In the last several weeks, OVSD Trustee President has been all over social media. proclaiming her support of congressional candidates, and more. As she makes her endorsements, many have become concerned as to whether she is representing the full board or not – after all she is the district spokesperson and she is wearing her OVSD nameplate, so clearly she is there in an official capacity, not a personal one.
I wrote the superintendent Dr. Carol Hansen to ask, is she representing the entire board with her endorsement? Was a vote taken? Were they even aware of this?
My messages have gone ignored.
Now this, from a member of the public requesting anonymity:
This report covers DACA comments made by the OVSD board president on 5 September 2017. An audio recording of the OVSD board of trustees is available at the district web site:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B6SG6RCg8M_PZmtTa3lHeENSSFk
At the end of the meeting, after final public comments and therefore no opportunity for public rebuttal, board president Gina Clayton-Tarvin provided a rambling soliloquy of her own views on the DACA issue at the recording time of 02:19:35. A listener can quickly get to this time by scrolling the audio bar forward. Below is a transcribed version of her statement:
I’m just going to say very quickly, I’m very disappointed in our President of the United States of America. He has stated today that he wants to and is going to, he plans to end in six months the DACA program. This will affect our students. I don’t think it’s a good idea and I think our congress needs to intervene and do something that they haven’t done in the past I don’t know how many years even under President Obama. Lawmakers need to make the laws, the President should be there to either accept or veto. I think things are a little out of balance right now. We have a lot of Dreamers in our country who have served the military, have served … are taxpayers, have done what they needed to do because they were told they have the promise of being able to someday have a path to citizenship, and I think that it is shortsighted to want to expel an almost a 800 … what was it 800,000 people, almost a million people. I am totally opposed and I wanted to have that on record because you don’t even know who the Dreamers are, you don’t know who the people are. You may have them working for you, you may have them in your family, you may have them at your school sites. And it’s unfortunate this has arisen as a … being used as a political tool. I think it’s awful.
Trustee Tarvin made a number of comments needing clarification:
1.) Ending DACA “will affect our students”. How? We are an elementary district. How many Dreamers are students in OVSD?
2.) She is disappointed in President Trump, yet he is doing his constitutional duty by reversing the illegal legislating done unconstitutionally by President Obama. That’s inconsistent! She later even points out the proper role of the President. Obama’s DACA executive order was unconstitutional, and now Trumps is correcting that.
3.) She seems to support selectivity in obeying laws. Is she an anarchist? Can I just ignore the 3-minute rule for public board comments because I believe my views justify it?
All good questions, it seems. And again, it seems clear now that Tarvin’s personal politics are at the forefront of her role as trustee president. Parents need to be aware of this, as does the general public, as it clearly seems that Tarvin has little to no concept for the fact that she represents an entire board. As well, are her personal politics taking weight over the needs of students and staff? At what point does the rest of the board attempt to stop her?
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