By Khalida Sarwari
When the Los Gatos-Saratoga Joint Union High School District decided to implement a new rolling block schedule at Saratoga High School, the decision didn’t come without consequences.
Parents were upset that it meant reduced instructional time and would negatively impact their children’s extracurricular activities, among other things, while teachers were concerned about the emotionally charged reactions they were seeing from the school community and students who found themselves caught in the middle of the debate without say in any of it.
But one fallout few people saw coming was the questionable extremes some were willing to go to show their disapproval of the schedule change decision.
On Feb. 10, Ronda Vierra, a speech therapist and member of the schedule advisory committee formed in August by superintendent Bob Mistele to align the schedules across the district’s two high schools, sent an email to the Saratoga News in which she alluded to an email by Michael Boitz that was mentioned in an article printed on Feb. 5. That article had misquoted Boitz, a music director at Saratoga High, as attributing the cancellation of a school concert on Jan. 25 to “the temperament in the community and the level of lunacy that has been influenced.”
In her email, Vierra, who identifies herself as the vice president of the LGSUHSD Teachers’ Association, claims that email “was not one that Mike Boitz sent out, but an adulterated version posted by a parent on a Nextdoor site online.” The wording in the original email that Vierra provided actually went like this: “the temperament in the community and the level of discontent and confusion.”
The Saratoga News has learned Boitz’s original email was fabricated by a member of the Saratoga community. This version of the email informs students to consider the canceled event a night off, adding, “and maybe a victory for those in the Saratoga community preferring you spend the time taking your various test scores a few points higher.”
The note continues: “Enjoy an unexpected night off, and we’ll have more of these for you to enjoy soon enough, and certain to remove other commitments on the calendar in the coming months.”
Meanwhile, Boitz’s original email directs students to take the night off and ends simply with: “We’ll regroup on all of this.”
For his part, Boitz provided a short statement in which he said he didn’t ask Vierra to contact the Saratoga News.
“Yes it was a misquote and like a doctored email, but you know in all honesty it’s not that big of a deal,” he said, adding, “Ironically, it does kind of express how I felt anyway.”
And while he said he isn’t holding any grudges, he’s “more upset with people onNextdoor.com and WeChat and all these gossipy websites.”
Nevertheless, the incident underscores the negligence on the part of this newspaper for failing to confirm the quote from the email before printing it. The Saratoga News received the email from a Saratoga High School parent, who very likely was just as duped as members of this newspaper staff. But the incident also highlights the desperate measures some in the community have resorted to in order to express their disapproval and frustration with school administrators.
Furthermore, this newspaper would like to clarify a statement in a follow-up article on Feb. 12 regarding a “3-2 vote” by the Los Gatos-Saratoga Joint Union High School District board of trustees in January. The board never conducted a formal vote on the issue. The advisory committee’s schedule recommendation was merely that–a recommendation. And following their report, superintendent Bob Mistele expressed his intention to move forward with their recommendation. Board president Cynthia Chang and clerk Katherine Tseng asked to place the item back on the agenda for the following board meeting, but they were not supported by their fellow board members.
The Saratoga News will continue to cover this story as it develops.
Link: Saratoga school schedule: Altered email creates even more controversy
