Board of Education — September 13, 2022

Hello, welcome everybody. I'd like to call this Board of Education meeting to order. September 13th, 7 p.m. is the open session portion of the meeting. I would like to ask Student Trustee President Haley to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance, please.

Please stand, remove your hats, and place your right hand over your heart. Ready, begin. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Please let the record show that all board members are present. I'll read their names off. Trustee Houlihan. Present. Make sure you say present. Present. I'm sorry. Present. It's a good way to test the mics, too. Present. Trustee A. Alecantaro.

Present.

Student Trustee Nagel. Present. Trustee Vara. Present. Trustee Randler.

Present.

and Trustee O'Neill is also here. I'll entertain a motion to approve the minutes from July 12th and August 9th. So moved.

Second.

I should have said and September 6th. Moved. Second. Alright, any discussion? All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Chair votes aye, so ordered. On reporting out from our closed session item, We recently reviewed with the superintendent his annual evaluation. And I am happy to report that we have really enjoyed working with him since he's been here. He had a great year, a very challenging year. But the board took action because of his consistently competent and outstanding performance as the leader of our district. We wish to extend his contract through June 30th, 2026. And I think I would invite the board members if they would like to make comments about that. So we'll start with Michelle.

I just want to thank you for your leadership throughout the district to teachers and families just keeping everybody abreast on what's happening being so transparent with everything and helping us as board members to understand what's going on in our district. So thank you so much for your leadership.

I just want to add, during the last two years it's been such a difficult for many of us, especially superintendents, running schools with all of the new regulations, with the additional funding, with additional safety, but I am like I don't know how to how to express myself with like I'm excited with the things that we completed in Redlands. We were one of the first districts and many other districts followed when we addressed our students GPAs and reducing the credits the high school credits to the state requirement during the pandemic. And, you know, shortly after several districts in the Indian Empire followed suit along with the rest of them in the state of California. So we did an outstanding job of, you know, coming up with things that we needed to address to make sure that our students' needs were met. And, you know, coming up with that idea I think is an exceptional idea. that you and the cabinet came up with, so I appreciate that. And then also, during the last two years, when it comes to dealing with our students' mental health, it has not been an easy task. However, I want to applaud Melitesta. She's done an excellent job of making sure that our students needs have been met when it comes to meeting their mental health, but that speaks to the leadership of Mauricio being able to gather our employees and allowing them to think and collaborate and come up with things to improve The needs of our students and you've done an exceptional job and you continue to do an exceptional job And then also listening to us as a board whenever we see or hear That there's needs that need to be met with with our students and parents and and employees I just like that you're flexible, you're understanding. And unlike the three things that you've taught me that you've come and you believe in and you talk about in a daily basis or any time a difficult decision you have to make comes across, that as long as it's legal and it's ethical, and moral. So he bases his decisions on whether or not it's legal, ethical, and moral, and that speaks volumes. Thank you Mauricio, keep up the good work.

All right, I just want to thank Mauricio for his service, not only to the board, but to the students of RUSD and the staff. I truly appreciate everything you have done, especially guiding us through a pandemic, which is difficult. That's a nice way to say it. So I cannot wait to see what else you have in store for the district and eager to see it. Thank you.

Thank you, Mauricio.

You brought us, which we have on the board here now, RUSD 2025 that every time we set up. When we first heard of that, when we had you here five years ago, we said, well, OK, well, let's see where we're going to go. And we've accomplished, and you can take check marks down those boxes up there one by one. Certainly our technology has increased 150% on everywhere. You look and you see everywhere you go that we're getting our new ones. Our library at Redlands High School is phenomenal. It's a place for people to go, our students to go and learn in an environment they feel comfortable in. Not only have you been a leader in the district, but you've been a leader in the county. When we closed for COVID, we were the first ones to open and everyone looked at you and said, what are you doing over there? How are we getting back? Because of your leadership, our teachers were able to come back, our students were able to come back. Yes, we were in and not at home. We were on Zoom, but you led this in your direction and your leadership, which gave you a position on insert. So, I thank you. You were a good hire. I'm glad you're going to be here. Another three. I sat on the – we all sat – some of us sat on the panel when we hired you, and that was a good one. So, congratulations. Job well done. Thank you very much. Thank you.

I appreciate it.

You're welcome.

And I'll close. I have a few prepared comments. You know, Mauricio, just getting to work with you and knowing you. I think back along my 40-plus years in education, and I think I told you this earlier, that out of all the decisions and all the things that I've done throughout my career, Probably the best decision and the best thing that I did during that career was to put my yes vote when we hired you. You've really done an amazing job. You continue to build partnerships. You've implemented innovative programs with your team. You know how to put a team together. I think that's really important. I know you're hearing this and I know you're a humble guy and you will definitely respond to how you've put people together and what they've been able to accomplish under your leadership, but you know what, it takes a leader to do that. You're helping us address diversity and equity issues. You're leading an effective management team, as I said, and making our campuses, most importantly, safe. I really appreciate what you're doing and your efforts there. And it's certainly become a model nationwide. So congratulations on that. You lead by example. You're a wholesome, good person. And like Mr. Vara said, I think that's something that people that don't get to work with you on a regular basis, they probably don't see that all the time, but it shines through. We thank you for that. I like the way you rely on the data. You're vested in this district, and it shows through your dedication and your authenticity. You're always being very sincere and straightforward. Your insightful and creative ideas provide exceptional strategies and solutions that result in positive and effective outcomes that we see day in and day out. So I, like my colleagues, are so impressed with the amazing progress that's been accomplished under your leadership, and especially to the accolades for the RUSD 2025, which continues to be implemented ahead of schedule. I'm going to have to come up with a new phrase, I think, because it's almost like RUSD 2023. Now let's go on to the next one. Um, I really appreciate your communication with me serving as president and a board member. And I know all the board members do too. You're always very timely and complete with your communiques and that's very much appreciated. So in summary. I would like to make sure that you feel commended for your extraordinary service, dedication, sacrifices, as we know you make as you're always working it seems, and especially your powerful leadership that provides our district and the entire learning community excellence in every way. So with that, well done, sir. Next, oops, I skipped my page. So at this point, we have public participation. This is a time that any member of the public may address the board on any agenda item before or during the board's consideration of the item, provided the person submits a completed registration card to address the board to the clerk of the board or his or her designee prior to the time the chairperson calls the item for the board's consideration. This is not meant to be a debating period. Complaints and problems relating to policy matters will be referred to the superintendent. The person wishing to address the board shall, when recognized by the chairperson of the board, step up to the podium, announce their name and trustee area, if you know it. The chairperson shall, in the interest of facilitating the business of the board, limit the amount of time which a member of the public may use in addressing the board to three minutes, unless the chairperson and the majority of the board determines that a different time limit is appropriate. So we do have someone who would like to address the board on an agendized item. So I would ask Michael Smalling. to step forward please. Welcome, sir.

Good evening respected members of the board. My name is Michael Smalling and I am deeply concerned as my wife is about some events in the baseball program at RHS. My son is 17 years old. He has a 3.7 GPA. As a freshman entering the program, we were told about the long blue line, role modeling, mentoring, showing the boys the skills they needed to become men, but this has not been Riley's experience beginning last year. Perhaps it was when he stood up for an underclassman who was being surrounded by varsity players nearly in tears and scared to death. He stopped the hazing and was later told by seniors that they'd been directed to toughen up the younger players by the coach. Maybe it was when a younger classmate came to him distressed and looking for direction after the coach insinuated that he was gay by asking him if he even liked girls. Could have been when my son had it implied to him that he was stupid, that he was the worst outfielder on the team, even though that doesn't follow the statistics that had been recorded. For that, he was punished and sent to a JV game to start pitching there, which wasn't a big deal, except that those coaches were told specifically he couldn't bat. There are a lot of things that I can't begin to describe in detail, but two others I think are worth mentioning. One is the unapproved baseball funds used by the coach to pay for beer and food and stuff after the alumni game, money that hadn't been approved by the Fundraising committee and the second thing is when a kid came onto the field with a group of people there and and said hey I had miss flowers as my substitute teacher today and The class was interrupted quite a bit because I had to keep going out and getting tissue to which the coach said why so you can masturbate to her in front of a number of students Coach Artecchi has encouraged a culture of hostility and divisiveness. He doesn't demonstrate leadership, role modeling, or mentoring. He tears down kids with both demeaning statements and targeting insults with innuendo. Sorry, I lost my space. Can I interrupt you?

