this isn't
00:27:28
a private e-mail. And they're saying, please don't
00:27:31
show this to anybody. We don't want to be out and we
00:27:33
don't want our teacher be upset with us.
00:27:36
And so it was happening. And I'm not saying, like, I'm
00:27:39
not saying that's happening all over our school district because
00:27:42
there are, there are just tons of wonderful, wonderful teachers
00:27:45
that work very hard on their job and they're trying to give these
00:27:48
kids the best education. But there, you know, there are.
00:27:51
I mean, we're seeing it. We're seeing it all over the
00:27:54
news and we're seeing it all over social media, that there
00:27:58
are some people who believe that their classroom is theirs and
00:28:01
they should be able to teach whatever they want to these
00:28:03
kids. And I think that that is in a I.
00:28:06
And I will say, and I've taken the stance before, it is
00:28:09
inappropriate to do so because your job, you're an employee and
00:28:13
that's your job, is to teach what the district has spent
00:28:16
millions of dollars on this curriculum, you know, to give
00:28:18
these kids a good education and something that will make them
00:28:22
successful in the future. And I know that I've seen a ton
00:28:26
of things from like the California Teachers Association,
00:28:29
which, you know, most of these union dues.
00:28:31
You know, from our teachers. I saw like, I saw like where the
00:28:36
dues go to. I'm so like, say a teacher has
00:28:39
$120.00 of dues every month that they have to pay to the union.
00:28:43
You know, because there's chapters in every single school
00:28:45
district of this California Teachers Association.
00:28:48
So like, I would not, There's like $70.00 will go to the
00:28:52
California Teachers Association, like $20 will go to the NEA, and
00:28:57
then the rest of the money will go to the local chapter.
00:29:00
So really like 90, the majority of their money, you say almost
00:29:03
3/4 of the money is going to these political organizations,
00:29:07
you know, and it's not even going to like the local chapter.
00:29:10
So it is politics and this stuff is being pushed in.
00:29:12
And that's how these unions have gotten so much of this power and
00:29:16
that's how they're able to, you know, to fund these, you know,
00:29:20
politicians. It's how a lot of this stuff is
00:29:24
being put in. And so my thing is, and I've
00:29:27
been continually asked this question is why is the
00:29:31
California Teachers Association is supposed to be about wages
00:29:33
and benefits And you know what a normal union would be?
00:29:37
Where did they find their way into our curriculum?
00:29:39
Where do they find their way into our instruction and where
00:29:42
do they have such a big voice in our schools and why are they
00:29:45
pushing their teachers to push this into the classroom?
00:29:49
So that would be my question because I've been a union
00:29:51
member, I started off LA County Sheriff, So I was in a let you
00:29:54
know, a city Police Department. I was in the union there and
00:29:58
none of this ever happened with us and I know my husband inspire
00:30:01
union that's not pushed into here.
00:30:03
So I'm just curious what where did this come from and why is
00:30:07
this pushed so heavily into the classroom for students?
00:30:12
Speaking of the curriculum, 1078 Gavin Newsom sign into law
00:30:18
today, which is the one that now local school boards no longer
00:30:22
get to have control over the curriculum, do you?
00:30:29
I don't know. I was texting Phil about this
00:30:31
morning, but were you aware that that had actually been signed?
00:30:33
I think it was a B 1078. Yeah, I thought.
00:30:37
I think it was last night or Monday.
00:30:38
Yeah, Monday night I saw that. And you know, if you read it and
00:30:44
stuff, I, I think anything I I wonder about the
00:30:48
constitutionality of that because the Constitution gives
00:30:51
you no local control. And so now you have to ask is if
00:30:55
if the governor's trying to sign something like that in what is
00:30:59
he going to do next to the city council's like you know where
00:31:02
does it stop. And so I do think that this is
00:31:03
probably the hill that we have to that you know we might have
00:31:06
to to die on or or you know stand up and fight on this one
00:31:10
because local control is is you know paramount for these first
00:31:15
school districts. I mean, this is what, you know,
00:31:17
we're elected in. And so you kind of sit there and
00:31:20
I'm not really in this. I, I'm not in as big of a panic
00:31:23
mode as I think some other people are about this.
