What lesson will the CUSD teach our kids Thursday night?

The following is the text of my letter to the editor in today’s Review—with one small but important update. [strong]The next CUSD meeting is next Thursday, December 9[/strong], not December 2. Apologies.

I wanted to share this with Coastsider’s readers and give them a chance to add comments.

Dear Editor:

Next Thursday, December 9, the Cabrillo Unified School District governing board will elect its next president.

There are two members of the Board who should not be considered for that position.  Board members Jolanda Schreurs and Charles Gardner participated in a deceit on the community during the November election.

Charles Gardner allowed a small group that included Jolanda Schreurs (who had loaned over $2000 to his campaign) to use his reserved advertising space in the Review, next to the ad of one of his opponents.  Using Gardner’s space, Schreurs’s team ran an ad attacking Gardner’s opponent. The ad was designed by Schreurs to mimic the design of the victim’s own ad. Disguising themselves as "Citizens for Coastside Schools", the team hid behind a fictitious "pending" state campaign ID.

The Review exposed this attempted deception, but only after the election.

Perhaps understandably, other members of board have been reluctant to criticize their fellow members for this stunt. But they should not reward them for it either.

The election of either Jolanda Schreurs or Charles Gardner to the position of president of the board would be a slap in the face of the community and would teach our children the wrong lesson about the district’s idea of ethics, vision of democracy, and choice of leadership.

Cheri Parr
Montara