Hi Chris,
Today parents from Eastman ES and many UTLA members as well as activists from Centro CSO https://centrocso.wordpress.com/ shut down the regularly scheduled Extera Board meeting. About 8 speakers addressed the board during public comment and after they gave their public comment, we continued on with the meeting as planned and we made it through about 5 agenda items. Out of no where, those in the room started chanting in the board meeting and we were never able to establish order after that. Jim tried to engage with them and refute the inaccuracies they were stating. Although he tried to speak with them directly they then began to chant and disrupt the board meeting to the point that we could not resume and we had to adjourn and Extera board members left. In addition to the 8 people in the Board meeting about 30-40 had signs and chanted outside on the street for about an hour after we adjourned. We’re pretty sure everything was streamed onto UTLA live as several of them had their phones up the entire time. Jim is going to meet with a few representatives of the group on Friday here at the Extera home office and he gave everyone his business card. We have over an hours worth of video and one of our school directors sent pictures or video to a staff member in Mónica García’s office.

Sadly, the comments were a lot of misinformation such as statements like:

• Billionaires can’t teach our kids

• There is not an accredited director at Extera

• Extera should pay for their own toilet paper and cleaning supplies and stop using ours

• We don’t want you on the Eastman campus. Will you say right now that you will leave the Eastman campus?

• We no longer want Extera in Boyle Heights. We want you gone. You are not from this community

• There are no parents at this meeting so this is an illegal meeting

• You are rich, go find your own facility

• You took our parent center and our science room and our children are hurt by that

• Monica Garcia should defend public education not sell public education

I’m not sure if UTLA plans to target other charter organizations but we have a feeling that this will happen again at future Extera board meetings. We have some ideas about how to prepare for the next board meeting that we are going to brainstorm together and we will run past CCSA for support. While we welcome public participation in our board meetings we can’t continue to be impeded from conducting school business and we cannot allow our staff members to feel harassed by UTLA while doing their job.

Let us know if you have any initial feedback and we can schedule a more in depth call later regarding plans to prepare for this type of demonstration in the future.

This link should take you directly to it:

https://www.facebook.com/EastsidePCP/videos/339894570202845/UzpfSTE2MjM5NTgwNzExNTIyMjoyNDk5OTk0MTgzMzU1MzYx/

Also, Mary here is that group Centro CSO’s website so we can organize to attend their next meeting: https://centrocso.wordpress.com/

I tried to look up Eastside Parents Against Privatization and they don’t seem to exist outside of UTLA.

Hi Jim,
I mentioned this to Mary but I feel strongly that we have to insist on no cell phones allowed in the room on Friday. You agreed to meet and have a conversation- not to give them facebook fodder. I think it would be against our own self interest to give them more content for their social media. We have phone numbers and emails for a few of the speakers from Tuesday. Mary and I are also going to attend the Centro CSO meeting this evening. If we see some of the same faces we can let them know if they plan on attending Friday video of the meeting will not be allowed or permitted under any conditions. Phones can be placed in a box before entering the meeting or they can not come at all if that’s not something they can agree to. If a phone is taken out during the meeting then that person will be escorted out and the meeting will be over. As we can see, we cannot be naive about the intent of this meeting which is not to clarify or understand anything. UTLA is media savvy. They know exactly what they are doing and this has nothing to do with resolving issues at Eastman.

The ring leader is Ilse Escobar. Here is her contact information from the UTLA website:

Also we have from the sign in sheets Carlos Montes, Centro CSO 213-■■■■■■■■■ ■■■■■■■■■ @gmail.com and Fernando B. Ledezma 323-■■■■■■■ ■■■■■■■■■ @frontier.com. We should let them know ahead of time that cell phones will not be permitted. I just cannot stress enough that we have to prepare for this meeting and maintain control of this meeting or there will be more video on the internet making us out to look bad. We cannot willingly give that to them.

We can create a ticket system for people to claim their phone back at the end of the meeting.