00:31:25
Because I did listen to Tracy Henderson today from the
00:31:28
California Parents Union and she was given like, you know, some
00:31:31
really good advice like, hey, is this actually constitutional?
00:31:35
Local control is, you know, in their California constitution.
00:31:38
You know, so is this something that we can, you know, is this
00:31:43
actually like even lawful for him to do this?
00:31:45
And so I would say that all of our school members from across
00:31:48
the state really need to get to the other and probably take this
00:31:51
to court because you know, like the whole book banning thing,
00:31:57
we're not banning books in our district.
00:31:59
The books that are being removed are from are basically, you
00:32:03
know, per Ed code and for the Penal Code because you're not
00:32:06
supposed to have pornographic books in a school library.
00:32:10
And so if those are the type of books that are being removed or
00:32:13
something that the law actually backs up, we're not banning
00:32:16
books based on L, GB, TQ romances and stuff because
00:32:20
that's kind of nonsense. And that's kind of where like I
00:32:23
would stay with the parental rights policy.
00:32:26
I believe what you guys will see in October, if it's ready and it
00:32:31
comes, you know, to our board meeting, it's not going to talk.
00:32:35
It's not going to have a certain group.
00:32:38
It's not going to discriminate against a different a group.
00:32:41
It's going to be a parental notification like for all.
00:32:45
It's not going to, you know, say that one group is going to get
00:32:48
notified and then we're going to leave this a whole other group
00:32:50
out. It's going to basically be
00:32:52
something that is for all students and you know, with all
00:32:57
parents and it's basically a plan for everybody to work
00:33:00
together, you know, for the good of the student because that's
00:33:03
what we're really here for. We're here for the students.
00:33:05
We're not here, you know, for to keep secrets from parents and
00:33:10
you know just all the kind of weirdness that's been going on
00:33:12
lately. You know, that's that's come to
00:33:14
light. Like I watched an interview when
00:33:15
Orange did a parental notification they had a teacher
00:33:19
come right out and say I will not, I will not abide by this
00:33:23
And so you know you kind of like and so that's again too people
00:33:26
say people say parents aren't or teachers aren't keeping things
00:33:29
from parents and and this. But then you have this teacher
00:33:32
come out and say I won't do it, you know, so, so yeah, so I
00:33:37
think 1078, I think we like really need to stop and we need
00:33:41
to do a deep dive into the language.
00:33:43
But we also need to realize that we have laws that, you know, we
00:33:45
have constitution and the constitution is a lot of the
00:33:48
land. And so we we really need to take
00:33:50
a look into that and see what what will actually be restricted
00:33:55
because like as of right now we're putting forward great
00:33:58
curriculum and I don't see the state you know trying to say
00:34:04
that we can't, you know continue to push the curriculum we're
00:34:06
doing because our curriculum is really good.
00:34:08
You know we we take a lot of time.
00:34:10
We've written our own curriculum.
00:34:14
You know, we wrote an ethnic studies course early.
00:34:17
We called our multicultural studies because you know it's in
00:34:20
202526. They're going to have to start
00:34:22
taking a semester course. So we wrote our own because we
00:34:25
wanted an actual multicultural studies but we also wanted a
00:34:28
devoid of critical race theory. So I mean I don't know if that
00:34:32
like something like that is are they going to push that back and
00:34:35
and demand that we have critical race theory you know in in our
00:34:39
curriculum now like I think these are the questions that
00:34:41
that that need to be asked and I think this is what the deep dive
00:34:45
needs to be and since independence.
