March 7, 2024 — Board of Education

The Chino Valley Unified School District Board of Education met at Woodcrest Junior High School in Ontario, opening in closed session at 4:30 p.m. and reconvening in open session at 6:00 p.m. with Bridge, Cruz, Monroe, Na, and Shaw present 12. The meeting ran until 8:32 p.m. 3

Two threads dominated the evening: a rewrite of the district's parental notification policy, and a contract fight with the teachers' union that filled the room.

📋 The notification policy: 5020.1 out, 5010 in

The board's central action was to approve new Board Policy and Administrative Regulation 5010—Notification. Board member Don Bridge cast the dissenting vote, and the student representative voted no 4. Later in the same meeting, on the consent calendar, the board deleted Board Policy 5020.1—Parental Notification — the policy 5010 replaces 5.

Both items came to the board from Board President Sonja Shaw, who is listed as the originator on the agenda memos for the new policy and for the deletion 67.

What actually changed. The new policy keeps the three-day clock: staff must notify parents or guardians in writing within three days of becoming aware that a student is requesting to change any information contained in the student's official or unofficial records 8. What it drops is the specificity of its predecessor. The deleted 5020.1 triggered notification when a student requested "to be identified or treated, as a gender … other than the student's biological sex or gender listed on the student's birth certificate", including requests to use a different name or pronouns 9. None of that language appears in 5010 — the trigger is now records-neutral. The accompanying administrative regulation also carries an explicit carve-out: no notification is made where it would violate Education Code Section 49602, which protects information a student 12 or older shares with a school counselor 10. The regulation words the timing differently from the policy, telling principals to notify parents "no fewer than three days" after staff become aware of a request — a floor rather than a deadline 10.

That distinction is the whole story of the item, and outside coverage read it the same way. The Liberty Justice Center, which represents the district in California v. Chino Valley Unified School District, describes the March 2024 update as maintaining the three-day records requirement while removing "language from the policy requiring staff to notify parents when a student requests to use facilities or pronouns that differ from their sex at birth" 11. The San Bernardino County Sentinel covered the meeting under the headline "Chino Valley Unified Tweaks Its Parental Notification Policy In Bid To Stymie State Challenges," reporting that staff would now be called on to notify parents any time a student makes changes to official or unofficial records 12.

How it got here. The predecessor policy has its own long paper trail in this archive. The record of its adoption, reproduced in a later 2023 board packet, shows a public-comment line dozens of names long — including the State Superintendent of Public Instruction 13. A matching Administrative Regulation 5020.1, written to support that policy, came to the board that September 14.

Public comment on the item was heavy: twenty-one people addressed the board on the new policy, seven speaking in favor and fourteen opposed 4. One additional member of the public spoke on the consent item deleting the old policy 15.

👥 Two cabinet appointments, effective July 1

Out of closed session, the board reported appointing Dr. Tracy Freed as Assistant Superintendent, Curriculum, Instruction, Innovation, and Support and Dr. Grace Park as Deputy Superintendent, both effective July 1, 2024, and issued a notice of release to a certificated employee identified only by employee number 16. CHAMP President Emily Lao congratulated both administrators, and also congratulated Woodcrest JHS staff on the school's recognition as a California Distinguished School 17.

The employment contracts for the two new positions came back to the board two months later, on May 2, 2024 18.

🎙️ Public comment: pay, and a room that would not settle

Steven Frazer, A.C.T. Organizing Chair, thanked Chino educators for their solidarity, expressed frustration with the district's lack of response to bargaining proposals, said the scheduled April 16 session with the state mediator was an opportunity to settle the contract, said the Association does not want a strike, and called for collaboration 19.

Thirty-four people addressed the board on items not on the agenda. Twenty-one of them spoke in support of teachers; the rest raised artificial intelligence, board governance, teacher retention and vacancies, teacher pay, special education, Black History Month, visual and performing arts, the Ayala choir, and what one speaker characterized as divisive behavior 2021.

