Lucas Valley Elementary school sign installed

New Lucas Valley Elementary sign should be ready soon

Miller Creek School Construction wrecks Heritage Tree

Miller Creek Middle school has embarked on a major construction project in Marinwood and "forgot" to tell the neighbors.  It involves replacing old portable classrooms but the details are not known.  No construction notices or plans announced this project. This 6/20/19 clip shows a backhoe hacking branches off a heritage California Bay Tree (Umbellularia californica ) in violation of Marin County policy.  The backhoe is also digging on a protected  Heritage Site of the Miwok Tribe who occupied this land for 4500 years until 1820.  It was a Miwok village known as Cotomko 'tca.

I believe the Marinwood community will support a responsible project and construction.  We urge the Dixie School district to halt questionable construction practices that harms heritage trees and a cultural site.  

Open communication will go a long way to bridge misunderstanding.

Dixie changes name to Miller Creek Elementary School District

Dixie changes name to Miller Creek Elementary School District

Elementary school name changed to Lucas Valley Elementary School

The sign for Dixie Elementary School sits at the school’s parking lot entrance in San Rafael, Calif. on Friday, Dec. 21, 2018. (Alan Dep/Marin Independent Journal)

By KERI BRENNER | kbrenner@marinij.com | Marin Independent Journal
PUBLISHED: July 9, 2019 at 9:10 pm | UPDATED: July 10, 2019 at 6:12 am


Despite a strong pocket of objections, Dixie School District trustees voted 3 to 1, with one abstention, on Tuesday to adopt a new district name: Miller Creek Elementary School District.

“It is Dixie by proxy,” said Marin name change activist Kerry Pierson, referring to the new name’s connection to the founder of the Dixie School District, James Miller. “All the arguments that it’s after the (Miller Creek) watershed are just — it should be clear to any observer what this is about: it’s about white privilege, white power, in a little district.”

District parent and resident Jason Lewis, a supporter of the name change and a petitioner for Miller Creek, disagreed.

“I don’t believe the word Dixie and the name Miller have the same (racial) significance in this country,” he said. He said accusations that were brought to the naming advisory committee about James Miller “were not based on fact; they were based on speculation.”

Board members Alissa Chacko, Brooks Nguyen and Brad Honsberger, who voted in favor of Miller Creek, said they saw widespread support for the name, not only from former “We Are Dixie” members who wanted to keep the name Dixie, but from people, like Lewis, who wanted to change the name.

“I saw names of people (on the petitions) I never saw before,” Chacko said. “That was inspiring.”

Trustee Marnie Glickman voted against Miller Creek, saying she wanted to respect the work of the naming advisory committee, who rejected Miller Creek twice because of its association with James Miller. The advisory committee recommended Kenne, Creekside and Laurel Creek, all of which were denied by the board. Trustee Megan Hutchinson abstained.

The board also voted 4 to 1 in favor of changing Dixie Elementary School to Lucas Valley Elementary School. Glickman cast the sole no vote.

The new names are intended to be put in place by the time the new school year starts Aug. 22. Marin Community Foundation has pledged to help with the cost of the name changes, which will include new signs, letterhead, business cards, website edits and other items..

Tuesday’s decisions came after the board of trustees in April voted 3 to 1, with one abstention, to change the name of the district and the elementary school to remove the word Dixie. Critics said Dixie was a nod to the racism and slavery of the Confederacy in the Civil War-era South, and was hurtful to people of color and others who found it objectionable. People who wanted to keep the name Dixie said it was part of the community heritage and that they didn’t want to erase history.

After the vote in April, the district formed two naming advisory committees — one for the district and the other for the elementary school — to gather community feedback and narrow down choices for new names for presentation to the board on June 25. Petitions with 15 valid signatures of district voters were required for the district name proposals; the elementary school process did not require petitions.

The issue, which has come up several times before over the past two decades but was not resolved, has roiled the north San Rafael community — and burned through a harsh and bitter trail on social media and at public meetings — for almost nine months. That was after some name change supporters appeared on local TV news in August 2018, including trustee Marnie Glickman, who attended Tuesday’s meeting via teleconference. Some residents who objected to those actions have launched a petition drive to recall Glickman, whose term is up in 2020.