00:34:47
Fill you here. I think it's always ironic that,
00:34:52
you know, Democrats like Newsome and all of them always claim
00:34:56
everything from, you know, Trump to someone burning their toast
00:35:01
is a threat to their democracy. But then when it comes to like
00:35:05
actually, like local, controlled, locally elected
00:35:10
officials like yourself who were elected by people who say, OK,
00:35:15
this is who I want as my representative.
00:35:18
And then you put those representatives in place, The
00:35:20
representatives do what they're supposed to do, and then all of
00:35:23
a sudden they do what Newsom and all of them don't want all of a
00:35:27
sudden that oh, no, no, no. We got to pass all these laws
00:35:30
and override them and take away their power.
00:35:32
We don't want to respect the will of the people.
00:35:34
We know that you were duly elected and this is what people
00:35:37
in your locality want to happen, but we're going to just override
00:35:41
it because we we want democracy that you that we agree with, not
00:35:46
democracy on your term. So I always find that really
00:35:48
fascinating that now you're starting to see Sacramento get
00:35:53
all hot and bothered about local officials kind of put you know
00:35:57
putting forth their own agenda and then what?
00:36:00
And when it's the agenda they don't like, then all of a sudden
00:36:03
they get they they start pushing their own power or influence on
00:36:09
local elected officials. No, I agree.
00:36:13
And I think that that's actually like the most scary thing is
00:36:15
that you know the people spoke and all of these different board
00:36:19
races in orange, the people spoke.
00:36:21
But the union and you know, a small group of, I don't know if
00:36:25
they're parents or whatever it is, but I mean we've watched
00:36:27
these, you know, some people have infiltrated some of these
00:36:31
these meetings that they've had and it's it's they just want
00:36:34
it's the unions and the CTA is absolutely behind the recall and
00:36:37
Orange Unified and they're basically just trying to get out
00:36:41
the people there because now the board majority is for parental
00:36:43
rights and there's no union control.
00:36:46
And so you know that they're they're trying the same group.
00:36:48
They're they're attacking me. They're attacking, you know,
00:36:51
others. But they say this is a
00:36:53
coordinated, you know, this is going to be coordinated against
00:36:55
all the with all these different boards because of the whole loss
00:36:59
of control. But you know, I think it's just
00:37:04
like what has happened anymore, you know, about the will of
00:37:07
people like the people in orange voted and you know, they don't
00:37:11
want to accept it. In fact the person who one of
00:37:14
the people who has replaced that they're trying to recall you
00:37:17
know she has the most money almost invested in this recall.
00:37:21
So the candidate who is ousted is putting the most money and to
00:37:24
try to get her former opponent out And so you know and she was
00:37:29
a union backed. You know she was a union backed
00:37:32
school board member. And so I just kind of think too
00:37:34
is is yeah it is it's kind of a slap in the face for the people
00:37:38
of California to have you know the governor you make all these
00:37:41
strides. You do the thing.
00:37:43
You do what, you know you're supposed to be doing and you put
00:37:46
an elected officials, you know to make the change that you want
00:37:49
and then you know the powers to be up in Sacramento.
00:37:52
Oh no, no. That's not what we wanted for
00:37:54
this. And so, you know they try to put
00:37:57
in other laws and I think that's where we have to start to fight
00:38:00
because I mean if if we can't, if we can't even control our own
00:38:05
like, you know, like city council's and you know our our
00:38:10
school boards and all of the things that we're supposed to be
00:38:12
doing locally with all this local control, then really do we
00:38:15
have any more power? Do we have power anymore?
00:38:19
And I wouldn't even say it's even power.
00:38:21
It's just like, do we have a voice?
00:38:23
Like they're really trying to take away our voice.
00:38:27
Yeah. And it kind of, I mean
00:38:30
California is such an enormous, diverse state.
00:38:32
It's it's so much more than just LA and San Francisco that
00:38:37
everybody else thinks it is anyways, at 58 counties.