We also need a Fact Sheet and talking points to share with key parent speakers so they can tell their personal story and also add facts and data about Extera with it. That may be something you already have Mary. The PR firm (Larson) we used after the Blue Shield health benefits issue may also be a worthwhile call to give us some basic parameters on how to handle this. I’d like to set up a call with them for tomorrow if possible.

Vicky called me to tell me that she spoke with Ana Salazar this morning who wanted to meet with Mr. Quezada but was unable to so she shared with Vicky that she believes Irma Bernal is helping to organize the Eastman parents against Extera and is also organizing disgruntled Extera parents to join them. She said Irma is sharing “Extera dirty laundry” and is starting a coalition of Extera families at Breed and 2nd street as well. She said Irma is making phone calls and getting the word out to parents to help UTLA fight against Extera to get Extera closed down.

I asked Vicky how true does she think this is and she said it is hard to tell because they have their ongoing feud with one another so it could be more personal than factual but Irma is still angry and embarrassed by being let go from Extera so it is possible.

She also said the 2nd street teachers had no idea and were completely clueless of what was going on with UTLA and Eastman parents at the board meeting and did not know why Jim sent the letter out about Extreme Disruption at the Home Office. She said she met with teachers at lunch today and shared some of the video and gave them recommendations on what to do or not do if something like this takes place on campus. That was good to know and I think it is a good idea to do follow-up with staff and board members on Do’s and Don’ts of engaging with protestors. Aldo from CCSA may have some resources for us to refer to. We have resources from the strike as well.

We’ll need to coordinate next steps with one another soon.

Hi Jim,

Thank you for discussing this with me today. Again, I am so sorry that this occurred. I am sure that your staff and board members were very upset.

In the future, please note that Section 54957.9 of the Government Code (part of the Brown Act) allows the Board to take two possible actions in the case of a willful interruption by a group or groups of persons.

Removal of individuals who are willfully interrupting the orderly conduct of the meeting;

or

In the event that the orderly conduct of the meeting cannot be restored by the removal of individuals who are willfully interrupting the meeting, the Board can order the meeting room cleared and continue in session. In this event, representatives of the press, except for those participating in the disturbance, shall be allowed to remain in the meeting.

Also, please note, per Education Code § 32210 any person who willfully disturbs any public school or any public school meeting is guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall be punished by a fine of not more than five hundred dollars ($500). I would recommend you include notice of this on your meeting notices:

“NOTICE: Any person who willfully disturbs any public school or any public school meeting is guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall be punished by a fine of not more than five hundred dollars ($500).”

Before you move forward to remove individuals from a meeting due to a disruption or clear the room, I would first recommend that the Board try to quell the disturbance by calmly asking the disruptive individuals to stop disrupting the meeting without having to resort to removal. I know you tried that at your meeting and all attempts were met with continued disturbance by the group. Additionally, I would not hesitate to seek the assistance of law enforcement in removing disruptive individuals. You may not have success in removing individuals or clearing the room without law enforcement.

In the event that any employee or volunteer (including board members) are victims of violence or a credible threat of violence Extera may want to consider seeking a workplace violence injunction (a restraining order) to protect the victim. “Credible threat of violence” means intentionally saying something or acting in a way that would make a reasonable person afraid for his or her safety or the safety of his or her family. A “credible threat of violence” includes following or stalking someone, or making harassing calls or sending harassing messages by phone, mail, or e-mail, over a period of time (even if it is a short time). In the situation that arose at your board meeting, I believe that you may have had grounds for a workplace violence injunction with regard to the board member whose car was surrounded and the principal that was followed. That said, if you do not know the individuals who engaged in that behavior, we would need further law enforcement assistance to gather more information for any future incident.

