The Palo Alto Unified School District, a public district that operates about 20 schools, violated California state law, misleading the public about its ethnic-studies curriculum, a new complaint alleges.
In January, the district’s superintendent, Don Austin, announced an indefinite pause in implementing ethnic studies. A few days later, the district board “completely reversed course,” according to a complaint filed by the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law and the California-based law firm Cohen Williams.
The board had decided in October 2023 that ethnic studies would not be required for graduation until the following year, and no curriculum was presented to the public for review, according to the complaint.
A meeting agenda, however, stated that the district recommended approving the ethnic-studies course for the upcoming academic school year and implementing an ethnic-studies graduation requirement for the class of 2029, starting with incoming ninth-graders in the fall.
The document in the agenda of the purported curriculum was a “brainstorming document” that was “outdated” and filled with dead links, the complaint alleges.
The board voted 3-2 to confirm both the 2029 requirement and the curriculum.
“The board took action on business that was not properly described in the agenda, which was misleading and confusing to the point of frustrating public participation,” the complaint states. “The board also met privately about public matters, which had the effect of excluding the public from any discussion on these items before they were approved by the board,” it adds.
JNS sought comment from the district.
State law requires that the public receive accurate information about agenda items at least 24 hours before meetings are held.
The district’s actions “are part of a concerning trend emerging in K-12 schools, where board members act behind closed doors and without the required public notice in order to approve K-12 curriculum that may be controversial, inflame bigotry and even be unlawful,” stated Kenneth L. Marcus, founder and chairman of the Brandeis Center and a former U.S. assistant secretary of education for civil rights.
The district and its board are guilty of “a blatant attempt to circumvent public opinion and bypass the very legal protections that every individual, and parent, in California possesses,” he said.