The compensation arguments were specific. One speaker said the state budget package included an 8.22% cost-of-living adjustment and that the district had been given money to raise salaries 22, then asked why, having said it received 5.44%, the district had offered less than that 23. Another calculated that their household would have earned over $1 million more in combined income had they applied to a neighboring district years earlier, with knock-on effects on their retirements 24.

The room was volatile. President Shaw called a recess from 6:08 p.m. to 6:13 p.m. because of audience disruption 25, and later in the evening a warning went out that the meeting would break again if the audience did not behave 26.

Student representative Chloe Kubeldis, reporting on high school activities, thanked teachers for the environments they create and said she hoped for a positive conclusion to bargaining 27.

💵 Money and operations

• Layoff resolution. The board adopted Resolution 2023/2024-42, Notice of Layoff of Certain Classified Staff, under Education Code 45117 and 45298 28.
• Emergency electrical repairs at Townsend JHS. The board adopted Resolution 2023/2024-43, asking the San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools for authorization to award a contract without bidding or advertising 29. The backstory: a February 20, 2024 power failure at Townsend tripped a 2000-amp 277/480-volt breaker, forcing an emergency generator on site while high-voltage repairs were made 30. Fiscal impact: $312,815.00 to General Fund 01 31.
• Legal services. The board approved payment to Atkinson, Andelson, Loya, Ruud & Romo; Margaret A. Chidester & Associates; and Tao Rossini, APC 32. The January invoices totaled $89,250.13, bringing 2023/2024 legal spending to $571,646.32 year to date — of which $327,247.26 had gone to Atkinson, Andelson, Loya, Ruud & Romo alone 33.
• Teacher pipeline. The board approved a Fieldwork and Internship Master Agreement with Chapman University 34.
• Routine consent business included an award of RFP 23-24-07 for unarmed security services to four vendors 35, two student expulsion cases, school-sponsored trips, and the Chino Valley Learning Academy attendance calendars for 2024/2025 and 2025/2026 36. The board also received for information a proposed revision to graduation-requirement policy BP 6146.1 37.

🗣️ Board communications

This is the part of the record where each board member speaks in their own voice.

• Don Bridge said he attended the Baldy View ROP open house on February 23 in Ontario and participated in Read Across America; spoke about negotiations and the effects of bargaining updates on the process; and spoke about his not supporting the new notification policy 38.
• James Na spoke about the teachers who showed up for the meeting regarding negotiations; said he attended the Stepping Up Program, where Mrs. Shaw was the keynote speaker; and spoke about respect 39.
• Jon Monroe said he visited freshman nights at high schools and met with parents and teachers for candid discussions; said he was frustrated at the lack of respectfulness at the meeting; spoke about the negative effect of spreading rumors related to negotiations, and about being paid enough while being fiscally responsible; thanked Cabinet; drew on his own experience as a teacher; and asked for restraint and respect in bargaining going forward 40.
• Andrew Cruz read a piece published by Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE) mentioning the district; said a settlement could be reached before the session with the state mediator; announced the June 8 Fish and Wildlife Festival at Prado Regional Park; and praised the Art Festival 41.
• Superintendent Norm Enfield thanked Mr. Monroe for his comments; spoke about Woodcrest JHS receiving California Distinguished School status and about the teaching work evident in district classrooms; and said he wanted negotiations resolved soon and was confident it would happen before the meeting with the state mediator 42.
• President Sonja Shaw thanked Cabinet; said notification does affect academics; spoke about what she is learning about negotiations, equity in Sacramento's funding models, California's salary increase ranges, and PERB violations; shared personal reasons for wanting to become a mother; said being college bound is not in everyone's future; congratulated Dr. Freed; expressed gratitude for dedicated teachers; and spoke about recall efforts against her, saying she would attend signature-gathering events so that she can represent herself 43.

This page summarizes the district's own records — the adopted minutes, the agenda packet, and the meeting video. It is not an official district document.