Like clockwork, a group of community members and parents at 4 p.m. once a month find their seats at the Coronado Unified School District’s board meeting.
Whether it’s spending or teacher education training, the group members – including a coalition called We the Parents Coronado – regularly make their views known during the public comment periods.
From December to March, Carolyn Rogerson, Anne Sonne, and Jim Fabiszak frequently made their views known about board protocols, committees and curriculum at regular and special board meetings.
“I like to shine a light on the dark places.”
-Coronado resident Carolyn Rogerson
“I like to shine a light on the dark places,” Rogerson said, adding she’s not a member of We the Parents Coronado.
However, other community members told The Coronado News that while a small group often acts as watchdogs over the school board and district, they don’t necessarily represent the will of the community. And while members of We the Parents Coronado constantly call upon the school district for more transparency in policy decisions and spending, the group only has private meetings that are not open to the public.
Laura Wilkinson told The Coronado News in an email she considers the usual public commenters as the same handful of people whose input to “duly elected officials” have disrupted school board meetings for more than two years.
“While they may continue to rant at public meetings and in the media, elections have consequences,” said Wilkinson in a written statement. “Their representation in our town does a disservice to our community.”
Mueller: Public engagement “valuable”
Superintendent Karl Mueller considers community engagement and voice valuable for a public school district.
“We seek and consider feedback from our constituents in multiple settings and formats, including public comment on agendized and non-agendized items at our monthly governing board meetings,” he said.
Mueller said the opportunity for public input remains the same, regardless of the recent agenda change of 20 minute public comments regarding non-agendized items.
“Our trustees have one evening per month to conduct the business of the district, to hear reports and consider items for action which are necessary for staff to run the organization,” he said. “It is the Governing Board’s meeting; how they choose to structure the agenda in order to adhere to their responsibilities is at their discretion.”
“Tortilla-Gate” controversy lingers
Rogerson said she initially attended board meetings as a local reporter in 2020, and then began making public comments in mid-2021.
She first highlighted the umbrage she felt after a district statement regarding a controversy involving the Coronado Boys Basketball team two years ago.
That incident, dubbed “Tortilla-Gate” after tortillas were thrown at the end of a boys basketball game when Coronado beat a predominantly Hispanic school, garnered international media attention. The California Interscholastic Federation ultimately stripped Coronado of its basketball championship, infuriating many Coronado residents who believed the punishment was overreaching and too severe.
This year, Rogerson shared concerns regarding the district paying for a January equity conference for its educators.
“I’m paying for your salary, my tax money is,” she said. “I have a right to question how you’re spending my money.”
Rogerson questioned the $11,250 spent to send 25 people to the conference, saying she believed the money could have been better used for school safety or air conditioning.
And Rogerson believes not every person who attended the conference was a teacher or administrator.
So, she requested that the names of each person be disclosed.
District defends equity conference spending
The district, the day before its February board meeting, issued a two-page press release that disclosed the names of some employees who attended the event and why the money was spent. District officials have repeatedly declined to say why it issued the release.
“I speak out at school board meetings and I represent nobody but me,” she said. “Nobody ever tells me what to say.”
At the March meeting, Rogerson made the only public comment on non-agendized items, urging the board to consider pending assembly bills from the Legislature that potentially could affect the school board in future matters. No action was taken.
Another regular speaker is Coronado resident Sonne, who said the district needs to be more transparent, and she too became involved at board meetings following the tortilla throwing controversy.
The 72-year-old retired teacher said she has eight school-aged grandkids living on the island, and they may attend Coronado High School.
Existing repercussions
She considers Tortilla Gate “a very unfortunate incident” with existing repercussions.
Other parents have told The Coronado News that other Coronado High School sports teams and family members have been jeered at road games in Hispanic communities because of the tortilla incident even though players on those teams had no involvement in the controversy.
Sonne also mirrored Rogerson’s request regarding the equity conference.
“I asked for clarification about what they were bringing back to the classroom after these equity conferences,” she said.
Sonne has also asked board members for clarity in defining equity.
In 2022, after a year and a half of attending school board meetings, Sonne learned about We the Parents Coronado, a group of parents who meet weekly in private to discussing district matters.
“It was nice to hear and know that there was a group of parents who had similar concerns and who were trying to watch over the academic goals that the school district was trying to implement and that they cared about the kids,” she said
Sonne, however, said her comments are her own and don’t represent the group.
Coronado resident Jim Fabiszak works in business development and participates in We The Parents Coronado or WTPC. It calls itself a grassroots organization whose mission is to “ensure that Coronado Unified School District’s mission aligns with the values of Coronado parents and that CUSD’s primary focus is on academic excellence not social engineering.
The group has a website and is active on social media.
One of its largest issues is fighting against critical race theory, which has been a battleground issue for conservative groups across the nation with public school districts.
What is critical race theory?
Critical race theory is an academic concept that is more than four decades old.
Its core idea is that race is a social construct, and that racism is not merely the product of individual bias or prejudice, but also something embedded in legal systems and policies, according to an article in Education Week.
The 50-year-old Fabiszak said he’s had five of his children attend CUSD schools, and he first got involved in attending board meetings because of special needs issues.
Now, however, he said his concerns have to do with equity issues.
In August 2021, Fabiszak was a spokesperson for We the Parents Coronado at the Californians for Equal Rights Foundation “(CFER) Rally for Unity: Don’t Divide Us!”
That group is a non-partisan, non-profit organization that was established following the defeat of Proposition 16 in 2020. Its purpose is to defend and raise public awareness on the cause of equal rights through public education, civic engagement and community outreach, according to CFER website.
Fabiszak said WTPC began during COVID and is now focused on academic achievement, parent involvement and transparency.
‘Concerned parents’
“I wouldn’t say necessarily there’s any leaders,” he said. “There is just a bunch of concerned parents and community members.”
Fabiszak said he and other WTPC individuals reach trustees through proper channels, via email, or speaking at school board meetings.
He said parents wouldn’t speak as often if the district was more responsive to their requests, and he said the district has not had town halls as promised.
Fabiszak also is concerned that the committee meeting on the high school block schedule known as 4 X 4 is meeting in private.
“Let’s stop with the confidentiality agreements of committees and let’s open it to parent participation, full parent participation,” he said.
Still, Fabiszak considers that this board with four new members who were sworn in at the December meeting is more responsive, more open to discussions, and considers topics that the previous board seemed unwilling to do.
He added the Association of Coronado Teachers, the union that represents educators, has declined a meeting request with his organization.
Fabiszak said WTPC is not affiliated with any type of outside organizations, and his involvement is solely as a parent.
We the Parents Coronado meetings private
And while he’s critical of the district having the 4 X 4 committee meet in private, all the We the Parents Coronado meetings are closed to the public.
He said that’s to protect students of the individuals who are in the group.
“The reason the meetings are closed is because of suspicious activity of some individuals in this community,” he said.
Fabiszak said those who oppose his group have called members “the enemy” and taken photos of group members at school board meetings.
“There are individuals in this community that have a fascination in a negative way in us trying to to assist the district to be better,” he said.