Former Dixie School District Superintendent Jason Yamashiro, who was also one of the people in the TV news broadcast, quit the job earlier this year and left at the end of June. An interim superintendent, Becky Rosales, had her first day on the job Tuesday and was introduced to the community at the start of the Tuesday’s meeting, just before the public hearing. The board is expected to launch a search for a new superintendent in the fall.  See the full article HERE

The Dixie School District Destroys a 200 year old Heritage Tree at Miller Creek Middle School

The California Laurel Tree is estimated to be over 200 years old and was alive

when Miller Creek School grounds were known as the Miwok Village "Cotomko'tca" in the early 1800s

Dixie School District Supervisor, Jason Yamashiro, did not inform the public before ripping this tree down in violation of Marin County's Heritage Tree ordinance.  A few changes to the existing plan could have easily save this treasure.  

The drawings for the renovation at Miller Creek School have never been published.   A public hearing was  warranted but instead the District decided to keep the plans hidden from public view. 

Tom Lai, attorney for Marin County Community Development Department was contacted but said they have no jurisdiction over the Dixie School District.  Apparently, the Dixie School district cannot be bothered to abide by sensible building guidelines..

Jason Yamashiro resigned in 2019 amid the Dixie School District renaming controversy.  His last day is Friday, June 28, 2019. 

California-laurel (Umbellularia californica)

Pacific-myrtle, Oregon-myrtle, California bay, pepperwood, spice-tree

• General Characteristics
• Biology & Management
• Harvest & Utilization
• Wood Properties
• Related Literature
• Oregon Producers and Users of California-laurel (myrtlewood)

This information was originally published in Hardwoods of the Pacific Northwest, S.S. Niemiec, G.R. Ahrens, S. Willits, and D.E. Hibbs. 1995. Research Contribution 8. Oregon State University, Forest Research Laboratory

General Characteristics

California-laurel is the only tree of the family Lauraceae found in the western United States. It is a broadleaved evergreen tree with distinctly aromatic “bay” leaves. Often referred to as myrtlewood, California-laurel is one of the best known and most valuable western hardwoods.

Size, Longevity, and Form
Typical California-laurels are 40 to 80 ft tall and 18 to 30 in. in diameter. On good bottomland sites, mature trees can attain diameters of 36 to 72 in. (159 in. maximum) and heights of over 100 ft (175 ft maximum). California-laurels may live at least 200 years. The trees often have forked or multiple stems with ascending branches, which form dense, round-topped crowns. In forest stands, the stems or limbs are relatively straight, vertical, and clear of smaller branches. Open-grown trees have broad spreading crowns (often wider than tree height) supported by several main stems or branches. The root system of California-laurel is wide and spreading, although it varies from shallow to deep, depending on the soil and drainage.

Geographic Range
The range of California-laurel extends from Reedsport, Oregon (lat 44 °N) to San Diego, California (lat 33 °N). It is not found more than 160 miles from the Pacific Coast. California-laurel is found in the Coast Ranges, the southwestern Cascade Range, and all along the western Sierra Nevada.

Timber Inventory
The total inventory of California-laurel is about 520 MMCF of growing stock, of which 93 MMCF occurs in southwestern Oregon (Appendix 1, Table 1, excluding federal lands in southwestern Oregon, for which there are no recent estimates). Many of the best trees are found in parks and riparian areas. According to some representatives of the myrtlewood industry, available supplies of the high-value, figured wood are getting scarce.

For More info 

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Dixie School District is digging a Deep Hole for Themselves.

From Superintendent Yamishiro on 6/20/19:


There is a construction project at Miller Creek this summer. It is to replace 16 portables with 16 modular classrooms and will be completed this summer. There have been at least two times this spring where details related to the project have been on the Board agenda, but we are aware that this would not necessarily reach the broader community. We received notice to proceed right at the end of the school year (just last week) and tried to reach out with communication to direct neighbors at that time. I am not sure who staff was able to reach. Based on your communication we will try to establish an update link on our website to keep the community informed of progress on the site.


I shared your concerns with our project manager who confirmed that we can build on the site (keep in mind that this is a replacement project for badly outdated portables). As you can tell from the video the portables have been removed and destroyed and we absolutely have to complete this project by the end of the summer, so we cannot delay it. There is follow up happening in regards to your concern about the tree branches and I will get back to you on that. I know this is a quick, basic summary, but I hope it addresses your desire to know more information about the project, whether it was cleared by the proper channels, and that we will follow up on the tree questions/issues.


Thank you,
Jason





To Superintendent Yamashiro two hours later:



I just walked past the site again and discovered a massive excavation next to the Heritage California Bay, The tree is huge with a trunk in the range of 70". I expect the root system was compromised today during the digging.


I asked the workers if they were putting in a pool. They shrugged their shoulders and walked away. The hole appears at least 8 feet deep and is the size of a large residential pool. I wonder if this is a footing or a basement foundation for a large building.