Please. This portion, I'm going to let you finish, but this portion of the meeting is for things that are agendized. Are you leading up to a specific agendized item?

I didn't have an agendized item, and I didn't think that I checked that, but if I did, my apologies.

Well, that's OK. It says public hearing. Could I ask you, could you stay, and we can hear the rest of it later, because I've got to follow these rules. Absolutely. OK, I'd appreciate that. I would appreciate that. Thank you very much. Okay, Mr. Smallings, if you can stick around, there'll be an opportunity for you to come back up and address the board. Thank you. Okay. Carrie Ann, we didn't have anybody specifically. Okay. All right. Let's go to our public hearing. I call this public hearing order. This is public hearing regarding resolution number 11, 2022-2023, statement of assurance, pupil, textbook, and instructional materials compliance for 2022-23 fiscal year TK-12. Is there anybody who wishes to address the board on that specific item? Mr. Blatch.

My name is Paul Blatch. I live in trustee area five. I wasn't going to say anything here, but I do know that when I was back school night that there are teachers that are still trying to get online textbooks. I don't know what this particular public hearing is about in terms of you're guaranteeing that the pupil has a textbook and instruction materials that Is it physical material, or is it online material?

This is about the materials that we are having in the schools that are meeting the compliance issue. So thank you for that. Seeing none other, I will close this public hearing. And we'll go to our first presentation on item C. This is the final 2021-22 unaudited actuals in 2022-23 revised adopted budget. Mr. Hill, Assistant Superintendent of Business, welcome. Haley, can you push over there with her?

All righty, thank you President O'Neill, Vice President Vara, and distinguished board and cabinet. Today I'm going to be presenting the 2021-2022 unaudited actuals. What it really is designed to do is show you the differences between our proposed budget in June of last year through our ending budget of June of this year. So the things I'm going to show you are not currently about this year's budget, but it's really about last year's budget and where we ended up. This is required to be presented to the Board for approval by September 15th. It identifies changes in the projected beginning balance for 2021-22. It identifies actual restricted and unrestricted carryover balances between those two years. And it is called unaudited actuals because it hasn't been audited yet by an external auditor. And an independent auditor will eventually go through this and certify it by the end of the year. Since we are in the current year, I'd like to just kind of mention a few notes about this year's budget. We had it passed on time in June. Final cost of living adjustment or the COLA for the 21-22. was 5.07 last year for this year at 6.56 will be the cost of living adjustment and then that cost of living adjustment was augmented with an additional 6.7 percent which has some strings we'll talk about later on the restricted side. There's going to be an increase for both PERS and STRS this year and unemployment insurance rate increases of a little over 1.8 million from 21-22 remains in place. Here's the first chance we get to kind of see between what we presented as estimated actuals in that center column versus how we ended up the year. So if you look at that center column under beginning balance, $81 million, a little over $81 million, and we unaudited at the end of the year with a little over $81 million. What we actually realized was a $4,000 reduction in our beginning balance by the time we Finished audit. Revenues, I'm going to look at the center item again. A little over 323 million were what we projected the year to look like. We ended up with about 300 million in revenues, so we realized a little over 22 million in losses of unrealized revenue, which means we did not get that in as we expected. You'll notice on the next line with expenditures, we also, since we didn't realize the revenue, we also didn't spend the money. We didn't have the money to spend. So we equivalently didn't spend it. And we had an ending balance that ended a little high. So we ended up with about a million dollars more than we anticipated at the beginning of the year. As we look specifically into our revenues, you'll notice that LCFF, which is our base funding we get for students who attend our schools, we estimated a little over $221 million. We ended up with a year, a little over $221 million net change and a reduction of $143,000 off. Federal revenue, you'll notice that we had a reduction in about $27 million in federal revenue. Federal revenue is dollars that we get in from the feds. It does not mean that we will not get that, it just means we didn't get that money when we closed out this year. Those items sometimes require reimbursement, those come in at later dates. Other state revenues, we went from 32, a little about 33 million in estimated actuals through about 36 million in unaudited actuals. So we realized a little over about 3 million dollars in net change. Local revenue, we realized about 2 million dollars. Most of that has come in through RDA, so our redevelopment funds that we get from builders who build buildings within the district's boundaries. Total for the year between our estimated in June through the end of the year, we realized about a $23 million loss. Again, it's not necessarily a loss in funding. It might be that we're rolling over that funding into this year and we'll see that money come in at this fiscal year. Too far. Actual expenditures, we look at salaries and benefits for the employees. We estimated about 235 million. We realized about 247 million, so we had an increase in $12 million in salaries and benefits. Books and supplies, services, equipment, other outgoing transfers, all realized a reduction, $14.5 million, and about $20 million, $1.7 million, and $274,000. I want to bring your note to that total, that's around $24 million, so $23,751, in a reduction in expenditures, but you'll notice if I go back, our federal revenue was also We brought in the same amount in lower revenue. So we simply just didn't spend the money we didn't get. Components of our ending balance. So as we look at our total balance at the end of the year, we have revolving cash at about $50,000. Our stores inventory, which is the amount of dollars that are sitting in our stores, is $612,000. Prepaid expenses are when we enter into multi-year contracts, we save the money for those outgoing years in what we call prepaid. Legally restricted are money that comes in with strings attached that we have to spend them on the dollars that they came in for, 41 million. We have 20 million in committed funds. Those are dollars that the board has set aside for specific purposes. 3% for a reserve for uneconomic uncertainty, a little over 9 million. Our assigned values are dollars that the district has agreed to spend on something, but they're not formally committed by the board at 2.3 million. Our total unassigned and inappropriate money is about five and a half million dollars. Those are dollars that we have nothing set aside to spend on. And our totals for the year are about $80 million, 488, $247 for our ending fund balance. On the restricted side, so let's go into when I said that we set money aside to spend donations. Those are money that comes in through donations to our individual schools. So there's about $692,000 in donations that have come to schools for specific purposes. We spend the money for donations on the purpose that was donated for. So we set that aside for that. The 901,000 for SSP are dollars that the school sites did not spend at the end of last year. We increased starting last year 100,000 dollars for security to start outfitting our security officers and as well as cameras throughout the district and our radio systems. Site allocations, e-tech are both technology related items for purchases of technology contracts. Furniture and equipment, we replenish to $500,000 at the end of every year. That's to purchase old furniture and to outfit schools with new furniture and equipment. And then we still have money left in an AQMD air quality management district bus grant. So we received a grant many years ago for clean buses. We spent those items on those clean buses. We still have $42,709 of that left over. Total balance for these unassigned items are $2,393,670. As we look at the committed balance, so these are items that the board has set aside. I wanna go, this looks a little different than you've seen in the past. We did have a K-12 science textbook adoption last year and a world language textbook adoption last year. We're still realizing those expenses and we'll apply those to these amounts so they'll drop probably later on in this year. Social studies adoption at $135,000 is already an adopted textbook. That amount remains in there for ongoing software contracts. Math and English textbook adoption sitting at seven million. You remember in June you committed seven million for each of these items. These are textbook adoptions that will be coming up in the upcoming years. We needed to set money aside to be able to pay for those. So that's sitting here until we do those. And innovation and technology is the money that we set aside for renewing technology around the district. Total committed items are at the end of the year, total out to be 20,153,894. That really concludes how we ended the year last year. Again, none of these numbers are these year's amounts. You'll see the first glimpse of those at our first interim in December. where we'll realize the amount of money we spent from June through that point. Any questions?

I have a couple of questions. So our ending balance for 21-22 school year, it shows that we have 80 million. And then on the expenditures part, we have the 301 million. But can you explain to the public where most of the funding goes? Because I know that it looks like we have a lot of money, but in actuality, the majority goes to salaries.

Are you talking about this slide right here?

Yes.

