February 4, 2021: Letters Urge Reopening, and a Statement on Board Members' Comments Closes the Meeting

The board reconvened in open session at 6 p.m. 1, with the meeting livestreamed on YouTube and one member taking part by video 2. Staff read emailed comments into the record, and several urged the district to bring students back to classrooms 34. The meeting closed with a statement from the dais about complaints over one board member's remarks 5. The only action item was a public hearing on the California School Employees Association's initial proposal to reopen its contract 67, and the board approved a consent calendar that included bylaw changes for a new state law on board members' use of social media 89.

This archive holds no minutes for this meeting, and the next meeting's agenda packet, where its draft minutes would have been printed, is not in the archive either. So this page attributes no statement, motion or vote to a named person on its own authority. The account below comes from the recording, the agenda packet and press coverage. The names that appear are the ones the agenda packet or the Chino Valley Champion printed.

Emailed public comment

The agenda set aside time for comments from the student representative and from employee representatives 10. Without minutes, this page does not summarize what each of them said.

Staff then read emailed comments on items not on the agenda in the order they were received, under a rule allowing up to 30 minutes of such comments 311. No writer is named here because this archive holds no minutes for the meeting, and the themes are grouped by subject, not in speaking order. Several letters urged the district to reopen classrooms now. They pointed to the county's slim chance of reaching the red tier soon 12, children needing therapy during the year 13, a new American Academy of Pediatrics study finding transmission in schools extremely rare 14, and CDC statements that teachers did not need to be vaccinated for schools to open 4.

Separately, one letter asked that studies read aloud at board meetings be shared with full citations, so that parents, students and teachers could examine them themselves 15.

A statement on members' comments

The meeting closed with a statement from the dais addressing messages about information, or misinformation, potentially presented by one board member, and anticipating more after this meeting 5. It cited Board Bylaw 9010, which as read at the meeting says members must identify personal viewpoints as their own and not as the board's 16. Comments made during individual member comments, the statement said, reflect only that member's view unless the member plainly says otherwise 17. It added that none of the comments had violated any law or board policy, and that while the speaker might disagree with some or all of a member's statements, the speaker supported the member's right to make them 18. The meeting adjourned at 6:57 p.m. 19.

Vaccines for staff

Vaccine access for school staff was a live question that week. A local radio station reported on February 4 that, according to a county announcement the day before, teachers who would be in classrooms that school year were now eligible for vaccines but would get them from school districts 20. Several of the emailed letters also cited CDC statements that teachers did not need to be vaccinated for schools to reopen 4.

CSEA's reopener proposal

The superintendent's memo, prepared by Assistant Superintendent Richard Rideout and Human Resources directors Isabel Brenes and Eric Dahlstrom 21, says the classified employees' contract expires June 30, 2021, and that CSEA's unit membership endorsed the initial proposal on January 12, 2021 6. CSEA proposed adding language on extra hours worked by part-time members and clarifying how supervisors approve vacation 6. It also proposed clarifying how vacation days carry over, an on-salary schedule increase, a change to the school-year dates in Article 12.1.4, and more money for the health and welfare benefits cap 22. The memo says the cost will be determined through bargaining 22.

The hearing opened at 6:20 p.m. 7. No emailed comments were reported, and it closed at 6:21 p.m. 23. The Champion's school notes reported the hearing and the proposal's main points 24.

Consent calendar

No changes or deletions were announced 25, and no emailed comments on consent items were reported 23. The board then approved the consent calendar on a roll-call vote 9. Among the items:

• Revisions of Bylaws of the Board 9012, Board Member Electronic Communications, and 9320, Meetings and Notices, both presented as information on January 21, 2021 826. The memo says the changes reflect AB 992 (2020). That law lets members talk with the public on open social media platforms, as long as a majority of the board does not use the platform to discuss board business among themselves, members do not respond directly to one another, and they do not use digital icons to react to colleagues' posts 8. The revised BB 9012 also bars a member who uses social media for district business from blocking a member of the public based on viewpoint 27.
• A $319,086 agreement with Tesla, Inc. to dismantle and relocate solar panels at Buena Vista High School, and an agreement with Curative Labs, with no contract amount, for COVID-19 testing 28.
• An amendment raising Elite Modular's three-year lease of two relocatable classrooms at Rhodes Elementary from $79,800 to $132,000 and extending it through December 31, 2023 2924.
• Rejection of all ten bids for water line upgrades at Briggs K-8, the lowest $113,400, with the project to be re-bid after staff found it needed further site coordination 30319.
• Routine business: change orders and completions for alterations at Country Springs and Rolling Ridge elementary schools 32 and for safety and security work at seven schools 33; $28,320.65 in legal-services payments for December 2020 invoices 34; a warrant register of $11,287,263.27 35; a purchase order register of $1,620,255.22 36; and the minutes of the January 21, 2021 meeting 37.

Two information items were on the agenda: a new career technical course, Agriculture Leadership and Communications, which meets the UC/CSU "g" elective requirement 38, and revisions to Board Policy and Administrative Regulation 5113.2 on work permits, reflecting AB 908 (2020), which bars considering grades, grade point average or attendance during an extended campus closure 39.

Recognitions and closed session

Remarks from the dais congratulated staff who had received the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department's life-saving award, and thanked counselors during National School Counseling Week, February 1 through 5 40. The Champion reported that Canyon Hills Junior High principal Todd Finkbiner and health technician Jo Reynolds received the award on February 4, credited with saving the life of an office clerk who had a heart attack at school in January 2020 41.

The closed-session agenda listed two anticipated-litigation matters, one possible case each, with Margaret A. Chidester & Associates and Terry Tao, Esquire, listed as counsel; negotiations with A.C.T. and CSEA; a public employee discipline, dismissal or release matter; and the superintendent's performance evaluation 10. The report on the recording said the board met in closed session from 4:50 p.m. to 5:48 p.m., as captioned, and took no action requiring public disclosure 42.