Amy Johnson, Former West Ada School Board Trustee - Zone 2

Got this from a parent today, so thankful and humbled by her words! Congrats to all the graduates (especially my home zone MVHS grads) and their families AND to all the staff who make it happen - it takes a village of intelligent, kind, caring, respectful and thoughtful people over years to get to this day.

Things to do not always go the way one expected or maybe even wanted but time has a way of working out the kinks. I couldn’t be more proud and in awe of Trustee Rene Ozuna, Dr. Bub and the entire admin team for keeping the mantle going and shaking a couple thousand hands today - these leaders deserve all the support and more for being models of what it means to be absolutely 100% focused on kids!

A letter regarding David Binetti, candidate for Trustee appointment, who has a history of threatening, lying, and harassing West Ada Board Trustees and West Ada School District Staff.

Fellow Board Trustees,

I listened to the meeting tonight and as a fellow board trustee was disappointed that the board would not support even a simple request from another board member to add more time to the Zone 4 application process due to lack of applicants. In the past, even when we didn’t agree, this was done as a common courtesy especially when it didn’t hurt anyone or wasn’t an emergency action. We did it for everyone so that each board member was able to get comfortable with their vote and it really helped build a good team.

For my own edification, last week I looked on the West Ada website for the Zone 4 application - it was buried in the Board page not even on the main page - it was really hard to find. Lucas to your point about communication issues, ESL or even parents who are not familiar with the web site never would have found it. I am very familiar and I had a hard time finding it.

As a parent I monitor West Ada social media in Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and Linked In. Not once did I see a posting about the Zone 4 Trustee opening. I double checked the West Ada page today and it was never posted, nor did it go out in the weekly newsletter to all parents on either week. That is a huge miss in communicating with the parents and patrons and was a major contributing factor in the lack of applications.

Trustee Frasure and Trustee Redford, you both ran on building trust with the community, more transparency with parents, and freedom of choice yet in this instance not extending the deadline or notifying parents via social media and the newsletter runs counter to what you both promised patrons of the district. Unless a parent was listening to board meetings, which we all know is rare, they would not have even known to apply. I am actually surprised it was not in the parent e-newsletters - while I do not believe this is the case - missing it there could appear to be intentional and seen as a way to control the outcome by the board chair.

Now lets talk about one of the two candidates you have to replace Trustee Coffelt, Mr. David Binetti. For the new board members I want to provide an overview of the history of egregious threatening, harassing, and disruptive actions Mr. Binetti has had while interacting with West Ada. These are not all of them - this is just the highlight reel.

David Binetti not only threatened every single board trustee last year, he was visibly unstable and angry at a meeting with Trustee Coffelt in late November. So much so Trustee Coffelt called me after and we discussed if David was unsafe to meet with in the future. Another example - David pounded his fists, yelled, and raised his voice in a threatening way in a public location at a meeting with Trustee Ozuna. Mid September 2021, Dr. Bub called me to share that David Binetti told him “I will have your job” on the phone because Dr. Bub and the district were not able to meet an irrational demand timeline on an item he wanted personally. I was witness to Mr. Binetti losing his temper and yelling at the top of his lungs during a meeting with Dr. Bub and another member of the West Ada community at Centennial High School in June of 2021.

These examples are how Mr. Binetti reacts when he doesn’t get his way, and in the example at Centennial he was getting his way but once he realized that he had even MORE demands and lost his temper. He threatens and becomes emotionally unstable and aggressive. Its truly scary to be in the room with him when this happens, but he is smart it usually only happens in one on one situations.

As some of you know I was also personally attacked by Mr. Binetti multiple times - but you want to know what originally set him off and started his attacks on me - the fact I didn’t call him to “run the board meeting agenda by him before it was made public” in August of 2021. He never got over that and it came up multiple times. Mr. Binetti wasn’t a board member nor was he a patron of mine, he wasn’t even a member of administration - but EXPECTED to be able to approve the board agendas. Even board trustees do not do this just Chair and Vice-Chair. After that day he felt it was acceptable behavior to call my cell, threaten and harass me via electronic means, harass my employer, file false complaints against me, send egregious and false emails to the CEO of the company I worked for and to the board chair of my employer. And to spread DISINFORMATION to stir the pot.