Yeah. When you look at salaries and benefits, the majority of the money, so when you look at the total number of unaudited actuals at $301 million, you'll notice $247 million includes salaries and benefits for the employees who work for the district. That's the largest expense for any public entity is the salaries of employees as well as those benefits. We do see other areas through spent throughout the year. Those fluctuate books and supplies will fluctuate depending on if there's textbook adoptions and things like that. A lot of this looks a little bit strange because we've had so much money come in through COVID relief money. Over the last two years, we received several rounds of ESSER monies, which ESSER 3 is $30 million. We saw a $14 million and a $2 million increase there. So there's a lot of money that has come in for one time. We have not yet spent all of that money. So we'll see us continuing to spend that money. That money is really not staff related, more of services directly that go to the student, as well as safety mitigation, things like masks.

And then once again that goes to, normally the majority of the amount goes to personnel costs.

For a general school district budget most of it goes to personnel costs. Yes.

And you know what, just can you also talk about when we receive federal funds and how there's always strings attached to federal funding? If you can just like elaborate on that.

So a lot of the federal dollars we receive come in as titles. So for example, like Title I, which comes in and is specifically spent on duplicated count for schools above 55% on duplicated count. Money that comes in with strings attached, for example, if it says that it has to be spent on this particular student, then we have to spend it on that student. The difference between restricted money and unrestricted money is the restricted money basically says however the money comes to us and what it's specifically set aside for has to be spent on that item only. Unrestricted funds come to us where we can spend it where we see fit. So when we start looking at unrestricted versus restricted money, restricted money comes to us, we set it aside and we spend it on those items. A lot of the changes you see here, for example, the federal revenue, when you see a drop change there, a lot of that is because since there are strings attached to it, we have additional rules and responsibilities on reporting those. Sometimes we don't get that money back until we spend it on that item. Big example of that is our ESSER funds. The ESSER funds said that in order to receive the money, we have to spend the money first. So throughout the year, we spend the money and then we request for reimbursement and that money comes back to us. So when you see, for example, like a $27 million loss in federal revenue, it doesn't mean they gave us $27 million less. It means that they haven't given us the amount that they promised us because we either haven't spent it yet or Most of that federal revenue does have strings attached. Most of the state revenue that comes in is unrestricted. And a lot of the COVID relief aid that came in, came in from the federal government through the state and then to us. So a lot of those COVID money came in with very little strings.

Thank you.

Yeah. Mr. Hill, on the one, the 2020-2021 unaudited actuals and restricted assigned balance, I know we were just getting back and coming out of the pandemic. We closed the books on that. But have you noticed, I know we talked about it back then, but are site levels able to do a better job of spending down their SSPs since then? Looking forward to this next year. I know we haven't closed the book on that. It was a million dollars left on the table there at their school sites. I know they roll that over, right, for SSPF? They do.

They're getting much better with the influx of additional money that has come in. When you talk about a lot of that ESSER funds or GEAR funds or ELOG, LOP, all these different funds that are coming in have paid for a lot of things sites would normally pay for. And so there's been so much money coming in in other specific pockets that we relieve some of that stress from the sites. So while they're getting better at spending their site money down, we're offsetting a lot of that with a lot of these one-time monies. And so that money is carrying over. So we try to spend the most restricted dollars first as a district. We spend the most restricted trying to leave the least restricted at the end if we can. There's a lot of timelines based on the most restricted money. so that's our first priority so as this money comes in we may choose to spend the most restricted first on the same item they would have spent up themselves so yes there seems to be a lot on the table however that's kind of forced by the amount of coven money that has come in sure we have the timing was part of that

And President O'Neill, if I may, you may recall prior to the pandemic, we had worked with our principals. We had created the mantra of this year's money for this year's kids. And we had created the expectation of spending that money down to a certain percentage. that year prior to the pandemic, the principals all met that goal. So we were already headed in that direction of having that mantra. The pandemic hit, and as Mr. Hill said, with the additional federal funds, a lot of the funds that the schools would have used using their site discretionary money was used either by ESSER or Monies that were going to be used for people when we were having difficulty hiring people created the overage. So I want the board to know that we have not changed our philosophy on that as we get back into a post-pandemic era, so to speak. We're back to this year's money, this year's kids. However, the stress is still there, as Mr. Hill said. We still have ESSER funds that need to be spent down. So a lot of that will overtake the spending of some of our general funds. But I wanted you to know that the philosophy is still in place.

That's good. I'm happy for that. Good. I want to make a recommendation, since I'm an elementary principal. One of the things that I wish I could do with my colleagues is to be able to share a list of items that I purchase or provide so that way they have an actual list of ideas, samples that they can use and that way they also start collaborating. Because I know as a principal we're in competition with each other. making sure our schools do better but nonetheless I think it'd be a good idea if they're able to share their lists with each other so that way we can all help each other out.

I think that's a good idea especially parents are so willing to help and you know if you put things on the list like Kleenex and glue sticks and pencils and things like that there might be some other things that parents might be able that we can't get but those kinds of things could be could be handled through school budget so. Thank you. Thank you very much Mr. Hill. We're looking forward to our workshop this Thursday on this year's budget. That'll be great. Yeah.

I do want to make a comment though. One of the things that made this particular difficult was they changed the process of accounting on how they will not release our money until the LCAP is approved. So a lot of this timeline, we just got it approved, really is the work. And I have to thank a few people because I have asked my team, Brian and Sherry and Fernanda, to kind of do a lot of this work in the last week. And so a lot of this stuff came down, and all of this was able, because we really think about ed services, and I'm going to really attribute two people with Rachel Malatesta and Christy Hubbard, who both put the work into getting that LCAP approved over the course of the year. LCAP is a big portion in the district, and the county has now said that they will not release our budget until the LCAP is approved. So that kind of holds everything up as we get through. So a lot of these things that you see when I say it's pushing into this year is all timing. It's when we request it, when it gets approved, when the county does its role. And I'm really just here speaking. Most of the work is done by the people behind me sitting in these chairs, so I really have to thank them for that.

We appreciate it very much. Thank you. All right. We're up to item eight, our student trustee report. Yippee. It's been a couple of years since we've been able to have a student report. And this is delivered by student trustee president, Haley Nagle. Welcome. I'm so glad that you're here. She's going to be giving a report on her school, Citrus Valley High School.

Good evening Board of Education. This August September months at Citrus Valley have been jam packed. Our students and staff have worked very hard to put on a stellar start to the school year. Citrus Valley successfully hosted its 2022-2023 Back to School Night on September 7th, with many ASB students in attendance to assist. ASB also hosted the first academic ceremony of the year, which recognizes students for their academic excellence, as well as Club Rush, the Homecoming Fashion Show, and this week's Homecoming Spirit Week. Our Performing Arts Department deserves a standing ovation with their work these months. Band is working super hard practicing for their competitions and marching band season, and has crushed at hyping the student section up with their music at the football games. Theater is currently in rehearsal for its first two shows of the year, Frozen Junior and Alice in Wonderland, and the Theater Tech Department has its first ever Tech Open House, giving the student body an opportunity to learn more about the technical aspects of theater. Our choir program had their first bonding trip of the year at Camp Albalado, and since then has hosted a closed drive, sung at our football games, and hosted a successful snap raise fundraiser for the end of the year cruise concert. It's fall sports season at CV, and we are home to a myriad of fall sports like girls golf, football, cross country, tennis, volleyball, water polo, and cheer and song. Football is killing it this season. We beat Rancho Verde and Silverado so far, and our cheer and song team are working really hard to cheer our team on from the sidelines. Cross country has had several races this season, and tennis, water polo, and girls golf recently kicked off their seasons. Our Lady Blackhawk volleyball team has been working hard all summer and started their fall season off with a very successful fundraiser. CV Student Life has been nothing but hustle since the school year kicked off. With over 15 clubs on our campus, many have already met and started to plan their upcoming year. Clubs like Make-A-Wish, Thespians, Asian Student Union, Environmental, Entrepreneurship, Hispanic Heritage, Pauls for Pals, and Key Club, to name a few, have started the school year off with new members and engaging meetings. Speech and Debate have also kicked off their season, recruiting new members and practicing for their competitions. I can't forget about our new class of 2026 and our amazing Link Crew leaders. They hosted CV's freshman orientation on August 3rd, welcoming our new Blackhawks to the school with games, tours, and information about all CV has to offer. The class of 2026 will be guided all year long by our fantastic Link Crew leaders, who will be putting on amazing freshman-only events like the first freshman tailgate, where the class of 2026 played games with their leaders, got snow cones, food, and some CV swag. Additionally, yearbooks are already on sale starting at $85 and our amazing yearbook staff has already started planning and taking pictures of the CV community. Citrus Valley has also opened up applications to the student body for our school site council. All of this and so much more would not be possible without the assistance and guidance of our amazing CV counselors, Mr. Barba, Ms. Farley, Ms. Garcia, Ms. Henry, Ms. Montanayo, Ms. Reese, and Ms. Rodriguez. Thank you guys. The first weeks at Citrus have been jam-packed, but we have so much more coming up. Our fall rally is Friday with our homecoming, All of the Lights, this Saturday. Choir has a concert on October 4th and will also be singing at our homecoming football game against Norco High this Friday. Band and our cheer and song teams will be there cheering them on from the sidelines. Additionally, Frozen Junior, our first musical of the year, opens this Friday with shows spanning this week until next. Also, next week, water polo plays against Elsinore, girls golf and volleyball face off against Rev, and tennis competes against Beaumont and cross country has a race this 24th. Thank you.

