Bay Area school board member faces probe after saying parents should ‘take a rope and string up’ female colleague over $250K spent on ‘Woke Kindergarten’ program despite terrible test scores

A California school board member is facing a formal investigation after telling a colleague she deserved to be “hung” for investing in a controversial “Woke Kindergarten” program.

Hayward School Board member Joe Ramos on Jan. 24 questioned the district’s $250,000 spend on an “abolitionist” curriculum called Woke Kindergarten, despite abysmal math and English scores.

He made the comments during a crossfire with Sandra Escobedo, director of supplemental and concentration services, as she answered questions about the district’s budget.

“I find some of what you said today troubling,” Ramos said. “Some of these parents here should take a rope and tie you up. I think there’s something wrong with you…’ and was promptly interrupted.

There were exclamations from stunned parents in the audience, prompting board chairman Peter Bufete to raise a point of order.

“We’re not going to say things like that at this board meeting,” Bufete said.

Ramos apologized before continuing his questioning of the program, which he said was run by “socialists.”

Woke Kindergarten bills itself as a “global, abolitionist early childhood ecosystem and visionary creative portal,” based on the idea that the education system as it is, steeped in racism and other oppressive structures, cannot be reformed.

The program aims to “support children, families, educators, and organizations in their commitment to abolitionist early education and pro-Black, queer, and trans liberation,” according to the website.

Founder Akiea “Ki” Gross is black and non-binary, according to their pronouns.

The Hayward Unified School District has put $250,000 in federal funding into a three-year contract with the program.

However, the decision has been mired in controversy since test scores reportedly dropped at the end of the second year of the contract.

Glassbrook Elementary saw math proficiency drop to four percent and literacy drop to 12 percent last spring. The scores represent a decrease of 4 percent in each category.

The elementary school also remains at the state’s lowest performing level on the Comprehensive School Improvement list and has a lower attendance rate than before the program’s introduction.

Woke Kindergarten has not been blamed for the drop in scores, but critics say the money blown into the anti-racism program could have been much better spent teaching students to read and add.

The district itself has about 18,000 students, two-thirds of whom are Hispanic or Latino and nearly 75 percent of whom come from low-income families.

Ramos apologized for the comments Monday, but said the district insulted him by putting $250,000 into the Woke Kindergarten program.

A letter signed by several prominent administrators alleged that Ramos had also “embraced hateful views” in the past, “which members and allies have repeatedly labeled as inciting violence that endangers our students.”

“At last Wednesday’s board meeting, Trustee Ramos crossed the line and directly incited parents to execute a HUSD employee with whom he disagreed,” the letter continued.

In May, Ramos again drew the ire of the community for his statements against LGBTQ support in schools.

During a board meeting, he claimed the district was trying to “indoctrinate” students through its pro-LGBTQ policies.

“If you’re gay, that’s your business,” he said at the time. “Don’t take it to the schoolhouse.”

Following his most recent comments, the school board held a special closed session. Ramos was not allowed to participate.

Heather Figueroa, an employee who works with Escobedo on the education services team, described his comments as “unconscionable.”

“He clearly doesn’t have the same values ​​as the rest of the district,” Figueroa said during her defense of the Woke Kindergarten program.

“He must be removed from his seat so he cannot cause further harm to staff, students and families.”

The four board members who served with Ramos later issued a statement saying the “offensive and inflammatory comment” was being formally investigated.

The board cannot dismiss him from his position. This can only be done through a recall campaign or regular elections.

“We cannot allow anyone to be humiliated or attacked in this way at our public board meetings,” Bufete, Sara Prada, April Oquenda and Ken Rawdon wrote in the statement.

They noted that Ramos had used “language that evokes racial violence.” Both he and Escobedo are Spanish.

The Woke Kindergarten program was criticized by teachers themselves.

Tiger Craven-Neeley, a third-grade teacher at Glassbrook Elementary, said he found the training confusing.

He said he was told the main goal was to disrupt “whiteness” in schools and that the sessions were “not a place to express white guilt.”

Craven-Neely found himself questioning the “so-called United States” formulation and the lessons asking students to think about a world without police, money or landlords.

The Woke Kindergarten curriculum includes a “Woke Word of the Day,” including “strike,” “ceasefire,” and “protest.”

It refers to students as ‘comrades’ and claims to offer them a ‘language of resistance’… to introduce children to liberating vocabulary in a way that they can easily digest, understand and, above all, use in their critique of the system. ‘

Last week, Hayward Superintendent Jason Reimann told the Chronicle he defended the district’s choice to enroll in the program.

“We are 100% in favor of abolishing systems of oppression that hold our students back,” he said.

“What I do believe is that we should choose providers based on their work and how effective they are.”

Reimann said Woke Kindergarten was not hired to improve test scores, but that “helping students feel safe and whole is an essential part of academic achievement.”

But he admitted: “I understand it’s more money than we wanted to spend.”