Board of Education — November 15, 2022

Will you please lead us in a pledge?

Stand. Put your right hand over your hearts. 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.

Thank you.

Okay. Please take note for the minutes that all board members are present except for Mr. O'Neill. Approval of the minutes. Oh, sorry, we have no minutes. And then say we're going to move on to public participation, community input for agendized items. This time, this is the 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 form 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. 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 microphone and announce his or her name. 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 or majority of the board determines that a different time is appropriate. So we have Mr. Paul Blatchley to talk on a board agenda item.

Good evening board members, Superintendent Arellano, cabinet. I'm Paul Blatchley. I live in trustee area five and I'm a concerned high school parent. So I'm actually talking about business services consent item B. I haven't seen this item before, so I'm wondering if this is new. This is the item that's talking about a contract that you are putting into detection canines to provide non-aggressive dogs to come and do sweeps of school sites. So I'm interested in Like how is that gonna happen? Is it all school sites or is it elementary school sites or just middle school and high school? Is it just high school? And then who is likely to be caught up in these sweeps if drugs, alcohol, or gunpowder based items are found? So just curious about that, thank you.

Moving on to B, public hearing. We have no public hearings this evening. C, presentations. We have one presentation tonight, Mr. Cortez. Mr. Quartz, sorry. Mr. Quartz. The Innovation Technology and Accountability Director is here to share information on the 2022 CASP and testing summary.

Good evening board members, Superintendent Arellano, cabinet and guests. I'm pleased to be able to present the end of year test scores for 2022. To start with, I'm going to give a few notes to just build a little context about the, let's get this going here.

Okay.

A little context about the testing scenarios for 2022. Typically when we report out scores, especially for SBAC scores, we report in two ways, status and change. Status is the actual numbers or results of the tests, and change is really the comparison on how we did against ourselves the previous year. Now, the state of California did not release in the California school dashboards test results in 2021 and 2020. So the last time any results were released for the state of California on the school dashboard was 2019. So there's really no comparison to go by. So in 2022, the state of California is only going to give status, which is our current test scores. So that really makes this a baseline year. In some ways, that's really good. 2022 is going to be the year that we're going to measure ourselves going forward. We're really not comparing to 2021, 2020, or even 2019. So 2022 is really the baseline year. So a couple other things to note. One of the most important things for us as a school district was to test as many kids as possible. And with all the the COVID symptoms and absentees and everything we tested our students early April which is over a month earlier than we normally test our students. So that is actually if you look at it in this way more than a month less instruction than typical. So that's a big thing to point out. Secondly, the state of California modified the computer adaptive portion. That was the actual multiple choice section of the test. And they made it shorter. This is actually more difficult because they tested the same amount of standards with less questions. So that's a big difference from 2019 pre-pandemic. Another thing to point out, if you think about it, third, fourth, and fifth grade students will have never taken the test in 2022. So this is the first time that third, fourth, and fifth grade students at the entire elementary level had ever taken a standardized high stakes test with that type of rigor. Typically, your fourth and fifth graders would have taken the test before. So that's a new change. So when it comes out publicly in the state of California, you're only going to see the status, and it's going to look like this. And we're calling this the cell bar, the cell phone bars. It's going to be purple, very low, low, medium, high, or very high. So that's how all the results are going to pan out for the state of California. So first thing that we want to talk to you about is the participation rates. The state of California, CDE, requires 95% participation rates for all schools and districts. Redlands Unified did 97.63%. This was a tremendous accomplishment, especially with the absenteeism rates and everything going on with COVID. The county of San Bernardino was at 96.9%, so you can see that Redlands was higher than county averages and participation rates. So on to district results. What we did was we laid out the school district, Redlands, next to the state averages, the county averages. And we also put, for context purposes, the rest of the East Valley schools. And that's going to be Colton, Rialto, San Bernardino, and Yucaiba. So again, those are the East Valley schools. So the first thing that I want to point out is Redlands compared to the state in English language arts. Redlands was at 52% at or above standard in English language arts compared to the state of California, which is at 48%. So that puts Redlands 4% higher than state averages. Similarly, in math, we were at 30% at or above proficiency in math compared to 33% for the state, so that puts us at 3% higher than state averages. When you're looking at the county, county was at 40% compared to our 50%, so that puts us 12% higher than San Bernardino County. And in mathematics, again, similarly, 36% compared to 25% in math, 11% higher in that comparison. To put this into more context, we took the English language arts county average at 40% for English language arts, and we drew that line at our elementary schools. And you can see that every one of our elementary schools except for three were at or above county averages. And in math, every elementary except for two were at or above county averages at 25%. Middle schools, Beatty was the highest middle school in English language arts at 55.5%, and Cope was the highest middle school in math at 34.63. Moving on to high school, you'll see that Citrus Valley High School was the highest in English language arts at 71.7%, and RHS was the highest in math at 42.66%. Here's another graphic that we like to take a look at. We like to take a look at how our students perform by grade level. It's a really interesting trend. You'll see that students start at grade three at 46.1% in proficiency at English Language Arts, and they finish in our school district at 63.28%. That's an amazing trend line that goes up. You can see that if they continue in our system, they end up a lot higher than they start at. Another thing that we like to point out is the growth between 8th grade and 11th grade. That's a 13.6% growth between 8th and 11th grade. Math is a little bit different. This is a statewide trend. You see that moving from third grade to sixth grade, the scores across the board go down. That's mainly because the mathematics goes from concrete information to abstract. And that becomes very difficult, obviously, as you move through the grade levels. But again, if you look at that change from eighth grade to 11th grade, it's another 8% increase as they continue on through our grade levels. For the California Science Test, we test in grade fifth, eighth, and twelfth, and you can see that our scores are above state and county as well. The LPAC is interesting because this is still the same test, so it's valid to compare to our pre-pandemic levels. So if you combine moderately developed and well-developed scores, that's a three and a four on the LPAC, you can see that we were at 61% in 2019 and 58 in 2022 post-pandemic, only a loss of 3%. So that shows a nice, steady progress from pre-pandemic to post-pandemic. So more context, these are we're calling like comparisons. And we're going to take a look at our English learners, foster youth, economically disadvantaged, and specialized populations. And you can see in these comparisons, Redlands Unified School District in those populations were higher in county and state, especially looking at the economically disadvantaged, about 8% higher than the state averages. Mathematics, economically disadvantaged, and special education, again, were higher in county and state, and it was more of a mixed bag for English learners and foster youth in the mathematics. So this one's going to take a little bit of explanation. The top bar represents the socioeconomic disadvantage percentages by state and the East Valley schools. So you can see that Yucaipa is 55%, and this is another kind of term for free and reduced lunch. So Yucaipa is 55%, the state is 61%, Redlands is 71%, and this is based on the 2021 California school dashboard. And then you're moving up into Colton at 87%, Rialto 88, and San Bernardino at 89%. Now, what typically happens as the SED percentages go higher, test scores go lower, and that's the opportunity gap. But here's what's interesting. Between Yucaipa, the state, and Redlands, the SED percentages go higher, but look what happens in the test scores. State is higher, and then Redlands is higher. So that's a really interesting comparison to show that even though our SED populations are higher, our test scores continue to grow. Now, let's put in Mentone and Clement to add more perspective to this. These are two of our ESP schools. Clement is at 80% free and reduced and Mentone is at 83% free and reduced. Almost 25 to 30% higher than Yucaipa, but if you look at the scores, ELA for Clement is 42.8%. Mentone is at 41%, both higher than Yucaipa at 55% free and reduced. And our math is 27% at Clement and Mentone both higher than Yucaipa and almost at the state level of 55%. Another interesting comparison, if you had our other three ESP schools, Franklin, Ligonie, and Victoria. Franklin's at 92% free and reduced. Ligonie is at 94%. And Victoria is also at 94%. But those schools are still scoring at or above the other East Valley schools at 87%, 88%, and 89%. Since I want to stop there for a second and just really point out the efforts that our school district has put in equity support, also the efforts by our support staff, teaching staff, and management staff during the pandemic and post-pandemic to really keep our schools and our student groups moving and going in the right direction. Additional information, AP. 10 percent higher passing rate in 2022 over 2021. Sixty percent 66 percent of our students pass in AP and Redlands Unified School District. Here's the passing percentages by school. Citrus Valley High School 59 percent. That's 7 percent better than 2021. REV 62 percent 16 percent better than 2021. RHS 74%, 7% better than 2021. More interesting information. Citrus Valley had 429 tests passed. Rev 474, RHS 863 tests passed by school. That's 90 more than 2021. Thank you. What kind of questions do you have?

questions I don't have a question I just want to thank you for putting that all together it's nice to see it like that so we know our schools are doing great things our teachers are doing great things for our students so thank you congratulations all around to students to our teachers to you leading the pack here and everyone

To say that we were down in our academics, obviously that's not true because if you look at them in our surrounding districts, we are right there or above. So congratulations to everyone. Good job, students, and for working so hard. Thank you.