There you go. Fantastic report.

We appreciate that very, very much.

Well done indeed. Did you want to share a little bit about your first meeting, your first student trustee meeting? It's all right. You're on the spot. I won't make you do it. Haley ended up being voted in as president, and we're going to rotate the presidency board members. They're going to have three months, and then we'll pick new officers for that. Stephanie Schaub is from Orange Wood High School, is the vice president. And Maria Norton from REV is going to be the clerk. Olivia Johnson and Aditi Patlola, we'll have to practice her name, are just filling the trustee spots. But they're all going to take turns. We had our first real meeting last week. Public is also invited to those meetings, just like our meetings. We're trying to mirror the experience for them as much as possible as student trustees, and you're going to be our eyes and ears from the student angle of things, and we appreciate that so much, and I thank you for coming tonight and being part of this, and your report was fantastic. Any questions or comments from the board? There's a lot going on at CV. And Trustee Vara and Trustee Alecantaro are very familiar with Citrus Valley. They spent a lot of time there. You'll see them at the activities because they have people involved there, like their kids. I do have a question for you.

So through our LCAP, I was very impressed at the last football game. We had over 300 students attending, and it was a Thursday.

And I know that through our outcap we paid for all the students to have the ASB, over 600 students attending.

And it's because we, you know, came up with the idea of, I think it was, that came up with the idea? Okay, perfect. So you guys came up with the idea of making sure every student got an ASB card so that way the students would attend, you know, games across the board. And I was very surprised to see 600 students. So this is how we know there were 600 students. They have a PBIS app. And when the students check in to enter, they check them off as they enter, so that way they keep track. Because whenever we use any of the funding, remember strings attached, whenever we use any of the funding, we got to keep track of how it's working. So this is amazing. This is an amazing opportunity that we created for all of our students that never really get to go to a game, now are able to get into a game, you know, for free. And especially on a Thursday, just so you know, when I attend games on a Thursday, there's probably like 50 people. there, this was over 600. So it's just amazing. So I just wanted to know what are the students saying or talking about or commenting, if any, about being able to receive a free ASB card that would normally cost them, was it like $25?

From what I've heard, the student body is really loving it. Not only do they get free admission to all of our sports games, but they also now get the reduced dance ticket prices. And they get free admission to all of our theater department shows. Overall, I've heard nothing but great things about it. And yeah.

Look, thanks to you guys coming up with the idea. So great job. Keep it up. Thank you. Thank you.

Let's move to our board committee reports. Item nine. First is CRI-ROP.

OK, so cry-rop, I want to welcome Hisham. Here's today. He's our director for represents CERY here. Thank you for being here. We meet tomorrow, but this is so this might be old news for some of you, but because we always meet the day after. Just want to let everyone know that Citrus Valley High School emergency responder instructor Harshberger received PTSA's very special person award. There's a new culinary arts program underway at Rev High School, which we're excited about. I see you could think, that was awesome. Two Rev High School students participated in work-based learning with the Department of Behavioral Health. And facilities staff reconfigured, set up, or moved the following classrooms, the marketing classroom and student store at Rev High School. the culinary arts program classrooms at Rev High School, the student store at Citrus Valley High School, and the virtual enterprise classrooms at Citrus Valley High School, and the Career Center at CVHS. So a lot's going on already since they've opened school, and I'll get more of an update tomorrow when we have our meeting.

And our kids, our students at those schools are getting a lot of information through the counseling departments and whatnot, so They're well aware of the programs, and Haley, we had a little conversation when we were first getting together, and she has an interest in welding, because her grandfather, yeah, is a welder. And at Colton High School, they have a virtual welding class where they actually certify students to become welders. But it's all virtual. So they put this helmet on like a welding helmet, And then the VR goggles are inside. And then they literally learn how to weld without ever lighting a torch and get certified to do it. So Haley, I told her she couldn't leave Redlands, though, to go to that class. So we'll have to just get it going here, right? Yeah. OK. All right. Redlands Compact.

The first steering committee meeting is on September 29th. All three comprehensive high schools have already had their first compact meetings and they're all looking to grow their memberships. The first dinner mixer is October 5th from 7 to 8 at the contemporary club. So if any of you are interested in going to that dinner mixer let me know. That's all for compact.

I have actually left my notes at home so I'll have a double report for you next month.

I have the Redlands Cultural Arts Commission. So yesterday they met, and I'm just going to say the biggest thing on the agenda was that there are these pads, art pads they're calling them, that are situated at the different parks, Brookside, Texonia, Citrus, Prospect, Ford Park, and Sylvan, and they're having art on loan, and they're going to put them on these pads, and they're sculptures. So you're going to see some highbrow sculptures going up across the city. And so take notice that the commission is working on that. And they're working on a couple of other projects, murals. They're going to have a person is inventorying all of the murals, including our murals, as community art. And they're going to put together sort of like a tour of all the murals. so people could have like a checklist and say, oh, I see that one, I see that one. And then the other thing that they have is they're decorating bus stops, bus benches rather. Maybe some people have noticed them. Really nice artwork going up on them. And I suggested that perhaps they have a few benches to go, like six or seven benches, that maybe high school art departments would like to look at the possibility of having some students and feature student artwork on some of these bus benches. So I will follow up with you, Mr. Arellano, and see if maybe we could throw that out. No obligation. But I know that our high school artists, and especially our teachers teaching those young artists, are very talented. So we could probably have some pretty cool stuff out there on the park benches. OK, sand dabs.

We were dark for the summer. We start tomorrow.

And for CSBA, we also met.

Jim, you missed one.

I missed one. Oh, Parks and Rec. I'm so sorry. You're right. I checked it off before I called on you.

That's okay. Thank you. I missed the meeting a couple of weeks ago due to my surgery, but I got to watch the Zoom afterwards. The highlights, they looked at a priority list of projects. that they're going to be working on throughout the year. And they formed a subcommittee to further study what needs to be done to install the splash pad in the city. So hopefully that will happen for next summer. The commissioners are going to take a bus trip to all the parks in Redlands on October 8. And there was some discussion on the funds for Measure T and how the parks can utilize those funds in the next few years. And their next meeting is October 13.

Take pictures of the art pads for me, okay Michelle? Take your tour on the parts. So now CSBA, I'll send everybody some important dates in the spring. We have the spring awards meeting and then the fall joint meeting and then in December we have the conference for California School Boards Association. So they're focusing on setting up things like that and We'll probably have to have a discussion to see how we can include our student trustees because on one of the days of that annual conference in December, they have a workshop, if you will, just for student trustees. So it's in San Diego. Perhaps we can get some transportation and figure out how we can do that. I have some information that Rose gave me so we can discuss that as a board and see how we can involve voluntarily, of course. But it would be kind of cool for us to see our own student trustees mixing with other student trustees throughout the state of California and learning and bragging and doing those kinds of things with those kids. That would be great. All right, and the coalition, I got an email from Jill Green. She asked me to share this. They had a meeting on September 1st. Were you able to attend that, Mr. Hill? Oh, you were. So if anything is left off, you can add to it. Mr. Hill said the construction is going smoothly. I sent them a... Oh, I shouldn't probably say this because I don't know if it was legal for me to do it. But anyway, I sent them a drone picture of the field. I didn't fly it very high because I am in the airport zone there, so I can't get above... I follow the FAA rules, okay? But it's really cool to get an overhead view of it. So I'm going to try to do that around the first of each month. Just fly a little loop around the field so we can see the progress. Legal. It's all legal. All legal. Why are you laughing? It is legal, yes. So East Valley had a table at Revs. Oh, the coalition had a table at the back-to-school night last Wednesday, and there was a lot of excitement. It's kind of funny how people are saying, well, it's happening. There are still people that aren't sure that it was going to happen, and yeah, it's happening. It definitely is. They're looking for community partners to help secure funding in phases two and three of the stadium. Those things include home and visitor bleachers, concessions, ticket booth, press box, and future buildings. So they want me to tell you that eastvalleystadiumcoalitionatgmail.com Or GoFundMe, together we will build REV Stadium to support. So there is a GoFundMe page. I don't know how they're doing yet. I haven't checked in on that. So Jason, anything additional from the meeting? All right. They have a Facebook page too, correct? Yes. So you can search Facebook and pull up the coalition, REV Stadium coalition. All right, we're up to item 10, superintendents report.

