Hayward Community March from Weekes Park to Hayward Unified School District Office

On Friday, April 20th, Hayward parents and students met at Weekes Park to march to the District’s Office. The meeting between the community and Superintendent Dale Vigil began around noon. Leader of Families in Action, Araceli Orozco, had suggested the meeting to provide the community with more information about the work stoppage. Orozco invited only Superintendent Vigil. Before the meeting began, crowds of people shouted “Parents united, we’ll never be divided” and “No injunction!”
“We want to get a settlement and get everything taken care of,” said Vigil. “We filed an injunction which means that it will require teachers to go back to school because we need students back in school.” An injunction is a court order requiring a person to do or cease doing a specific action. This court order could be effective as soon as next week should the court follow through according to Vigil.
STAR testing is expected to begin “Monday, April 23rd and a failure to show a 95% participation rate will result in the District falling into Year 2 P.I (Program Improvement) status. In addition, the District’s Advanced Placement students must be tested on May 7th or lose credit for A.P. classes taken this year. Furthermore, those students accepted to colleges and universities are at risk of losing their acceptances because of inability to complete courses and/or graduate,” stated in an online letter from H.U.S.D.
At the meeting, parents, students, and Vigil agreed to communicate respectfully, but according to Tennyson Freshman, there were “mean” comments.
“They’re [Parent-teachers and parents] yelling and talking out of turn.”
Many were upset about the district getting a raise.
“You [District] deserve your money but the teachers don’t?” said Soledad Padilla, a Veteran Teacher of Burbank Elementary, President of Association of Community Organizing for Reform Now (ACORN), and a mother of two children attending Burbank.
According to Vigil, his salary, negotiable with the Board of Education, was already set on the application
“You [Vigil] saw the potential to take their [the district’s] money,” said Padilla. “You’re worried about bankrupting our District? You’re bankrupting education!”
Students and Parents still demanded their teachers get the raise “they deserve.”
Vigil argued that the District needs enough money to budget for three years in a row.

*Other writers includes Charmaine Natnat Gayle Natnat and Christopher Osti