Thank you for putting that together, Jamie. It was wonderful. And it's great to see the resilience of our students even going through a pandemic, seeing that they are still trying their best and excelling. So thank you.

Jake, before you go, can you talk and explain a little bit about the process of the CASP and how when students take the CASP and they answer correctly, the progression and how much more difficult, you know, it becomes? Because I don't think, as parents, they don't have that background in how they see the students taking the exams, you know, what they actually go through.

Right, you're speaking to the computer adaptive piece. Yeah, that's this cat. So basically what happens in a computer adaptive, it has an algorithm where if you get it right, it continues to give you another question that is equal or harder to the previous question. If you get it wrong, it takes you to a similar or easier question. So it kind of takes you down a path based on how you're responding to the test. So it's called computer adapted, and that's kind of how students kind of arrive through those processes, and it's how it measures students' proficiency on those standards.

And the other thing I'd like the public to know is how much does a third grade student need to know when taking the test when they're in front of a computer and having to use a keyboard? And I'm talking about their typing skills.

That was part of the reason why I pointed out that third, fourth, and fifth grade students had never taken the test before. Because there's a certain amount of understanding on the rigor of the test. Even just getting into the test and using the designated supports and navigating those types of things. I do want the public to know that we do practice these tests. They have something called interim assessment blocks and that students can get into the actual CASP system and navigate exactly the way they would see it during the actual high stakes testing. So we do practice that prior to the actual test. But it does take some practice in navigating the actual system. Not only for the students, but for first time teachers who are proctoring this for the first time.

One last comment that I appreciate, you know, your presentation. You did an excellent job and Redlands continues to soar and we are definitely making huge strides in comparison to our neighboring districts. But one other comment I just want to make is that when the students are, our second grade students are being prepared for the transition into third grade, do you all remember when we were in high school, it's when we took our keyboarding or typing class sessions. Well, that has changed, and I just want you to know that our second graders, are now having to know how to type to prepare them so that when they enter third grade, they know how to do all of the functions of the keyboard, and that's just amazing feat that our students are having to go through, so thank you. Alrighty, student trustee report. Tonight we are welcoming Olivia Johnson, who's a senior from Redlands eAcademy. We're so glad you could join us this evening. This is your opportunity to give us a report on what's going on at the eAcademy and any other schools you want to report on.

Okay, thank you. Hello. So first up, we have Redlands High School. Tomorrow is their special ed kids will be putting on a choir concert in the clock auditorium at 6 p.m. Today, RHS had several students that went to involve in the leadership training to gain ideas for raising school spirit. Their compact club is doing Thanksgiving adopt-a-family baskets and anyone can donate by this Friday before school. They just had their college application day and different colleges will be continuing to present to them this week. The Citrus Valley School, they had their first school cleanup yesterday on the 15th. Yeah, on the 15th, they had their I Applied Day, which was today, where they celebrated students who applied to either community college or four year college. They were also offering help with applications to students. Their band participated in regional finals at Irvine School, and today the advanced ensembles are having a recital to raise money for their cruise trip, which this year both choir and band club will be participating in the cruise. Their girls cost country one first CBL league title, while their boys are back-to-back CBL champions. Their football made it to the CIF Division II, Round II, and their cheer supported them through every game, win or loss. Citrus Valley Volleyball made it to the first round CIF playoffs, and their choir participated in two different festivals. As for my school, eAcademy, we are continuing to welcome new students and teachers as the year continues. E Academy is sharing the REV campus, which means we share a parking lot and restrooms, and we are currently building a new parking lot and new restrooms just for us, and so hopefully that will be completed by next semester. We had a Chipotle fundraiser last week, and we had an amazing turnout and gained a lot for our school. Both drama and choir are preparing for a performance coming up at the end of this semester. And as for ASB, we are continuing to plan future events for both our high school and our middle school, such as family painting nights. We're hosting a middle school dance and Valentine candy grams.

Excellent. Thank you. Great job, Olivia. Board Committee Reports. Let's see. CRI-RAP, Ms. Solahan.

Okay, thank you. Deputy and K9 visited Citrus Valley High School Mr. Beitler's students and shared about the aspect of careers in criminal justice. Kendra Taylor and her child development students plan and hosted a fall fest for Citrus Valley High School special education students with the carnival type games and crafts. And the Director of Education Services attended RUSD's annual Perkins CTE Advisory on November the 2nd. And Alex O'Brien welcomed University of Redlands Esports Program Director Jacob Beach to speak with his students. And then finally, And lastly, certainly not last on the agenda is Min Gonzalez who's our CBO of Cryop retired. It will be retiring at the end of the year. She's been there 16 years and she's just been a solid force for all the financials for Cryop. So we're truly going to miss her and I wish her all the best in her retirement. That's my report. Thank you.

The club officers and advisors met on November 3rd. REV reported that they have 20 new students interested in becoming members of compact. RHS reported they will be adopting a family from Family Services for Thanksgiving. The flyer for MYG projects was sent to the individual schools, and that was on October 1st. And one student, Aditi Patola from RHS, submitted a proposal about community tree planting. The next compact mixer will be held February 16th from 5.30 to 8.30. It will be at the Orton Center at the U of R and a special thanks to Jennifer King for arranging the location and the meal. The cost will be $25 for students and $40 for adults. If any of you are interested in networking and being interviewed by students, please let me know or you can call one of the advisors at one of the schools and let them know and they can pass your name on. Any senior who wishes to attain a gold certification this year is required to job shadow. The steering committee is looking for people who would welcome a student to job shadow them. The mock interviews will be held January 17th and 18th and the 24th and 25th. So if you'd like to be in on the mock interviews, just let me know. Lastly, members of compact at all schools are welcome to come volunteer for the Redlands Christmas party at the community center. It will be held on December 10th at 8 a.m. See Rachel Tolber that morning for your assignment. REV, RHS, and CV are continuing to hold monthly meetings. The next meeting of the advisors and club officers is December 6th at 4 o'clock. Thank you.

I was unable to attend the meeting. However, I do have the information for the Redlands Turkey Trot. The registration is open. You can get that information at redlandsturkeytrot.com. The kids race, the 1k is at 7.30, the 5k is at 8 a.m. The kids registration is $20 and the adults are 35 with a canned food donation and 40 without.

And then City of Redlands Cultural and Arts Commission, Mr. O'Neill, he just sent us a text message, so Mrs. Ayala Quintero will be reading it for us.

All right, this is Jim's report. The commission is placing various art sculpture pieces throughout the city of residence on the art pads installed recently. The sculptures are rented from known and established sculptors for one year. They are also sponsoring a competition for local artists to get the opportunity to have their art pieces displayed on the city art pads. The commission has also discussed a proposal to commission a city mural honoring Maestro Curtis Allen Sr., founder of the Fourth of July Band. His son is a teacher in our district and has kept his father's legacy alive by directing the band. They continue to look for walls and buildings as potential mural canvas sites, especially along the train route. Next meeting will be in January.

City of Redlands Parks and Recreation Advisory Commission, Mrs. Bender.

On November 18th, from five to eight is the tree lighting ceremony at Ed Hills Park. There will be many activities and free hot chocolate, so everybody show up, that'll be fun. Some of the highlights of the commissioner park reports this month were the need for more lighting at all parks and the maintenance of the landscape to keep it up. And I thought perhaps the city could take a tour of our schools to see the amazing job that our grounds crews do every day. Field allocations for winter sports was also discussed, and that's all for that report.

The send-ups, Ms. Hallahan.

Okay. We did have our meeting, but there wasn't much talk on legislature as a lot of the electeds were off for the election period, so we'll resume in December.

All right, CSBA Region 16 Delegate Assembly. Mr. O'Neill's not here, and I don't think he sent me a text message. Hold on. I just got one. Nope, no CSBA. Okay. All righty. The Coalition to Support RUSD in the Completion of the REV Athletic Stadium. Mr. O'Neill's not here, but Mr. Hill, any updates?

Last meeting they just went over the progress on the, towards the stadium at this point and then what we've kind of committed to in terms of phase two with the board.

Thank you.

