Board of Education — March 21, 2019

Meeting Overview 🏫

The Chino Valley Unified School District Board of Education met on March 21, 2019, reconvening into open session from closed session 1. In closed session, the board had voted to accept a resignation agreement and general release with a certificated employee 2. The evening blended celebration and controversy: student presentations and a championship recognition opened the meeting, a lengthy accountability-plan update followed, and the balance of the night was consumed by an emotional standoff over the district's recent suspension of Chino Hills High School's bingo fundraiser and a contested proposal to change attendance boundaries around an overcrowded elementary campus in the Preserve.

No official minutes are on file for this meeting. This page describes what happened without attributing any statement, position, or vote to a named individual.

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Closed Session & Opening Business

Before the pledge of allegiance, the board disclosed the subjects of its closed-session deliberations, which had covered pending and anticipated litigation, real-property negotiations, a student readmission matter, employee discipline, and labor negotiations 2. The only action requiring public disclosure that evening was the resignation agreement described above.

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Presentations 🎓🏀

Third-grade students from Oak Ridge Elementary opened the meeting with short first-person presentations on historical figures, part of an annual unit connecting biography research to essay writing 3. The board then recognized the Chino Hills High School boys basketball team for a second consecutive Division 1 state championship; team members were introduced at the podium and several described their post-graduation plans 4.

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LCAP Goal 1 Update

District staff presented the fifth annual update on the Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP), focused on Goal 1 — providing all students a high-quality teaching and learning environment 5. Reported metrics included 100% of teachers holding appropriate credentials for their assignments, with three vacancies districtwide 6; 100% of facilities rated "good" or higher under the state's Facility Inspection Tool 7; full compliance with instructional-materials requirements under the state's Williams reviews 8; and deployment of more than 5,400 student devices and 135 new interactive displays districtwide 9. Staff also reported that universal second-grade screening for gifted and talented (GATE) identification had met its 10% target 10, and a trustee noted the district was in fact reaching closer to 15% 11. In discussion, a trustee asked whether a reported increase reflected the new screening process alone or a broader trend; staff clarified it tracked the annual second-grade cohort 12.

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City & Community Reports

Representatives from the cities of Ontario, Chino Hills, and Chino gave brief updates. The Ontario liaison highlighted a college-promise program covering two years of community-college tuition for FAFSA-completing graduates 13. The Chino Hills liaison previewed spring community events, including a concert series and an adult Easter egg scramble 14. The Chino liaison thanked the district for helping coordinate a recent youth track meet 15.

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Public Comment: Chino Hills High School Bingo Fundraiser 🎫

Twenty-two people signed up to address the board on items not on the agenda 16, and the bingo fundraiser's suspension dominated the queue, continuing again later in the meeting after the evening's action items were heard. The suspension had followed a March 7 board meeting where trustees raised compliance questions about the general boosters' handling of the long-running weekly game.

Commenters described bingo's role funding school programs: one described the weekly volunteer setup that funds an annual choir trip 17, and others said the game's regular senior patrons arrive an hour early and consider it the best part of their week 18. Several described the funding model as merit-based — students and clubs receive money in proportion to the volunteer hours they contribute 19 — and worried that a suspension framed as temporary could become a de facto shutdown if the program lapsed past its scheduled end date 20.

Two officers of the general boosters addressed the board directly. One explained that a September 2018 meeting with the district and its auditor had produced an informal improvement plan whose amendments were never formally recorded, a miscommunication that later made the club appear noncompliant; the district subsequently apologized for the mix-up 2122. She quoted an audit report describing the club's recordkeeping as "transparent organized and keeps detailed record" 23, and said the same audit found no discrepancies tracing cash and credit-card deposits to bank statements 24. She reported the boosters had provided about $99,000 in student-program assistance so far that school year 25 — a figure also reported in contemporaneous local press coverage of the meeting 26. A second officer explained that winning players are paid out in cash weekly, which she said is why the club's roughly $1.2 million in gross annual income is often mistaken for net proceeds; after payouts of about 73%, she put net proceeds for a comparable period at roughly $162,000, most of which is redirected to the school as charitable donations 272829.

Other commenters connected to the music program said it costs roughly $296,000 a year to run and depends heavily on bingo and booster donations 30. An athletics coach cited uniform costs of roughly $5,500 to $6,000 every two years as one of several recurring expenses bingo helps cover 31. Several longtime patrons, some of them widowed, described bingo as a rare daytime, safe social outlet for older adults who no longer drive at night, and said they had been playing for well over a decade 32.

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Action Item: Cal Aero Preserve Academy Boundary Change (Tabled) ⚠️

The board considered a proposed temporary boundary change for Cal Aero Preserve Academy, framed as a response to overcrowding while a second, previously promised school in the Preserve remains unbuilt. District staff opened by clarifying the item's scope, saying the district had never said it would delay the second school and would move forward on purchasing land once state approval came through 3334. Staff explained a "yes" vote would let current Cal Aero families' younger siblings be grandfathered into the school under a new, smaller boundary, while a "no" vote would leave the existing boundary and overflow process in place 35.

Commenters described the school as full to capacity amid continued home construction in the area, argued the district had known about the growth trend for years without building the promised second campus, and said busing overflow students to Ontario was not an acceptable substitute 3637. Some suggested temporary portable classrooms as a bridge until a second school could open 38; one young student said she was afraid of a long daily bus ride to a farther school and asked the district to keep neighborhood kids together at their home school 39. A representative of the project's developer argued that Measure G's sales pitch to voters had explicitly included a second Preserve school, and urged the district to hire an architect and set a firm timeline 4041.

Board deliberation was extensive. One trustee said too many community questions remained unanswered to vote that night 42, and added that Measure G bond funds earmarked for the second school had not been diverted elsewhere 43. That trustee asked colleagues to consider tabling the item to allow more time for answers 44. Another trustee argued the boundary change, the overcrowding, and the second school were three related but separately timed issues, and endorsed a board study session to lay out the bond-spending timeline 45. After further discussion, a motion to table the item passed 46.

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Other Action Items

The board adopted Resolution 2018-2019-35, a legally required notice of layoff for certain classified positions under state education code 47; staff clarified the notice affected an unfunded, currently vacant Title I–funded position and no actual employees 48. The consent calendar was approved without discussion 49.

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Additional Public Comment

A parent described his son's arrest and suspension from college the previous year after being accused of threatening a former school; the accusation drew unwanted media attention before the district attorney declined to file charges for lack of evidence and the family's university reinstated the son 505152. The parent said the district still would not let his son on campus or at school events 53. Separately, a staff member from the district's alternative education program voiced concern that a proposed charter school might take over some of its campus space, citing another site's experience losing space to a charter school 54.

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Board Comments & Adjournment

Closing comments were largely deferential to the evening's pending items. One trustee congratulated the basketball team, asked staff to fast-track a study session on the Preserve boundary question, and declined to discuss the bingo suspension in detail ahead of its scheduled return to a vote 55, saying the original suspension had been meant to restart a stalled conversation about the audit's recommendations rather than end the program 56. Another trustee addressed the evening's threat-allegation testimony, saying the board sometimes receives screenshots that read as far less alarming out of context and expressing sympathy for what the family had described 57. Board members closed by thanking district teachers and staff 58; based on the video's total run time, the meeting appears to have adjourned a little after 9:30 p.m.