


Amid catcalls, racial slurs and heckling from the audience, Tamalpais Union High School District’s board of trustees cemented its position not to pursue private funding to renew consultant contracts for Black student support at Tamalpais High School.
Trustees voted 3-2 on Wednesday against supporting plans by parents and the community to raise the $250,000 needed to cover contract renewals for the 2025-26 school year for Tenisha Tate-Austin and Paul Austin.
Trustees Cynthia Roenisch, Kevin Saavedra and Jenny Holden voted not to pursue private funding, while trustees Emily Uhlhorn and Ida Times-Green voted in favor.
New superintendent Courtney Goode, at his first board meeting, said he has already spoken to almost 40 students, staff and parents to help him design a revised program for supporting Black students through the Black Student Success Team and the Tam Hub — two of the main programs run by Tate-Austin and Austin.
Goode said the success team and the Hub, a drop-in center, will remain in place for 2025-26 using district staff.
Goode said he might also add a “case manager” or similar type of position to coordinate the program and to maintain records and accountability on goals and student achievements. He will present his new plan at the board meeting on July 14.
Goode’s efforts at a peaceful transition to in-house management were overshadowed by a blistering 11-page statement by Holden. She had not commented publicly since her decision at the June 3 board meeting not to renew the contracts.
She called into question assertions by Kelly Lara, assistant superintendent of educational services, and by parents and community members, that the consultants’ work had significantly improved such factors as D, F or incomplete grades by Black students at Tam High, chronic absenteeism rates or feelings of belonging.
She said the data were either inconclusive or used incorrectly or applied questionable measurements.
“I believe our Black students and community members are just as capable as anyone else,” Holden said. “And I believe our teachers and staff members need to serve the needs of Black students equally to every other student in this community. Anything short of that is what is racist.”
She also said she has been bullied, harassed and threatened because of her vote.
“The sheer vitriol my fellow board members and I have received for making an informed decision that some of you may not like is astounding,” Holden said.
Holden’s speech was interrupted multiple times by heckling — at one point triggering a five-minute recess called by Roenisch when audience members would not stop yelling references to racism.
“To those who disagree with my decision, I am always open to a dialogue based on facts and the merits of the issue,” Holden said. “But let me make this abundantly clear: I will not be threatened, harassed or bullied into changing my vote.”
She also questioned whether it was fair to pay the couple $250,000 for a part-time job of about three days per week. The contracts, when adjusted relative to full-time jobs, made Tate-Austin, who earned $150,000, the fifth-highest paid employee in the district, after the superintendent, assistant superintendents and a senior director.
“Just as a reminder, Ms. Tate-Austin worked for 108 days at only one school site, with a limited number of students,” Holden said. “The data we’ve received from the district show she and Mr. Austin together worked with a total of 38 students.”
“The positions that are earning only slightly more than Ms. Tate-Austin oversee all district staff, all 4,500 plus district students, and are answerable to our community at large,” she said. “District administrative work is up to 229 days and can include nights and weekends.”
Tate-Austin also made more than any of the district’s high school principals, “all of whom work many more days, evenings and weekends and work with all school teachers and staff as well as all students and parents,” Holden said.
Paul Austin said Holden’s analysis of the data was incorrect.
“You should contact the district office for the correct data,” he said. “We do not need more incorrect information going out to the public.”
Parent Cristine DeBerry, a leader of the group Friends of Tam District, rejected Holden’s claims about the Black Student Success Team as being “based on incomplete, misinterpreted and deeply flawed data.”
“Her public comments not only misrepresent the impact of the BSST, they contradict the district’s own internal findings and progress reports that affirm the program’s effectiveness,” she said.
The group has already raised pledges of more than $100,000 from the Tam High Foundation and individual donors.
“Their decision — and the ill-informed and dismissive behavior that has accompanied it — is not only inappropriate, it has caused real and lasting harm to Black students, families, and our broader community,” DeBerry said. She said the group was “not going anywhere” and was not deterred.
“We will continue fighting to ensure that every student — especially those who have been historically marginalized — receives the support they need to thrive,” DeBerry said.
It was Holden’s analysis of the D, F and incomplete scores that DeBerry said was questionable. According to Lara, the consultants were responsible for a 17% improvement in D, F, I scores in 2024-25.
Holden asserted that her research showed the bulk of improvement — or 11% — took place in the 2023-24 school year, “seemingly accomplished before they even set foot on campus.”
“As far as I can tell, we are looking at a total of 19 students who had at least one D, F, I grade in 2024-25,” Holden said.
“If correct, that means our two consultants, who were paid $250,000 for part-time work, helped one student remediate a D, F or I,” she said. “Please take a moment to think about that.”
DeBerry said the data Holden used were incorrect.
“We have already identified multiple errors, including using the wrong numbers for DFI at Tam High,” DeBerry said.
As to the claim of 87% improvement in feelings of belonging among Black students, Holden questioned “the methodology, the reliability, the sourcing and the biases” of the survey, she said.
Students who took a survey were responding to a statement that said, “Having the Hub makes you feel more connected to Tam High School,” according to Holden.
“The sweeping claim that 87% of Black students at Tam agree with this statement is not supported by the data,” she said. “Tam has 47 Black and 52 mixed-race students, yet the survey was provided to only 38 Hub students, not all ‘Black students’ as implied by the summary statement.”
She added that “we don’t know under what conditions this survey was given, nor who administered it.”
For the chronic absenteeism, the consultants reported a 5% reduction in the rate. Holden said it was not clear where the figure came from.
“Absenteeism was reduced by 5% from when?” she said. “What are we comparing this to? In any case, 5% was short of the consultants’ own goals of 20% reduction in absenteeism.”
“Archie Williams High School reduced absenteeism by nearly 50% this year,” she said. “And they didn’t have to hire two part-time consultants for $250,000.”
Holden, the daughter of North African parents, said her friends and neighbors growing up in the Bronx, New York, were of many diverse backgrounds.
“You do not get to accuse me of racism because you don’t like an informed decision I made,” she said. “It simply is not true.”
Trustee Kevin Saavedra also was heckled when he said: “Personally, I think it’s offensive that we would designate a program targeting people based upon their skin color, instead of their need.”
“Go back to Mexico,” an audience member yelled.