June 15, 2017 — Chino Valley Unified Board of Education

Overview

The board held its regular June meeting and then, after a short break, reconvened the same night for a special session and closed session — a two-part evening built largely around one unresolved fight: whether the district would find a way to keep Oxford Preparatory Academy (OPA) open after declining to renew its charter the year before. 1 Public comment in both sessions was dominated by OPA parents, staff, and supporters. Elsewhere on the agenda, the board approved a slate of closed-session personnel appointments, heard a warning from the classified-employee union about school security staffing, split on a vote to sign new solar-energy contracts, and received a year-early announcement that district leadership plans to retire at the close of the following school year. No official minutes have been published for this meeting; no agenda is on file either, so this recap is drawn solely from the meeting transcript and omits attendance and other roster detail that would normally come from an agenda.

A Community Still Fighting to Keep Oxford Preparatory Academy Open

The district's board had voted in March 2016 to deny OPA's charter renewal petition, citing what it called an unrealistic financial and operational plan and gaps in required elements of the petition; the charter was on track to lapse that summer. 2 By June 2017 the board's public posture had softened — members reportedly toured the OPA campus on the school's last day of instruction — but no reversal had been announced, and the fight continued to draw a steady stream of speakers to the microphone.

During regular public comment, several speakers thanked the board for the campus visit and asked for another chance to keep the school open, while pushing back on a rumor from an earlier meeting: one speaker clarified that a comment critical of OPA's outreach to Latino families, made by an audience member at a prior meeting, had actually come from someone connected to a different elementary school, not OPA. 34 Another spoke about the toll of prolonged uncertainty on OPA families: "My daughter just asked me, “What if I don't get to see my friends again?” I'm the parent. All I could say is, “It will be okay. You will see your friends again.”" 5 The same speaker asked the board directly: "Tell us what to do. Our kids don't need to or they don't they shouldn't be paying for other people's mistakes." 6

The board reconvened later that evening for a special session called specifically to hear additional OPA-related comment ahead of a closed session on existing litigation. 1 One more speaker used the second comment period to say they intended to address two board members specifically about commitments those members had made regarding school choice during the previous year's board election. 7 The closed session that followed produced no action requiring public disclosure. 8

Personnel Appointments

In closed session earlier in the evening, the board approved five personnel appointments — two new district-level director positions, a director of risk management and human resources, and two school-site principal placements — with effective dates spanning late June and early July 2017; no further closed-session action required public disclosure. 9 No agenda is on file for this meeting, so the appointees' names, which appear only in the transcript, are withheld here (see restoration note below).

Security Staffing: Moving Pieces of the Puzzle

A representative of the classified employees' union (CSEA) told the board that a recent shift change in campus security patrols was reshuffling existing staff rather than adding coverage — "We are just moving pieces of the puzzle" — pointing to recent, unrelated incidents of workplace and public violence elsewhere as reasons for urgency. 10 The representative said the district had restored some security positions, but that only two year-round site security staff cover the district's four high schools even though "The high schools have events going on every day during the summer." 11 The ask was for the district to be proactive rather than reactive. 12

Solar Contracts: A Company Renamed, a Board Split

The board adopted a CEQA-exemption resolution and then a series of energy-conservation-services agreements for a second phase of solar photovoltaic installations at district sites, with the contractor now doing business under a new name. A company representative explained that Solar City — the district's original contracting partner — had been purchased by Tesla roughly six months earlier and was now operating as Tesla Energy, its battery-storage division, while continuing the work under its existing Solar City contractor's license. 13 One trustee supported the CEQA resolution but opposed the follow-on solar services agreements, citing the absence of a labor project agreement while the contractor was, at the time, in the middle of union-organizing negotiations. 14

A Retirement Announced a Year Early

District leadership told the board that they plan to retire at the close of the following school year. 1516 Rather than the shorter notice they said they had once imagined giving, they explained the district was owed the chance to run a proper successor search: "I owe that to this district... I owe the district a chance to pick a successor, have a process in place to do so." 1718

The August Calendar, Revisited Again

Board comments returned to a recurring disagreement over the school calendar's continued push into August. One trustee restated opposition, arguing June is "typically... a much cooler month for students" than August, and asked colleagues to explain how an August start benefits students below the high-school level. 1920 Another trustee countered that the earlier start "helps with the testing prior to the winter break" for high-school students juggling Advanced Placement coursework, drawing on a family member's own experience with the shift. 21 The first trustee held firm that the tradeoff wasn't really August against September — "We're trading August... and not going to school in June" — and that the change remained a concern. 22 Staff added technical context: state testing windows for grades TK–8 move with the start of the year regardless of the calendar, but the district's participation in a regional high-school consortium creates scheduling friction when member campuses are on different calendars. 2324

Board Comments: Graduation Equity, LCAP Priorities, and School Discipline

One trustee raised a graduation-ceremony equity concern, noting inconsistency in which administrators appear on stage from school to school and, more pointedly, that special education students at one or two high schools were being placed at the very end of the graduation procession rather than in alphabetical order with their peers: "They are part of that graduating class and they should be with their peers as they proceed to the stage." 252627 The same trustee pressed for continued investment in peer-support courses and in music and arts funding within the upcoming LCAP, framing the district's recently updated bullying policy as a start rather than an endpoint. 2829 The trustee also called for more consistent discipline around the use of racial slurs at school sites, saying such language is "not to be taken lightly" and that consequences — including lost privileges — were warranted to reinforce that it is never acceptable in a diverse community. 3031

Also on the Agenda

• A coordinator for a Los Angeles County Fair educational field-trip program described a free, curriculum-aligned program that opens the Fairplex fairgrounds to student visits each September, with transportation costs covered through community fundraising. 3233
• A management-employee association thanked the board and cabinet for their support and awarded two scholarships to graduating seniors who are children of district employees, recognizing their academic and community achievements.
• The board recognized a group of retiring staff with between 18 and 38 years of service each, spanning teaching, counseling, and support roles across multiple school sites. 34 Board members also noted that the district's first employee-recognition dinner in nearly a decade drew close to 300 attendees. 35
• Public hearings on the 2017–2018 budget, the Local Control and Accountability Plan, and required findings for the energy service contracts each drew no speakers. 36
• The consent calendar was approved with no items pulled for individual discussion.

This meeting took place in person on June 15, 2017. No official minutes or agenda are on file for this meeting; this summary is drawn solely from the meeting transcript, and names that appear only in the transcript — including public commenters, board members, staff, and closed-session appointees — have been withheld under this archive's nameless-summary policy for minutes-less meetings.