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Press Releases

March 4, 2025 Update
BREAKING NEWS:
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The Palo Alto High School Campanile just broke a news story that the PAUSD School Board received a legal Brown Act complaint regarding its January 23 Special Meeting on Ethnic Studies alleging that:

  1. PAUSD Board Agenda Description is Grounded in a Foundational Falsehood that was Known to Board President and Vice President: the False Description of the Board’s 2023 Action

  2. PAUSD Board President was Non-transparent: Discussed Ethnic Studies with Majority of Board Members Outside a Noticed Public Meeting Prior to the Board’s Vote

 

That complaint states that Board President Segal and Vice President Dharap recommended in September 2023 (while they sat on the Board Policy Review Committee) and then voted yes in October 2023 for an Ethnic Studies graduation requirement starting with the Class of 2030 (Fall 2026 freshman) (5-0 vote). The complaint points out that the January 23, 2025 legally-required agenda description that Board President Segal and Vice President Dharap prepared, however, misinformed the public and other board members, stating that official action that night would merely “confirm” the 2023 Board action for a Class of 2029 (Fall 2025 freshmen) start. They supported this position with false claims throughout the meeting to garner majority support to accelerate the Ethnic Studies

graduation start by a year. Brown Act violations are addressed by a properly agendized re-vote.

 

The complainant, a PAUSD parent, would like the Board to vote to revoke its January 23, 2025 action so the Board and community can “‘revisit this in a calm and deliberate manner …and [the district] communicate in more detail to everyone about what the class content is [to be] transparent and fair."

Palo Alto Deserves a Re-Vote on Ethnic Studies:

 PAUSE PAUSD’s Ethnic Studies Decision Until There is Transparency and

Until the Board Corrects the Misinformation and Procedural Irregularities

 

Palo Alto, CA – March 3, 2025
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On January 23, 2025--at the end of a five hour PAUSD School Board Special Meeting called with only two days advance notice -- the PAUSD Board of Education voted 3-2 to approve a required Ethnic Studies course's content and to accelerate its start date by a year, now set for Fall 2025's ninth grade class.

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This decision came despite long-standing widespread opposition from parents, educators, and community members – including over one thousand four hundred local individuals who petitioned through the Palo Alto Parent Alliance (PA2) – pressing for greater transparency and an opportunity to give meaningful input on the course’s content.

In addition:

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Failure to respond to Public Records Act (PRA) request: At the January 23 meeting, three Board members approved the Ethnic Studies course despite PAUSD’s failure to fill a four-month standing PRA request for the piloted Ethnic Studies course's content and instructional materials, even after being put on notice a week before their vote that "this information is time sensitive, and intended to provide the public with sufficient information to inform the Board vote. PAUSD's excuses and delays have made it impossible for the public to fully participate in that vote, the very intention of the Public Records Act underscored by the California Constitution." PAUSD’s refusal to provide requested information obstructed public participation, violating both the purpose of the Public Records Act and depriving the community of a way to give meaningful input on educational decisions.

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Insufficient, inappropriate, and inaccurate course material:  The same three Board members then approved the Ethnic Studies course "as presented" in the Board agenda packet. The Board agenda packet was comprised of a cursory course description and the very late addition of a 16-page document labeled “Curriculum and Sample Lessons” which contained material Superintendent Austin said was “outrageous [and] would never be a part of a course in this district” and was expressly disavowed by teachers right before the vote. 

 

Irregular meeting procedures: Of the three Board members who approved the resolution, two of them – the Board President and Vice President – conducted the meeting without regard to the Board’s own procedures, rules of decorum and rules of order, ignoring its decades-old two meeting rule, overriding motions they did not support without a vote, and allowing people who supported the proposed Ethnic Studies course and Fall 2025 mandate to repeatedly speak over those who espoused opposing viewpoints.

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As a community, we expect the Palo Alto Unified School District trustees to act in accordance with both the law and the values of our district, including responsiveness to all stakeholders. Yet on January 23, the Board failed these most basic duties set out in the PAUSD Board policies they approve: "hold[ing] themselves to the highest standards of ethical conduct," "ensur[ing] that the district is responsive to the values, beliefs, and priorities of the community," and honoring compliance with the law. 

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For this reason, PA2 calls for the immediate nullification of the January 23 vote and a more transparent, accountable process moving forward, one that fully engages the public and upholds the constitutional rights of all individuals involved.

Palo Alto Parent Alliance

web: https://www.pa-square.org

email: info@pa-square.org

January 23, 2025

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PALO ALTO -- In an unprecedented about-face, tonight the Palo Alto Unified School District (PAUSD) board will be making two critical decisions on a highly contentious statewide issue: whether to mandate Ethnic Studies as a high school graduation requirement and whether to approve the proposed Ethnic Studies course materials as its curriculum.

 

For months, the PAUSD administration refused to provide course materials to parents who requested them.

Yesterday, just hours before the vote, PAUSD published the course outline. With a mere few hours in which to review, the PAUSD Administration denied the public its Constitutional right to give input to its elected officials, and denied the Board an opportunity to exercise their crucial responsibility to thoroughly evaluate and approve instructional content.

 

It is now clear why the district steadfastly refused to provide anyone a meaningful opportunity for input and review.  The curriculum - designed to be taught to 14 year old freshmen kids - contains extreme elements including:

  • In the opening unit on community-building, a resource video teaches: "Sometimes I just I say like, oh, white people do have souls. And my friends are like, 'no, no they don’t.'"

  • Civic engagement resources include the book “Pedagogy of the Oppressed,” which says: “The oppressors, who oppress, exploit, and rape by virtue of their power, cannot find in this power the strength to liberate either the oppressed or themselves.”

  • Resistance content asks and answers this question: “Is AGENCY gained when oppression is resisted? That depends on whether or not the oppression was resisted violently or nonviolently.” (Violent Resistance and Agency and Course Final Essay Exam)

  • In the Identity unit, a video instructs students that “heterosexuality is just as much a social construction as any other sexuality” and “…among the Sambia of the Eastern Highlands of Papua New Guinea, young boys perform oral sex on, and ingest the semen of, older men, as part of a rite of passage of adulthood.”

 

The proposed curriculum demonstrates that for over 12 months, PAUSD administrators have been misleading both the Board and the public. This course is a dramatic departure from the Introduction to Ethnic Studies course PAUSD previewed publicly. 

Rather, this is a college-level Race and Resistance Studies course. Over 70% of it – 13 weeks – is about power, oppression, and resistance with a focus on violent resistance.

 

Race and Resistance studies is a far left political approach to Ethnic Studies – aka liberated Ethnic Studies – taught in college as an elective.  It is not what the CA State Board of Education-approved in its Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum despite PAUSD Superintendent Austin’s statement assuring the public just a month ago that this course is just what the State recommended. ​

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The upcoming meeting is accessible in the ways:

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