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In the Minutes Redlands USD
Transcript ← All meetings

Board of Education — March 14, 2023

2h 05m · 22 speakers · 5 identified by voice Watch video View summary Download .txt
Melissa Ayala-Quintero? 0:00:44

All right, I would like to call this meeting to order. Thank you for coming tonight. Before we do the Pledge of Allegiance, I would like to have a moment of silence for one of our former students. Immediately following the Pledge of Allegiance, please remain standing. Sorry, Christian, can you go ahead and lead us in the pledge?

UNKNOWN 0:01:11

which stands one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Melissa Ayala-Quintero? 0:01:23

On October morning, Justin and his older sister were struck by a car while crossing the street to get to his kindergarten class. Justin faced life-changing injuries because of this accident, but despite the fact that he spent the last eight years fighting for his life, he was a joyful, exuberant, mischief-making, loving boy. On February 11, 2023, Justin's battle finally came to an end, and he left this world. Justin is now at peace and no longer tied to his suffering body. He has touched many lives in his short time here on Earth, and he will be greatly missed by all his family, friends, and teachers. Please be seated. Thank you. All right, we'll take roll. Michelle Renler? Present. Jim O'Neill?

SPEAKER_15 0:02:22

Present.

Melissa Ayala-Quintero? 0:02:22

Patty Hollihan? Present. And Melissa present. Alex Vara is absent today. Next is the approval of the minutes. Can I get a motion to approve the minutes of the February 7th, 2023 Board of Education Special Board Meeting Workshop, February 14th, 2023 Board of Education Regular Meeting, and February 23rd and March 7th, 2023 Board of Education Special Board Meeting Workshops.

SPEAKER_06 0:02:49

So moved.

Melissa Ayala-Quintero? 0:02:52

Any discussion? All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Chair votes aye and so ordered. Moving on to public participation, this section of the agenda is meant for any member of the public to address the board on any agenda item listed tonight. Okay, Mario Salcido.

SPEAKER_09 0:03:29

Good evening, Board President, Madam President, Trustees, Cabinet, and the general public. Thank you for this opportunity to come and speak to you regarding The departure of our esteemed superintendent, Mauricio Arellano, with me today is Maria Roediger Salcido. And on behalf of the Common Vision Coalition, we want to just acknowledge the accomplishments and the sincere gratitude that we feel. We have a small token of our appreciation, and hopefully we'll get a chance to present that and do a photo op. But with the time remaining, we just want to acknowledge, you know, how much, uh the superintendent has meant to this community when he first came he really endeared himself to our community organization and the other familias de la comunidad he really came out and did a lot of uh outward and community um relations and for that we appreciate that uh there's been so many accomplishments that you've done here in your short time here and i think uh i think it can be said that you have been one of the best superintendents of this school with your time here, with the thought exchange, with the nutrition program, with the mural program, with the Esri speaking program, with the equity part, I think that was one of the biggest accomplishments that you were able to do in providing more equity to some of our lower performing schools and give them the resources They needed implementing the technology into the classrooms. There are just so many things. Having a new stadium at Rev that it was so hard for other, you know, in the past. It's a major accomplishment that you have been able to do. And for that, the community is very thankful and grateful that you have set this bar as a superintendent. And all through this, with the pandemic as well, and having our children and the teachers and all the staff be able to adjust their... teaching things that they had to do to reach our children in the community and we are so thankful to you Mauricio, Superintendent Arellano for the accomplishments and again for also representing the community that is seen that 50% of the district's population is Hispanic and to see somebody in the position that you have seen and so I think it's also that we see somebody that was represented here on the school board. And so we just have so many things to thank you. We're so sorry we're going to lose you, but we know that you have inspired on everything. I know you're a very humble man. You don't take a lot of credit. You give the credit to your staff. And that's another sign of your great leadership is that you've been able to create this community environment where teachers administrators are be able to create all these great programs within our community the Garner Holt program the same steam program there are just so many things that you have done in your short time here that I can safely say that you have been one of the greatest superintendents of this of this district and for that we are so dearly grateful for your leadership and and your compassion. I know my wife said, I wanted her to speak, but she said, Mara, you talk a lot, so why don't you go ahead and say all the things.

SPEAKER_08 0:06:57

Actually, only one of us can speak.