Thank you. I want to begin by giving the Board of Education a huge thank you for your kind words, your support, and all the support that you've given me over these last five years. It's been very heartfelt. And it's been very rewarding to look back and see all that we've accomplished in five years. So thank you for the contract extension. I'm very humbled to be the superintendent in Redlands. I don't take the job lightly. I take it very seriously. And as serious and hard work as it's been, it's been a lot of fun. Even though we've had a lot of challenges, it's been a lot of fun. And work needs to be fun. So thank you very much for all of your support today. It's very heartfelt. And I know Ken's probably looking at me right now going, oh, he's going to get teary-eyed. I just know it. So I'm not going to look at him. But the special thanks I want to give is really everyone in the Redlands community. I work with amazing people every day in cabinet, in managers, in teachers, in support staff, union leaders. our community members, police officers, fire chief, firemen, city council. It's just an amazing place to be. And I know sometimes they don't believe they're having an impact on me, but even our community members, our parents, such as Mr. Blatchley. I'll point out Mr. Blatchley because he's been here many times over the years. So many times he's opened my eyes to things, allowing me to look at something very differently. It's an honor to be here in Redlands, and I just thank everybody in the Redlands community and in the district for believing in the vision and believing in ourselves. But it's never about me or I. It's always about we, the power in we. So thank you everybody for all of your support. I really appreciate that. I want to thank Jason and Brian and Sherry and everybody in fiscal services for indeed the hard work that they put forth every year in making sure our budget is strong, that it meets all the auditing requirements, and more importantly that we are spending it wisely on kids in our district. So thank you guys for all your hard work. I also want to thank Rachel and now Christy, those of you that have been involved in the LCAP process. That's a big part of our budget, so thank you all for your hard work on all that. I tell you, I've been working now, I've worked in three different districts. One very large district, one equal to the size of Redlands, and I've seen many, many budgets over 33 years, and I can tell you, The ones here in Redlands are always well put together. They have good rationale behind it. And it's good for kids. So I want to thank everybody behind all that. I am pleased to announce again, once again, RUSD taking the lead on something as board member Vara had shared. We have 32 teachers who have volunteered to earn the C-STEM certification. So it's our computer science program. This is our partnership through UC Davis. The 32 teachers are taking these courses through UC Riverside. So that we can continue to offer and build and enhance our computer science program. For those members of the audience, as you know, and I think you've heard Deepika say this more than once, is we now use C-STEM to trick kids into having fun and learning math, right? That's been her statement. But it's been great to be a leading force in the state. We've been asked to come up again to the C-STEM conference later in October so that we can present our story to other districts around California. And our topic this year is going to be how our C-STEM students, the students who are in C-STEM, how their math scores increase 10% in this program. So definitely hats off to all of our teachers who are making the extra effort to learn the program. It's making a difference for kids. And like board member Vara said, This is something that can be replicated across the state so all kids can benefit. So we're very excited for that. But thank you to those 32 teachers who are dedicating their evenings to taking classes to benefit our kids. Special thanks to the American Association of University Women, in particular Katherine Brown for the invitation. to their 75th anniversary Jubilee Dinner. 75 years they've been serving our community to provide better access for our girls in our school district and in our community. And they've been great partners of the district. Namely, putting on the yearly STEM conference for girls at the University of Redlands. So it was nice to see two tables of RUSD folks. You went to that? Awesome. Two tables of RUSD folks there at the dinner and they felt our presence and we were there just to say thank you for all the work that they've done on behalf of our kids. So thank you to AAUW. ASB cards, I want to mention that. Great idea, Rachel, Ken, and the students from Citrus Valley High School that came up with the idea and the team bringing it to realization. That all falls within our school plus two philosophy, where we're trying to make sure that every kid has two more activities to be a part of school and two more adults that can be coaching and mentoring to them during their experience. So to know that we have 600 kids now coming to a football game because we were able to provide the A is B card. We are continuing to meet those expectations of our goals of having kids be more connected with school. And so I commend everybody who made That dream come true for our kids and like Mr. Vara said, it's also going to provide us the metrics to show that our endeavors and our expenditures are making a difference in a positive light. So thank you for bringing that up because that was a big one for us. I want to let everybody in the community know that on Wednesday, tomorrow, tomorrow night, at the Harkins Theater at Mountain Grove, the students of Bryn Mawr will be showing their 60 minute movie titled School Alone. So we've rented out three theaters, and yes, this is an actual motion picture that our kids put together as part of our digital storytelling program here in the Rollins Unified School District. So congratulations to the students of Brydmar, the teacher, Amber Rosales, who was the lead person leading those kids, Rick Alexic, the principal who believed in the program, and of course, Dwayne Coles, who's the guy behind the scenes making it happen. So I know you had to get tickets. We have a 5.30 showing, 7 o'clock showing. I believe two out of the three rooms are sold out for each one. So there's a few tickets left, I believe, for the 7 o'clock showing on Wednesday. But how amazing is that to have our kids' movie at Harkins Theater? So can't wait to see that tomorrow. So congratulations to Bryn Mawr. I'll stop one. I'm going to park a lot. Now that's illegal. That's illegal. All right, I want to let our community know as well that we continue our commitment to providing parent forums to help our parents understand how to keep their children safe as well. And so we've put together a menu of parent forums for this year. We have a forum set for September, October, November, February, and March. The topics in September, October will once again be Diane Cranley talking about identifying adult grooming behaviors to keep kids safe from predators. The first one will be on September 21st at Cope Middle School starting at 6 o'clock. The second of that episode will be on October 6th at Beatty Middle School, starting at 6 o'clock. On November 2nd at Clement Middle School, we'll have a representative from the San Marino County Deputy District Attorney's Office doing a presentation on human trafficking. Then on February 22nd at Moore Middle School, we will have a representative from Redlands Police Department doing a presentation on drug prevention and the ills of fentanyl, which seems to be an increased use drug locally in the community. So we appreciate RPD spending time teaching us about that. And then the last one will be on March 1st at Cope Middle School. And that is going to be put on by representatives of the San Marino County Sheriff's Department on the topic of cyber bullying and social media caution. So I know Christine, our PIO, is putting together a nice little flyer that will have all of that information on one piece of paper that we will distribute out using Parent Square and will also be found on our website. So I just want to make sure our community knows that's coming. Now, keeping to that same vein, in terms of keeping our focus on safety and trying to provide all the information that we can for our parents to also help kids at home have those discussions, we have started to put together two minute video vignettes of all the different type of safety protocols that we have in the district. And we have now put together five of those videos. One that speaks to the see something, say something, send something, say something poster. One on the board policy, adult student boundary policy. One that speaks to the Title IX reporting process. and uh... the one that speaks to uh... the we tip and sprigio apps and so tonight i'd like to share two of those videos so that the audience and you the board can see what it's uh... about but know that you can find those videos at any given time on the district website when you click on the act now link it'll take you to this page so uh... david if i can have you run The videos I think we'll see the we tip one first and immediately following the boundary one. So the Reynolds Unified School District has a multi-year vision titled RUSD 2025 Excellence for All Students. And one of our pillar statements is making sure that we have safe and secure learning environments. And these are two tools that can be used to report crimes or any situations that a student, staff member, or community member believe is unsafe.

