Chino Valley Unified Board of Education, special meeting, September 3, 2025

President Sonja Shaw called the special meeting to order at 5:00 p.m. with John Cervantes, Andrew Cruz, James Na and Shaw present; Superintendent Norm Enfield and five other administrators attended 1. The board had one action item, the vacancy in Trustee Area 4. The names of seven eligible candidates were announced, and the board approved the set of interview questions and set the interviews for September 8 1. Shaw adjourned the meeting at 5:10 p.m. 1.

🪑 Why the seat was open

Jonathan Monroe, then the board's vice president, resigned effective August 15, 2025 2. Board Bylaw 9223 gives the board 60 days from a vacancy outside certain statutory windows to either order an election or make a provisional appointment 3. It also says a committee of less than a quorum checks that applicants are eligible and announces their names, and that the board interviews the candidates at a public meeting, accepts oral or written public input, and selects the appointee by majority vote 3. On August 5 the board chose a provisional appointment, named Sonja Shaw and John Cervantes as that committee, and set August 15 through 29 as the application period 4. The staff report for this meeting says the vacancy was advertised in the Daily Bulletin and the Chino Champion 5.

📋 Seven eligible candidates

The minutes record that the names of the eligible candidates were announced: Shaun Smith, Mary Joy Volinski, Laura Weijland, Lisa Greathouse, David Schrodetzki, Anthony Ingegneri and Tom Mackessy. The minutes call this a formal disclosure that fulfilled a requirement of Board Bylaw 9223 1. From the dais, the board was told that the names had been verified as eligible for the provisional appointment 6 and that every applicant had turned in a résumé and a letter on why they wanted to join the board 6.

❓ Thirteen interview questions

The questions were read aloud in full before the vote 6 7. The minutes do not reproduce them, but the recording does, and the Champion printed them three days later, leaving out the descriptions of the book scenes 8. They were grouped under these headings:

• Title IX and student athletics: which side a trustee would take when federal Title IX and California law conflict over a boy playing on a girls' team, and whether biological boys should use girls' restrooms, locker rooms or showers 6 6.
• Political and ideological displays: flags and symbols outside the curriculum in classrooms 6 6.
• Parental authority and notification: students under 18 changing school records without parental knowledge 8, whether parents have the ultimate authority over their children's upbringing, and whether schools should ever keep information about a child from parents 9.
• A challenged library book: after descriptions of two sexually explicit scenes were read aloud, whether such books should be accessible in public school libraries 9.
• Trainings and community school grants: how to approach mandatory ideological training for staff, whether teachers should be compelled to take part 9, and whether to reject community school grants that may come with requirements for medical interventions, gender-affirming care or reproductive services 9 9.
• Ideological pressure: how to respond to a teachers union pressing ideological priorities backed by threats of legal action 9 9, and whether unions have too much influence outside instruction 8.
• CSBA and Sacramento mandates: how to keep the district from following the California School Boards Association line blindly 7.

The board was told the questions would be posted on the district's website before the interviews 6. The minutes record that the motion to approve the proposed set of interview questions was moved by Na and seconded by Cervantes, and carried 1. No board discussion is heard on the recording before either vote 7 7.

📅 Interviews set for September 8

On a motion by Na, seconded by Cruz, the board scheduled a special meeting for September 8, 2025, at 5:00 p.m. to interview the eligible candidates 1. From the dais it was said the interviews would be held in open session and the provisional appointment made at that meeting 7. At that meeting Shaun Smith was selected to fill the provisional vacancy for Trustee Area 4 10.

🗣️ Public comment

The minutes list one person who addressed the board on agenda items, Jim Gallagher, who also led the Pledge of Allegiance 1. The minutes do not record what he said 1.

📰 Outside the room

The Chino Valley Defenders of Public Education, an advocacy group critical of the board, wrote before the interviews that none of the 13 questions asked about candidates' qualifications, and urged residents to attend on September 8 11. The Champion reported that the seven applicants would each get 30 minutes to answer 8.