Superintendent's report. Thank you. Thank you. Well, good evening members of the Board of Education, members in the audience, and those watching in. First of all, Olivia, thank you very much for a very nice report. Thank you for sharing that information. It's important for the board and us to know what's going on at the school, so thank you. Jamie, thank you very much for your report and summary of the test results, and a lot of good news there. Definitely a lot of work we have to do, but a lot of good news, but thank you for putting that together. So tonight I want to start by issuing my congratulations to both Michelle Renner and Patty Hollahan for another four years on the Board of Education. Congratulations to the both of you. Looking forward to our continued work in completing all of our goals and mission of RUSD 2025. So welcome aboard for another four years. We've got a lot of work to do, so congratulations to the both of you. I've had the golden opportunity the last couple weeks to be a part of some community building and learning about the great diversity in our community. A couple weeks ago, I was invited by my longtime friend, Kaiser Ahmed. He and I worked together first in Samuel City Unified many years ago. And he invited me to the Bangladesh American Association event a couple weeks ago at one of the local churches here in the city of Redlands and put on just some amazing performances, traditional performances, dances, songs, poetry. So I really want to thank Kaiser for that invitation because it was a lovely evening and it was really nice to see and learn new culture. And then just this past Saturday, my wife and I were able to attend the Diwali Indian Cultural Show held at Clock Auditorium at the Redlands High School. And I want to thank Jay Sandhu, Mina Spangrud, Deepika and Vikas Srivastava, who invited my wife and I to attend. a wonderful show of traditional dances, songs, poetry, and many of them kids that are part of the Reynolds Unified School District, both in the Bangladesh example and in the Indian example. And then I was also able on November 1st to attend the Dia de los Muertos celebration that was put on by the Smiley Library, so special thanks to Don McHugh and Rosa Gomez who invited me to be a part of it and was able to speak and talk a little bit about how my family and I celebrated Dia de los Muertos. So it was a wonderful three and four weeks to be involved in the community and really celebrate the rich diversity and the special, I say special diversity that exists here in the community, absolutely beautiful. So it was a great two, three weeks to be involved in that. And talking about our continued focus on inclusive excellence in building community, I'm happy to report that our staff members across the district were once again able to listen to a presentation by UCLA professor Dr. Tyrone Howard. If you recall, Dr. Howard came and spoke to our management team in our advance to continue our learning about equity in terms of getting to equality through the powers of equity. And we once again had Dr. Derek Greenfield to do his second of three sessions with our equity teams. As you recall, each one of our schools has put together an equity team made up of teachers, classified employees, and in some cases, even parents. So he finished his second of three sessions. He will be coming, I believe, in the next several weeks. And he's asked me to come and talk to our staff as well, to talk about our equity objectives. So our work continues to make sure that when we say all means all, we mean it, and our actions show it, and then our kids are indeed prospering from that work. And then once again, continuing down the line of our inclusive excellence, I want to speak to our LGBTQ plus students. I know that there's been a lot of discussion in the board chambers over the last several months, specifically related to our LGBTQ plus community. And I want our students to know, RUSD is a safe place for you. RUSD will continue our commitment to ensure that you see yourselves in the curriculum and in our supplemental materials. RUSD will continue to ensure that you are seeing inspirational figures in your learning experience. RUSD is going to be a place where you will continue to grow academically and socially. And continue on on our discussion about inclusive excellence is I want to thank parent Olga Garcia. We had a very, very honest and insightful conversation on the phone a couple weeks ago. And she pointed out to me that of all the years that I've been here, when I talk about and present special programs and accomplishments, that I very rarely talk about our programs of special education. And Mrs. Garcia was right, and I appreciated that constructive criticism. So I promised her that starting tonight, as I gave reports about excellence happening in the Redlands Unified School District, that I would also point out the excellence happening within our special education programs. So with that, and David, if you may. I want to start off by highlighting on the right, you see our student Kayla Alles. And she is in our moderate to severe programs at RHS, who most recently just completed in the Down Syndrome International Swim Championships in Portugal. And she was a bronze medal winner in the relay. And that's the young lady there on the right. So yeah, big applause for Kayla, it's awesome. And then you'll see on the left, you'll see all those handsome people and good looking people sitting around a table. Well, this is our Studio 24 Cafe at Redlands High School as well. And this is part of our moderate to severe program where the students are learning life skills, job skills, where they actually run a cafe. Where they prepare the tables, serve the food, bus the tables, collect the money, run the register, learn all the customer service events. This is another one of our great programs here in the Reynolds Unified School District, Teacher's Judy White. But if you've had an opportunity to sign up to have a meal there, it really is a fun experience, a great experience, and it's wonderful to see the kids just enjoying the opportunity to run their cafe. They're very, very proud, and they do good work, really good work. So really proud of that. And then the last thing I want to share in terms of our inclusive excellence with regards to our special education programs is we are currently working with our union leader partners. uh... in putting together implementation of a full inclusion program here in the realms unified school district so we chose not to take uh... uh... top to bottom approach where we say we're starting today we're going to do inclusion that's how it is we took a much measured much better measured approach so we have a three-year implementation this being your one where uh... we are going around to all the different school sites or union president our director of uh... of special education staff members uh... at the end service ed services department are going around and sharing what the program should look like in could look like and we're going to be receiving feedback from our staff to try to identify one of the concerns were the obstacles so that in here too we can create a plan to start to expand the one pilot or two pilot programs that we got going now and we're going to expand to more pilot programs in year two with the goal of full implementation by year three. Now why it's important to take three years to do it is because we have to align resources, we have to align staff, and we want to make sure that there's ample training for both of our regular ed teachers and our special ed teachers to have before we start the program. and to be able to identify any glitches that we can mitigate prior to full implementation in Gear 3. So we're very excited about our goal of full inclusion programs across the Reynolds Unified School District. And now I want to kind of transition into celebrations. So I want to begin by letting everybody know that I attended the 12th annual UC Davis C-STEM Conference, which is a computer science program. And it's a program that we've been involved with collaboratively with UC Davis. And I had the honor to applaud and cheer for four Rutland Unified School District employees who were recognized as educators of the year. Michelle Center, teacher at Beatty Middle School, Corey Elgin, teacher at Moore Middle School, and Ruth Thompson, teacher at Smiley Elementary School, were recognized as UC Davis C-STEM Teachers of the Year. And in addition to them, Jenny Dierly, principal at Crafton Elementary School, was recognized as C-STEM Administrator of the Year. So as you could probably tell, as a superintendent, I was very proud to be there to see four of our employees being recognized by a university who is promoting a program, which by the way, is working in the Rollins Unified School District. In 2019, we had 19 students take the computer science AP exam, and in 2022, 112 students, excuse me, 19 students passed the AP exam in 2019. This past year, 112, with a 75% passing rate of those numbers. So that is amazing, that program's going to impact. And so I'm so very pleased that our employees are being recognized as the trailblazers in such a program. Continuing on with our celebrations. I want to congratulate four additional employees who have been named as LEGO Ambassadors as part of the LEGO effort in the United States. As you know, we have created a close partnership with LEGO and their STEM program. And so LEGO has selected 80 teachers from across the United States to serve as LEGO Ambassadors. In other words, experts, demonstrators who can demonstrate and serve as models. Four of the 80 in the United States are right here in Redlands Unified School District. That's Olivia Davidson, Nicole House, and Carly Sapp, who is from, they're our ed tech teachers on special assignment. And the fourth individual is Rebecca Shields, who's a teacher at Kingsbury. So RUSD, as you know, is a demonstration school for Lego now. And to have four out of the 80 ambassadors nationwide be here at Redlands is outstanding. So congratulations to those four employees. Thanks for watching. I also want to extend kudos to Juanita Watkins, who this past week we attended the annual AXA conference, which is the Association of California School Administrators, the annual conference where there's 4,000 or 5,000 employees. She did an excellent job sharing the district's work on equality through equity and access. And her session alone had probably 200, 300 people in attendance. And what was very rewarding for me, again, as a superintendent, being there during those three days, to hear Redlands be mentioned by different presenters throughout those three days from all over the United States, one of which was Dr. Paul Gothard, who is the county superintendent, at San Diego County Schools who's kind of the guru of school equity. To mention RUSD as one of the districts who is really, truly working to make sure that all kids are being successful was just a proud moment. So Juanita, excellent job to you. I really, really appreciate it. So many times I get asked the question, well, how do you know Equity is working in RUSD? How do you know that your approach, when I say your, meaning the board, the districts, that providing resources when kids need it and making sure that parents are engaged is making a difference? I think Jamie today shared one piece of important information in terms of the data. Our EL students, our special education students, even after a pandemic where other similar students slid backwards. our students maintained. Our African-American students as a subgroup outscored surrounding districts in totality. So when people ask me why do you have a DLAC committee, which is the English Language Advisory Committee, when people ask me why do you have the Special Education Parent Advisory Committee, why do you have the African-American Parent Advisory Committee? Because when parents feel welcomed and when they learn how to navigate the public education system and when they are seen and heard, kids succeed. And the proof's in the pudding, folks. So I really want to commend our students, our teachers, our board for embracing the philosophy that all kids matter in this district. So, I also want to address that over the last couple of months here in the board chambers, I've heard a lot of negative comments towards unions. Now I'm not here to talk about unions in general, and that's not my role nor my position, but I can talk to you about the unions here in Redlands, RTA and RESPA. And I can tell you, The only reason why RUSD bucked the statistic trends on that SBAC is because our unions were committed to working with the district in collaboration in a sincere manner during the pandemic and coming out of the pandemic. And the unions and the district were able to work proactively to ensure MOUs were completed for working conditions to be ready for when all the different cycles were going through in terms of the governor making decisions on mandates and the California Department of Public Health. But I'm going to show you some examples of how our unions really stepped up to the plate for our kids and for our community and for our parents. First of all, Our teachers provided more face-to-face instructional time during distance learning than any other school district across the United States, or across California. There's 1,000 school districts. Probably one or two, three school districts, which include Redlands, had the high number of, we chose not to take the minimum that was required on the Senate bill. Our teachers wanted to teach more because our kids deserve it. Our paraprofessionals. We're the first to step up and actually do in-person instruction in the county. If you remember when learning hubs were first allowed to happen prior to in-person instruction for our most vulnerable students, it was our classified employees who stepped up and said, we'll be there. And we were the first district in San Marino County to do that. Our teachers and support personnel were the very first people in San Rio County to do in-person sports conditioning when the governor allowed that to begin during the pandemic. They were the first ones there to be with our kids. When our teachers came back in the spring and our support personnel came back in the spring, Our teachers, unprecedented, did dual platform teaching. And for those of you, that is hard to do when you're teaching your students that are in class. and online at the same time. They were one of very few school districts in California to do that. Our support personnel during the pandemic came to work every day. And what did we get from that? Beautiful campuses, a beautification award from the city of Redlands. Yes, there may be a lot of questions and concerns about unions in general. But in Redlands, our RTA and our RESPA and our district personnel stepped up to the plate when our kids needed them the most, and the proof's in the pudding. And the last thing I want to say here tonight is I want to close with just a few thank yous. And that I want to thank Esri for the opportunity once again and Shelly Stockton and Shar Burgess to provide me an opportunity to be part of the speakers forum where I had the opportunity to update the community on our progress towards our RUSD 2025 So thank you, Esri, and thank you, Shelly and Shar for that opportunity. I look forward to doing it again next year. I want to thank Ryan Rainbolt at Gardner-Holt Productions, who did a wonderful presentation at the NSERC Conference, which is a national center for educational research and technology conference in San Francisco. Where he shared our Garner Holt animatronic program with 200 superintendents from all across the United States. Did an excellent job highlighting what our kids are doing in terms of 21st century innovation learning. And then lastly, I want to thank Cal State San Bernardino. who just last week held their annual educational summit. And I was very humbled to be recognized as San Marino County Outstanding Superintendent of the Year, coming from a nomination from a dear, dear friend and longtime colleague, Ted Alejandra, who he recognizes the county superintendent. But what was most special to me for that evening, or that luncheon, other than sharing it with my wife who was there to support me, was I appreciated all five of you being there to share that moment with me. That really meant a lot. And when we talk about team, that was team. So I just want to thank you publicly for being there. I really appreciate that. And the last thing I want to say is I want to offer everybody a very happy Thanksgiving. Let's be grateful for all the good things that we have and all the grateful things that happen to us, the good things that happen each day. And with that, thank you for the opportunity to share my report. Thank you.