Thankfully his multiple, crazy and false complaints were disproven by the Idaho Attorney General and by the former board of trustees who reviewed the law, and the policy. But that didn’t stop Mr. Binetti from harassing and targeting me continually over and over even after he was ruled against. He stopped me one day outside a board meeting and said “Amy I just want to ask you, are you going to resign?” And I responded “David, why would I resign?” And he said “Because you have a conflict of interest.” I asked him what was my conflict and he said that my employer supported masks. I responded “David that’s not true, Blue Cross is not even requiring masks in the office building right now - they do not have a public stance on masks nor do they get involved in school decisions.” He responded well fine, if you are not going to resign then we are going to smear your name and your employers name in the public and recall you- you are going to wish you had resigned.” Later that night, less than an hour later, Mr. Binetti sent out a video that clipped a small portion of my comments from the Aug 24th meeting and twisted my words. I voted to SUPPORT MASK OPT OUT but he made a smear campaign against me and my employer saying I supported masks because of them. He had built that video before he came to the board meeting that night- it was all fake news and pre-planned.

Now let’s for a minute imagine if any of those same things had happened in Rocky Mountain High School to a member of student council or Centennial High School or Mountain View High School. Would you want the leadership at the school to then promote that student who was harassing others to the student council or would you rather that student be suspended for bullying and harassing another student? We all know the answer to that question - bullying and harassing is NEVER okay and should not be condoned or supported by anyone in a leadership position in our schools or on our board.

In addition to this history I have had a number of conversations with current board members regarding their disdain for Mr. Binetti’s behavior. Trustee Frasure when you and I sat down together for the first time at Rudy’s after the election you apologized for what Mr. Binetti had done to me personally and you said you didn’t think it was right and you didn’t support it. Trustee Redford, you said on the night I resigned that you had no idea how bad it had been and you asked me if there was anything you could do. I hope you remember what I said - but just in case, I said I hope you never support putting a person like David Binetti on this board because it says to all kids, parents and teachers that you are willing to allow that kind of behavior and it will change our schools in a negative way.

One of my greatest memories of being on the board is the relationships, respect, and teamwork we all built together. I challenged an 18 year incumbent when I ran for the school board for a number of reasons, but one was because he ran recall campaigns against the other four board members and I just didn’t agree with one trustee doing that to other board members. The voters elected them and that was their choice and a trustee should not interfere with that. Mr. Binetti has the same poor ethics and values - he just was never successful or actually even did the real work to file and run a recall campaign - he just threatened and posted public lies. His tactics are to smear a good persons name and harass their employer - I guarantee he will do it again in a heart beat if he doesn’t get his way on something.

You have a big decision in front of you later this week. Do I wish you had more options - I do. Do I think it would have been better to extend the deadline - I do. Those are not my call anymore though, they are yours, but I do hope for the good of the reputation of West Ada, the culture you want to build and maintain in our schools, and the legacy you want to leave on the kids of our district that are the future of our state — that you do not vote to put a person who lies, threatens, harasses, and is emotionally unstable - on the school board. Especially since you have another option. The choice is yours and it is a big one, it will have ripple effects after it is made, and it will be the first vote that you all will have to make (Trustee Ozuna is the exception) that puts doing what is right above doing what is easy - I hope you show our kids that its always the right time to do what is right. Your actions set the example.

Amy Johnson

Former West Ada Zone 2 Trustee and Parent to 5 kids who graduated or are currently enrolled in West Ada School District

How Idaho Business for Education graded the 2022 Legislature

Worth a read before the May primary. If business leaders have scored a legislator low on supporting education, imagine what your childs teacher might score them. Support our teachers who have literally made the world work these past crazy two years.

How Idaho Business for Education graded the 2022 Legislature Based on five laws that passed — and one bill that failed — IBE gave 51 of Idaho’s 105 lawmakers perfect scores for 2022. INSIDE: Find out how your lawmakers scored.

West Ada has partnered with Education Elements to create a strategic plan that will help shape our district's priorities for the next several year. We need your input!

Be part of the conversation by completing the Community Assessment. This brief questionnaire consists of questions across four domains - Academics & Instruction, Community Engagement, Culture & Climate, and Organizational Resources and should take about 15 minutes to complete. This survey closes on April 27th at 9:00pm.

We thank you in advance for taking the time to reflect on and share your experience as a West Ada employee, student, parent, and/or community member.