One thing for certain, this is NOT MERELY A REPLACEMENT of existing buildings. This hole indicates something else.


It is frustrating that it appears that this project has not been made public. It seems very unwise. Does the district think that no one will notice? And even today, the responses are lacking in detail. Surely you know the details. You approved them.

Marin County Tree Removal fact sheet

Dixie School District panels cull lists of potential names

The Miwok lived for 4500 years on the land which is now Miller Creek School.  Why not name the district for them?

Dixie School District panels cull lists of potential names

By KERI BRENNER | kbrenner@marinij.com | Marin Independent Journal
PUBLISHED: June 10, 2019 at 6:23 pm | UPDATED: June 10, 2019 at 8:27 pm


The Dixie School District in San Rafael has released a set of possible new names as a decision deadline draws near.

“Using criteria from the board, (the committee members) have reviewed over 100 name submissions and narrowed the list to seven names,” district Superintendent Jason Yamashiro said in an email to the district community Friday.

The seven names identified by the district’s naming advisory committee are: Acorn Valley, Josephine Leary, Joseph Eichler, Laurel Creek, Quail Song, Creekside and Kenne school districts. The public is invited to sign petitions for the names at an event from 5 to 7 p.m. Tuesday at Miller Creek Middle School at 2255 Las Gallinas Ave.

For the elementary school, a renaming committee has narrowed down the choices to three location-related potential names: Lucas Valley, Big Rock and Creekside. The school at 1175 Idylberry Road is within the Lucas Valley neighborhood, near the “Big Rock” landmark off of Lucas Valley Road and also boasts a creek that runs through its campus.

The district names come as two separate citizen advisory committees are gathering recommendations and signatures on petitions to give to the board of trustees by a June 25 deadline.

The board is expected.. see full article HERE

Marnie Glickmans Reasons for Dixie School District Change.

Marin Voice: Here’s why I voted for the Dixie School District name change

Dixie School Board member Marnie Glickman speaks during a board meeting in San Rafael on Jan. 15, 2019. (Alan Dep/Marin Independent Journal)

By MARNIE GLICKMAN |
June 8, 2019 at 4:00 pm


Thousands of people supported the movement to change the name of Dixie School District and Dixie Elementary School in San Rafael. Over the past 22 years, we talked with neighbors, wrote letters, made phone calls, signed petitions and read history books at the Marin County Library.

I am grateful to every single one of our supporters, as well as trustees Brooks Nguyen and Megan Hutchinson who joined me in voting yes to change the names. Thank you to Marin Community Foundation for funding the name changes.

The students and alumni are inspirational leaders. They told us about the harmful impact of Dixie on their lives. They stayed up late to testify at board meetings. They joined us on silent marches from school to school across the district. They shared new name ideas and organized.

Together, we generated a historic transformation for our children. We can now teach the true history of Dixie. Dixie School District was created by the Marin County Board of Supervisors during the Civil War in 1863 when six million humans were enslaved in this country. Dixie is the national anthem of the Confederacy. The song, Dixie, was played at the inauguration of Jefferson Davis as the president of the Confederacy. The Confederacy fought for white supremacy and lost. We changed the name of our school district and school because it was hurtful to many people.

We started public conversations about race, racism and privilege in an overwhelmingly white, affluent school district located in the heart of liberal Marin County. Only 3% of our students are African-American. We have no African-American teachers. We introduced new concepts to some of our neighbors like implicit bias, microaggressions and white fragility.

See article Here

Bruce Anderson says Marnie Glickman recall is "mean spirited".

Marin Voice: Recall attempt of Dixie board member is mean-spirited

Dixie School Board member Marnie Glickman speaks during a board meeting in San Rafael on Jan. 15, 2019. (Alan Dep/Marin Independent Journal)

By BRUCE ANDERSON |
PUBLISHED: June 6, 2019 at 10:20 am | UPDATED: June 6, 2019 at 10:34 am


Please stop the recall against Dixie School District board member Marnie Glickman.

The IJ has already declared that recalls should be for malfeasance. No one has accused Glickman of malfeasance. Instead those supporting the recall are operating a mean-spirited, vindictive, costly and totally unnecessary campaign because they didn’t want to change the racist Dixie name.

In forums and on their website, their mean-spiritedness comes out as they attack her family. Claiming not to know that Glickman’s middle child went to private schools when she was elected, they say it is now a reason to recall. They also claim that because her two other children weren’t from her body they don’t count as attending Dixie schools. They have claimed that another reason to recall is because Glickman wore nice clothes to an interview and brought notes.