All right, moving on to superintendent's recommendations. We're going to. Okay, all right. Sorry, we're going to go down to business service.

Do you have any corrections or additions, Jason? Thank you, Vice President Navarro. I have no additions or changes tonight.

Okay. All right, so then is there a motion to approve item A, consent items B through N?

So moved. Second.

Discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Share what sign so ordered all right Next item business service action items. Designate Tuesday, December 13th, 2022, 7 p.m. as Redlands Unified School District's Board of Education Organizational Meeting per Education Code sections 50, 17, 35, 143, and 7200C2A, appendix item. Is there a motion?

I'll move. Second.

Discussion? No. All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Chair votes aye and so ordered. Adoption resolution number 17-2022-2023 resolution containing continuing authority to hold virtual meetings pursuant to AB 361. Is there a motion?

So moved. Second.

Discussion? No discussion. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Chair votes aye. And so ordered. Okay, adopt resolution number 18, 2022-2023, a resolution of the Board of Education of Redlands Unified School District, annexing additional territory to the Redlands Unified School District Community Facilities District number 2021-1, and authorizing the levy of special tax within such additional territory appendix item. Is there a motion?

Move. Second.

Discussion? No discussion. All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Chair votes aye and so ordered. Next on educational consent items. Any changes or addition?

Thank you Mr. Var, no changes or additions.

Okay, is there a motion to approve item A, consent items B through C?

So moved. Okay. Discussion?

No discussion, okay. All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Chair votes aye and so ordered. Educational service, is there, are there any educational service action items? I'm sorry. There are no educational services action items. Okay, human resources consent items. Dr. Robinson Phillips, any changes or additions?

I have no changes or addition this evening. Thank you.

Okay. Is there a motion to approve item A, consent items B through AA?

Move. Second.

Any discussion? No. All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Chair votes aye. And so ordered. Okay. Okay, on to action items. Approve revisions to exhibit 4121.1, temporary substitute personnel compensation effective November 16th, 2022, appendix item. Is there a motion? Discussion? Discussion? All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Chair votes aye and so ordered. In regard to the public employee appointment part of the agenda, I'd like to report the following. In closed session, the board took action to appoint Vincent Gutierrez to the position of principal, Moore Middle School, effective November 16th, 2022, at step five of the management team salary schedule with the following vote. Ayala Quintero, Holahan O'Neill, Renler-Vara, voting aye. Vince, are you here?

Congratulations Vince. Good evening board members, Superintendent Arellano and cabinet members. I am so excited to get to work. I can't tell you it's a dream come true. I've been in education for several years starting from a teacher's assistant all the way to an assistant principal. This is my next step and hopefully my last step because this is where I want to retire. So I'm so excited to continue collaborating with everybody.

Thank you. Congratulations. And did you bring anyone with you? No. It's actually my son's bedtime, so I'm sorry. That's okay. Alrighty. Okay. Okay, we're now on to the discussion items. Tonight we will be discussing the high school pool use request. Mr. Arellano.

Thank you, thank you Alex. If you recall at the last board meeting, you had many members of the public who came and appealed to the Board of Education. about having access to our pools. I know during the week you received some information from Jason and Ken Morris, which is in front of you. But I have asked Jason, I've asked Ken Morris as well to be here. Jason is going to share with you some of the information that the board needs to be aware of as part of that request to give you some background information. Ken is here to answer any questions that are historical in nature or anything related to the board policy or the administrative regulation, which is in front of you as well. So having said that, I will turn it over to Jason.