00:38:41
I mean we're we're basically like our own little country.
00:38:44
But Sacramento just passes these laws in this legislation that
00:38:48
they think applies to everybody when it doesn't And they they
00:38:52
don't respect diversity of thought.
00:38:54
They don't respect diversity of opinion.
00:38:57
And it's it's gotten scary to the point of like anytime
00:39:00
there's like a threat of people starting to organize and push
00:39:06
back on their agenda, they have to like rally around this and
00:39:11
and just crush it as fast as possible with the most amount of
00:39:14
power. And you're seeing this with a
00:39:17
lot of what are I guess are they're going to be like future
00:39:20
gubernatorial candidates. Tony Thurman showed up to one
00:39:23
school board. Rob Bonds is making a big deal
00:39:26
about. He's suing local school boards
00:39:28
to enforce these policies and get these temporary restraining
00:39:32
orders. And I think it's we we had a an
00:39:37
episode couple weeks ago we were talking about the the recent
00:39:41
slate of bills that has come out of Sacramento has a a certain
00:39:47
definitely a certain pattern of chipping away at local school
00:39:52
board power and authority. You have what was it coming?
00:39:57
I think it's SB-95. What's the one that they find
00:40:01
people or they were planning on finding people or jailing people
00:40:03
who were? Disruptive at school board
00:40:05
meetings, people who want to speak up at school board
00:40:07
meetings. 1078 is another one. Yeah.
00:40:13
So there's there's just a slew. You can look at it.
00:40:16
They're just, they're using a lot of these, whether it's
00:40:20
critical race theory or or the transgenders rights, they're
00:40:24
using these as wedge issues to try and separate parents from
00:40:29
their children via public school.
00:40:31
And then, you know, people like yourself are kind of standing in
00:40:34
the way of that and making it hard for them.
00:40:37
So now they just have to kind of drop the hammer on you, was it?
00:40:40
How do you feel about that? Well, I think so.
00:40:44
From one thing that I've learned, it's one thing that
00:40:47
I've really learned with this whole journey is that you the
00:40:51
worst thing that you can do as a school board member is to play
00:40:53
politics. And So what I have understood,
00:40:58
you know, very quickly when I got in there is I did listen to
00:41:01
both sides and I still try to continue to listen to both
00:41:04
sides. Some sides don't speak to me
00:41:06
anymore. But you can't govern only for
00:41:10
your political point of view. You have to govern for all.
00:41:13
And so it doesn't matter who it is.
00:41:16
You know what sexual orientation they are, what religion they
00:41:19
are, what color they are. I'm supposed to be governing and
00:41:22
representing all. And so anytime that I make these
00:41:25
decisions or have to make a choice, like even with Critical
00:41:29
Race Theory, it took so long to push it through because we
00:41:32
really needed to ensure that we were representing all.
00:41:35
And so with the Critical Race Theory ban, it was like everyone
00:41:38
was receiving the same education, everyone.
00:41:40
This was for every student, it was going to affect every
00:41:43
student in the same manner. And so I think when I think when
00:41:48
some of these politics are pushed or trying to make these
00:41:52
political moves, I I don't think that it's good for.
00:41:58
I don't, I don't think it's good for anybody because we do need
00:42:01
to govern for all. Like if you think of this whole
00:42:03
movement with the L, GB, TQ, you know and their rights, yes, they
00:42:08
have just as many rights as straight kids as whoever else.
00:42:12
And so you have to take that in perspective.
00:42:14
But then also too, is the best way, like single stall bathrooms
00:42:18
for all to get rid of this whole bathroom and this locker room
00:42:21
debate? Like, do we have to start
00:42:23
thinking outside the boxes? I mean, I don't know.
00:42:25
Like for me personally, do I like to go into a single stall
00:42:28
bathroom in a restaurant or like, you know, if you're
00:42:30
visiting somewhere versus like, you know, a stall of like 8 or
00:42:33
10. I don't know.
00:42:34
There's a little bit more privacy.