SPEAKER_09 0:07:00

But we do, there is a sincere... appreciation for your leadership and I know that you have left this district in a better position that you inherited the challenges that you saw you created opportunity and for that we are very grateful that you have distinguished yourself and distinguished this school district and has kind of made it what it is and has always been is a great performing school district and we sure hate to see you go but we know and we want to wish you the greatest success in your future endeavors and if there's anything else that we can do to help do this region I guess it's all about the kids no matter what district they live in and so we appreciate everything you do and I know you'll be sorely missed and again we have a small token of our appreciation for you. Let's get a picture.

Melissa Ayala-Quintero? 0:08:46

Thank you. All right, our first presentation of the evening will be to honor the Citrus Valley Competitive Cheer Team. Mr. Martinez is here from Citrus Valley to help introduce the team, Mr. Martinez. Maybe not. Sorry, Mrs. McHugh. Welcome.

SPEAKER_05 0:09:18

Good evening. I am very excited and honored to introduce you to our varsity cheer competition team. About five years ago, cheerleading was officially recognized as a sport with the CIF, and we've participated one other time. This year was Coach Sidney Shreve's first time bringing the team to CIF, and we were able to come home CIF champions. So... these ladies practice harder than any one i know the athleticism that they show and the teamwork and camaraderie that they show is incredible and we are very proud of you so i'd like to call each lady or each cheerleader up by name coach sid will give you your certificate and then come around up to here all right you'll make your way up the stairs there okay aliya anaya Jayden Baker. Demi Bennington. Haley Collinsworth. Yesenia Corral. Annabel Crummy. Olivia Elgin. Jane Fish. Ashley Galindo. Sydney Hegeli. Scarlett Herrera. Riley Herndon. Emma Hinkelman. Kayla Klesovich. Paige Lawrence. Aubrey Loera. Jordan McGee. Jaslyn Pangalinen. Ashley Pham. Mia Casada. Riley Ramirez. Alana Rojas. Milani Tali. Chelsea Vargas Delfin. Katelyn Yee. And of course, our coach, Miss Sydney Shreve. I've known Sydney since she was a cheerleader at Rev, so full circle here. Congratulations, ladies.

UNKNOWN 0:12:04

Thank you. And one, two, three.

Melissa Ayala-Quintero? 0:13:38

Thank you, Mrs. McHugh, and thank you, ladies. Congratulations again. So we're going to stay in the sports state of mind, and we have Mr. McCasey, our coordinator of district athletics, coming up to recognize our winner athletics, Mr. McCasey.

SPEAKER_03 0:14:13

All right, good evening. Board members and Superintendent Arellano, I'm here to present the Winter Sports Outstanding Athletes, which is a major accomplishment. It's a tradition we've had in this district for quite a while. Each high school has roughly 300 to 400 student athletes that compete every season. And the athletic department of each school chooses one outstanding star athlete to represent their school. We do look for someone who's well-rounded and who's had amazing athletic accomplishments. It's quite a talented group tonight. Okay, and when you hear your name called, if you could just come up and you'll receive your plaque, and then we'll do a group photo afterwards. Okay, from Orangewood High School, Jonathan Reynoso has been selected as their outstanding student athlete. Jonathan is a three-sport athlete so far at Orangewood. They've had two seasons of sport, volleyball and basketball, and he's excelled in both. He also did very well recently at a flag football tournament at OHS. In volleyball, he really stood out in terms of blocking and hitting for the Dragons, and He also played center in basketball. He led the team in most statistical areas, was a real asset on the defensive side, did great rebounding. And he was praised by Coach Perkins for his outstanding athletic ability, his humility, kindness, and positive attitude. And as a well-rounded student, he has a 3.11 GPA. So congratulations, Jonathan. Okay, Citrus Valley High School has selected Marika Lee as their outstanding student athlete for winner. I believe Marika could not be here tonight. She had a scheduling conflict as they have the soccer banquet tonight at Citrus Valley, so I know Ms. McHugh will be accepting this on her behalf. Marika was the team captain, and she earned four varsity letters in soccer. This has been one of our most successful athletic teams in the district. They've... They've won four straight CBL championships. They went 10-0 in league. Outstanding overall record as well. And she was second team all CBL. Coach Mendez talked extensively about Marika's hard work, her integrity, leadership, and commitment all four years in that program. And again, she's really been a well-rounded student in mostly AP classes, ASB, and has earned a 4.12 GPA. So outstanding job, Marika. Okay, Redlands East Valley High School has selected Myla Gibson as their outstanding student athlete. Myla. Myla was captain of the basketball team this past year. She earned three varsity letters in basketball. And her most amazing accomplishment was setting a record for 30 rebounds in a game against Citrus Valley. She also had 32 points in that game. She averaged a double-double, 12 points, 11 rebounds, earned first-team All-CBL. She was praised by Coach Tompkins for her hard work and impressive accomplishments, and a 3.43 GPA. So outstanding job, Myra. Redlands High School has selected Julia Cuevas as their outstanding star athlete. Julia has been committed to the program all four years. She was voted team captain this season. She led RHS with 40 goals. She also had 13 assists, 21 steals, helped lead the Terriers to Division IV southern section playoffs, and earned first team, all CBL. Coach Ashley Brown talked at length about her hard work perseverance knowledge and love of the sport and again a very well-rounded student With a very high GPA three point nine three so amazing job Julia And now we'll take a brief photo

