As we enter the last weeks before the November 6 election, the race for the Santa Barbara school board has become more competitive and politicized. Amid a lack of widespread and sustained local news coverage, some of us, who are working to bring awareness of the importance of electing school board members we can hold accountable, have become concerned about misinformation we have heard in recent days about our group. These are the facts:
Save Our Schools is an ad hoc committee representing a wide range of concerned parents, educators, and community members in the Santa Barbara Unified School District. We came together as a result of the firing of Ed Behrens, the principal at San Marcos High School, an incident that was handled poorly and showed a lack of responsiveness, communication, and transparency from school board embers.
We came together, we mobilized, and we discovered that our schools had some serious problems well beyond what we had ever imagined. This incident helped illuminate issues inside the Santa Barbara Unified School District that affect students throughout the district. We are not a political organization. We are not a partisan group. We are not behind any lawsuits. We are parents, educators, and community stakeholders who are in the district. We want the best, not just for our children, but for every child in the district.