There are quite a few other laws that would allow you to oust an individual disrupting the peaceful operation of the school. I am summarizing these laws below:

Penal Code Section 626.4. The chief administrative officer of a campus or other facility of a school, or an officer or employee designated by the chief administrative officer to maintain order on such campus or facility, may notify a person that consent to remain on the campus or other facility under the control of the chief administrative officer has been withdrawn whenever there is reasonable cause to believe that such person has willfully disrupted the orderly operation of such campus or facility. The withdraw of consent can be for up to fourteen (14) days and individuals must be notified of their right to a hearing.
Penal Code Section 626.7. If a person who is not a student, officer, or employee of a public school, and who is not required by his or her employment to be on the campus or any other facility owned, operated, or controlled by the governing board of that school, enters a campus or facility outside of the common areas where public business is conducted, and it reasonably appears to the chief administrative officer of the campus or facility, or to an officer or employee designated by the chief administrative officer to maintain order on the campus or facility, that the person is committing any act likely to interfere with the peaceful conduct of the activities of the campus or facility, or has entered the campus or facility for the purpose of committing any such act, the chief administrative officer or his or her designee may direct the person to leave the campus or facility. If that person fails to do so or if the person returns without following the posted requirements to contact the administrative offices of the campus, he or she is guilty of a misdemeanor. Please note that this Section specifically states that it the Section cannot be utilized to impinge upon an individual’s free speech rights or freedom of assembly. As such, if the protestors merely spoke during public comment, held up signs, etc. it could not be utilized.
Penal Code Section 626.8 allows the school to direct a person who comes into any school building or any school ground, street, sidewalk, or adjacent public way without lawful business thereon and whose presence or acts interfere with the peaceful conduct of the activities of the school or disrupt the school or its pupils or school activities, to leave for seven (7) days.

Education Code Section 44811 states that any parent, guardian, or other person whose conduct in a place where a school employee is required to be in the course of his or her duties materially disrupts classwork or extracurricular activities or involves substantial disorder is guilty of a misdemeanor.

I have attached a form that you can utilize to oust a disruptive individual from campus (with or without law enforcement support). This form would be followed with a formal letter describing the length of the removal. Please tailor with your letterhead and remove the footer before utilizing. We can assist you in tailoring further and with the follow up letter as well.

Please let us know if you have any questions regarding this email or any of the laws described herein.

Best,

The little I did watch was pretty upsetting I can’t watch it. Mary and I attended a community meeting last night at an organization called Centro CSO which is an organization I would be completely aligned with on every other topic (police brutality, immigration, hatred for Trump, etc) but not on the issue of charter schools. I can’t find the comments section but Vicky said it was brutal as well.

Hello Senior Lead Officer Rios,
My name is Corri Ravare. I dropped by the Hollenbeck station earlier today and Officer Kasinger gave me your contact information. I left you a message today at your office about our board meeting being disrupted by members of the public. I’m hoping we can speak on the phone about this before Monday. Please feel free to call any time of the day.

Extera Public Schools runs two public charter schools in the Boyle Heights and East Los Angeles areas. We serve over 900 families in this community who have chosen Extera as the best school for their child. As a public charter school, our regular board meetings are and always have been open for public comment and participation. Unfortunately, at our last meeting on March 19th a group disrupted the board meeting to such and extreme point that we could no longer conduct business and the meeting was adjourned. We have reason to believe this will happen again at our upcoming meeting on Tuesday, April 23rd at 1pm. The meeting will be held at Catholic Charities of Brownson House, 1307 Warrant Street, Los Angeles, CA 90033.
…
If attendees disrupt Extera’s public board meeting and refuse to leave, we are asking for help from LAPD to assist us with the removal of those individuals or to clear the board meeting completely if necessary. We will make reasonable attempts on our own to quell any situation as we did at our last meeting but if those are unsuccessful, we cannot ask board members or staff to physically remove disruptive individuals.

We thank you in advance for your support because we know you already have many serious matters to monitor to protect residents and keep the community safe. When we speak, I can describe the ways members of the public are welcome to address the board during public comment.

Thank you very much Officer Rios.

Corri Tate Ravare
Chief Operating Officer
3626 E. 5th Street, 2nd Floor
Los Angeles, CA 90063
office: 323-261-0059 ext. 2626
cell: 424-335-8902