Thank you, I'm going to kind of summarize what you have in front of you, just kind of highlighting a few details. So our use of our facilities are guided under board policy 1330 and I'm going to refer to specifically the regulations revolving 1330. We have, the board has instructed us in this board policy to allocate use based on seven priorities. So just as a reminder, the first priority is educational programs of the district are given first use of the facilities to contracted uses. Those are anything that we have a contract with. The MOUs that they were referring to at the last board meeting fall under item number 2. Number 3, school and district affiliated groups such as PTA, booster clubs, et cetera. four public agencies, five community recreational programs and nonprofits, six private non-school connected classes, educational culture events, and seven profit making or commercial events or out of town groups. So based on these priorities, the MOUs that we do have on file fall under number two, which means any use outside of our schools that come after that are automatically denied. So some of the questions that came up at the last board meeting was an MST or an MOU by RST, so Redlands Swim Team. So to give you some historical context, that MOU was created 62 years ago. At the time it was created, only Redlands High School existed, and this was the only swim team in the area. So they've continued to use that MOU for the last 62 years. At a portion renegades, water polo started using their pools. Since RST was the only ones who were using the pools at the time and had exclusive use under that MOU, They worked with Renegades and they shared the pool space under the RST MOU. About seven years ago, RST was attempting to limit some of their costs. So they removed some of the use of the minutes of the pool and Renegades picked that use up. So currently, as it sits today, you have RST using 2,000 minutes a year and Renegades using 700 minutes a year. We want to make note of the three different pools. So Redlands High School doesn't have a CIF-qualified pool. So they have two pools that are the wrong dimensions for any CIF qualifications. So the two pools we have remaining are REV and Citrus Valley. So those are the primary pools that most people try to use for CIF qualifications, which is why they have spread from Redlands High School over to Citrus Valley High School. Any questions on that portion? Alrighty, so just also note that we have a varying amount of other requests for to use the pools. IE Storm is another swim club that has attempted to use the pools. Every pool use that comes in we have denied up until this point because they fall under item six and seven in the priority list. So that's kind of the details up until this point. We have asked that any team can talk to Redlands swim team or Renegades to kind of work out pool use underneath that existing MOU. But that would be up to the clubs themselves. We don't guide that space. Some decisions I want you to kind of think about tonight is The request was to eliminate the MOUs for RST and Renegades so that we have equal use of the pools. If you were to do that, essentially what's happening is you're removing all of the MOUs we have in place. So just keep in mind that we have MOUs that govern use of our pools, use of our fields, other areas, use of some of our buildings. So if we eliminate the swimming MOUs, we might have to eliminate all MOUs, which would be your decision. But keep in mind that then it opens up any club, any organization that wants to use the pools. And so now if you have five or six or seven organizations that want to use the pools, and we didn't have any MOUs in place, then we would all start limiting time that they have that. I also want to bring up the fact that the MOUs charge, we agree on charge use. So just an example, the current MOU between RST and Renegades is about a third of the actual cost of the pool. So if we eliminate those MOUs and charge pool use, then the price would about triple for any club or organization trying to use that space. The other thing we need to think about is Redlands High School, as I mentioned earlier, doesn't have CF qualified pools. So most of the use would come from Citrus and or Rev. I would assume all of the remaining clubs and organizations would want to use those two pools. Also keep in mind that Redlands East Valley's pool is failing. We are in the process of replacing that pool. So shortly they will be down a pool for several years if that pool is being replaced, which is gonna put a strain on all of the pool use during that time. So that's another thing to kind of consider. And last is the concept of a feeder program. So Redlands Unified has always discouraged feeder programs. A feeder program is kind of defined by a club that feeds specifically into a school sports team. The club that had come to you previously last board meeting specifically wants to create a feeder program for the Citrus Valley swim team. They have mentioned that in multiple occasions and that's something that we generally frown upon. We are fine with people using our pools, we just don't like them to be used as feeder pools. It creates kind of an inequity because often when you have feeder programs then parents and our students feel like if they pay to be a part of the club, then they'll automatically make the team, especially when you have the coaches teaching, coaching both sides of it.

I have a question regarding the feeder program. So RST is in Redlands, correct? And they normally use REV or Redlands High School, or they use all of the pools.

RST traditionally had use of all three high schools. They relinquished use of Redlands East Valley when renegades broke off from that MOU.

Then when the, so I'm assuming the majority of the players in RST end up going to our high schools. They do. So that automatically makes them a feeder school.

They feed- They were to feed specifically one school.

Right, but what I'm saying that they automatically become a feeder to our schools because the students that are playing. So to me, it's the same thing. It doesn't matter what club you're from, but the students end up eventually playing for us, just like soccer. For example, we have the Pats, Patiadores. and the majority of our students end up playing at the three different high schools.

A feeder program would be defined if Pouty Door is fed specifically into one high school and ASO would feed into another high school and then Gauchos would feed into the third high school. Right, right. Right? Rather than a club feeding to all high schools.

So now I don't know exactly how many students are from Citrus Valley High School, how many students are from the different other high schools that would end up going to the other.

We don't know that.

We don't know that, so eventually they just become a feeder to our- Good, yes, yes. Okay. I just wanted to make sure I understood that because I kind of feel like all the clubs end up coming to our school sites and they end up being in our sports programs. Okay. Do any of you have any questions?

When the different parents came last week and talked, I don't remember any of them actually saying they were only Citrus Valley students. I know the coach was from Citrus Valley, and he said a majority of their kids went to Citrus Valley, but there were other kids.

He actually stated there were students that attend other schools as well.

So it's really not a feeder program in reality?

Yeah. Okay.

Have there been attempts to split that time amongst the teams?

Yes. So RST and Renegades were asked to approach the team that came last time. As we believe, again, it's not governed by us. We were told that RST offered to share the space At the same time, so both teams will be practicing at the same time. And the team that came last week wasn't interested in that. But again, that's just what we were told by RST.

And if we eliminated all the MOUs, we would be subjecting ourselves basically to allow anybody to use our pools to the point where none of our Redlands, whether it be IEAQ, Redlands Swim Team, or Reinegates would be able to use it, correct?

uh... the way to go if it if a uh... organization wants to use one of our facilities they put in a facilities use if the time is free they're usually granted those facilities uh... so if we were with the emo use in place because emo you sit higher in the priority level what we generally do is anybody that request to use police is automatically denied because the emo use in place for the tired all of the minutes. So if we were to eliminate those MOUs that govern the minutes, then any organization, any club, any team, any school, any parent, right, wanting to utilize pool space can put in a request for pool space and it would be granted. So it would either depend on us as a district kind of guiding the time which we don't do yet. If you put in for a request, you get it. So I would think that, you know, that could become problematic if one team got ahead of the other teams and then just requested everything. So we would have to create some type of a limit, right? If two teams, it's 50%. If three teams, it's a third, if it's four teams, it's a quarter, right? Something like that. And that means that if a team is practicing and then another team comes in and wants to use it, and then we were instructed to divide that time, then teams would lose half of their available time at some point throughout the season or the year. And then if a third team comes in or a fourth team comes in, we would then divide it equally. So you could see teams being limited in the amount of time they have use. that would be the result of that.

Okay, sorry. And then if that were to happen, I mean, we would have the fees would increase, so then we would potentially be locking out any programs that couldn't afford the increase in fees, correct?

If we were to charge our use fees, which everybody pays now, but the MOUs got a different price. So if we were to charge the full use of the pool based on our advertised price, it would be hard for one. or two teams to use all of those minutes. It would be too cost prohibitive. If there was a dozen teams attempting to use those three pools, then the cost to each team is less, right, because they're paying for less time. But it would be hard for three teams, four teams to pay for all of the minutes of the pool.

Mentioned if you cancelled one you'd cancel all the mo use which would be like city of highland city of redlands City of La Melinda YMCA building a generation. Is that correct?

That would be your decision as a board, but the thing is you open yourself up to if you're willing to cancel one set of MOUs for a reason, why wouldn't you cancel the others? For example, Redland RBI uses all of our fields. Throughout their season if another came to it and said hey you cancelled the swimming mo use I think you should cancel then it would just write so it's it's snowball.

Okay. Thank you Michelle

Perhaps we could do something in the board policy, do something like the City of Redlands does, where the people that are Redlands residents, we could do RUSD students, the percentages of students on the team, that's the percentage of hours they get, that they have a whole formula, and it seems to be working really well. Maybe we could look at something like that, because having our RUSD students being able to use our facilities seems like a good idea.

Jason, so we have how many teams right now requesting swim teams currently requesting to use the facilities? Is it just Inland Empire, Aquatics, and RST?

They were the most consistent, yeah. RST, Renegades Water Polo, IE Storm, and Inland Empire Aquatics. Those are four sports clubs that have been repeated use of our pools. We have pool requests all the time. They're just denied and sometimes they come back, sometimes they don't. particular for ask every year. Since RST and Renegades have an existing MOU, we deny the other two. If we were to eliminate those MOUs, if we talk, then we would then open them up to those two as well. So we know we would have four teams. requesting to use the three schools immediately.

Right now in our MOU, in actual use and action, out of all four of them, which are all four of them currently using the pools?

RST uses 2,000 minutes of available time, and Renegade uses 700 minutes of available time. 2,700 minutes a year is all that we have. Hours, yeah, excuse me, hours.

Okay, and then right now, the team that's asking to use it is the Inland Empire Aquatics. And IE Storm.

It was Inland Empire Aquatics who came to the board.

Inland Empire Aquatics came to the board.

There is another team that's been asking to use it every year. That's Ice Storm.

Okay.

