On July 22, Board members, David, Josette and Lisa met with Superintendent Jason Sutter, who continues to be invested in listening to the community, hearing us out, and working within his role and capacity. Below is a summary of our meeting.
He has scheduled the presentation of two possible flag policies for September. This will give the Superintendent time to work with administrators, staff, and students to develop the draft policies. He would also be surprised if the issue is fully resolved in September. Board policies often require multiple revisions, and because two drafts will be presented to the Board, the process could take some time. Therefore, the flag issue will not be on the August agenda.

1. We discussed some of the flag policies and board processes at neighboring communities in general to note differences and similarities. For example, in some districts more populated, they have two Youth Voices who gives reports to the Board during the school year, whereas here, we have one.
2. We had lengthy discussion about ways to improve public input at board meetings and office hours.  He is asking the board to consider different ideas to restructure some of those processes. We discussed some of the limitations that he currently is beholden to, such as the Brown Act that makes gathering outside of board meetings difficult. It is also difficult to get the public to attend town hall meetings – so perhaps giving more notice and wider promotion would help.
3. We proposed the idea of separating out the pride flag discussion from other flag or flagpole discussions, and also the idea of telling the board to just “stop it”, meaning, stop making this political, and let’s get back to the business of running our schools.  He does not seem open to those ideas as he serves at the pleasure of the board, and he does not feel he has the leeway to change direction.  He feels like he proposed a path, and that he needs to follow it through.
4. There are training ideas Sutter has been working on providing for the school staff.  He was reminded of the Positive Images curriculum that was in place in 2024 as a result of work done around ensuring the policies that mandate Title IV training were implemented. Lisa did re-send him that information discussed at our last meeting. We feel at this point, we need to go to Dr. Amy Carter who is the County School Superintendent to discuss strategies to ensure the district is following through with mandated training.
5. He was very open to and excited about the idea of Ellie Krug providing training to the board.  He agreed that the board has probably never has specific LGBTQ training. He asked me to send him that information. In fact, Jason himself will attend the Workshop with Ellie Krug described below and he will extend the invite to SVHS Trustees as well.

In general, he was open minded, supportive of Wake UP Sonoma and of our advocacy and wants to continue to collaborate.  

BUT DON’T LET UP ON LETTER WRITING!
Write your letter now, anytime this summer. Send it to all five trustees [SEPERATELY]  and Superintendent Jason Sutter 
Find their emails here:
Sonoma Valley Unified School District – Board of Trustees

PRIDE FLAG LETTER KIT HERE
SSA-Keep-the-Flag-Flying-Kit.pdf

As more than a side note, we officially have identified one new School Board Candidate running for District one. Her name is Susan Mcintosh and she lives in Glen Ellen. She is very interested in the Pride Flag issue, and hopes to get up to speed on all related issues in the coming days and months. We will report out on our meeting with her in August.

ALSO – The Pride Flag Team will be meeting with an attorney at the ACLU on Monday July 27th. We will report out after that meeting as well.
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