While attempting to proclaim that the recall is not vindication for the successful name change, the supporters constantly reference the name change and their interpretation of how success was achieved. They imbue almost mystical abilities in Glickman to command the media, local politicians and fellow board members in finally achieving what, for me, was a 30-year goal of changing the district name. The recall is vindictiveness over the name change. The name is changing because it was racist and it is the right thing to do.

The recall has already cost our community. The supporters of the recall are dividing our community instead of healing. They make up claims about Glickman’s lack of fiduciary responsibility only to provide hollow facts in support.

One “fact” they provide is that Glickman was the only “no” vote on a board vote to extend their own terms a year. They are claiming that if Glickman had won, the district would have had to pay for a special election. True, but the board voted to extended terms and there was no costs to the district.

See the Article HERE

Marin Voice: It’s time to recall Dixie board member Marnie Glickman

Marin Voice: It’s time to recall Dixie board member Marnie Glickman

A sign for the Dixie School District hangs on the wall of the school board chambers during their meeting in San Rafael, Calif. on Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2019. (Alan Dep/Marin Independent Journal)

By LAURIE A. PIRINI |
PUBLISHED: June 5, 2019 at 11:00 am | UPDATED: June 5, 2019 at 4:27 pm


Our Dixie School District community is hurting. Hurt by false accusations of intolerance. Hurt by the divisive tactics employed in the name of tolerance. Hurt by the loss of district funds that were wasted on the name change process. Hurt by the deception of Marnie Glickman.

Our Dixie School District community is tired. Tired of being ignored. Tired of being silenced. Tired of seeing district funds wasted on political agendas. Tired of the board not focusing on our children’s education.

This very paper said we should abandon our recall petition so our district could focus on the students. Unfortunately, our school board is saddled with Glickman, a political activist, who is primarily responsible for disrupting board meetings for the better part of a year. She put her own political campaign ahead of our kids. The role of a trustee is to be responsive to the values, beliefs and priorities to its community. She has clearly failed to uphold her duties as a trustee under the California School Boards Association guidelines.

After multiple previous failed attempts to be elected to public office, Glickman intentionally misled our community during her campaign.

She stated in emails on Sept. 30, 2015:

“I have never said I support a name change. I have always said the same thing and it is what I said to the IJ. The top priority of the school board is to meet the children’s need. This discussion detracts from our focus on the children and their educational needs. I also want to tell you that only one person at the door has told me that she supports a name change. I’ve knocked on more than 1,000 doors.”

Her deception regarding the name change has taken the board’s focus away from the children for the better part of a year and continues to do so.

Glickman has shown complete disregard for fiscal responsibility. The tactics she utilized by repeatedly disrupting board meetings have cost the district unnecessary legal fees. She was also willing to waste district money on an unnecessary election at a time when the reserves were at an all-time low and funding was being cut.

Glickman has repeatedly leaked confidential board emails to the press. She has shown she is incapable of working with her fellow board members unless the board accedes to her political priorities. When asked by a fellow board member why she didn’t discuss the name change with her fellow trustees instead of working with outside activists and the press, she said, it was “my First Amendment right.”

Thankfully it is our democratic right to remove Glickman from office. The people who support this recall are hard-working, politically diverse, multicultural, Dixie School District community members including parents, grandparents, alumni and neighbors.

See Article HERE

THE ASS, THE FOX, AND THE LION

 

 An ASS and a Fox had become close comrades, and were constantly in each other's company. While the Ass cropped a fresh bit of greens, the Fox would devour a chicken from the neighboring farmyard or a bit of cheese filched from the dairy. One day the pair, unexpectedly met a Lion. The Ass was very much frightened, but the Fox calmed his fears.

"I will talk to him," he said. 

So the Fox walked boldly up to the Lion.

"Your highness," he said in an undertone, so the Ass could not hear him, "I've got a fine scheme in nay head. If you promise not to hurt me, I will lead that foolish creature yonder into a pit where he can't get out, and you can feast at your pleasure."

The Lion agreed and the Fox returned to the Ass.

"I made him promise not to hurt us," said the Fox. "But come, I know a good place to hide till he is gone."

So the Fox led the Ass into a deep pit. But when the Lion saw that the Ass was his for the taking. he first of all struck down the traitor Fox.

Traitors may expect treachery.

Public Comments on the Dixie Name Change for April 2019

This is a fascinating document of the public debate on the Dixie School name change debate.  It really gives you a flavor of the debate on both sides.  It should be noted that the real issue was if the name "Dixie" is racist.  None of my neighbors have any association with the South or the Confederacy but simply associate it with education excellence.  After looking at the issue, I have concluded that it was an offensive to name the district "Dixie" in the midst of the Civil War in 1863 and we should find a new name for the future.  At no point do I think the "We are Dixie" group were racists and have been disappointed that the "Change the Name" people used bullying, intimidation and hyperbole to destroy the reputation of our community.