What are the hours that we allow the pool to be used? Because obviously they can't be used during school hours and during winter months. So what hours are we?

once for ken first of all jason was doing a great job but uh... we are determined that the available hours that were after all of our teams were done practicing came out to two thousand seven hundred so that was math that we set aside to see what we honestly could offer to uh... to the two groups and that's when renegades is splitting from rst uh... rst came to us and said we can't afford the 2,700 hours, we need to back down, but we need 2,000 hours to be competitive in our sport. And so it was negotiated with RST that they would get 2,000 hours to allow them to be competitive, and then the renegades took 700 hours. And then the two groups agree that they will work with each other when one of our pools would go down, because they have to sacrifice to our schools. And so, yes, RST has the ability to use all three pools, as does Renegades, as long as they will work together to use that. And so they work together on those 2,700 hours now. The three sites always believed that RST was using it way more than that. So when we started docking time and noticing everything and it's in their MOU that if they go over their hours they get charged the normal rate that is posted on our rate sheet that everybody can see. And so that was negotiated with both groups on the hours they needed to be competitive in their sports and so When we're talking about reducing those things, I'm sure RST would like to have a say on that just as an FYI. Any other questions?

Are these programs and clubs, are they for-profit or non-profit organizations?

So the first thing we do is make sure that they're non-profit organizations, and that's the way they get the youth rate. If they were in violation, they would never get an MOU with us. So they have to be non-profit and improve their 501c3.

Thank you. So, yeah. Does the board have any more questions, comments, or considerations? I'm gonna jump in on the consideration. I like Michelle's idea about the way the city, yes, the percentages.

It seems to be working really well.

I'm wondering if we can look into splitting up the hours based on the percentage of the number of students that attend our Redland schools and splitting up the hours to make it more equitable.

They all attend RUSD schools.

Oh, even the IE storm?

Yeah, but you might have more like San Bernardino City kids in one of the clubs, you know, like one of the teams.

I don't know that that's, because if we're only allowing based on the percentage of our USD students, they might have a bigger team, more students from San Bernardino, and we're not gonna allow those students to swim?

They get more hours, how the hours be broken up. So everybody gets use.

But if they have more players, or if they have more athletes.

Just more like the enrolled players. So let's just say the RST has 20 students from Redlands High School. And then the Inland Empire Aquatics has 5 students. And then IE Storm has 10. So obviously, RST would get more hours, more swimming hours than the other two clips.

Those aren't all the students on the team. They are more RUSD students. So if IE Storm only had five, say, but they have more players or more swimmers than any of the other teams, it doesn't seem fair that they get a smaller portion of time just because they have less RUSD students. They have a bigger team.

The idea would be to go to where most of their kids are going to school, what city they're in.

Yeah, so I think, I mean, I don't know, but I think we should give it back to the teams and give them the opportunity to work this out themselves because this is gonna get pretty tricky. And if they can't work it out for themselves, they're going to be, we're gonna be canceling all the MOUs and they're gonna be paying triple the price, which I.

You don't wanna cancel all the MOUs.

No, I don't want to, but I think we need to give them the opportunity to fix it themselves or we have to step in.

I'm good with letting them see if they can work out. I don't think it's worked in the past, from my understanding.

You can ask all three before to come sit in a room.

We can create the venue. I agree. Let's allow them to see if they could work it out and come up with an equitable plan. Yes. Because that's what we're looking for, is for them to come up with an equitable plan. And if they can't figure it out, then I guess we can make a decision.

I have one more question. The $44,000 that they're paying per year, does that help with all the maintenance of the pool? Does that take care of all of that? Or do you need the 118 to do that?

All of the facility use goes into a single account and then we use that money to make repairs, help with staffing sometimes for events to stock.

Has there been enough? Is that not the issue? The money was not the issue, it's the hours only. Yeah, it's the hours.

The reason the MOU is put into place is because the general cost of the publicized rates too high for most teams. And so we negotiate something that's more palatable for a team that's servicing the students.

Even if we canceled MOUs and started over, you wouldn't have to do 118. for each of them, you could negotiate each team what they.

Then we're just renegotiating new MOUs until the next team comes, right? Yeah. So I mean, that's the issue. So either we choose not to use MOUs and just treat it like a regular facility request and eliminate the MOUs or keep the MOUs in place.

So you don't have to have an MOU to be able to use the facility?

No, no, no. The MOUs are just created usually to create some other side agreement allocating responsibility, use, what happens to overuse, things like that. It's a contract that we create and we negotiate a price under that contract.

Thank you. So I guess we're all in agreeance that you'll have the teams come back and see if they can come up with a more equitable- Yeah, we'll put them in a room together. Okay.

Security.

Okay. Now we are item 19, no, yeah, 19. Public participation. Okay. We are not community input. All right, let me read this. This is the time that any member of the public may address the board on anything that falls under the jurisdiction of the Board of Education provided the person submits a completed registration card to the clerk of the board or his or her designee prior to public participation. This is not meant to be a debating period. Complaints and problems relating to the 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 microphone and announce his or her name. The chairperson shall limit the amount of time which a member of the public may use in addressing the board to three minutes unless the chairperson or the majority of the board determines that a different time limit is appropriate. Okay, we are gonna... Nicole Garrett? Oh, I'm sorry. I'm gonna do the people in person here, then I'll read the emails. Nicole Garrett is somebody on the email. Okay, so Paul Blatchley.

Good evening board members, Superintendent Arellano and district cabinet. So I didn't attend the last board meeting because I was listening to the superintendent at the relevance forum, and I didn't make it in time to get in. But you had a teacher librarian, they came and said, hey, you know, our catalog is out there. So I was able to find the catalog on the website. It's not easy, but it's there. And so I'm interested in the authors that I didn't find in the library at REV. This is REV. So there were no books by Thomas Sowell, no books by Shelby Steele, no books by Clarence Thomas, no books by Larry Elder, no books by Milton Friedman, no books by Walter Williams, Candace Owens, Jason Riley, Frederick Hayek, I think you can see a little bit of a pattern there. I also put in the keyword socialism. 200 plus titles come up. If you put in the keyword communism, you get 158 titles. If you put in the keyword capitalism, you get 21 titles. And a lot of those are on capital punishment. Here's a challenge to the board and the district administration, school site administration, and the student representatives. And this is not related to the library. And I don't want to make any assumptions about the student representatives because maybe they are members of the Pride Club. But the superintendent just gave those words about the community. And so what I would ask is the next time they're having a high school fundraiser where all the clubs are putting out their tables and raising money, go sit at the Pride Club table. and then report back to the board, right? That's it. Thank you. Thank you.

Nicole Prasad.

Hello, member of the board. My name is Nicole Persaud, and I'm the mother of two students here at RUC. After the last meeting, I became aware that I'm not the only parent that feels unheard. When you on the board do not connect with me regarding our kids' health and wellness improvement, you make me feel as though my voice doesn't matter. When you never comment after over a dozen times I've spoken, this shows me the board doesn't care enough about our kids' health or creating a healthy environment. The only conclusion I can come to if you are not conversing with me about health is you are unaware of how to create a healthy environment for kids. Health and wellness is how you address this problem. Health and wellness is how you help kids with knowledge retention and comprehension. Health and wellness is how you increase academic success. Thankfully, I do not cower easily, and I'm fully dedicated in advocating for health and wellness to benefit over the 20,000 kids in our schools. I am glad that in my relentless push for farm to school nutrition, I requested a meeting with Mr. O'Neill. We came to the conclusion that the health and wellness committee is necessary. My question to you was, why did it go away? Why was this committee not mentioned during and after two-year health pandemic? I intend to follow up with this board and hold you accountable in reconstructing this team to move toward a healthy environment in our schools. As a constituent, I need to see action on improving health and wellness for all. action to bring our kids whole foods packed with nutrients, and aid kids in reducing obesity, cancer, autism, diabetes, heart problems, and academic focus. If we invest in our children's health and wellness, we are caring for all kids at the same time. By bringing the community together and promoting a positive environment, when we help everyone in improving academically, those competing athletically, and those hurting mentally, You see, healthy kids, they don't have attendance problems, which is a problem our principals would appreciate help on. I had the pleasure of touring our district center kitchen. And as a business professional, I was delighted to see the promise in creating a fully functioning farm to school program. Your facility is large enough, and Betty Crocker's goal in reducing carbon footprint and bringing all whole foods to our kids is attainable. Unfortunately, the kitchen is more like a storage unit, and it looks less like a functioning kitchen. New preparation and assembly areas are surrounded with storage boxes. Superintendent and the board. A commitment today in finding a storage hub for all the district's items would allow Betty Crocker and her team to move closer towards her dream in making a positive impact immediately in health and wellness. Raising children has brought me here wanting to help families. Raising healthy children has opened my eyes to my children's full potential.

I'm going to go ahead and give you more time. Just let me turn it off.

