May 20, 2021: An Extra 30 Minutes a Day Wins Approval After a Bid to Delay It Fails

The board met in person again 1, and its longest debate was over the state-funded Expanded Learning Opportunities Grant plan, which adds 30 minutes to the 2021-22 school day. A substitute motion to pull the plan for more input failed, and the plan was announced as approved on a roll-call vote 23. Later the board ratified an agreement with the Associated Chino Teachers that pays staff for the added time 4, approved a board member's item letting elementary schools hold in-person promotion ceremonies 35, and heard requests to make masks optional and to speed up a second school in The Preserve.

This archive holds no minutes for this meeting, so this page names no speakers: in this archive, who said what comes only from the minutes. The account below is drawn from the meeting recording, and vote outcomes are given as they were announced, without who voted which way.

The extended day

The grant plan was item 3C6 on the consent calendar. It was pulled for separate discussion, and the rest of the consent calendar was approved 6.

Answering questions from the dais, district staff described what the plan would fund. There would be an intervention teacher at each of the 20 elementary schools and two K-8 schools 7, many of them positions that had been frozen during the pandemic and would now be brought back 8. ViewSonic interactive classroom displays, recommended after a pilot by a technology committee of teachers and classified staff 9, would reach every classroom 9. Three added professional-development days would give teacher teams time to analyze student needs and plan remediation 99.

Staff gave the reasoning for the 30 minutes. From October to February, students in distance learning had lost between about 22 and 30 days of instruction 10, and the added time would make up roughly 16 days 10. Staff said the teachers' association had put the memorandum adding the 30 minutes to its membership, which backed it 8. Input on the plan came through the same process the district uses for its LCAP: the employee associations, the management group, the District English Learner Advisory Committee and the district LCAP committee 8. The plan had to be at the county by June 1 22.

Staff also said that extending the school day or year is the state's top priority in the application, though it has to be negotiated with the teachers' association. In staff's view the grant would probably have been approved without it 1111. As for why the time was not offered as after-school tutoring, staff said that of more than 2,000 McKinney-Vento students offered tutoring each year, about 2 percent take it up 12.

Homework was the concern raised most often from the dais. A member pointed to the district's homework regulation, Administrative Regulation 6154 13, which requires each school's homework plan to set out how much time homework should reasonably take 14. Staff replied that the time was not meant to add homework and promised to bring something back to the board on the subject 1212.

Before the main vote, a substitute motion sought to pull the item, gather more input and see what other districts were doing 2. It failed on a roll call 2. The board then returned to the original motion, which was announced as passing on a roll call 3.

Contracts and pay

The public hearing on the tentative agreement with the Associated Chino Teachers, covering July 1, 2019 through June 30, 2022, opened at 7:34 p.m. 15. Two parents spoke, both about the extended day. Their points, not in speaking order: smaller class sizes would help more than a longer day, and many students need counseling and mental-health support more than extra academic minutes 1616; and the 30 minutes could be one cumulative block, such as a study hall or an extra period open to every student, rather than five minutes added to each class 17. One also said that a parent LCAP meeting where the grant was to be discussed had been rescheduled 16.

From the dais it was noted that the agreement compensates teachers and staff for the extended time 18. Before the vote it was also noted that the 30 minutes had already been approved with the grant plan 4, and that this agreement is the memorandum using part of the funding to pay for the added staff time. The agreement was then ratified 4.

A public hearing with no speakers 19 preceded ratification of a tentative agreement with the California School Employees Association and its Chino Chapter 102, read aloud as running July 1, 2021 through June 30, 2024 419. The board also approved salary and health-benefit changes for management and classified-confidential employees. As captioned, these were an on-schedule raise read as 1.47 percent, one-time off-schedule payments, and a health-and-welfare benefits cap raised to $10,000 1919.

Elementary promotions

A board member's item proposed letting elementary sites decide whether to hold in-person promotion ceremonies for 2020-21 3. Discussion turned on state rules for hosting events and on ceremonies overlapping one another 3. Staff said state and county guidelines had not changed since the original recommendation 20. Ceremonies would take place after school hours, and staff would not be required to attend, just as they are not for high school graduations or junior high promotions 2021. The item was announced as passing on a roll call 5.

Masks

Four people asked to speak on non-agenda items 1; their mask comments are grouped here, not in speaking order. One speaker argued that families who did not want masks could choose distance learning, as that speaker's own family had 22, and also thanked cafeteria workers for feeding children through the pandemic 23. On the other side, a parent pointed to falling case counts, the CDC's changed guidance and vaccine availability, and asked the board to make masks optional for summer school and 2021-22 2423. A student asked that masks be a choice the next year, describing how hard it is to run outside in the heat in a mask 2525.

In board communications, a member said a May 6 request to put lifting the mask mandate for students and staff on the agenda had been rejected, and renewed it 26. The discussion established that what could come forward first was an item asking whether the matter is within the board's jurisdiction, with any item on the mandate itself following at a later meeting 27. At the next meeting, June 3, the board considered that jurisdiction question 28, and the motion was announced as failing 29. Closing remarks from the dais said the board must comply with state and county mandates, and expressed hope for leeway after June 15 30.

A second school for The Preserve

A public speaker said Cal Aero Preserve Academy had 1,385 students in February 2019, expected 1,560 for 2021-22, and was still growing 25. The speaker said the delay on Preserve School No. 2 was being blamed on contract language with the developer 31, and asked for the school to be put on the next agenda 31. In board communications, a member said the district's projects were not mutually exclusive and that an agenda item on Preserve 2's progress had been requested for the next meeting 32. On June 3, staff presented the project's timeline 33.

Recognitions and closed session

Reporting out of a closed session held from 4:40 p.m. until 5:50 p.m. 3434, the board announced the appointment of a director of communications effective May 21, 2021, a coordinator of elementary curriculum effective July 1, and assistant principals at Chino High School and Ayala High School effective July 19 34.

The meeting opened with a $27,075 check from the 12th annual golf tournament for senior scholarships 35. The Julie Gobin Memorial Hit the Greens for Scholarships tournament began in 2009 and has been hosted since 2010 by School Portraits by Adams Photography 36. A video military salute honored seniors entering the armed forces, again presented by video because COVID restrictions still ruled out an in-person event 3737. The outgoing student board representative said farewell 37. The board then approved a Chino Hills High School student as 2021-22 student member 5 and administered the oath of office 38.

Employee-group representatives recognized the educators of the year: elementary and secondary teachers, a counselor, a nurse and a psychologist 39. They noted that the year's retirees averaged about 25 years of service 39, reported the death of a bus driver who had worked about 22 years in transportation 39, and congratulated Canyon Hills Junior High on its recognition as a National Forum "Schools to Watch" campus 1.