UNKNOWN 0:19:31

Those are nice shoes.

SPEAKER_03 0:20:09

I just had a few other brief announcements here. I wanted to announce that so far we've had a very successful start to the Redland Student Connections League. Volleyball was our first quarter sport, and the Clement Vikings took first place, both Boys and Girls Championships, and Beatty was runner-up. In softball, uh... more one for the boys and climate one of the girls championship the exciting thing about the softball finals were all four schools were represented so i just want to give a brief update on that and this thursday night at redlands high school dot stadium we'll have the soccer championships uh... first time that are just to be hosting that event and we did have soccer kind of pilot this uh... sixth-grade sports program which has been very exciting, and we have Clement going against Cope in the first championship for that league. Moore will play Beatty in a rematch of last year's championship for the girls, and the boys' championship will be Clement versus Moore at 6 p.m. So hopefully everyone can make it out for that event. That's it. Thank you.

Melissa Ayala-Quintero? 0:21:27

Thank you, Mr. McKaycee. Okay, up next we have Assistant Superintendent of Business Services, Jason Hill, to present the second interim financial report. Mr. Hill.

Jason Hill? 0:21:54

It's always fun to follow that excitement. All righties, distinguished board, President Ayala-Quintero. I'm here to present the second interim financial report, which basically covers from October 31st to January 31st and where our budget sits in between there. This is kind of small up there, so I'm going to kind of read along down here. The governor proposed a COLA of 8.13 to be applied to our LCFF in 23-24. So as we move into next year, we have a projected COLA of about 8.13%, which will be applied to the district as well as for special education. I want to take note that in the next slide, you will see declining enrollment and declining ADA, which has an effect on that COLA. Our LCFF calculator that we use, we'll use a three-year average option moving forward. So we're going to average three years of attendance together. The report that you're going to see reflects a 10% reserve cap required by law. And there's a proposed reduction in the arts music block grant. So in the first interim report, we did include the arts music block grant and the half of that funding in this year's budget. There's already a proposal to reduce that funding from the governor. We'll be receiving non-Prop 98 arts money. Collectively about $3.25 million will come directly to our schools out of Proposition 28 for the arts and arts enrichment. That money will come directly to the schools so they can choose to use it how they wish. There are no changes into ELOB funding. We're also going to be receiving about $2 million through the home transportation money that's coming in. You'll be asked to look at our home to school transportation plan tonight, which is required by law in order to receive this funding. And this is kind of the beginning of the budget process. So after tonight's meeting, our next presentation will be our budget in June. This slide represents, you can kind of see on your printouts, it kind of represents our ADA and enrollment. You'll notice that our enrollment is in blue. It's gradually declining. Our ADA, which is in green, is the students who actually show up to school. So blue is the students enrolled in school. The green is the students actually attending school on a day to day basis. All our money received in our district is based on that enrollment. So you can see with the declining enrollment, it does have an impact in our future revenue. I kind of feel like I have the sword of Damocles hanging over me when it comes to the budget. All right, second interim report. Our beginning balance was $81 million. That is the balance that we start the year with. That was our actuals in 2021. You'll notice we move along to our revised budget and then our second term. We still project the same remaining balance we were starting with. Revenues, I want you to notice that we are increasing revenues, so we are receiving additional monies that are coming in. We're also shifting money from... restricted to unrestricted and moving money around. The additional in revenues paying for the staff, some of our most recent negotiated settlements kind of reflected there in the revenue. Expenditures, we do have a reduction in expenditures. We have started to tighten a little bit down on our expenditures to anticipate some of our ongoing staffing concerns that we have. You'll see those reduction in expenditures of about 8 million. In our revised budget of 22-23, I'm now looking at the surplus and deficit. We were anticipating a $12.5 million deficit to this fiscal year. With that savings and expenditures of about $8 million, we've brought our projected deficit down to about $3.7 million. which is going to, you'll notice the impact below under the 22-23 revised is about $68 million. As an ending fund balance, you'll notice that it does grow in our second interim to 76. That's the realization of that $8 million in savings that we have saved thus far. As always, we talk about the components of our ending fund balance. These don't change a lot. We do maintain a revolving cash to pay our bills. We have