One is WETIP and the other is Sprigio.

WETIP is a tool that any community member, staff member, or student could use to submit a report when they see a crime. A WETIP report can be done by accessing the link on the Reynolds Unified School District website. You may also submit using the 1-800 number. There are also specific lines to report drugs and bullying. Sprintio is another tool that can be used by students, staff, and community members to submit any type of safety concern on any individual campus. It can include reporting harassment, bullying, damage to a school site, or just a request for self-help. You can use either one of these channels to submit a report anonymously. Reports submitted to WETIP or Sprintio go directly to our district safety team. If there is an imminent threat, those reports will be immediately sent to law enforcement. As a reminder to those of you who are mandated reporters, submitting through WETIP or Sprigio does not fulfill your legal reporting requirements. You must call Child and Family Services at 1-800-827-8724. Your written report, California Form 8572, must be submitted within 36 hours. I want to thank you for all your support and all of your focus on our safety strategies here in the Redlands Unified School District. Working together, we can ensure that we are providing a safe and secure learning environment for all of our students and staff.

As part of RUSD's 2025 vision, one of the five key elements is learning in safe and secure environments. In support of that key area, Board Policy 4019.1 focuses on professional adult student boundaries. This policy provides staff, students, volunteers, and community members with all the information needed to help increase their awareness of their role to protect all children from inappropriate conduct. All employees are to maintain the highest professionalism when interacting with students. This includes having boundaries, morals, and strong ethical standards. The board policy states that employees will not intrude on students' physical and emotional boundaries unless it is to serve a legitimate educational purpose. Legitimate educational purpose is defined as the matters of communication within the scope of duties such as related to teaching, counseling, athletics, extracurricular activities, treatment of a student for any other medical need, or for purposes within the scope of the adult's employment duties. This board policy can be found on our website under Actions Create Trust Act Now. This policy will inform you about all the guidelines our district follows when it comes to our employees' expectations when working with children and when and where to report a boundary violation. All staff are required to review this board policy each year as part of their standard training. The safety and the well-being of all students will always be our district's top priority. We highly recommend all district families review this board policy with their children. For more information regarding Board Policy 4019.1, Professional Adult Student Boundaries, please contact our Human Resources Office at 909-748-6772. Thank you.

Thank you, David. Christine, thank you to you and your crew for putting together these videos. And there will be more videos being made so that parents can access them or staff members when they want clarification. So hope you enjoy that and hope you get a chance to take a look at them on the district website. I want to finish tonight by correcting some misinformation that I see is hitting the social media format, which speaks to a couple of assembly bills that were passed recently in the state of California. So the first one is Assembly Bill 1732, which is the all gender restrooms, which went into effect on March 1st of 2017. And in summary, what that assembly bill asks us to do is that any single toilet facilities need to be identified as all gender. So there are social media rumors indicating that we are transforming female restrooms or male restrooms into all gender restrooms. It's only for the ones that are single stall, so I want to make sure that's clear. We have copies of that assembly bill in the back. We will have a copy of the assembly bill up on the website soon so that people can see exactly what AB 1732 says. And again, that is a law that was passed and went into effect March 1st of 2017. The second one I want to speak to is the Menstrual Equity of All Act, Assembly Bill 367. And that one went into effect, it was signed on October 8, 2021 and actually went into effect this school year. And basically what that law says, is that in all schools that serve grades 6 through 12, we must supply free menstrual products in the following areas. A, in all female restrooms. B, in all gender restrooms. And C, in at least one men's restroom at all times. So I want to make sure that the social media is saying that this is something perhaps that the Board of Education has created or that the superintendent has unilaterally created. And I want to make sure that the community knows that this is not a superintendent's edict. This is not a Board of Education edict. These are two laws that have been passed and are legitimately in place. So again, this information is also in the back of the room if anybody wants to take with them, but also we'll have it on the website because I think it's important for the community to know the specifics behind the laws. So I can't believe that sometimes social media gets that little ahead of what's reality, but I think it's important for the community to know where you can find the information so they can see for themselves, but I wanted to make sure that we clarified that. that this was a law that we're following. And that's all I have today, so thank you everybody for your attention. I appreciate it.

Thank you. Item 11, superintendent's recommendation. We are up to 12 business services consent items. Mr. Hill, any corrections or additions?

Thank you, President O'Neill. I have no changes or corrections tonight.

We'll entertain a motion then to approve all consent items as detailed in items 12B to 12S. So moved. Second. Any discussion on any of those items? Hearing none, call for the vote. All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Chair votes aye. So adopted. We're up to 13 business services action items. Any motion to approve the final 2021-2022 unaudited actual financial report? So moved.

Second.

Discussion?

I just want to thank Mr. Hill and staff with Sherry and Brian for all their hard work. Thank you.

I will concur. Great job, everybody. A lot of work on that. Like I said, we'll look forward to our workshop this Thursday. All right, hearing no further discussion, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Chair votes aye. So adopted. On B, adopt resolution number 12, 2022-23, resolution for adopting the GAN limit.

Move.

Second.

Discussion?

All those in favor say aye. Aye. The resolution is adopted. Letter C, adopt resolution number 13, 2022-2023, resolution continuing authority to hold virtual meetings pursuant to AB361. I'll move. Any discussion? All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Chair votes aye and so ordered. We're up to our ed services consent items. Dr. Wagner, any additions or corrections?

No corrections or additions.

Okay. Thank you. Then I will call for a motion to approve all consent items as detailed in items 14B to 14M.

Move. Second.

Any discussion on any of those?

I actually do. On Kay, I was under the impression there should be juniors and seniors.

I approve 50 avid juniors from Redlands High School to travel.

I believe it's seniors, those seniors didn't get to take their trip last year.

Dr. Wagner.

It's a great question, and Ms. Swan's not here tonight to probably answer that. Typically, it's only juniors, but I'll look into that further.

OK. Just in case it is, though. In case it is, we're good with seniors, right? Yes. Yes. We're going to, just in case.

So do we want to amend it to say juniors and seniors?

I can amend it. I think we should.

Fairly positive. My son's an avid. I'm fairly positive it's juniors and seniors.

You should know, so that's good. I want to make a motion to amend, Kay, to add juniors and seniors.

We can just restate the motion, actually. So who made that motion? Was it you made the original motion? So just say, yeah, we'll just add seniors to that. Go ahead and make that motion then. Approve 50 avid juniors and seniors.

For the record to approve 50 avid juniors and seniors from Redlands High School.

I'll second that again.

All right.

Thank you for bringing that up. So I'll call for the vote. All those in favor, say aye.

Aye.

Chair votes aye. So approved. For our action items, 15A, adopt resolution number 11, 2022-2023, statement of assurance for pupil textbook and instructional materials compliance for grades TK-12 for fiscal year 22-23. Motion to approve? Moved. Second. Any discussion? All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Chair votes aye, so adopted. On letter B, approve request for readmission of student 2021-2022-008 following expulsion effective November 16, 2021 through the remainder of the first semester and all of the second semester of the 2021-2022 school year. So moved. Second. Any discussion? All those in favor say aye.

Aye. Aye.

Chair votes aye. Request is approved. I will take items C through G in one motion. I'll move to approve.

So moved.

Second. I moved that, but that's OK, Patty. You can have it. Any discussion on any of those? All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Chair votes aye, so ordered. Sixteen human resources consent items. Dr. Robertson Phillips, any corrections or additions? I see that. So I'm going to ask for a motion to approve all consent items detailed in items 16B to 16AR. Moved.

Second.

Any discussion? Hearing none, call for the vote. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Chair votes aye. And so ordered. There are no human resources action items. And we don't have any discussion items tonight. I think. Let me make sure. No. So we are ready for item 19. public participation. This is the general public participation. This time when any member of the public may address the board on any agenda item before or during the board's consideration of the item, provided the person submits a completed registration card. This is not meant to be a debating period. Complaints and problems relating to policy matters will be referred to the superintendent. So I would like to call Mr. Smalling back to the podium. And Mr. Smalling, we know where you started off. Why don't we give you another minute and a half or so to wrap up your thoughts on that. Thank you.

You know, I'm sorry. I wouldn't mind if the board would allow, let's just have them start over so we can get the whole picture.

