Emotions ran high at a Stockton Unified School District town hall Thursday night, where board members and the district’s superintendent listened to concerns from the community in response to a scathing grand jury report released earlier this summer.
A particularly tense moment occurred when Stockton Unified Board of Education President Cecilia Mendez moved to close the town hall a little over 15 minutes after it began.
Though the district boardroom was packed, only a handful of community members initially filled out speaker cards to get their three minutes at the podium. Mendez then promptly began to adjourn the session, unleashing a wave of anger through the audience.
Attendees admonished interim Superintendent Traci Miller and board members for moving so hastily to close the scheduled two-hour meeting, especially before addressing any of the concerns initially raised. Some community members even began passing around and filling out speaker cards so they could keep the town hall going.
One SUSD staff member, who would only identify herself as Kristin H., described the move to shut down the meeting so early as “absolutely appalling.” Many were concerned that there may have been people still on their way or simply waiting to comment until they’d collected their thoughts.
“Even if there are no comments being read out at the moment this meeting should still be open,” Fix SUSD Co-Founder David Sengthay said, noting that there was an expectation the town hall would last two hours.
Each time staff told Mendez there were no more speakers in the queue, additional attendees headed to the podium in an attempt to stall, with some even just standing there silently or chatting with the crowd as they ran down the clock.
The town hall ended up lasting nearly the entire two hours. …
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Cassie Dickman 