Complete the Community Assessment here: https://tinyurl.com/WestAdaS22

Register to be a part of a Focus Group here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScc7JQGuDdi6aSCYbjn5HiwugxAFA4SH1tBHWrVdP16bKZ29g/viewform

Idahoans share their stories on how COVID impacted their lives

A look back at the journey just 2 years ago that started on March 13, 2020 with Idaho’s first case. Well done Idaho Ed News.

Idahoans share their stories on how COVID impacted their lives A former school board member, parent share their life experiences during the past two years of a pandemic.

Stinky Sneaker -- Randy Fout Tribute

Schools and those within them create community. True community is what we all could use a little more of right now, this video is a great tribute and a cool story about how small things can make a big difference in the lives of others.

Thank you West Ada team for putting this together and for sharing!

Stinky Sneaker -- Randy Fout Tribute We are approaching basketball championship season. Good luck to all the West Ada girls and boys teams in the state tournaments! No one would be more excite...

**Update: Mr. Phillips post is removed but his article still exists so leaving these comments.

Since open public comments are not allowed in this group - I have to post my stance on my page and clear up any misinformation that Mr. Phillips has perpetuated. (The irony)

I support public comment and always have, I also support finishing a board meeting before midnight and being efficient with peoples’ time so the board always took public comment on every agenda we had. Sometimes it was written only, sometimes it was a combo of written and verbal and in some cases even when we couldn’t accommodate all testimony in the meeting time, we ensured groups that had a leader got to testify on everyone’s behalf as well as a show of hands from the audience so we could see the position of every person in the room.

Additionally, as stated on public record last night - we held over this board protocol linked in the news article for the new board to look at because we wanted a more expansive change in how the history of public testimony had been happening for years, and wanted the new board’s concurrence. The former board asked to create forum options in our protocols to expand public comment options, but since it was new we wanted the new board to weigh in and finalize. The other protocols adopted in December just documented prior practice with no change. Protocols had never been documented for public transparency.

If Mr. Phillips watched or listened last night, he would have heard that. Instead the fact he chose to spread misinformation and also not do his research and listen to the meeting- says a lot about his lack of credibility as a source of information. If people want the truth, listen or go grab the recording of the board meetings. Anyone can hear straight from the source the position of each board member. The recordings are on the West Ada web site very soon after every meeting.

Had a great time last night at the Governor’s Dinner, with our local government partners, and lots of friends!

Our Governor is focused on education and the future of our kids - looking forward to his State of the State tomorrow with more details!

University of Idaho Friday Letter

University of Idaho Friday Letter The Friday Letter is a weekly e-newsletter from the president. It includes a message from the president, U of I news, features and announcements. It is a subscription-based newsletter sent to employees, students, alumni, parents and other friends of U of I.

Opinion | America’s day-care and K-12 education systems are in trouble

Opinion | America’s day-care and K-12 education systems are in trouble It says something about America’s priorities when people get paid more to work at Target than with young kids.

'A game-changing moment': Meridian council considers schools, affordable housing

Growth in the valley is having many impacts on housing affordability as well as access to services like fire, police, and schools. There is a larger strategic conversation on how to ensure smart growth for the future, so appreciate the City of Meridian for being a great partner in this conversation.

'A game-changing moment': Meridian council considers schools, affordable housing MERIDIAN — Meridian and the West Ada School District will experience “a significant amount of pain,” if leaders can’t figure out how to manage growth and fund schools, West Ada

School board chaos: Tensions continue to rise at meetings across U.S.

When asked, how much of this is ongoing normal tensions versus social media changing the way school boards meetings are experienced was asked. The answer given was across the country in many of the contentious meeting cases a call is put out on social media to anyone to attend the meeting for political reasons. That creates “flashpoints” of individuals who are not associated with the school district or impacted by the decision either as parents, teachers, and students attending the meetings and creating chaos.

School board chaos: Tensions continue to rise at meetings across U.S. Across the country tension at school board meetings between parents and school officials are increasing as debates over mask mandates, critical race theory, and more continue. NBC News' Priscilla Thompson reports.

West Ada election gets political

Do not love the headline, but sharing because this article has the best, one-stop summary of the backgrounds and campaign info for all four candidates on the ballot next Tuesday. There is also information for voters to find out if this is on their ballot—if you live west of Meridian road or East of Eagle you are likely in a Zone that has a trustee on the ballot.

