Rocklin school board president told teachers to stack union with ‘more faith-based site reps’
Julie Hupp, president of the Rocklin Unified School District, spoke at a meeting of educators in March 2022 where she called for an increase in “faith-based” union representatives and disparaged the California Teachers Association.
The audio recording was leaked by the progressive group Voices of Placer County on Sunday. A caption for the video said that the comments were made in March 2023. Hupp confirmed that she was the one speaking but said the meeting took place in March 2022. She also said the recording was not authorized.
Hupp is also president of the Loomis Teachers Association and an elementary school teacher at Loomis Grammar School.
The 12-minute audio clip begins with Hupp asking if anyone at the meeting felt that the CTA, which represents more than 310,000 California teachers, “is a force for good.”
Silence follows.
“I didn’t think so,” she said. “If you did think so, I would have disabused you of that notion.”
Further into the recording, Hupp emphasized the importance of having faith-and family-centered values represented on school campuses.
“We need more faith-based site reps,” Hupp said. She told the audience that she’s been a member of a group called CTA Republicans who meet “all the time” to talk about “making changes within the organization.”
“I can tell you,” she said, “it’s hard to even be in the room (at CTA meetings). It’s very, very gut-wrenching. We have to take breaks and go out into the hallways and breathe.”
She encouraged audience members — which presumably included dues-paying CTA members — to email the CTA asking for their money back, and to request a refund for CTA’s “political action.” She also encouraged attendees to run in union elections, and spoke more positively of local unions, like the one she leads, than the CTA at large.
“CTA is multi-layered, but the very first layer is the site reps,” she said in the recording. “And you can stop things right at that layer and they never have to go any farther.”
“I was invited there specifically to encourage those educators in the community that are of faith to participate more fully in their local union,” Hupp said in a statement to The Bee.
“I have always been consistent in my feelings about and interactions with the California Teachers Association. I am active there by the invitation of former President of CTA Eric Heins, explicitly to bring my differing viewpoints into the organization. I love all educators in our community,” she continued.
“No one works harder. I believe differing viewpoints are very valuable. I strongly believe that all community members should get involved everywhere that they can.”
Sundeep Dosanjh, spokesperson for RUSD, said the district is aware of the video.
“From our understanding, the audio is not discussing her role as an elected RUSD board member,” Dosanjh said. “Rocklin Unified is proud of the ongoing collaboration between the District and Rocklin Teachers Professional Association (the local CTA affiliate).”
Hupp did say in the recording that she is “a union president and a school board president,” though she is not speaking on behalf of the district, or as a board president.
“There are some things I have to speak (to) in generalities,” she said, “just because I am a union president and a school board president.”
She said that there were two school districts during the COVID-19 shutdowns that went back to in-person learning as quickly as possible, and that they were districts with “faith-based site reps, a faith-based board, and a faith-based union president,” apparently referring to herself, and the Loomis and Rocklin districts she represents.
Travis Mougeotte, president of the Rocklin Teachers Professional Association, said he wants to see consequences for Hupp, and believes she no longer deserves her seat on the board, or her role as president.
As president of both her local union and the RUSD board, Mougeotte said Hupp “has violated agreements, policies, oaths, and understandings to what those positions stand for, and what she was elected to do.”
“There’s a clear violation of church and state, and an admission in both the recording and her actions, that she is not there to serve as she was elected to serve.”
This is the second time in less than a month that Hupp, who successfully ran for RUSD board in 2020, has drawn criticism for bringing her religion into public education.
At the end of August, she wrote on her public Facebook page to encourage “Christ centered” parents to volunteer on RUSD advisory committees. The post received hundreds of comments — some in support, and many not. At a board meeting last Thursday, she addressed her comments publicly, saying that she would never exclude any parent who wants to get involved.
“I’ve taught, loved, and served in this community and nearby for 30-plus years,” Hupp said at the September 6 meeting, where she was one of four board members who voted in support of a parental notification policy that will require district staff to alert a parent when their child requests to go by a different name, pronoun, or use facilities that do not match their biological sex.
“In those years I taught hundreds of children and genuinely loved them as well as their families. Not one has ever reported feeling discriminated against and not one would ever report me trying to teach Sunday school in a classroom. Moving forward, it is my full intention to continue loving children and serving families with all the passions of my heart as I have always done.”
This story was originally published September 12, 2023 at 6:00 AM.
