Tuesday, May 10, 2022

HCSD Watch: The Fifth School Board Candidate

On April 30, Gossips published the background information provided for the four candidates on the ballot running for seats on the Hudson City School District Board of Education: Willette Jones, Lakia Walker, Kjirsten Gustavson, and Mark DePace. Today, Gossips publishes this statement from Ọṣun Zotique, who announced their write-in candidacy last Friday.
It is my pleasure to be running a write-in ballot campaign for the Hudson City School District Board of Education election, which takes place on Tuesday, May 17, 2022.
Allow me to take a few moments to outline my experience, credentials, and view of the issues at hand, especially as a: current Hudson CSD Substitute Teacher; second generation American; Executive Director of LGBTQIA+ nonprofit OUTHudson 501c3; Certified NYS K-12 Educator; PhD candidate in Education; former Board of Trustees member of Berkshire Country Day School; Harvard Certificate of School Management/Leadership alumnus; and Columbia County’s future first trans*non-binary elected official.
The City of Hudson, one of upstate New York’s most beloved municipalities, continues to benefit from the riches of our community’s history, spirit, and talent. As a Trustee of Berkshire Country Day School for two years, I am well acquainted to the multimillion dollar educational enterprise, as well the all fiduciary duties-- representation, governance, stewardship, and advocacy. This is my mindset in approaching the important and cautious task of stewardship that is leading on a Board. I look forward to close study of any and all past, present, and future materials and dialogue with Board peers on all matters.
I was proud to write a letter of support the DEI implementation process (unanimously approved) and continue to look forward to supporting the School District in meeting and exceeding the spirit and letter of the NY DASA (Dignity of Students Act).
On a personal note, my mother, a Cuban-American immigrant, grew up with years of xenophobic taunting in the Clayton County, Georgia, School district in the 1970s. We know, now, that this type of behavior has no place in our schools. I am very committed to equality of opportunity and passionate about racial (and linguistic) justice work, closing the achievement gap, and collaborating in our community’s unfoldment into continuous improvement of educational excellence.

9 comments:

  1. Linguistic justice -- well that explains his inability or unwillingness to write in a grammatically correct fashion. That's his and everybody else's right. But it's a freaking red-flag for a Board of Education member in a district as failure-prone as ours. We have the income but not the financial resources of a well-funded private school such as BCD. In short, in a district that struggles to educate its students to communicate at all, we don't have the luxury of supporting (i.e. paying for) "linguistic justice." Our students are going out in to a wide world where they will have to read and write (and maybe do some arithmetic in desperate times) in a manner that permits them to learn and be heard.

    It's both disappointing and distressing that this candidacy will likely gain traction. The district, it seems, is destined to sink further into its self-created mire.

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  2. Commenters should note that Ọṣun Zotique's pronouns are "they/them," not "he." Their credentials, professional background, and lived experiences make them an excellent candidate for HCSD BoE.

    As someone who was bullied verbally ("f*ggot") and physically from kindergarten through all of high school, I for one deeply appreciate those, such as Ọṣun, who stand up and lead on all aspects of justice-for-all, including linguistic justice. Mr. Friedman's dismissive comment above is exactly representative of the kind of regressive attitude among adults (who ought to know better) that allows for our schools to be places where all manner of domination and exertion of "power-over" - including bullying - is excused, accepted, normalized and validated. Words, attitudes, and behaviors that are intended to dehumanize (subhumanize) others are unacceptable in any context and egregiously wrong in places of learning, growth, and human development.

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    1. I whole-heartedly agree with you that dehumanizing language is unacceptable in school or otherwise. But "education" means teaching things and teaching involves communicating and that requires a common language. It's not ok for an educator to make it up as they go along. Their job, especially at the primary level, is to instill a sound and basic education to enable the children to grow. It's not about just self-expression; it's about expression and comprehension generally.

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    2. thank you for sharing your thoughts and most importantly for bravely lifting up the important and unacceptable bullying which occurred in your childhood and - now in 2022 - has no place according to NYS DASA policy.

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  3. I think when Zotique speaks of "linguistic justice" what is meant is "language justice." HCSD recently adopted a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusivity (DEI) policy to address the language barriers that impact many HCSD students. The following is quoted from a press release about the policy distributed by the Columbia County Sanctuary Movement:

    Motivated by language barriers our members encounter in many vital institutions, CCSM administered a short survey to parents, guardians, alumni, and students in Hudson City School District (HCSD) about their experiences with language justice. 96% of respondents said they had never received communications from the district in their preferred languages, which include Spanish, Bengali, Haitian-Creole, and Arabic. Most were unable to participate in parent/teacher conferences due to a lack of interpretation. Some parents and guardians indicated that their child had to be in the meeting to provide interpretation, which is unfairly burdensome and unethical. However, all parents/guardians wished they could play a more active role and said they would do so with more equitable language access policies.

    These barriers contribute to the shocking disparity in graduation rates between English Language Learners and native English Speakers. In the 2020-2021 school year, only 38% of ELL students graduated versus 83% of their native English-speaking peers.

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    1. Are you going to recast Gossips so that it now available to the wider disenfranchised community ? That might help the community more greatly understand what is going on here.

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    2. I googled the term and found something quite different.

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    3. I would like to respectfully point out that Gossips of Rivertown is under no obligation to follow School Board DEI policy, and also, what a fun thought to imagine a world free of linguistic barriers? Fantastic.

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  4. The following comment was submitted by Yvonne Jehenson:

    I know Osun from my own exercise class - they’re teaching techniques, their understanding of the diversity of the group, and their ability to cater to the diverse needs of a group is remarkable, and I support them for Board of Education.

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