TV Santa Barbara comes away with four awards

AwARDs

Continued from Page A1 experimental production, “EMME YA: The final Expedition,” winning the community producer award for Best Experimental production as well. It was produced by Berkeley Community Media and is a lyrical piece of work with original music and original choreography. The second Best of Show Award went to the Sacramento Gay Men’s Chorus for its show “Holiday Hits with a Splash of Class,” which aired on Access Sacramento.

The Sacramento Gay Men’s Chorus also won the professional producer award for the Best Arts, Entertainment, and Performance category. It was described as having both beautiful sound and picture.

TV Santa Barbara won these awards:

• Arts, Entertainment, and Performance:

Community Producer: “La Boheme Fiesta Special.”

• Community Event:

Student Producer: “Juneteenth Event Coverage.”

• Magazine Show:

Community Producer: Wade and Debbie Nomura: “Carpenteria Living.”

• Program/Channel

Promotion:

Student Producer: Rebecca

Brand: “Flags on State Street”

In other awards, the city of Lompoc won the Community Producer award in the Public Service Announcement category for “Be Part of our Lompoc Lifeguard Team.”

Santa Barbara resident

Lisa Lang, founder of Spread Goodness, and Jake Potts won the Community Producer award in the Community Issues category for

“Keep the Funk: Part 1.” ECTV CAPS Media Center, based at El Camino High School in Ventura, won Student Producer awards in separate categories for “Arts About Agriculture” and “Chumash Elder Julie TumamaitStensile.” email: cbeeghly@newspress.com

Ranjana Mehra won the Community Producer award in the Educational Access category for “Cleaning Up the Guadalupe Watershed”(KMVT-15). Other awards went to entities throughout California and other western states.

Critics recommend parent’s rights policy used in Orange County

Ballard

Continued from Page A3

Carla Ford, another public commenter, said:

“I do want to thank Pam Rennick for being our fearless leader and for protecting our students and being so wonderful. I want to thank the Conroys for everything they have done for our school and for how much time they have put into our school … Whatever you decide to teach your children in your home, I hope that you consider kindness as the most important thing …”

Another commenter, Rebecca Smith, shared a different perspective.

“What happened in the fourth-grade classroom is an upsetting situation,” she said.

“There are several families now that have voiced their concerns, I know Pam is aware of that. The board has heard from some of them.

“This is by no means a privacy issue as described by Pam. The issue doesn’t lie in a child changing his name. The issue is that Pam brought in two parents to discuss a controversial topic with a class of students without anyone’s consent,” Ms. Smith said.

“I think it is very important that the board thoroughly consider the way in which this situation was mishandled.

“There are only two possibilities as to how Pam Rennick decided to handle this situation. The first is that she made an influential decision with an agenda in mind, or she was completely naive and did not realize what would come from her controversial decision,” Ms. Smith said. “Either explanation of the decision is unacceptable. This is the leader of our school, the one who needs to be making decisions that are best benefitting our children, their families, and our teachers. The decision was reckless and concerning and an abuse of power was shown by Pam and Sean Conroy.

“I find it appropriate that Sean Conroy resigns after seeing his lack of discernment in this situation. As for Pam, there is now an irreversible lack of trust in your ability to make decisions for our children,” Ms. Smith said.

“You broke the trust between yourself and a teacher who gave you a warning that this was inappropriate. That teacher was put in an awful position, one she never should have been put in.

“Our teachers need to be listened to when they voice concern, and in this case, Mrs. Young was completely disregarded. With that said, I am proposing that our school create a parent’s rights policy. I am asking that the policy be put on the March agenda as an action item …”

Ms. Smith referred to a parent’s rights policy that was unanimously voted in recently by the Orange County Board of Education.

“I strongly believe it’s what we need here at Ballard,” said Ms. Smith. She provided copies of the policy to the board. “I am asking for complete transparency to be put in place in our classrooms. Parents need to be notified any time an outside person is brought into our classroom ...

“If you can’t send an email about what is being taught to our children, then you absolutely should not be discussing it with them …” email: kzehnder@newspress.com

Several other commenters spoke on both sides of the issue.