The only time a Confederate Flag was flown in Marinwood is when Noah Griffin posed for this photo to send out to the news media.

Marnie Glickman, could at one point be credited for raising the issue but ultimately condemned for allowing scorched earth tactics to effect change.  Even after the issue was settled, she sought more media attention in the UK Guardian by trumpeting her "victory".

We lost an important opportunity to learn about Marin County history from the Miwoks until the present day.  We will heal and I hope this episode does not discourage minorities from choosing our wonderful community in fear that we are still a "Confederate outpost".

Time will heal.

Noah Griffin (left) is seen in his "Straight Outta Tiburon" tee shirt.  Griffin is a wealthy political consultant who once worked for Speaker Nancy Pelosi  has extensive media ties.  The core strategy of the "Change the Name" people was to cast our community as racists in the international press until we succumbed to outside pressure. 
It worked but divided the community. 

Noah Griffin

Noah Griffin of Tiburon is a public affairs consultant, speaker and musical performer. He is a former public member of the IJ’s editorial board.

Marie Glickman receives International Press on the Dixie School name change

Dixie school district: why it took 22 years to change a name in liberal California

A moniker associated with the Confederacy is finally being eliminated after a decades-long battle over its origins

Vivian Ho in San Francisco


Sun 21 Apr 2019 02.00 EDTLast modified on Sun 21 Apr 2019 02.02 EDT

Marnie Glickman, second from left, and Kerry Peirson, right, pose at the Dixie Schoolhouse. Photograph: Courtesy Marnie Glickman.  Noah Griffin, Marin IJ columnist and one time aide to Willie Brown and Speaker Pelosi is seen on the left wearing the “Straight Outa Tiburon” tee shirt.  He is also seen below, dressed like a preacher, holding a Confederate flag.

The first record of someone in San Rafael raising an eyebrow at the name of the Dixie school district – whose name is synonymous with the Confederacy – dates back to 1863, a month after its founding and two years into the American civil war.

“It is supposed, by the ominous name, that the young ideas are here to be ‘trained how to shoot’ you,” wrote the Red Bluff Independent, in its 11 December edition.

More than 150 years later, the Dixie school district board in northern California has voted to change the name, after a hard-fought, 22-year battle that shook this affluent community located thousands of miles from the former Confederate states.

Against the backdrop of the national debate around Confederate monuments, the fight to change the district’s name turned particularly toxic, with racial slurs, accusations of antisemitism, a school board recall effort, and death threats.

Concerns over a name that evokes slavery and racism should have been clear-cut in Marin County, which touts its liberalism and where more than 77% voted for Barack Obama in 2008. Dolly Parton dropped the “Dixie” in her civil war-themed theater production, Dixie Stampede, in 2018. Disney changed the name of its Antebellum-themed resort, Dixie Landings, in 2001.

But at the heart of the matter in this county that is more than 85% white lies the interpretation of centuries-old documents, figures, and history itself – and, more importantly, the truths they tell about the community’s past.

“People wanted a nice story,” said Marnie Glickman, a Dixie School Board trustee who was a driving force behind the latest effort to change the name. “They wanted to believe that racism and the Confederacy couldn’t exist in Marin.”

We Are Dixie, the group that formed to oppose the name change and put up lawn signs calling to “Keep Dixie Dixie”, felt that changing the name besmirched the legacy of James Miller, the man who founded the school district.

“We believe James Miller was an amazing man, and they believe he was a racist who named the district after the Confederacy,” said a We Are Dixie representative who asked not to be named.



FacebookTwitterPinterest Kerry Peirson speaks at a school district meeting in a screen shot from video footage. Photograph: Jim Geraghtty/Archive.org

The debate first came before the school board in 1997. “One day, I opened the local newspaper and read a story about the Dixie soccer team, which at the time was called the Dixie Stompers,” Kerry Peirson, a black man who moved to Marin county in 1982, said. “It was an immediate visceral image.”

Peirson contacted the superintendent at the time, who told him that Dixie was the name of the daughter of person who was superintendent in 1929. But the district and the old Dixie Schoolhouse had been named well before then – so Peirson began his own digging.