00:42:35
So, like, there's things that you have to start like kind of
00:42:38
thinking about and you can still stand up for your, you know, for
00:42:42
parental rights and you can still stand up for rights for
00:42:44
the kids, but you have to make sure that you're standing up for
00:42:47
everybody and they're not discriminating.
00:42:50
And so that's one thing that I think that the lines can, you
00:42:54
know, you don't want to, like, have those lines be crossed
00:42:57
because in the end of the day, you know who voted for you and
00:43:02
you know that a certain percentage of whoever voted for
00:43:05
you, but you still have to represent everybody.
00:43:08
And so I would say that too. And I'm on the California.
00:43:12
I'm on the Orange County Republican Party, the central
00:43:17
committee. And that's what I've told
00:43:19
people, is I think, like, we're missing the boat here.
00:43:22
Like you are a Republican and people liked your ideas, so they
00:43:25
voted you into office. And then the thing that you do
00:43:27
is play is that you immediately start to play politics.
00:43:31
And so instead of looking at like, do these students need
00:43:34
more funding, do the arts, do the sports, You know, do these
00:43:39
things need more funding? Like, look at our test scores
00:43:41
across the state. They're abysmal.
00:43:42
They're horrific. And yet we have people who
00:43:45
aren't worried about that. They're worrying about maybe a
00:43:48
political agenda, but what are you doing to serve all these
00:43:51
students? And so I think that the focus
00:43:53
really needs to be. And that's kind of the way I've
00:43:55
been trying to govern, even though I have, like, people who
00:43:59
don't agree with me politically trying to say that I'm doing
00:44:01
otherwise. I'm.
00:44:02
I mean, you can't really pinpoint anything that I've done
00:44:05
that is, you know, political for these kids because I've really
00:44:09
been trying to govern for all. And that's kind of been my motto
00:44:12
is like, I can't do something that's only good for one group.
00:44:16
I have to do something that will be beneficial for everybody.
00:44:19
And so I do think that sometimes when we get so politicized and
00:44:25
when we make these political stands and we're doing this,
00:44:28
like is it detrimental? Because like, yes, maybe you
00:44:32
have XY&Z passed, but where are your test scores?
00:44:35
You know, where is this money going to?
00:44:37
Can you be pushing more money towards these kids?
00:44:40
Can you be doing this? Can you be doing that?
00:44:43
And so I think that a lot of people, everybody, no matter
00:44:46
what side of the aisle you're on, like you just need to stop.
00:44:50
I mean, yes, there is an agenda and yes, you can stop that
00:44:53
agenda, but we. So we stop it.
00:44:56
But we don't need to attack a certain group or we don't need
00:44:59
to do this. We need to just be governing for
00:45:01
all and try to do what's best for all and make decisions for
00:45:04
all students. And so that's kind of where I
00:45:06
am. And I've tried to stay out of
00:45:08
the this whole, you know, in politics because I realized
00:45:12
early on I did listen. It was kind of like, you know,
00:45:14
you'd like kind of like go and you start listening, listen to
00:45:17
all sides. And then you realize too people
00:45:19
say the best people are the ones who will govern for all and who
00:45:22
will won't do stuff that's just good for like say a certain
00:45:25
party. But they do what's best for
00:45:27
everybody or they try to do. The intention is to do what's
00:45:29
best for everybody. And so that's kind of the way
00:45:31
that I've, you know, tried to do it.
00:45:34
And I'm really hoping that like, you know, like transparency,
00:45:38
like we didn't have our school board meetings.
00:45:40
They weren't. Nobody could watch them from
00:45:42
home. And so that was one of the
00:45:43
things I ran on was transparency.
00:45:46
And so now, you know, we live stream all of our, all all of
00:45:49
our board meetings. And so like I'm trying to do
00:45:51
things that's good for everybody and I'm trying to push, put the
00:45:54
money, you know, where it's good.
