Notes from the Board Meeting - 9/23/2025

At the last FMSD Board meeting on 9/23/2025 items of interest were presented and voted on:

• Consent Item 8.03 “Memorandum of Understanding between Caminar FAST Program and Bridges Academy for the 2025-26 School Year

A FMSD Community Member shared their notes/comments with the Board members and with the Superintendent at the meeting:

From the MOU, ‘Families and Schools together ‘(FAST) program with Bridges Academy for (3) one-hour healthy relationship violence prevention group/workshops to youth and or caretakers for Bridges school.’

The MOU requests: ‘If you are contracting with an outside agency, provide some information on the organization-who are they?’

So, Let’s take a closer look at who Caminar is from its website:

‘Supporting individuals and communities with complex mental health, substance use, and overall wellness needs. Providing counseling, psychotherapy, psychiatry, medication management, and culturally competent care.’

In the September Newsletter announcement: ‘We have a couple of exciting events to share with you. our dazzling drag benefit show ………. on National Coming Out Day - Saturday, October 11th! …….. Expect fierce drag performances, music ……It’s an all-ages extravaganza, and everyone’s invited!’”

The FMSD community member asked the Board members and Superintendent Cruz: “Are you comfortable inviting parents to a Caminar Drag Queen show? Will you tell parents who Caminar is? If not, why continue the contract? Because it is free? Superintendent Cruz, how will this benefit your students from a contractor with hidden agenda?”

***I requested this Consent Item 8.03 to be pulled, so that I could ask a few questions.

I addressed Superintendent Cruz:

“It was mentioned that Caminar sponsored or will sponsor a Drag Queen show. What would we do, or how would we handle that, Superintendent Cruz? Would it be publicized to the community? Would we ask for their input? Would we give the parents the opportunity to opt out? How would we handle that? Since this is an organization, we’re considering a contract with.”

Superintendent Cruz responded, “So what you heard was an announcement of an event that is not attached to our schools.”

I responded, “I got that.”

Superintendent Cruz, “What this organization does with other programs, other services that are not tied to our schools, I don’t know. This is not an event or service that this organization would be providing at our school. This organization through funding through the city would be providing relation violence prevention, workshops for teens, with parent permission. These services would not be provided unless the parent has opted in and given the permission of their child to participate.”

My questions were NOT answered! MY concern (and that of the FMSD community member) was: Since this organization, Caminar, has recently sponsored events like Drag Queen shows in other districts, what will we do, and how will we respond to the occasion of this same organization, Caminar, bringing these kind of events to our district?”

The answer the superintendent gave, with the other 4 Board members agreeing with a YES vote on this Agenda Item, was basically, ‘It hasn’t happened here’, yet.

My concern was we should NOT sign a contract with an organization, Caminar, that has a record of bringing controversial events like a Drag Queen Show into school districts. We don’t need that here! In my opinion, we don’t need to contract any services from an organization that has demonstrated a history of bringing culturally divisive, non-educational, and not socially/emotionally benefical to our children in our schools.

Look beneath the surface to see what’s really there!