In a 1972 application to the National Park Service to get the Dixie Schoolhouse added to the National Registry of Historic Places, the Dixie Schoolhouse Foundation cited Frances Miller Leitz, the granddaughter of James Miller, as saying that her grandfather had named the school itself on a dare. During construction of the school in 1864, Marin county “was hotly pro-Northern, and the fact that several ‘gentlemen’ from the South helped construct the first schoolhouse prompted someone to dare James Miller to name the school ‘Dixie’,” the application reads.

This document doesn’t explain why James Miller chose to name the district Dixie in 1863, but in an oral history archived at the Marin County Library, James Miller’s great-great grandson, Lucien Miller, said James Miller was a Democrat. During the civil war era, southern Democrats favored slavery while the Republican party was the party of Abraham Lincoln.




FacebookTwitterPinterest A 1972 application to get the Dixie Schoolhouse added to the National Registry of Historical Places. Photograph: Screen shot/Squarespace

But opponents of the name change were doing research as well. They found a Miwok Native American woman named Mary Dixie, who lived 140 miles away in the Sierra Nevada foothills. Though James Miller sold cattle in the area where Mary Dixie lived in 1849, there is no record of the man ever meeting the woman they believe to be the school district’s namesake.

“Why is one story more believable than the other? Neither one has any proof,” the We Are Dixie representative said. “The granddaughter said it was named on a dare, but she was born after he died. It was family folklore.”

Those behind We Are Dixie don’t believe that James Miller or his family had Confederate sympathies, and they argue that changing the name will only serve to minimize his contributions.

For Glickman, the school board trustee who pushed for the name change, nothing better captured the crux of the whole fight than the fact that the opponents to the name change named their group We Are Dixie. She felt that they saw themselves as this name, as this place, as the founder, and that to call out the word’s Confederate and racist roots was akin to calling them racist.

At the very least, the fight unearthed something ugly in Marin county, and not just from the civil war era.

“I was the target of serious of antisemitism,” Glickman said. “I received death threats. All for saying that Dixie is a synonym for the Confederacy.”

To Peirson, a black man living in a county that is not even 3% black, this was nothing new. When he first brought the issue to the board in 1997, he was the only black person in the room.

“They were saying, ‘Go back to where you come from, you gorilla,’” he said. “That room turned into the Antebellum south. No one corrected the man who called me a gorilla. That atmosphere, I don’t know if I ever felt so scared in an institutional setting.”

And whether they choose to believe it or not, this mindset continues in Marin county to this day, Peirson said.

“Marin had one of the highest percentages of Obama voters in the state,” he said. “There are contradictions. It’s a different kind of bigotry. They like to project themselves as progressive and liberal, but they are blind to blatant racism.”

The We Are Dixie group maintains that it was the Change The Name team that deployed bullying tactics. All sides hope to move forward from the nastiness and find a new name before the start of the next school year.

A proposal to rename the school district after Mary Dixie, the Miwok woman who the We Are Dixie group believes the school district was originally named after, was rejected in an earlier effort.

(story credit: The Guardian )





Editor's Note: The only time a Confederate Flag has been seen in Marinwood is when Noah Griffin dressed as a preacher held one up for a press photo in March 2019. Disgusting. (photo credit: Marin IJ)

Dixie School District to change name

Dixie School District in Marin County to change name

FILE - In this Oct. 18, 2018 file photo, a student hops off the school bus at Dixie Elementary School in San Rafael, Calif. The Dixie School District board in the California city of San Rafael plans to vote on whether to keep its name, which critics say it is linked to the Confederacy and slavery and supporters maintain is it named after a Native American woman. (Gabrielle Lurie/San Francisco Chronicle via AP, File)

  

ASSOCIATED PRESS

April 16, 2019, 10:01PM

Updated 11 hours ago

SAN RAFAEL — The Dixie School District board voted Tuesday night to change the name of the 150-year-old district after critics linked it to the Confederacy and slavery.

Trustees voted 3-1, with one abstention, to change both the name of the Marin County district and the name of its elementary school by Aug. 22, when classes resume.

However, the board didn’t choose a new name. A committee made up of parents, other community members and district staff will be set up to solicit and evaluate suggestions from the public.

The board rejected some 15 names in February when it voted against a name-change on grounds that more community input was needed.

The cost of the name change, such as replacing signs, was estimated at nearly $40,000, but the Marin Community Foundation pledged to cover it.

Dixie is a nickname for the southern U.S. states that formed the pro-slavery Confederacy in 1860, sparking the Civil War. The legacy of the Confederacy prompts political, legal and cultural conflicts to this day.

Those who support changing the name say the district was named Dixie by James Miller, the school founder, on a dare by Confederate sympathizers. Those who oppose the change say the school system was named for Mary Dixie, a Miwok Indian woman that Miller knew in the 1840s.

