Chino Valley Unified Board of Education: January 21, 2021

About this record. The archive holds the recording of this meeting but no adopted minutes. Draft minutes for it were printed in the agenda packet for the February 4, 2021 meeting 1, but the February 4 minutes, which would confirm whether the board accepted them unchanged, are not on file, so this page names no one from the recording or the draft minutes as saying, moving or voting on anything; where a news outlet named a speaker, the page quotes the outlet. The board at the time was Donald L. Bridge, Andrew Cruz, Christina Gagnier, James Na and Joe Schaffer, as listed on the February 4 agenda 2, and the draft records all five present when the open session began at 6:00 p.m. 1.

The business was routine: two principal appointments announced from closed session 3, a Measure G audit with no findings 4, and three action items and the consent calendar approved 55556. Board communications turned on COVID-19 vaccines and school reopening, and vaccine-safety claims made there drew notice in the local paper 7.

💉 Board communications: vaccines and reopening

These remarks are grouped by theme, not by speaker or speaking order.

• Vaccine-safety claims and the reaction. The Champion's "Here & There" column reported that trustee Andrew Cruz "spent several minutes reading statements that claimed the COVID-19 vaccine can cause infertility, serious illness and death" 7. FactCheck.org later traced the infertility claim to a petition to the European Medicines Agency co-filed by Wolfgang Wodarg and Michael Yeadon, and reported that neither the Pfizer/BioNTech nor the Moderna vaccine contains syncytin-1, the placental protein at issue 8. A Chino Hills reader's letter in the Champion on Feb. 6 called the statements "unfounded and disproven" 9.
• Case counts and the reopening threshold. Remarks welcomed news that new cases in Los Angeles County were slowing 10. A Los Angeles Times report on the state's tighter reopening rules was also discussed: elementary schools would be eligible to reopen in counties averaging 25 or fewer cases per 100,000 residents, and San Bernardino County's adjusted rate of 103 was "four times the rate the governor set forth" 1112.
• High school sports. Remarks noted that the district does not decide when sports resume and that the CIF had told districts the fall playoffs were canceled 1111. NBC Palm Springs reported the CIF Southern Section's cancellation of its fall championships on Jan. 19, 2021 13.
• District case data. Remarks reported notifications, as captioned, of 93 employees and 16 students testing positive over about two months, with cases at 26 district sites 12.
• Vaccines for school staff. Remarks said teachers and school-site staff had been placed in Tier 1B but the county had not rolled vaccinations out to them 14, that "there is not a coherent plan to get vaccines to our educators and school site staff" 14, and urged residents to contact state representatives, the governor's office and the county 15. San Bernardino County opened vaccine appointments to all teachers, support staff and licensed child care providers in late February, according to the county's First District supervisor 16.
• A request for an official update. A member asked the superintendent and staff for an official update on reopening, covering a reopening plan that would still need a budget trailer bill from the legislature and the COVID relief order President Biden signed that day, to be transparent amid confusion on social media 121212. The governor's office had proposed $2 billion for school safety measures under its Safe Schools for All plan 17.
• Essential workers. Remarks contrasted nutrition workers "risking their lives" with "leaders in their basement", said "we're here for children and if need be if we die we die", and urged leaders to help on site 1010.
• The 1776 report and "1619". Remarks noted that the new administration had "deleted 1776" from the commission's report 18 and warned of "1619 race theory", adding that "as a community we do not want none of that stuff enter in our school district" 18. The Associated Press reported that President Biden disbanded the 1776 Commission and withdrew its report by executive order on his first day in office; the commission had been set up partly as a response to the New York Times' "1619 Project" 19.

📊 Audits: no findings reported for Measure G

The district's outside auditing firm presented two reports, both received for information: the 2019/2020 annual financial audit and the Measure G financial and performance audit 204. The board also received for information revisions to its bylaws on board member electronic communications and on meetings and notices, and the quarterly Williams uniform complaint report for October through December 2020 20. For Measure G, the auditor reported no findings on the building fund's financial statements 4. The performance audit sampled about $27 million of roughly $89 million in bond expenditures, about 30 percent, and found "no instances of non-compliance" with the bond's allowable uses 4. No board member asked questions 4.

✅ Action items and consent

• School counseling week. The board adopted a proclamation marking National School Counseling Week, February 1 through 5, 2021 45. The Champion's school notes reported the proclamation and noted that high school counselors were working with students remotely 21.
• Chino High off-site work. The board approved a reimbursement agreement with the City of Chino for off-site street, pedestrian and utility improvements tied to the Chino High School reconstruction 55.
• Briggs K-8 easement. The board approved a grant of easement to the Monte Vista Water District at Briggs K-8 55. The Champion reported that the easement conveys the campus's on-site water facilities, including the fire service line, to the water district 21.
• Consent calendar. No member pulled an item and no emailed comments came in before the consent motion went to a roll call 5. The consent calendar was approved 56. The draft minutes list on it the 2020/2021 School Accountability Report Cards, the 2021 summer instruction and special education extended school year programs, an articulation agreement with Mt. San Antonio College, a resolution recognizing February as Career and Technical Education Month and a revision of the district residency policy 22, plus dozens of notices of completion and change orders for new science buildings at Ayala High and Briggs K-8 2324. The Champion reported that the Mt. SAC agreement lets students earn four college units for each of several Regional Occupation Program courses, among them American Sign Language and agriculture classes 21.

🔒 Closed session

The board announced these closed-session actions:

• a settlement agreement with ACC Contractors Inc. for $36,314.33 tied to science lab upgrades at Ramona and Magnolia junior high schools 325;
• a resignation agreement and general release with a certificated employee, effective January 31, 2021 3;
• the appointments of Ofelia Verdugo as principal of Marshall Elementary and David Ries as principal of Oak Ridge Elementary, both effective January 22, 2021 325.

The Champion's school notes that week reported that Marshall's principal since 2017 had resigned effective Jan. 1 and that Oak Ridge's principal had also recently resigned 21.

🗣️ Public comment and employee groups

The draft minutes record no comments from the audience on items not on the agenda, a correction read into the record on one classified personnel assignment, and an absent student representative; representatives of the CHAMP and CSEA employee groups also spoke during their standing slot 25.

This is an independent, community-maintained summary of public records, not affiliated with or endorsed by Chino Valley Unified School District. The archive holds no adopted minutes for this meeting; draft minutes appear in the February 4, 2021 agenda packet, but their approval is not on file, so no statement, motion or vote on this page is attributed to a named person from the recording or the draft minutes; the one named speaker appears only in a quoted news report.