West Ada election gets political Party involvement lies shallow beneath the surface in the race to help lead Idaho’s biggest school district.

This is the kind of emails that some folks send to volunteer board members or post in private groups. Its hard to understand how this kind of thing helps kids.

(Edited to remove the names. While these are public record items; because the family asked—I removed.)

Tonight I received this threatening message for “Marcus”. Recently teachers and those working in healthcare have spoken up about the intimidation and downright vile treatment they are experiencing as they work to take care of kids and those who are sick. For many of us that were residents of Idaho prior to the pandemic or for a long-time/lifetime, the Idaho we have known, loved and are proud of is becoming harder and harder to recognize. The “soul of Idaho” is conservative values and we have ALWAYS valued helping our neighbors, taking care of others, and above all respect for one another. I am afraid for what our state and our education system looks like if we lose those strong core Idaho values.

Analysis: The harsh realities of a children’s pandemic

Covid is impacting our schools and kids harder than last year—here is the data and analysis.

Analysis: The harsh realities of a children’s pandemic Idaho kids are contracting the coronavirus, in record numbers. Some are very sick. Schools are struggling with the effects. And it’s likely to get worse.

West Ada alternative school teacher named Idaho’s 2021-22 teacher of the year

Congrats Todd Knight!! West Ada is lucky to have you educating our kids, and thank you for being a beacon of good and kindness for our students and school community.

West Ada alternative school teacher named Idaho’s 2021-22 teacher of the year Todd Knight, a science teacher at West Ada’s Crossroads Middle School, was also West Ada’s 2021 teacher of the year.

Remembering and honoring all who were impacted and experienced loss on this day.

West Ada - Regular Board Meeting 09-08-21

Recently a parent shared that they felt the school board was not focused on education, “I thought how does this misunderstanding happen?” Realizing most of our 100k parents do not have time to spend watching or attending board meetings, I am posting the recordings below and a small summary of highlights.

On Wednesday we spent all but 10 mins of the 3 hour board meeting focused on educational topics, levy funding, and school policies like Title XI federal changes. The meeting including reviewing the 2021-22 educational outcome targets for this coming school year and setting PERFORMANCE GOALS for leaders before filing with the state. These educational targets include a new districtwide math initiative focused on impacting Idaho’s overall abysmal math scores.

Dr. Bub and teachers are leading the way in the state and doing so by assessing regularly and working in West Ada one child at a time to move our kids understanding of math. The initiatve is one of the significant ways West Ada is using our federal covid funds—to IMPROVE EDUCATION.

West Ada superintendent also recommended not continue one of two tax levies up for renewal— the emergency levy—esentially giving a PROPERTY TAX BREAK to all West Ada property owners.

Linked below is the board meeting recording if anyone would like to listen to our discussions on improving education and policy.

https://youtu.be/ZkVB7jMQiG8

West Ada - Regular Board Meeting 09-08-21 The regular meeting of the Board of Trustees, West Ada School District, is scheduled for Tuesday, September 8, 2021, at the District Service Center, 1303 E. ...

Return local control to our communities and school boards

Return local control to our communities and school boards Stop giving credence to special interest groups trying to divide us.

West Ada’s new superintendent wants to make Idaho’s largest district nationally competitive

West Ada’s new superintendent wants to make Idaho’s largest district nationally competitive “I envision this day when people are calling our school district and saying, ‘Hey, what are you guys doing and can we come visit and see the amazing things that are going on.'” sa…

Every little bit helps! One easy way to give back is to select "Education Foundation of Joint District #2" as your charity of choice on your Amazon account.

AmazonSmile will donate a portion of the eligible purchase price to the organization you select. Together this adds up and we are able to use these additional funds to further help our West Ada Schools, Teachers and Students.

https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/community/how-to-sign-up-for-amazonsmile

If anyone read the comments on my page these last few days they would probably wonder why I would even want to continue this conversation on masks. Honestly I don’t— but what has happened is some individuals either in private facebook groups or through comments have twisted my words or shared where I stand on this issue that isn’t accurate I wanted share where I stand to create clarity and let my voice be my voice — not what someone else says it is.

My personal feelings on masks are that it is time to make them optional. This is why I supported masks optional outside and for summer and will support that for next school year and why I shared that in various comments on facebook or in email this week with many who reached out. I have been there since CDC made their announcement. The real quandry has been when and how to make the change.