The name-change issue has generated heated debate in overwhelmingly white San Rafael, with some insisting the Dixie name is racially insensitive while others complain the proposed change is political correctness run amok.

Both sides spoke out during Tuesday night’s meeting.

“You know Dixie is a racist name, so change it,” said Bali Simon, a fifth-grader at Dixie Elementary School. “I’m hoping I can go back to school next fall proud of our new district name.”

An opponent of the name change, Mette Nygard, said the “ugly insinuations” tarnished Miller’s reputation.

“The community is so far removed from the confederacy that it’s a ridiculous assertion,” Nygard said.

However, she was interrupted by demonstrators chanting “Dixie must go!” Critics of the current name also brought signs into the room that said “say no to racism.”

Some of the proposed names that were previously rejected by the board included “Marie Dixie Elementary School District” and “Skywalker Elementary School District.”

John McWhorter: America has never been less racist

Mary Jane Burke inserts herself in the Dixie Debate again

Marin superintendent prods Dixie board to move past turmoil

San Rafael police continue probe into trustee hate letter

By KERI BRENNER | kbrenner@marinij.com | Marin Independent Journal
PUBLISHED: April 1, 2019 at 5:15 pm | UPDATED: April 2, 2019 at 6:20 am


If the date Aug. 22, 2019, wasn’t emblazoned before in the minds of Dixie School District’s board of trustees, it is now, after Monday’s intense board workshop led by Marin County Superintendent of Schools Mary Jane Burke.

That is the first day of school for 2019-20 school year, by which time the board, traumatized in recent days by staff losses and continued community uproar over the district name change issue, needs to regroup and build more trust, stability and optimism, Burke said. She handed out cards with the date printed on them to the trustees and the audience at a special meeting in north San Rafael.




Keri Brenner
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Mary Jane Burke, Marin County Superintendent of Schools.

12:57 PM - Apr 1, 2019 · San Rafael, CA
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“It is now an unsettled situation,” Burke said. “More than ever, it’s important that the board be in alignment. It’s not necessary that you all agree on everything, but it’s important that the people on the board are in alignment and that you are all able to work together.”

Burke was referring to last week’s surprise announcement about the resignation of Superintendent Jason Yamashiro, on the heels of the resignation of Assistant Superintendent Tracy Smith and vacant positions in information technology and in the business office.

Those changes come as the district community remains divided over the question of changing the name of the district and the board has been unable to focus on a clear path forward. In giving the trustees the date when school starts in the fall, Burke was reminding them that the top priority for them is to do the best they can for the district’s kids.

“I know for sure, I am not unclear about each of your purpose for being on the school board — and on this board in particular — and it’s for the children,” Burke told the board. “If in any way, I didn’t believe that, I would not be giving my time, support and energy at the level I am. I just want for us to get back to it — how do we find it again?”

Board President Brad Honsberger, who walked out of two recent five-hour-plus board meetings in apparent frustration after trustees failed to take any significant action forward, agreed with Burke.

“Our overarching goal has been a student focus, and I think we’ve completely lost that,” Honsberger, who has been on the board for 10 years, said Monday. See the full Article HERE

Editor's Note: For the second time in a week the Marin IJ has shut down comments on a Dixie story.  What an over the top reaction to a few trolls!  This issue has been even more contentious  than needed largely because of the one sided coverage of the extremists in this debate.  I think the Marin IJ could play a role here by encouraging more debate, even sponsoring forums to discuss the issue.  Why should the paper allow itself to be cowed by a few angry people?  They are not the majority.

Dick Spotswood: Memo to Dixie school board — It’s time to move on

Dick Spotswood: Memo to Dixie school board — It’s time to move on

By DICK SPOTSWOOD | spotswood@comcast.net |
March 23, 2019 at 10:00 am


Just get on with it. The Dixie School District board appears to have a majority that agrees with changing the district’s name. The board is befuddled about determining a new name to replace the 155-year-old Dixie label. The competency of all factions of the divided board to resolve this festering process is now the issue.

The board rejected two names proposed by name-change opponents including the insipid LOVE district (Live Oak Valley Elementary School District). Now the debate is over creating a lengthy process to determine the new name. Forget it. Just do it. Pick a local geographic feature such as Big Rock, Redwood, Terra Linda or simply North San Rafael. I’d suggest Las Gallinas — “the hen” in Spanish, as a tip to Marin’s history — but undoubtedly someone will claim that “Las” and the final “as” in “Gallinas” are sexist, so that’s out.