00:45:56
Like if we could divert it away from like ridiculous, like, like
00:46:00
there was just so much like waste.
00:46:02
There's so much waste in the public school systems.
00:46:06
And so can we get rid of that? Can we get one of that?
00:46:08
And can we actually put it towards the students?
00:46:10
And so that's what I've been telling a lot of people to do,
00:46:13
is we need to fight for the parental rights, we need to
00:46:15
stand up and we need to continue to do the right thing by the
00:46:19
students. But, you know, we really have to
00:46:22
make sure that we're not being activists on a school board
00:46:26
because that's there's no place for that.
00:46:28
You know, you're supposed to stand in the gap for these kids,
00:46:29
protect the kids, make sure they're getting the good
00:46:32
curriculum and all of that. But really, you know, at the end
00:46:37
of the day, you do govern for everybody.
00:46:39
And so it doesn't matter how far left, how far right, how in the
00:46:42
middle. It is like you govern for all of
00:46:44
them and you need to listen to all of them and you just write
00:46:46
by everybody. It's almost like the most
00:46:50
nondiscriminatory way to do this is to just teach the kids what
00:46:57
they need to learn. Yes.
00:47:00
Not yes. I mean insert anything.
00:47:03
It's just teach them math, history, yes, grammar, writing,
00:47:08
all that stuff. Yes, I'm sure Camille sitting
00:47:11
there like, yeah, that's that's what you have to teach kids.
00:47:13
Just teach them what they need to learn and nothing else.
00:47:16
No fluff or anything like that. We're coming up on about almost
00:47:21
the hour 5050 minutes before we hop off.
00:47:26
So you said that you there is a parental notification policy
00:47:30
coming down the Pike for you at your district or.
00:47:34
Yeah, so it should be. It's being finalized I've heard
00:47:38
at the attorneys you know, and it should be available.
00:47:42
Obviously it'll be our October 10th board meeting.
00:47:45
And when, you know, you're when we're talking about this, You
00:47:48
know, I told our Superintendent, if you know, cuz parents were
00:47:51
asking, a lot of people were asking.
00:47:52
And I said one thing that we used to do, like my only request
00:47:56
is if we do something like this, I said I want it to be for all.
00:48:00
I don't want a certain group of kids, you know, to feel like the
00:48:04
teachers are, you know, if they say something to a teacher that
00:48:07
they're the only kid that's going to be, you know, have a
00:48:11
phone call home to the parent, I go.
00:48:13
I'm worried about the kid who is depressed, you know, in the
00:48:16
school, like who hasn't turned in homework for two weeks or a
00:48:19
month. And it's not like them, you
00:48:21
know, and the teachers, you know, I would like the phone
00:48:23
call home about that. I would like the, you know, the
00:48:26
talking with the parents about that.
00:48:27
I would like the person who, you know, may just look like they're
00:48:33
struggling, you know, Or, you know, if there's been a death in
00:48:36
the family or they're having friend issues or they're having
00:48:39
boyfriend issues. And if they confide into a
00:48:41
teacher, you know, I would. I would like everybody to be
00:48:45
treated the same across the board because I think if we
00:48:48
start to not necessarily target a group, but we only are making
00:48:52
rules for a certain group of people, I just don't see how how
00:48:57
we can be successful because really what a parent
00:49:00
notification policy is, it should be like I've said before,
00:49:03
it should be the teachers and the school and the parents all
00:49:06
working together to keep the students safe and to do what's
00:49:09
best for the student. And so that's what I requested
00:49:13
and that's what's supposed to come next.
00:49:14
You know, for our agenda and, you know, our superintendent's
00:49:18
extremely smart. And so I have a feeling that
00:49:22
he's going to put together something that's, you know,
00:49:25
really good. And so I'm hoping it's not
00:49:28
controversial because it doesn't target any group of people.
