By Mario Lotmore | Lynnwood Times Staff
Contra Costa County, Cali., February 20, 2021 – The entire board of trustees for the Oakley Union Elementary School District (OUESD) resigned after they made inappropriate remarks about parents during a Zoom meeting on Wednesday, February 17, that was unknowingly being broadcast to the public.
The Oakley Union school district is located east of San Francisco and serves around 5,000 students.
In a statement on February 19 from the district’s Superintendent Greg Hetrick, he announced that Contra Costa county board members will serve as an interim board for the district.
“I want to inform you that Board Members Kim Beede, Erica Ippolito, Richie Masadas and Lisa Brizendine have submitted their resignations from their positions on the OUESD School Board.
“For OUESD, this will mean that current county board members will be serving as interim board members for our District until official OUESD Board Members are selected in accordance with Education Code 5094.”
Included in the statement was an apology from three of the four ousted school board members – Kim Beede, Erica Ippolito and Richie Masadas.
“Please do not let our failure in judgment cast a shadow on the exceptional work that our teachers, administrators and hard-working employees are doing for the students of this District. They deserve and will need your support as you move forward.”
However, during Wednesday’s meeting the School Board Members had a much different tone.
School Board members openly discussed implementing a three-minute time limit for public comments with glee.
In the meeting, at the 5:35 mark in the video, trustee Beede could be heard saying, “Are we alone?” before adding, “B—- if you’re going to call me out, I’m going to f— you up.”
Board members then appear to laugh at Beede’s comment.
In the apparent jab at parents who are requesting a return to in-person learning, the president of the school board, Brizendine then said, “They forget that there’s real people on the other side of those letters that they’re writing,” and then added, “It’s really unfortunate that they want to pick on us, because they want their babysitters back.” Currently the district only allows distant learning.
At the 6:25 mark, Masadas asserted that parents want their kids to return to the classroom in order to do drugs.
“My brother had a delivery service for medical marijuana and his clientele were parents with their kids at school,” trustee Masadas said.
“When you got your kids at home, no more smoking,” he added.
All board members found his comments amusing and laughed.
Uh-oh,” said Beede, when she realized their meeting was open to the public. “We have the meeting open to the public right now.”
“Nuh-uh,” Brezendine responded, after which the meeting was then switched to private.