I'll ask the board. Michelle, you want him to, you okay? Do we have consensus just to start at the beginning? So we can get your flow going again?

I'm okay if you would like to meet separately after is fine with me too but I would like the board to consider evaluating this and getting involved in it because my wife and I have spent all summer contacting multiple levels at the school with no resolution and my son not being allowed to play this year.

well you know what we will definitely have the superintendent for this to the superintendent and get him involved as well i think that's the that we'll you'll get some action on on what needs to be done so uh... if you want to give your summary statement i think we understand but go ahead uh... since the beginning i'm sorry

culture catches encouraged a culture of hostility and divisiveness he doesn't demonstrate leadership role modeling or mentoring he tears down kids with both the meaning statements and targeted insults are in you and those Coach Artechi's resume would say, my players do not like or respect me. I say offensive and sexually explicit things. I teach English but communicate very poorly. I'm passive aggressive and encourage my boys to mistreat each other. I use school funds inappropriately. I don't use objective statistics when assessing my players and I don't like being asked about decisions I can't defend. Since the beginning of last year, my son has become more and more withdrawn. He seldom talks and spends most of the time working out at the gym two to three hours a day to escape. He was kicked out of the program by the coach who lied and said that he quit and he did not. Again, we talked to several members over the summer and were told that we would start this year fresh. The first day of school he came back and was told he had been removed from the program pursuant to his quitting. And this was allowed to stand by the AD as well as the vice principal over athletics. So he's not playing at this time. All he asked was to be judged uniformly and by a measurable objective standard, and not by some personal bias or favoritism. He told him he wouldn't change his mind because he had quit, as I said, a lie, and because it was erode his standing with the other boys. Really? Erode the opinion of kids who are afraid to speak honestly with him for fear of being riled. or who heard him speak so inappropriately about his wife, Ms. Flowers, please, I'm begging one of you, any of you, all of you, look into this. Take action. Because it isn't just my child.

OK, thank you. Mr. Arellano will refer that to your direction.

And if you can give us an update.

All right, Mr. Paul Blatchley.

Good evening, board members, Superintendent Arellano-Cabinet. My name is Paul Blatchley. I live in trustee area five and I'm a concerned high school parent. So we start school in August, so air conditioning is important. And I know that the air conditioning setup for individual classrooms is different. than the big classrooms that are used by the arts department. So I'm talking about the choir room, the band room, and the drama room. And I would just ask that the district look into the air conditioning set up in those rooms and any rules that you have around the setting of thermostats and whether or not that can adequately cool down the room. Thank you on that. You mentioned safety earlier in terms of the Superintendent and I think you've just heard right? There's more to safety than fencing and school resource officers, right? You had a student survey about whether or not kids feel safe at your school sites And I think it was like 64% of the kids did not feel safe so there's more to safety than just that kind of physical thing, right? Bullying, the way people are treated is rampant in terms of problems, I think, at the high school level. I was happy at the back to school night. There were two teachers that actually said they didn't believe in homework. I'm hoping to one day go, I've only got one more year left, and have all the teachers say they've given up on homework. The culinary arts equipment, you heard the teacher say, Mr. O'Neill was there, that he's going to grade the students on their ability to cook. They have some equipment, they don't have equipment for the class to cook. So I'm not sure how he's going to assess those students. You're spending $14 million on textbooks. I'm telling you, I got a math textbook last year that one page out of one workbook was used. So unless the teachers are using these textbooks, it's a complete waste of money. And then you guys participated in state testing last year, right? The district did. Where are those test scores? Why hasn't the state published those? That's it.

Thanks. Thank you. Have a nice evening. Next up is Nicole Prasad. Welcome.

Hi, my name is Nicole, and I am a mother of two children in RUSD. And since everybody refers to this moment as time is difficult, but have we evaluated how difficult it still is? The nutrition of our kids is not where it needs to be. We're offering free food that has chemicals in it. When I approach teachers about how they reward our kids, most of them are giving them candy. And as I reviewed several times in these months of board meetings, those candies have dyes in them. Those dyes are derived from things like coal and crude oil. And I realized that I can be part of the solution as well. When I meet my kids' teachers, I explicitly tell them that I do not reward my kids based on sugar or what might make them feel better for a couple minutes, but look at overall what their health is and where it needs to be. I offer to bring in free organic candy, whatever they want to reward my kid other than the candy that's being distributed right now. We can't exit a health pandemic and not think how we can make it better. Superintendent, I saw you so giddy about how great our campuses look and getting reward. And that's awesome because I do appreciate things like that. But what is our health goal coming out of a health pandemic? We closed down schools when there was 0.07 chance of a child dying from COVID. I know more people that got COVID and were perfectly OK than I know that people that died from COVID. I'm here advocating to deliver our kids healthier meals, reinstating salad bars. We went from healthy to unhealthy after a pandemic. And I promise to continue the relationship with our local farmers. You have a chance now to never mandate anything that does not treat each child as an individual. Start feeding our kids nutrient-dense foods and stop forcing vaccines and masks down our throats. You need to bridge the gap in education our kids lost the last two years. A diet rich in omega 3s and 6s will further our kids' ability to learn and have more academic success. I would like you as board members to contact me. Mr. O'Neill has my card that has my email and my phone number to show that you guys care about our kids' health.

Thank you.

Thank you. Next up is Alyssa Valentino.

Good evening. My name is Elisa Valentino and I'm in trustee area number one. Congratulations to Superintendent Arellano on the extension of your contract. You've been a wonderful addition to our school community. After your last board meeting last month to approve the moving forward with the comprehensive sex education curriculum, I headed down to the district office to view the curriculum. I am pleased to report that I was very satisfied with the district's choice in curriculum. Before viewing it, I had predetermined that I would probably opt out my seventh grader and potentially opt out my ninth grade student. However, after viewing the curriculum, I feel it is both valuable and appropriate information at both the seventh and ninth grades. I especially appreciate the curriculum's dedication to respect for all individuals and teaching this sensitive topic in an ethical, candid, and respectful way. I appreciate its emphasis on scientifically backed data, differentiating between fact and opinion with clear instructions to teachers not to insert their own opinions into the lessons. I hope as the program unfolds that the homework assignments which require parent signatures on daily discussion handouts is enforced as the program strongly emphasizes the critical involvement of parents in the process of teaching sex ed. I know this is a sensitive and highly charged subject, but overall I am very pleased with the district's handling of the state sex ed requirement. Additionally, I want to thank the board members for scheduling an emergency meeting to allow for volunteers to continue to serve in the schools mostly uninterrupted. While the sudden change in the volunteer policy initially had created a barrier, I appreciate the district's quick efforts to quickly remedy the situation. I recognize that this policy will need to be revisited in the near future. May I suggest that the district consider a 12 month window of eligibility for district volunteers, similar to athlete physicals, which carry over from year to year until the 12 month expiration date passes. One final suggestion, it has come to my attention that Moore Middle School is the only middle school in the district that has just one music teacher for all sections of band, including marching band, orchestra, and choir. As a musician, I personally understand how difficult it is to effectively build so many varying performance programs with diverse needs. The growth of our music programs at Moore would increase with the hiring of an additional qualified music teacher for Moore. Thank you again for your dedication to our district.

Thank you. Carrie Ann, did you get any late cards? Okay, thank you. That concludes our public participation. We move on to board comments and reports. I'll go the same order I did before. Michelle, were you ready?

I enjoyed going to many back-to-school nights in Kinley, Kingsbury, Mission, Cope, Clement, RHS, and Citrus Valley. They were all very well attended by our families, and I especially loved the taco truck at Citrus Valley. It was pretty good. Last Tuesday, it was an honor to attend the AAUW Diamond Jubilee, and I have my pin right here. My kids laugh at me, but I told them I have a diamond now. At the U of R, it was really a nice event. The ladies in the organization are all very nice, and they're truly focused on girls furthering their education. I'm looking forward to the eighth grade STEM conference for the girls later this year. I was able to attend the ROAR resource fair at Lagonia last week. Lots of family engagement. They sold almost 700 tickets to their In-N-Out truck, which was amazing for Lagonia. PTA sold spirit wear with their new logo, and the East Valley Therapy Dogs were there to meet families. They will be on campus a few times a month. The Latino Literacy Project has started at Lagonia to help parents whose primary language is Spanish, help them read to their children. Ms. McKee was there to explain to parents how Accelerated Reader works. And there were a lot of people in that room. Smiley Library signed students up for free library cards, and the Boys and Girls Club was there, as well as the school counselors. It was just a great event. Thank you to Kelly Napolitano for organizing that. My husband and I attended Rev's Football Game last Friday at CV. Appreciate the invite, and we really enjoyed it, even though it was pouring down rain. I'm looking forward to the college fair at RHS next Tuesday, as well as the parent night by Diane Cranley on adult grooming behaviors next Wednesday. And that's all I have.