OK. Thank you. Raising children has brought me here wanting to help families. Raising healthy children has opened my eyes to my children's full potential. I am in awe of how much knowledge my kids are able to absorb while consuming a whole food diet. I leave you with this. You now have a reason to connect with me. You have the resources to find a storage facility so our central kitchen can function at full speed. And you have the power to influence and start a health and wellness committee. I'm watching to see if you will take action, if you care as much as you say you do, if my voice counts as much as you say it do. Because right now, I have learned nothing about a health and wellness committee. All I've heard is mandate masks, and we need vaccines. That's not approach to health.

Thank you. Greg Britton.

I also missed the party last night, last week, but I wanted to say my piece, even though I doubt that anyone up there is interested in it. Children need good education to prosper. Republic needs informed citizens. And America needs, like every nation, needs to transmit its history, culture, principles to succeeding generations to survive. And the government-run schools are failing on every one of those counts. And we'll start at the top. Two members of this board have shown themselves to be morally disqualified to serve in leading this district. The evidence shows that Member Holohan was responsible for stealing her opponent's size.

This is not a time to talk about the political issues.

Oh, the superintendent did. Superintendent brought up the election, and then at their last meeting, Board President O'Neill suppressed the First Amendment rights of citizens to cover up the misdeeds of his fellow member, morally disqualifying him. What brought this about was highly sexually inappropriate materials were in the schools. And it only came to light because a student found out. None of you were bothered to find out what's in your own libraries. A student had to bring it up and bring it to your attention. And he was basically ignored. I watched the dog and pony show online with a librarian. None of you asked an intelligent question like, How do these books get in there in the first place? Do you guys read the books before they are presented to the students? If not, why not? And why should the index of books be hard to find? Why shouldn't that be easy for every member of the public to find? and that someone like Thomas Sowell is not in your library shows the intentional, deliberate, ideological bias that exists in the government-run schools. The man is a national treasure and a genius, and he should be required reading and certainly in the libraries. And all of this is happening, you have mediocre to lousy academics. And I saw the dog and pony show here tonight. But the fact remains that here in Redlands, only 35% of students are proficient in math. Only 51% are proficient in English language arts, and only 36% are proficient in science. When you're focusing on doing these other indoctrination activities, you're neglecting your primary core responsibility to properly educate the children. I don't expect a change, but I do want to say my piece. Thank you. All right, Susan Knapp.

Hello, Susan Knapp. I reside in trustee area two. Good evening school board trustees, Superintendent Arellano, cabinet members and community. I'm standing here tonight as the president of the Redlands Teachers Association. I'm so incredibly proud of the 1,200 plus RUSD educators that I have the honor of working for. The presentation tonight and the superintendent's report both show that Redlands teachers have answered the bell. Our USD students are outperforming state, county, and other school districts in student achievement. We make a measurable difference to the children in our community. We don't do this alone. We are part of a team with classified employees, our school families, and our USD. We're doing good work together, hard work mind you, but good work in making a difference in the lives of our students. We're student-centered, innovative in teaching, and set the bar on learning programs. We've expanded our programs such as STEM, media centers, and extended learning programs that surpass all other school districts. Our parent advisory groups are active in guiding programs and policies. And we're not stopping as a district. We're looking to increase after school programs at more schools and implement special education inclusion classes at every school, to name just a couple. As we start our Thanksgiving break, I want us to take pause for ourselves and celebrate what we have accomplished this far. I know I am thankful for being part of RUSD. I'm proud to say I'm a Redlands teacher. It's a blessing to be part of a district that values its employees. It's a blessing to be part of a community that values education. And it's a blessing to be part of a team that works together for all our students. Happy Thanksgiving.

Thank you. All right, at this time I'm going to read the emails from the October 25th board meeting that came in after the deadline. Hello, the LGBTQ flag should be an option to have in the classroom. Human rights are for everyone. Just because people don't agree about the LGBTQ community does not mean others should slam people who are different. However, people should respect the flag, just like others respect religion and their values. Having the flag removed will disrespect the whole teen LGBTQ community. What are we teaching our children? This is like saying that minorities shouldn't have the right to participate in their cultural beliefs. Respectfully, Nicole Berlich. Dear board members, first of all, I would like to personally thank each and every school board member for your hard work and dedication to the Redlands community and children. You all do an amazing job. I watched in horror the last Redland school board meeting online and listened to the parents who support Aaron Stepien spew their nonsense. It's 2022. Why is this day the age? Sorry, why is this day the age are there still adults that wish to degrade and dehumanize the LGBTQ plus children? The damage being done by these parents spouting this hate is disgusting. I was raised in a strict Catholic family and went to Catholic school, yet somehow the heterosexual teachings that I was indoctrinated with didn't work on me because I came out of all of it perfectly gay. Just yesterday, there was another school shooting, yet you have a group of ignorant parents that want to waste not only their time and energy on dehumanizing LGBTQ plus children, but they are also wasting everyone's valuable time and energy that instead should be focused on what the root cause of all these school shootings is. Discriminatory and damaging rhetoric. like what they are spewing at the last board meeting is absolutely one of the root causes for sure, and they should all be ashamed of themselves. We know the violent extremist ideologies behind the school shootings are based on hatred and another race, religion, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality, etc. Why are we allowing these parents to stoke the hatred any further? Since there are no requirements currently to have video or audio recordings made public of your meetings, I'd implore each of you to consider not making these meetings public because it is only giving these ignorant parents a platform in which they can be heard. Thank you for your time, Kathleen Brennan. Dear RUSD Redlands School Board, I have watched recordings on September 27th and October 11th meetings. I am astounded at the vitriol you faced and the ignorance you've had to endure. You are doing crucially important work in preserving the academic freedom of our district's teachers and the equally precious ability of students to explore topics of potentially life-saving importance to them. As a parent who has raised two sons in trustee area two, as a frequent volunteer in elementary school classrooms, When my sons were young, as a teacher myself, I am deeply grateful to you for following the established protocols for complaints about books and supporting teachers in doing their job. I regularly teach children's and young adult fiction at the University of Redlands, and one of the key concepts we cover is the way in which reading for all of us, not just children, offers us opportunities to see ourselves and to see others unlike us. Dr. Rudine Simmons Bishop explains this concept with the memorable analogy of mirrors and windows. Those calling for books to be removed from libraries and classrooms because of the LGBTQIA plus content are breaking mirrors and smashing windows that would enable our students to see themselves as fully human and worthy of love and to see their classmates no matter how different as equally worthy. Having listened claims made by speakers in previous meetings, the homophobic bias is clear. None of what has been read into record as pornographic is any more vivid than descriptions in books as old as Judy Blume's Forever 1975, still a library staple. Their focus on books depicting gay sex while ignoring books that describe heterosexual encounters speaks volumes about their real target. And in front of you all, of that bias and bitterness, you have remained calm, professional and stalwart. Thank you for standing strong against this onslaught. Sincerely, Heather King. Now these are for this meeting, emails that we received for this meeting. Good evening, my name is Madison Greer. I am a member of the Inland Empire Aquatic Swim Team and we currently have no pool to call home. We recently lost our pool at Indian Springs High School because another team's pool is getting fixed. Due to that, we have not been able to practice. Many other athletes on the team including myself go to Citrus Valley High School and swim on the high school swim team. Although we all swim during the high school season, many of us want to go to college and continue to swim during our college years. Recruiters come down to see a swim during winter age groups, junior Olympics, and even league meets, but we don't have recruiters come down to watch high school meets. If we want to continue in college, we have to have a pool to practice. to practice in and get better. Currently due to other circumstances Redland Swim Team RST has four pools within Redlands Unified School District. I and many others just want a chance to continue to swim in later years and achieve more than we have now. Dear Board, thank you for your continued commitment to diversity and inclusion for all students. As you may have seen, Redland scored in the priority tier in a report from safesupportiveschools.org, meaning we have work to do. The following are best practices for high-scoring districts. Adopting LGBTQ plus inclusive social science textbooks, updating restrooms to better serve LGBTQ plus and all students, suicide prevention policies and training, LGBTQ plus materials available in libraries, sexual health and education, HIV prevention, Teachers and school staff should be provided diversity, anti-bias, and equity training that incorporates LGBTQ plus topics in order to be, to better support LGBTQ plus in all students and work within them in a respectful, supportive manner. Inclusive programming and policies for teachers and staff, policies that allow for changing names and gender markers. I hope you will be proactive about these suggestions. Additionally, a group of parents, teachers, and staff, students plan to meet with safe, supportive schools to learn more about implementing these best practices, and we look forward to your cooperation. Thank you, Pekka Spence de Baez. Dear Redlands Unified School District Board of Education members, I want to thank Mr. O'Neill for addressing misinformation circulating among a small but vocal minority prior to the previous school board meeting. Facts matter. Regarding comments made in previous school board meeting, it is wrong and dangerous for people to equate simply displaying a pride flag in a classroom or wearing a pride pin with grooming. It is also despicable and ignorant for people to call school board members pedophiles simply because they disagree with them. Grooming and child sexual abuse are serious matters. People who glibly throw around these terms should educate themselves about what they really mean. Facts matter. Regarding books in our school libraries that contain stories of incest, rape, prostitution, and human trafficking, these books are not pornographic. They are According to the CDC, approximately one in four girls and one in 13 boys in the US experience child sexual abuse, including abuse by family members. One in four women and approximately one in 26 men have experienced completed or attempted rape. The US Department of State estimates that there are 24.9 million human trafficking victims worldwide at any given time. Facts matter. The books that make certain people uncomfortable may provide information, comfort, and validation to others. If schools ban books about real world subject matter, they are not only denying the reality of these issues, but they are denying students information and stories that could help them heal from trauma or cope with difficult emotions such as anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation. In addition, books help students develop a deeper understanding of the world around them, fostering compassion and empathy for others. Thank you for your myriad ways you continue to support students, staff, and teachers in RUSD. Sincerely, Heather Floridia. Okay. Next, board comments. We'll start with Ms. Rendler.