00:49:31
It's just something that it's like, you know, it'll just
00:49:34
applies to all. And I think that that's the
00:49:36
easiest way, that's the easiest way, you know, around it.
00:49:39
Because I, I will say that last year when my son, you know, my
00:49:43
son, my sons are in sports. And so one of the coaches said,
00:49:47
hey, you know, he just like happened to call me.
00:49:49
He says just checking in because your son, who's usually
00:49:52
extremely loud and, you know, just energetic, he says he's
00:49:55
kind of been this whole week, just kind of been down like.
00:49:58
And I said, Oh yeah, he's on antibiotics for like a sinus
00:50:00
infection. And he's just really trying to
00:50:02
push through it to the game Friday, you know, And then and
00:50:05
so, but I appreciated the fact that he recognized that there's
00:50:07
something wrong and he had enough care to just give me a
00:50:10
phone call and just say, I just want to make sure, you know,
00:50:13
everything's good. I said, yeah, he's on
00:50:15
antibiotics. You know, we're just, we're just
00:50:18
trying to make it. We're just trying to make it
00:50:19
through. And so like, you know, things
00:50:21
like that, like me as a parent, I appreciated that.
00:50:23
Like, I've appreciated, you know, like, I think one of my
00:50:25
kids was in middle school and I had a teacher call home and say,
00:50:28
hey, you know, I haven't seen a paper, haven't seen, you know,
00:50:31
this paper come across, you know, and they're usually right
00:50:33
on top. I just want to make sure, just
00:50:34
want to check in and make sure everything's good, you know.
00:50:37
And so you would just ask and like, you know, they just got
00:50:40
behind and they didn't do the paper.
00:50:41
They were lazy. And so it's like kind of, you
00:50:44
know, catching up. So I mean, I think in the, in,
00:50:47
in the little instances like that, that's appreciative.
00:50:49
But then like in these huge things with coming out of the
00:50:53
pandemic and the amount of like, you know, the mental health
00:50:55
workers we've had to put into schools and the amount of issues
00:50:59
and stuff that some of these kids are having.
00:51:01
Like I just think that working together as a team, all of us
00:51:04
like that's the best, that's the best way.
00:51:05
But we need to make sure that we're doing it for all students.
00:51:10
Well, I I think there definitely needs to be probably about 200
00:51:15
more people like you taking over and getting involved in school
00:51:20
boards all over California. And like you said, I don't think
00:51:25
this is obviously you've hit a pressure point with those in
00:51:30
power in Sacramento. You've hit a pressure point with
00:51:33
those in the CTA and the big unions.
00:51:37
So I think it it's great because this is where it starts and this
00:51:41
is where this could be a real turnaround for California in
00:51:44
general in terms of parental rights and and and school boards
00:51:48
before we sign off on the for the evening, any closing
00:51:52
thoughts or anything? Someone did say Governor Blades
00:51:56
has a nice ring to it. So any political aspirations
00:52:00
after school board. Well, I, you know, of course
00:52:05
I've been thinking about and I would.
00:52:07
I mean, I love politics and I love to be involved in this and
00:52:10
I love to be someplace where there is a fight.
00:52:13
And so I would say that like some people have said, like when
00:52:15
I tell people, well, we need to be governing for all, they go,
00:52:18
what the heck, you're not in the fight?
00:52:19
Oh no, I'm very much in the fight.
00:52:22
But I just understand after being involved in this for a few
00:52:25
years and walk into campuses and being at all these sporting
00:52:29
events, you just realize, you know, the fight is really for
00:52:32
all the students. So yeah, I do have political
00:52:36
aspirations. I'm going to run again in 2024
00:52:38
for school board again, you know, and try to do a second
00:52:40
term because I just think that there's so many exciting things.