non-spendables, which is the amount that we have saved in multi-year contracts. We have a committed amount, which I'll go over in a different slide. We always have to have 3% reserve for economic uncertainty. That is our rainy day fund. We have assigned items, which I'll go over in a different slide, and then our unappropriated amount, which is the amount that we haven't designated for anything. So our total amount of our ending fund balance at 76 million does include those items as well as the restricted amount. Restricted, we don't have choices over how we spend it in terms of what we spend it on. It's usually staffing and Title I and some of our restricted dollars that come Our components of our assigned items, school site SSP, that's funds available to school sites to spend. We're wrapping up on our spending year, so requisitions have to be in within the month, so sites are hurrying along and trying to spend their money. E-tech is a pot that we set aside for our tech department to maintain some of our contracts and the technology that you see running around you. The 750,000 is smaller at this point furniture equipment. We do set aside a section every year to kind of refund, spend money on furniture and equipment for school sites. Fundraisers that come in vary. As fundraisers come in, they sit until we spend it on the intent of the fundraiser. Our AQMD bus grant, which is the remaining amount on our air quality management district, is what funds some of our buses. And you'll see some of that electric buses coming along down the road, which will also be AQMD money. Lottery funds comes from the California Lottery. It's a portion we set aside for instructional materials and books. And then we do set aside an amount for security to refurbish our cameras, pay for security staff overtime, things like that. So total assigned items are a little over $3 million. The committed items are the items that you've set aside as a board. In prior board meetings, you have set aside $3 million for an upcoming math adoption, $5 million for an upcoming English adoption. You set aside a few months ago the $6 million for Rev Stadium Phase 2. We've started that process. Innovation and technology is money we have continually set aside from prior LCAP plans. And then we have an amount remaining in social studies and rural language. That amount slowly dwindles over time as we renew electronic commitments and contracts for keeping some of our electronic things running along. So $16 million for total committed items. Multi-year assumptions. As we kind of look across multi-years, you'll notice that we have an 8.13% projected COLA for next year. The year after, it's 3.54. 0% benefit increase coming to us. PERS is set to increase every year, our contribution to the PERS retirement system. STRS contribution is remaining flat for the next two years. As always, we have step and column increases. 5% to 8% utilities is the amount we always set aside. I'm sure all of you have realized some of our utilities, especially gas, has gone up lately. So those might have some ending effect on some of this 5% to 8%. But we always set 5% to 8% aside for utilities. We generally have a 30 to 40% increase for property liability insurance, usually 30. Lately, it's been 40 as cost of insurance has gone up across the United States, any programatical changes that we have. So these are the assumptions we set across the multi-year vision. We lost connection. I'll go off my slide. So if you look at the multi-year projection slides, let me go to that page. It's back right there. Beginning fund balance is the amount we start the year with. We have revenues, that's money that comes in. We have expenditures, that's money that goes out. And that leaves us with an ending fund balance that we carry on to the next year. I think what I'll draw your attention to here is your notice that our revenues continue to fall. That is because a lot of our COVID relief funds that we've received over the last couple years are slowing down. We're not receiving those monies in our outgoing years, so it's natural that our revenues will fall. You'll notice that our expenditures do continue to they drop from 22 to 23 that drop is due to the expenditures of those coveted money so as we spend it there isn't any left over so you'll notice from 22 23 a big drop in revenue that's because we're not receiving it and thus we're not spending it you'll notice that as we project in the out years we do increase and that's because staffing changes as we continue to hire staff and continue to offer raises that cost of staffing goes up And then our ending fund balance, you'll notice at the beginning of last year, we started with about 80 million. As we push out to 24, 25, we're projected at about 59 million. So we are dropping in our overall ending fund balance year to year. But that is also as a result of dropped revenue and dropped enrollment, dropped ADA, and a lot of these one-time COVID relief funds just not coming any longer. At this point, we have three possible certifications, positive, qualified, and negative. I'm going to recommend that we have a positive certification, which means the district can meet its financial obligations this fiscal year and the next two, which is required by the state. And so we can meet that, and that's what I'm recommending to the board. Any questions?