I'm going to read what I was going to say on the 25th when I had no voice, so hopefully my voice won't give out this time. I attended the district resource fair at RHS. It was a great turnout. There were mascots from our middle schools and high schools and spirit leaders from the high schools. I want to thank Sonia Balinget. Juanita Watkins and their teams for such a great time. Many families were connected with different resources that they needed. As always, thank you to Betty Crocker and the CNS team for food boxes that each family took home. The mural judging for homecoming at RHS is always a fun event, and this year was no exception. Tuesday the 18th of October, I watched pizza being made and it was delicious. I had a close-up view of a fire being put out. I went apple picking and babysat some infants while enjoying a gourmet meal. And last but not least, I learned that we have superpowers over the monsters under our beds and in our closets. All this in a span of 25 minutes. You can experience this too. I want to thank Mrs. Mendoza at Mission Elementary for the fun morning with her TK students. It was a great day. The fentanyl awareness parent night in October at RHS was very eye-opening for me. The officers did a great job explaining what this drug is and what it isn't and all about the ways this drug is getting to some of our kids. It's good to know that we have Narcan at our high schools. I didn't know it until that night. I had a chance to go to Kingsbury. I want to thank Mr. Flowers for taking me around to see the many wonderful things going on at his school. The staff was so welcoming and they were proud to show off their school. As a life member of Assistance League, I helped at Operation School Bell. OSB closed over 180 kids a couple times a year from RUSD and Yucaipa Cala Mesa Joint Unified. Families go shopping for clothes for their kids at Kohl's, and the parents were so appreciative and happy that their school district had this partnership. The students were so excited to show what they received. A few weeks ago, I attended Franklin's morning assembly and what fun they have. They played music and dance to get ready for their sock hop. Students received awards and got their picture taken with the Franklin Falcon. Thanks to Dr. Acosta for the energetic morning. It got my day off to a great start. After that, I went over to Clement to tag along with Mr. Cullen to hand out Clement awards and see how it went. If I'm not mistaken, there were close to 400 students receiving an award for a 3.5 and up GPA at Clement. That was amazing. That night was also a fun night of football, the game between IHS and REV. It was extremely close game, and at the end, RHS pulled out the win and got the smudge pot back. The CBRHS game a few weeks ago was also a fun-spirited night with CBHS coming out ahead. I'm looking forward to seeing the middle school softball finals in December. October 29th, I took some grandkids to see Alice in Wonderland at Citrus Valley. It was a beautiful performance and we had a great time. And I'm so excited to hear the new Inspire Choir tomorrow at RHS in Clark Auditorium at 6. And I want to congratulate RHS Marching Band on your competition last week. RHS is going to state. Best of luck to all the students as they compete statewide with 15 other schools. Lastly, I'd like to acknowledge all of our parents. We always thank our teachers, our support staff and administrators, but tonight I really want to thank you parents. You've helped your children through the pandemic and are still here. Thank you for all you've done for your kids to help them attain these great SBAC scores that we saw tonight. Keep up the good work.

And that's all I have.

Mine will be quick. I just want to, as a personal little thank you, I wanted to thank the RHS Avid staff and chaperones for the trip that they just returned from. My son just returned from the college trip and they took such good care of him. I was a little nervous. The drive up in the rain was making me very anxious. But he had a blast and so I really want to thank you all for everything that you did for him and for the wonderful memories that were created. There was even some talk about the kids hanging out together after, you know, outside of school. So there was some great bonds made there and I really appreciate that. And I just want to wish everybody a wonderful and safe holiday filled with family, friends, and lots of fantastic food. Thank you.

I have a brief comment and then I'm going to Mr. O'Neill text me his comments. He doesn't want to be left out. I just want to wish everybody a happy Thanksgiving. Students, staff, I think we're all looking forward to having a week off. We've all been working extremely hard. And I know that we're going to enjoy this coming week with our families as we're all probably thinking what we're going to be cooking and making. So I hope you all enjoy it. I haven't forgot about Patty. Okay, so this is his comment right here. Let me see. He says, one of the highlights of each month for me is meeting with our student trustees. Their insights, experiences, connections, and articulated conversations serve to enlighten me every time we meet. I know we all appreciate their commitment to participate. We can work out the details for their attendance to CSBA, but I will be attending as many student workshops as possible on their behalf. I also requested CSBA to consider webinars and Zoom meetings for student trustees, thinking they will get more participation. I got to experience RapidMOOC digital storytelling. So just to let you know what RapidMOOC is, RapidMOOC is a video. Imagine you're a newscaster and you're saying the news and there's a teleprompter in front of you, but then there's a camera recording what you say. That's what we purchased for our digital storytelling abilities here in Redlands. So that's what he's talking about. So I got to experience RapidMOOC digital storytelling devices. Congratulations to our outstanding Superintendent of the Year Mauricio. I also wanted to congratulate Patty and Michelle on being given Another term of service on the board. Michelle, I am sure you were relieved to run unopposed, especially considering what you had to do just two years ago. Patty, you need to know that your accomplishment, reputation, unwavering integrity, and long time commitment to promoting excellence in our district was recognized and confirmed by the voters who know you. We look forward to you continue, for your continued outstanding service on the board. And happy and healthy Thanksgiving to everyone. Patty.

Thank you, Mr. Quartz, for your presentation and congrats to our students on a job well done. You make us very proud. Congratulations to Mauricio. We attended with my colleagues a luncheon at Cal State where Mauricio was recognized as one of the superintendents of the year. And I was just thrilled that we could all be there together to support you. Because it was a work day, and we were all able to make our schedules work, and I'm glad that you appreciated that. I attended a retirement dinner for Min Gonzalez, CBO from Cryop, as I mentioned earlier. She was actually one of the persons that was very responsible purchasing one of the buildings for Cryop, and she's just solid, and I wish her all the best. I attended the CIF game for CV football this last Friday. I know Mr. Orellana was there as well. And I want to congratulate him on a terrific season. I brought my grandsons with me, and Citrus Valley Blackhawks, they walk into a big tent, and that's where the team is. And the kids said, Look, it's a jumper. I didn't know the football players go in the jumper. It wasn't a jumper, but they thought it was a jumper. I thought it was great. But congratulations to Coach Bruick on an amazing and another tremendous, wonderful season. And Saturday, I presented certificates for two of our students from Redlands East Valley, received their Eagle Scout Award. Congratulations to Nathaniel Sidor and Richard Gisrednick. I was also there with the Yucaipa-Calamesa Joint Unified School District because there was two students from Yucaipa, so congratulations to them. I'm very proud of them, it's the Eagle Scouts. And finally, I want to extend a heartfelt thank you to everyone who supported me during my campaign for Redland School Board. I am grateful, very grateful to those who voted for me and especially said yes to Patty Holohan for another four years. I will continue to work hard collaboratively with my fellow board members, staff, teachers, students, and parents as we all keep up with our agenda to make sure that RUSD is the number one district in our area. And to my family, and committee members. I could not have done this without your support. You mean the world to me, and everything that you did for me during those troublesome nights helped me get through and to be here tonight. So thank you. I know two of my sisters and my great niece are here today, and my friend John Jacobson in the back. Oh, my other sister. Oh, I guess all three are here. I didn't see her. So thank you, all three sisters, for being here. I didn't see you back there, so I appreciate it. I appreciate everything you did and everything for me. And I'm ever so thankful for each and every one of you. To all of you here tonight and staff, I wish you a blessed Thanksgiving. May you enjoy your break and lots of family time. God bless.

856, meeting adjourned.