Board of Education — September 20, 2018

September 20, 2018 Board of Education Meeting

Public comment overwhelmed this meeting. Of thirteen speakers who addressed the board on items not on the agenda, twelve spoke about remarks a board member had made at the district's September 6, 2018 meeting — remarks that, as described by commenters throughout the evening, compared state education policy to Nazi Germany and included disparaging statements about LGBTQ+ students and families 1. The board does not typically respond to public comment as it is offered, reserving any response for board-member comments later in the agenda 2.

No official minutes are on file for this meeting. Because speaker identity cannot be verified against an official record, this summary does not attribute any statement below to a named individual — not public commenters, board members, or staff.

An hour of public testimony

Speaker after speaker returned to the same themes. Several said the September 6 remarks were part of a pattern of offensive statements stretching back years and called for the board member's resignation 3. One speaker, who said they were a Jewish resident of the community, described the comparison as trivializing the Holocaust: "I have entire branches of my family tree that were wiped out by Hitler and the Nazis" 4. A second speaker who identified as Jewish said hearing "flippant remarks about the worst genocide in history with the understanding of a kindergartener" from an elected official was "beyond unforgivable" 5.

Several commenters disputed specific factual claims that had been made about the district's sex-education curriculum. One speaker, who described teaching the district's health curriculum for many years, said neither of the two board members who had criticized the curriculum had ever observed a class in person or attended a preview session before making public claims about it 6. The same speaker said one of the critics had cited a socially conservative advocacy group whose name closely resembles a mainstream pediatric organization, and that the advocacy group has been separately classified as a hate group for its opposition to LGBTQ-inclusive health guidance 7. A current eighth-grade student told the board that the fifth- and sixth-grade curriculum covered the menstrual cycle, hygiene, and basic anatomy, said students were not shown pornographic material or taught about anal sex as had been suggested, and said their teachers — some of whom are LGBTQ+ — taught students "to accept one another and everyone is equal" 8 9.

One speaker read a letter formally alleging that the September 6 remarks violated board bylaws governing member conduct 10, and said the same board member had, at an earlier meeting in July 2015, made a separate set of offensive remarks touching on the Charleston, South Carolina mass shooting, the Confederate flag, same-sex marriage, immigration, and mandatory vaccination policy 11. Another speaker argued that board members were required by the board's own bylaws to educate themselves on district policy before speaking publicly about it, and noted the district has long had a sex-education opt-out policy for parents 12 13. Public commenters also said the board member's conduct had cost the district more than $300,000 in related expenses, though the archive does not include independent confirmation of that figure 13.

Not every speaker was critical. One speaker said no one is perfect, that they forgave the remarks, and asked the community to continue supporting the board 14 15.

The board's response

The board's response came almost entirely during board-member comments after public comment had concluded. One trustee said they had been visibly uncomfortable during the September 6 remarks, and said they had endured similar incidents for years — recalling a comparable episode several years earlier involving a different set of offensive remarks — and said they would support a board conduct policy if the board needed one 16 17 18 19. A second trustee pushed back on the characterization of a colleague as racist, drawing on personal history and relationships within the district to make the case, while agreeing that Hitler himself was "a killer" 20 21.

The dais closed the meeting with an extended apology for not responding to the remarks at the September 6 meeting itself. Reading from a letter a former student had sent expressing outrage at the board's silence, the dais said they had not spoken out earlier because they had not been sure what they heard, called that an insufficient excuse, and said the September 6 remarks were inappropriate for an educator and a board member and appeared to have been prepared in advance rather than spoken off the cuff 22 23. The dais said the September 6 comparison seemed intended to cast the state's health curriculum in a negative light by linking it to Nazi Germany, calling that framing "completely unacceptable" 24.

A statewide technology honor for Woodcrest

The meeting opened with a presentation from Woodcrest Junior High School, recognized this year as a Microsoft Showcase School — one of only 40 schools nationally, and one of four in California, to receive the distinction 25 26. Two eighth-grade ASB members described a year-long effort that included training that made every certificated staff member at the school a Microsoft Innovative Educator 27. Student presenters shared individual projects built with the new technology, including a model solar-paneled house built from cardboard and a project tracking a satellite developed in partnership with JPL 28 29. A Woodcrest administrator said the recognition required broad staff buy-in and thanked district leadership for supporting the effort 30. One trustee praised the presentation, saying the quality of teaching, leadership, and parental support gave them confidence about where the school's students were headed 31.

Professional development and the LCAP

A district administrator delivered the annual update on staff professional development tied to the district's Local Control and Accountability Plan, describing a cycle in which a task force of teacher leaders and site and district administrators reviews outcome data each spring and surveys certificated staff to set the following year's focus areas 32. This year's priorities included expanding Professional Learning Community training to every certificated staff member 33; continuing a shift toward more engaging classroom technology, including a pilot of new interactive display boards with 108 teachers and a three-to-one Chromebook ratio at eight elementary schools, plus a new single sign-on platform for students and staff 34 35; and deepening the district's positive-behavior support framework, under which 24 schools earned silver or bronze recognition and one high school reached gold-level status, to be recognized in Washington, D.C. the following year 36.

Board members asked how schools were chosen for the Chromebook and interactive-display pilots; staff said selection weighed which sites had a receptive staff and older equipment in need of replacement, alongside school interest, with plans to expand the pilots to additional elementary schools 37 38 39. Board members also asked how the gold-level high school had outperformed other campuses under the same framework; staff said the difference came down to additional training and a stronger commitment to individualized counseling and intervention support 40 41.

Employee-group and staff comments

Two employee-organization representatives addressed the board. One said front-office staff generally liked the district's new visitor-management system where it worked, but that older campus computers often could not run it reliably, and asked the district to add clerical or health-technician hours to offset the several hours a day some staff were spending managing it 42. The same speaker said special-education instructional aides were regularly unable to take their scheduled breaks and lunches because of workload 43.

A second employee-organization representative, speaking on behalf of roughly 1,400 members, said the organization would not weigh in on the sex-education debate playing out in public comment beyond noting the district's own opt-out policy, adding that "for anyone to suggest that the teachers of our district would teach anything that would be damaging to our students is shameful" 44 45. A district administrator also spoke about the upcoming Week of the School Administrator recognition (October 8–14) and outlined administrators' work over the first six weeks of the school year, including back-to-school nights and support for site council elections and staff training 46.

Administrative and closed-session items

Reported out of closed session, the board took action to appoint a new assistant principal at Cal Aero K-8, effective September 21, 2018 47. The board adopted Resolution 2018/2019-19 recognizing the Week of the School Administrator, October 8–14, 2018 48 49. There were no speakers on the consent calendar, which the board approved, including item D-3 (page 86), considered separately 50.

This is an independent, community-maintained summary of public records and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Chino Valley Unified School District. No official minutes are on file for this meeting; because speaker identity cannot be independently verified against the official record, no statement in this summary is attributed to a named individual.