SPEAKER_07 0:32:48

Mr. Hill, does anybody have anything?

SPEAKER_10 0:32:53

Patty?

SPEAKER_07 0:32:54

Jim?

Jim O'Neill? 0:32:58

well done great thorough report thanks for the information you've been sending out to us and really appreciate you the you and your staff working so hard to make make it understandable and clear for us thank you

Jason Hill? 0:33:16

All right, well, as always, I don't prepare these reports. So I always appreciate the thank yous, but it's my staff, Brian and Sherry and Fernanda that do most of the work in this. So thank you goes to them.

Melissa Ayala-Quintero? 0:33:30

Okay, everybody. Thank you very much, Mr. Hill. Okay, last but certainly not least, we have Sonya Billingit, our Director II of Multilingual Education and Family Engagement here to provide an update on the District English Learner Advisory Committee. This is Billingit.

SPEAKER_13 0:34:53

Yes. Good evening, President Ayala-Quintero, Board, Cabinet, and community. I'm here this evening for our annual District English Learner Advisory Committee update. I have a quick presentation for you. And since we are doing this presentation this evening via Zoom, we might not have time for questions at the end as easily as if I was there in person, but please know you can always email me or reach out to any of my colleagues there in the audience. So before we begin, I would like to just share some basic English learner data with you regarding students within the Redlands Unified School District. So 50 is the number of beautiful languages that are spoken by our families and by our students in the classrooms across Redlands Unified School District. This number didn't change from last year, so that was great. When we're looking at data for our English learner student population, we're usually looking at data from the previous year. So if we're looking at DataQuest or any of our county office data, it's usually from the prior year. So the top three languages in our district from 2021 to 2022 were Spanish, Arabic and Vietnamese. These two languages usually toggle back and forth, Arabic and Vietnamese, but Spanish seems to remain the top language in our district. So here's some English learner data at a glance. This comes from DataQuest. This is data that's available to anyone in the public. And if you look at the center column, you'll see our English Learner data numbers there. this report is the district data the county data and as well as the state of california so as reported we had 1690 english learner students in our district and this year our english nerd population as reported on the california dashboard is 8.4 percent um and you can see how that 8.4 percent relates to the county as well as the state. So just over 1,600 English learner students. so uh next is our reclassified um data and reclassifying our english learner students is our goal this graph combines all all of the students who have met the district criteria that are that are listed there there are four criteria um and this graph represents over the last several years so if you look at the 21 22 school year you'll see 1408 students who were reclassified as early as one year being monitored or four years being monitored. So once they are reclassified, it is our obligation to monitor our students and their progress for up to four years. So the 1,408 combines all of the students together, whether they are in their first year of reclassification or their fourth year. So the California Department of Education does define that school districts must form a DLAC committee as long as they have 51 or more English learner students. So with that over 1600 English learner students within our district, we are well above that. And we have had a DLAC committee for many, many years. Our DLAC meets at least five to seven meetings per year. We started our school year this year in person in September. So we had two meetings in person and then we moved to virtual during the winter months where we had an ELAC training and a DLAC training. And we are looking forward to coming back in April in person. But this year we've had a hybrid meeting schedule. Here is a picture. of our hybrid meeting in February. So I asked everybody to please breathe and smile for the camera because they knew that March was going to be our DLAC board presentation. These are amazing DLAC officers for this school year. So our president, Ellen Alcibella, she is also an employee in our district, but is our president as a parent of students at Smiley and Cope. Our vice president, Maria Presa from Franklin and CV. Our secretary, Rocio Valdez from Franklin and Rev. And our spokesperson is Laura Garcia from Kingsbury and Citrus Valley High School. And it was crazy sock day that day. So I was duly tasking there. And that's why you see those cute dogs. So the purpose and goals of DLAC, we have a lot of work that our committee does. We're currently working on the district English learner master plan. This year we have a committee together because we are doing a complete rewrite and not just an update. Our DLAC also does a needs assessment early in the fall, so I'll be sharing some of that information with you. We look at the goals and