We, the below signed WCCUSD parents, students, family and community members, urge the WCCUSD board of education to elevate Trustee Jamela Smith-Folds to 2022 Board President. Trustee Smith-Folds was elected and served a full year as 2021 Board Clerk in training to take the role as Board President. Smith-Folds is hard working, responsive to the community, a trained educator, sensitive to our students and teachers and their needs. She seeks the truth and solves problems. She is well qualified and fully trained to serve effectively as our 2022 Board President in these troubled times.

The policy of the WCCUSD Board is to foster a fair rotation of board leadership among board members and the bylaws specifically states that the board clerk shall be elevated to Board president after a year of service as Clerk.

However, on Wednesday, December 15th, 2021 the WCCUSD Board of Education disregarded its own bylaw and voted Trustee Otheree Christian into office as board president. This action was in direct violation of the board’s own bylaws. There was no discussion or debate on the issue. It was accomplished merely by political trickery to suit one board member's political plan.

WCCUSD Board of Education By Law 9100 reads in part as follow:

"The Board Clerk will replace the outgoing President....This procedure will be followed except in unusual or exceptional cases”.
WCCUSD has recently spent thousands of dollars on an outside equity auditing team. One of the team's primary findings was that THE DISTRICT HISTORICALLY FAILS TO FOLLOW THEIR OWN RULES AND PROCEDURES AND THIS LEADS TO DISCORD, DISORGANIZATION AND DISTRUST. The Board’s failure to follow their own bylaws in this instance is a clear example of why parents, students and community members grapple with trusting our board and our district.

In the time of COVID-19, parents, teachers, and our community need to be able to trust that our leaders will act fairly, logically and in accordance with established rules of fair play. Trustee Smith-Folds is one of the most committed, hard-working and fair-minded elected officials we have on the board.

Sign our petition, send an email to board members, and call into public comment at our next school board meeting on Wednesday, January 19th, 2021 at 5 PM to demand that Smith Folds be installed as 2022 Board President immediately.