The "Learning Loss" Extends to Salem-Keizer Zoom Meetings
Because it's clear they have forgotten how to do Zoom meetings
HELLO… HELLO… Hello… hello… hello…
Can you hear *can you hear* me in *me in* the boardroom *the boardroom*…
Even though, for the better part of two years, Salem-Keizer Public Schools conducted school board meetings, and arguably just about any meeting, on Zoom, Covid learning loss has claimed yet another skill in our education system. Remote meetings are just too difficult.
This was live testing for anyone watching online, or on the local public access cable channel to hear, and it’s indicative of the entire meeting. If it was really that complicated, which I know it isn’t, don’t you think a little preparation would be called for? Maybe a practice Zoom session or two when the public that you barred from participating in a public meeting is watching and waiting (which is a “grey area of the law” according to Salem Reporter journalist Rachel Alexander [below] — a very appropriate look for a school board to be in a “grey area”).
The entire meeting was riddled with audio problems. Either they couldn’t hear the presentations or comments coming through Zoom, or the YouTube stream couldn’t hear what was going on. And evidently, even people in the room couldn’t hear other people in the room, because Director Maria Hinojos-Pressey didn’t stand up and give the Pledge of Allegiance to the U.S. flag with every other person on the dais.
That’s gotta be it, right? I mean, she’s participated in the Pledge of Allegiance before. It happens at the beginning of EVERY meeting! She wouldn’t disrespect our nation’s flag as an elected official, would she? Nah…
This super inclusive, extra-equitable board did an entire segment in Spanish because they were using the translation technology to simultaneously broadcast in both English and Spanish interchangeably, only they didn’t turn on the translation to English for the non-Spanish speakers.
And, oh, the joy of public comments. I think you’ll sense a common thread here…
Can you smell the Marxism?
But the true highlight of the evening was public testimony from the chief petitioner for Salem-Keizer Education First’s recall petition of Directors Avila, Carson-Cottingham, and Guzman-Ortiz - Casity Troutt.
Talk about a mic drop! Calm, cool, honest, and true. And she’s exactly right. Director Avila was victim-blaming. ‘Sorry this happened to you, but you caused it’.
Also, referring to the “Community Message” that Superintendent Perry put out, you can go watch the July 12, 2022, Salem-Keizer School Board meeting yourself. There were people from both sides politically at that meeting, but everyone is composed, courteous, kind, and cool. It was almost boring at times, probably as a school board meeting should be.
The missing part of that equation is that LUS wasn’t there! But oh, no, they don’t cause any of the issues, according to Perry. LUS decided at the last minute to not show up, thinking that all the scary “white supremacists” were going to overthrow the meeting, and it turned out to be one of the tamest meetings of the Salem-Keizer School Board I’ve ever watched.
You know what’s going on here. They’re conspiring against you to control the narrative. Keep your eyes open, trust what you see with your own eyes, and your own common sense. Go sign the recall petition, and volunteer to gather signatures from your friends and family.
Let’s get this across the finish line and get the kids back to education!