Parents, staff urge board to pause Verizon/Digital Promise agreement; trustees ask for legal review

At the March 10 meeting, public comment and extended trustee discussion centered on a proposed memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Verizon and Digital Promise, part of the Verizon Innovative Learning Schools program. Multiple community members and labor representatives urged the board to table the MOU pending answers to privacy, consent, and bargaining concerns.

Katie Bassler, speaking during public comment, asked the board to "table the Verizon MOU" and read MOU language that she said gave a technology partner broad rights over photographs and publicity material, calling for more time and transparency. "Please read the media release forms for Verizon and Digital Promise... I grant Verizon the right to take photographs and videos of me, and my image, and likeness... and I grant Verizon the right to edit and use my photography at any time and in any way whatsoever for any purpose forever," Bassler said as she urged tabling the agreement.

Restorative justice facilitators and union representatives also addressed district staffing and program concerns in the same public-comment block. Rachel Varro, a restorative justice facilitator whose role was listed as terminated under a recent resolution, said staffing funding had been primarily sustained by the district’s LCFF core funds for multiple years and asked for transparency about whether position eliminations were funding-driven or priority-driven.

Trustees and staff responded with detailed back-and-forth: staff said they had compiled an FAQ and met with labor partners, and that Verizon representatives emphasized they would not track devices and that devices would be distributed and owned by the district. Trustees asked staff to obtain a written legal review of the MOU, provide specific Chromebook model/spec comparisons and to clarify the logistics and translation plan for securing media releases from up to 4,000 middle-school students. Several trustees said they would prefer to resolve outstanding questions with legal counsel and with labor before voting; the board voted to pull the Verizon MOU from consent and staff committed to return after further review.

Why it matters: the MOU ties a large technology partner to district classrooms and includes commitments on device distribution, training, research/evaluation activities and publicity. Parents and staff pointed to risks related to student privacy, consent logistics, unclarified device specifications and potential changes to staff workload.

Next steps: district staff will obtain an explicit legal review of the MOU language, provide a side-by-side comparison of the proposed devices versus current models (specs and stylus support), and return to the board with responses to the Q&A and any negotiated labor agreements that affect working conditions.