Grade point exclusion

Editor: In February, we attended a board meeting of the
Healdsburg Future Farmers Country Fair, because we were alerted
that there was a motion passed at a previous meeting excluding all
children from participating in the fair if they do not maintain a
2.0 grade point average.
We, as will several others, voiced our opinions but were only
given a total of 10 minutes to do so and then were told to leave
the meeting. Now, mind you, those meetings are supposed to be open
to the public and you can stay for the whole meeting if you wish to
do so.
This motion was pushed through and made a rule without the
authors researching the legality of it. We commend those who voted
against it and ask the others, “What are you thinking, and just
what is your motive?”
We attended the March meeting only to find that nothing had
changed even though the Sonoma County 4-H advisor spoke to the
board and strongly advised them to drop this discriminatory rule.
The Fair Board has no legal right to ask for an exhibitor’s report
card. That is private information noted in the California Code of
Education, which our daugter had a copy of, but was not allowed to
read it to the board. Why?
The fair was founded on the presumption that all children were
welcomed to participate no matter their race, creed, color or grade
point average. The exhibitors who have beef projects had already
bought their steers before this rule was implemented. Those steers
are expensive and there is already a lot of time and feed put into
them. So, fair board, are you going to reimburse these kids for
their projects if they don’t maintain a 2.0 grade point
average?
The fair board has some serious internal issues that should be
addressed instead of focusing on something that will only hurt the
kids of this community.
Phil and Mary Enzenauer
Healdsburg