00:52:43
I'm super, super excited about this Orange County Computer
00:52:49
School of Computer Science that we're trying to, you know,
00:52:52
implement that. I'm hearing that that's on our
00:52:54
board agenda for approval, you know, as a conversion charter.
00:52:59
And so there's just a lot of things too that like I'm just
00:53:02
seeing happen that I've seen in the last few months that we've
00:53:05
been able to work on and things that I've been wanting to do for
00:53:07
the last few years that we just haven't been able to because
00:53:09
there was no board majority. And so like, I want to see this
00:53:13
stuff carried out. I want to see what happens and I
00:53:15
want to see where we can take our district.
00:53:18
But yeah, after that, you know, I would like to maybe do
00:53:22
something else. I mean some days, you know, when
00:53:24
you're just getting attacked for like things that you didn't even
00:53:26
do, like you're like, OK, like I kind of this is kind of a huge
00:53:31
headache and you know, like how much more do you want to take?
00:53:34
But then you just realize, like if I wasn't doing like something
00:53:38
that I was supposed to be doing or being effective, like I
00:53:40
wouldn't be. Nobody would attack me.
00:53:42
So. And I, and I think too, that I
00:53:44
think for anybody that was is is getting hit by the unions.
00:53:49
And, you know, I think the question that we have to ask is
00:53:52
when you have somebody like me who's running or is in a school
00:53:55
board position, like you have to ask yourself why is the union
00:53:58
attacking that person when she's standing up for all the kids?
00:54:01
She's trying to give them the best education possible.
00:54:04
She's trying to get as much money into the students, you
00:54:06
know, as possible. Why would the union have a
00:54:09
problem with that? And so we have to start asking
00:54:11
ourselves like, what? What do the unions really want
00:54:15
to do with our kids? Because I can tell you right now
00:54:18
from my experience, it's not about the education or to do
00:54:22
what's best for the kids. And so I would say, you know,
00:54:25
yes, for sure we we have to be standing up and we have to be
00:54:29
standing up against the unions because just looking at, you
00:54:34
know, what they're doing in Sacramento and then look looking
00:54:36
what they're doing locally, like that's really the fight.
00:54:39
You know, the fight is good curriculum, trying to keep all
00:54:42
this social justice and the social issues out of our
00:54:45
classrooms. So for any, any school board
00:54:48
person who wants to run, feel free to call me and we can talk
00:54:51
about this. But I think the message also has
00:54:55
to be as you can stand up against the union and you can
00:54:57
stand up against this, but you can still, you know, work for
00:55:01
all students, which is, which is absolutely my message.
00:55:04
My motto has been, you know, every student every day since
00:55:07
the second I took office. And so I stand by that.
00:55:10
And, you know, that's going to be my motto going into 2024 as
00:55:13
well. I think that's a almost perfect
00:55:16
place to end tonight's episode on that message.
00:55:20
And Governor for all Leandre, thanks for coming on tonight.
00:55:25
Open invitation to come back in, check in maybe after October and
00:55:30
let's see how the parental notification policy goes
00:55:33
through. Keep us up there on what else
00:55:35
you're doing to to fight the fight and you know, govern for
00:55:38
all children like you said. And before we end tonight, I I
00:55:42
like to say as I end every show, make sure you if you like this
00:55:46
show, make sure you like, share, subscribe, review all that
00:55:50
stuff. The best way to support this
00:55:51
show is to share it with a friend, especially share it with
00:55:55
parents of children who are in public schools, so that you know
00:56:00
what's going on and how you can get involved.
00:56:02
And if you want to, you can reach out to Leandra and.
00:56:06
Yeah, that's basically it. We'll see you all in the next
00:56:08
one. Everyone, Have a good night.
00:56:10
Thanks again, Leandra. Thank you so much.
00:56:14
All right. Good night.
00:56:15
Good night. Thank you for listening to
00:56:30
another episode of California Underground.
00:56:32
If you like what you heard, remember to subscribe Alike and
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