Whatever is chosen, don’t name the district after a person, because their history will inevitably include all sorts of unanticipated baggage. Who knows what Manuel T. Freitas might have written, said or voted when he was one of Marin County’s pioneers? Don’t select any name advanced by either name-change proponents or the We Are Dixie faction. That’ll just inflame the rhetoric.

Some board members appear to believe that an “inclusive’ new name selection process will somehow reassemble the divided North San Rafael community. It won’t. The wounds are deep and the memories bitter. This breach will be healed only by time and future school board elections. No one really cares what the new name is. Either folks want to keep “Dixie” or don’t. That’s it.

But for a lack of leadership this issue would have been resolved up-or-down months ago. Trustee Marnie Glickman, the pied piper of the “anything but Dixie” movement, doesn’t seem able to agree with her colleagues on anything other than the name change. The four other trustees don’t seem to understand that the sooner this ruinous fight is over, the better.

All delay does is energize the activists on both sides who live for these ideological fights. Continued jousting provides meaning to their lives despite the destructive result for everyone else.

Here’s the road map to promptly end the dispute: At the next scheduled school board meeting, vote to change the name and accept the Marin Community’s Foundation’s generous offer to pick up the tab for change-related costs. At the same meeting, trustees should vote for any non-controversial geographically-based new name.

Then it’s over. Students, parents and teachers can get back to real-world school concerns, the ruined reputation of the district can be rebuilt and activists can move on to their inevitable next cause. see full article HERE

EDITOR'S NOTE:Telling the Dixie School board to "get on with it" and change the name without the consent of the local voters may quiet the prayer row in Marin politics but it does not fundamentally address the injustice of smearing of the Dixie School community. This was their point wasn't it? To trash us in the national news media, to hold up signs against the "racism" of a 150 year old name? It gave Noah Griffin, a chance to don a white turtleneck (a photo op that made him look like a cleric) and lead a crowd to sing "We Sshall Overcome" . And if that wasn't enough the resident of wealthy Tiburon, held up a Confederate Flag in front of OUR historic schoolhouse, implying that the community is a "Confederacy Outpost". This is the ONLY time the Confederate flag has been held up in our community by all accounts. We ALL are against racism.

There has been a huge injustice done to my community in the name of "fighting racism". The Change the Name folks have created exactly the hostile racist politics we all abhor. In our case, the entire community has been "presumed racist" because they don't agree to the name change. To move ahead in this matter will require the leaders of the "Change the Name" movement to apologize to our community and engage in a community dialog.

I favor a name change but I cannot accept this smear of racism by the Change the Name people.

The Three Fishes

Once, three fishes lived in a pond. One evening, some fishermen passed by the pond and saw the fishes. 'This pond is full of fish', they told each other excitedly. 'We have never fished here before. We must come back tomorrow morning with our nets and catch these fish!' So saying, the fishermen left.

When the eldest of the three fishes heard this, he was troubled. He called the other fishes together and said, 'Did you hear what the fishermen said? We must leave this pond at once. The fishermen will return tomorrow and kill us all!'
The second of the three fishes agreed. 'You are right', he said. 'We must leave the pond.'



But the youngest fish laughed. 'You are worrying without reason', he said. 'We have lived in this pond all our lives, and no fisherman has ever come here. Why should these men return? I am not going anywhere - my luck will keep me safe.'

The eldest of the fishes left the pond that very evening with his entire family. The second fish saw the fishermen coming in the distance early next morning and left the pond at once with all his family. The third fish refused to leave even then.

The fishermen arrived and caught all the fish left in the pond. The third fish's luck did not help him - he too was caught and killed.

The fish who saw trouble ahead and acted before it arrived as well as the fish who acted as soon as it came both survived. But the fish who relied only on luck and did nothing at all died. So also in life.

Who is the REAL race provocateur?

The more I think about it, the more it appears this march was an attempt to deliberately provoke a response at a community celebration of our Little League kids. Noah Griffin is very media savvy, having served Nancy Pelosi and other politicians. He knows the power of visual imagery. The desired effect didn’t happen though when people ignored them except for a few passing motorists. The news media must have been disappointed. There are no gangs of racists defending the Dixie name. The ONLY time I have seen a confederate flag in Marin is when Noah Griffin held one up for this photo for the Marin IJ and other news media.

Who is the REAL race provocateur? Have the Change the Name folks considered how trashing our neighborhood in the eyes of the world, actually CREATES the hostile environment that they claim to be against? I want to change the name of the district too but we must not allow the hateful rhetoric destroy our community.

Why is Noah Griffin wearing a white turtleneck that looks like a cleric's collar?  I don't think he is a member of the clergy.  Pure showmanship.