Thank you very much. Mr. Barra?

I just have a quick announcement. I want to give a shout out to Richard Zander from Nutrition Services. uh... at rev they have a program called pants and that program uh... pant what that means is perfect attendance no parties just let everyone know as an administrator we're uh... in charge of making sure our attendance for the year improves on a daily on a yearly basis and it's something difficult as an administrator for us to try and improve however when there's a team of people developing and coming up with ideas to increase student attendance, especially at the high school level, which is, I think, one of the most difficult and challenging places to try and increase attendance. It's awesome to have Richard Zander help. Due to his enthusiasm, his... Energy, his willingness to provide and support is greatly appreciated by the students at REV and by the staff at REV. So Richard, thank you for all you do to support our students and I hope One of the things I'm hoping to do is steal some of the ideas from Rev, because let me tell you, having better attendance for our students is something very difficult that we are charged with as administrators, but great job, Richard.

All right, great. Thank you. I went to several back-to-school nights as well. Little Goanya Crafton, Judson, and Brown, Cram, Mission, Bryn Mawr, Moore, Rev, and Seavey. I didn't get to stay for all of those back to school nights, because obviously I was racing in between them, because they were all kind of at the same time. But I think the common theme that I saw was that teachers were happy to be back in their classrooms. The grounds looked fantastic at all the schools. The support staff, they're happy to be back and working and showing a lot of pride in their work. And most importantly, the kids had a lot of smiles. There were a lot of kids, and I was escorted at some of the middle schools by some of their student council people, their ASB people, and of course, I wanted to ask them as many questions as possible, and they were very candid in their answer, and it was all positive. So, very pleased with the back-to-school nights for sure. I'm trying to follow up with as many school visits as I can that I couldn't get out to all the back-to-school nights. I did get out to Beatty, Mariposa, Rio Verde, Victoria, Mento, and I hope to do a few more, just a little stop by. get to greet and see a few people and get their feedback on some things. And the interesting thing that I'm getting across the district is that the challenges of starting school last year with everything that was going on are greatly reduced this year. Kids are remembering how to behave and they're engaging their teacher. feeling more at ease on their campuses, getting involved with their schools, so it's great to see. It just dipped my heart good to see some of the stress reducing. There's still issues, and we're still not all the way back in terms of student behavior, but a long way from where we were last year, that's for sure. I've done a couple of speaking engagements, one particular group, the Knights of the Round Table, very interesting group. Had a lot of questions for me, it was fun. And the dinner for the AAUW was one of my, I think one of the more interesting events that I've been to in terms of a historical perspective. They did a wonderful job. going back through time and the history of this organization. They're celebrating their 75th year. And one of the ladies there was one of the original people 75 years ago. And it was really cool to see her there. So she was the one where they replaced her president's pin. Yeah, that was funny. So, all in all, it's been really, really busy, but it's a good busy, and I'm just very proud and pleased with what's happening at the school sites and with everything that's getting off to this start. And oh, I wanted to shout out to the parents who spoke up about the policy on volunteers. And we have hundreds of regulations and policies in our district. And they're constantly being updated and reviewed. But interestingly enough, some of them that need that attention, the issue or the topic doesn't arise until something was, wait a minute, we better look this up, what's going on with this? And then the policy no longer really fits, and the regulation no longer really fits. There's a lot of changes that have occurred over time, of course. So it would be a daunting task to go through those hundreds of policies and say, okay, is this one still working? We get a lot of updates from, of course, CSBA. but I would encourage public here tonight and those watching that if an issue comes up, don't be afraid to question it and ask about it and say, well, this policy in the district, nobody's following it. Why do we have it? Well, then it's time for us to take a look at it and make it more appropriate to fit our needs, for sure. And so I appreciate those parents that actually spoke up and said something. And now we can get that one policy and regulation up to speed, up to date, be more appropriate for our volunteers, which are a very important part of our learning community. Melissa.

I have nothing today. Thank you.

Mrs. Holihan.

Thank you, Board President O'Neill.

Wait, before you start, did you have a comment?

Those safety videos, will there be any produced specifically for student viewing?

are available for students. So they're on the website. So you're welcome to watch them there. Or if you want us, we can send you copies over to the principal. So yeah, they're there for you and family and community members, absolutely. Were you asking because you want to improve them?

Yes, you do want to improve them, yeah. So I was, because she's here. Now I'm watching and learning and listening and looking at things, trying to see it through her eyes as well. So I'm not being critical, but the one video on the part where it talks about mandated reporting and all the rest of that stuff, maybe for student viewing, you could have a little more towards students. And maybe our student trustees could be part of the messaging just saying that maybe kids would tune into that better than our chief. I mean, I listen to what you have to say, but I don't know about a 13-year-old or something.

Just a thought.

Thank you. All right. You just volunteered. Okay, anything else? Great report tonight. Really, really good. All right, Patty.

Usually our board member, board student trustees leave. They don't stay for the whole meeting, so. Thank you guys for staying, thank you. Like my colleagues, I attended back to school nights at Mariposa, Kimberly, Kingsbury, Smiley, Brenmar, Cope, Moore, and RHS. Like you mentioned, the grounds are phenomenal. So to our grounds crew, thank you for your hard work. It looks phenomenal. They are in great shape, all the schools. It was great to see everyone. So happy to start back the new year as normal as possible. So thank you, Carrie Ann, for arranging. the appointments that we went to and for parking. Most important because most of us went from one to another and they're already packed and there was no parking. So I really appreciate that, so pass that to the principals. I attended Judson Brown Family Night. I want to thank Mr. Rossi for the invite. The kids are running around, having a great time. It was a Friday afternoon. And I want to thank the PTA for hosting the snacks. And like Citrus Valley, you have the mountains right there if it's a clear day and it happened to be a clear day. What a beautiful view there in the background. So it's just great to thank you on that. And you can tell it's almost fall season because football season is here. I attended REV and RHS games and will go to Citrus Valley's homecoming this Friday to see a victory. So I'm looking forward to that. I attended Cal State San Bernardino. They have a groundbreaking for their new performing arts building. I don't know if you know that or not, but it's going to be up in 2026. And it was well attended by people from Redlands, which was great, and surrounding people. And it was supposed to be outside, and that's when we had the 110, but they moved it inside to the San Manuel Stadium. It was a great turnout, it's gonna be a great facility, and it's gonna be awesome for the performing arts because the facility they have now is very small, so they'll be able to invite more people to attend. I attended the Valenzuela Foundation luncheon. Dr. Valenzuela awarded $220,000 this year. Every year he picks some kind of where the money's gonna be earmarked, and this year it was for mental health. So not only are we seeing it, but obviously everyone else is seeing it in the area. And so there were 26 recipients, and he gave out $220,000. And they were well represented for nonprofits that were on there. And it's anywhere from Riverside, San Bernardino County, all the way to India, which is Riverside County. And I also attended the Citrus Counseling Service First Gala. which was August 27th, and it was very small. But I was happy to see that our supervisor, County Supervisor Raul was attended because the county supports the program. And as we do, as we tonight, we approved that for them. So I love the partnership that we have with the Christian Counseling Center. And on a personal note, I just want to let you know that I submitted my paperwork to run for re-election for the Redlands School Board for District 1. And I want to thank the Redlands Teachers Association. I know Mrs. Apt is here, I think. Thank you. And to the rest of the other Redlands education support professionals, I saw Gladys up here in front. Thank you all for your endorsement and to the organizations for their support. It really means a lot to me. I'll work hard and I'll continue my efforts to stay on as district number one representative. I am very humbled and I am grateful for your endorsements. Thank you all. And just have a great homecoming at Citrus Valley. Thank you.

This meeting is adjourned. Thank you for coming tonight.