A principal told me a story about Friday’s mask optional day at school, there was a girl who was sitting upright in a ball on the floor in the hall. The principal stopped to ask if she was okay, and she responded that she just felt really scared to be around all these kids without masks. This story along with others who have said their kids have sores from masks, or cry putting on the masks break my heart. Knowing we can’t make this work for everyone exactly the way they want is frustrating but we have to be thoughtful about how we implement changes and find ways to create options where ever possible.

The last two weeks of this year have been at the heart of the debate this week, and while it is just 8 more days, I have talked to a number of parents who want mask optional now who have wanted the board to understand that it hasn’t been just 8 days—it has been all year and they are tired and their kids are tired and in some cases emotionally or physically hurt by masks. They want the choice for their family now because of these reasons and more.

For those that want the masks to stay required through this school year they are concerned because for some their kids can’t get vaccinated yet, their child feels safe right now in person with masks required and we promised to keep masks through this year, or that they don’t want their child to miss graduation because of someone not wearing their mask are some of the common reasons voiced.

I voted for masks indoor to remain this year for two reasons only and against my personal views because:

1. We made a promise when we brought 6-12 back full time that masks would remain through this school year. Parents made choices to unenroll in Virtual School and come back to in person because of that announcement and if we go masks optional now they could not go back to virtual this year.

2. Quarantine rules. I looked into ignoring them or making our own and there was too much legal risk. I wanted to see if we could ignore the rule that made one person’s choice impact another person’s quarantine risk — which is what is causing the issues of masked students potentially missing events like graduations because of another students choice not to mask.

The quarantine risk still remains for next year but it is what it is, and parents will have a choice to take virtual if they want to ensure no quarantine time.

I have seen what some folks online have said about me, but none of these folks know me—being on the school board is not a “power trip” position it is a volunteer position and I ran to help improve education—not debate masks or EO laws. I have been focused on two things this year, getting kids back in school and staying true to what I say I will do.

This year I pushed hard to get kids back in school full-time, even when the vote was 1-4 at times because I truly believed we needed that option for kids mental health and education. At the time masks made that push viable so I supported them then.

I pushed hard to maximize our classroom space and create boundary lines to reduced overcrowding and to removed any school enrollment caps — that is done and applies to next school year.

I pushed hard for a community involved process and for a superintendent that was proactive and a leader and has kids in school so is also a parent — because this year showed how much that was needed. We have that in Dr. Derek Bub.

The work to deliver on all these things was done by a ton of people so I don’t want what I said above to sound like I am taking credit, I am not. Those who did the work in administration and in our schools deserve all the credit and appreciation. These were just examples of commitments I made to support and push for change and I stayed true to my word to do that and pushed.

When I say I will support masks optional for fall, I will. I’ll look to Dr. Bub to outline how to make this work operationally and he said he would on June 15. We have vaccines for 12 and up but we still do not have a vaccine for under 12. I understand it is forecasted for September to be available for all kids. I know there are rumors about mandating vaccines—I will never support that. The vaccine does however give more choices for those parents who are uncomfortable with mask optional, so it helps the policy decision to make masks optional for the fall. Vaccine availability for all kids was one area I was concerned about two weeks ago and finding out more on that was important.

There is no stalling tactics, the board actually moved up the decision to June 15 after getting more info, hearing from parents on why a decision sooner helped them, getting vaccine info and hearing from the new superintendent on his thoughts regarding making it work operationally. I understand it feels like we are stalling or delaying the decision because no one will give a definitive answer but there is some due diligence that is needed regarding thinking through “when” and “how” to ensure the decision can be implemented well operationally and to understand the impacts on kids and parents on all sides.

I have personal opinions but the trustee role from my view has to set those aside and consider all sides and impacts—and try to find options that support choices for everyone because choice is what all parents want.

Amy

Gov. Little defends local control, denounces Lt. Governor’s irresponsible abuse of power - Office of the Governor

Gov. Little defends local control, denounces Lt. Governor’s irresponsible abuse of power - Office of the Governor Boise, Idaho – Governor Brad Little issued Executive Order 2021-08 today – “Repealing Executive Order 2021-07 to Restore Local Control” – and provided the following statement to the people of […]