objectives of our English Learner Educational Program. We provide training for our DLAC and ELAC officers and any members that wish to receive the training. And then any parent and training opportunities that might be within our community or within our district, we make sure that our DLAC members know about them. In addition, our DLAC is responsible to review and comment on the following. So every year we talk about written notifications to parents and make sure that our written notifications are going home in a language that our parents can understand. We review the reclassification criteria and the procedure. We discuss ELPAC. We're currently in our state assessment ELPAC. And so our DLAC members know all about that and then help us to spread the news to parents and our parent community at all the sites. We have English Learner site representatives that share school reports, and we look at the dashboard data every year, and we're currently working on recommendations for the LCAP. Christy Hubbard will be at our meeting in April to discuss LCAP updates with our DLAC members. And then there's compliance, compliance, compliance. That's really what I do. with the DLAC committee, making sure that we are following all laws, federal and state laws with teacher and instructional aid requirements. We also follow bylaws, which is really one of the funnest aspects about having DLAC is having new officers every year. And then I'm able to coach the officers on Robert's Rules of Order, and we have a good time giggling and laughing as we're trying to follow policy and protocol and procedures. That's always fun to do. And then at the end of every DLAC season, we ask our DLAC membership to apply for our Title III federal funding. So our needs assessment that we looked at this year, this is important for me to share with our school board. We have a needs assessment survey. We do it early in the school year, and then we address these needs as each month passes within the school year. So this year we were looking at academics, attendance and behavior, social emotional learning and EL programs. And so what I do is I take the information from the needs assessment and then either I work on it within my department on whatever the need might be. I also might work with a department like transportation, just based on whatever the particular need is. For example, the parent workshops, we were able to incorporate a lot of the topics that are DLAC expressed as a need into our PTA school smarts program. And if you look at the EL programs down on the third one, Lexia English for parents was the need. So at our last DLAC, we had a training for our DLAC members on what is Lexia English and how they can help with their children at home. So we take all of these needs very seriously and then we work on them throughout the course of the school year. So in closing, we are continuing the work. We have a couple more meetings for this school year and we will be working on recommendations for the district master plan. We'll continue to provide professional development, and we really want to make sure that our classified and certificated staff feels comfortable working with our English learner students. We'll also continue the parent education opportunities. We actually have parents who will be attending the CABE conference week in long beach um so we're excited to have them attend that conference for the first time in a while and like i said we just do everything we can to remain in compliance with federal and state laws and if you were looking at the thoughts from our recent lcap thought exchange there were many thoughts on there actually about a dual immersion program which We had done some work in the previous year, so we want to re-explore that possibility to implement the dual immersion program. And then finally, we will continue to support our students through the reclassification process, as well as our 12th grade seniors who earn the state seal of biliteracy. And with that, that concludes my presentation. But I just wanted to conclude by stating on behalf of DLAC, we want to also thank our superintendent, Ariano, for his advocacy and his support with our English Learner families and students. We appreciate you. We will miss you, and we wish you continued success. Thank you.

Melissa Ayala-Quintero? 0:46:25

Thank you, Mrs. Belinggett. I don't know that any board members have any pressing questions. Michelle?

Michele Rendler? 0:46:31

I have a question and a couple comments. Sonia, can you hear me? Are you noticing more parents able to come to those DLAC meetings since you did them hybrid? Are more people showing up on Zoom and in person than in the past?

SPEAKER_13 0:46:54

I think the question that I could hear, sorry, it's kind of far, but I think the question was regarding, am I seeing more participation than the past? Yes.

SPEAKER_10 0:47:05

Yes.

SPEAKER_13 0:47:06

Yes. So actually, it has really stayed the same. We'll see what it looks like when we come back. In April in person, and I know board member render you wanted to attend that. So you're welcome to come in April, but it really has stayed the same. It hasn't decreased or increased. It's really just a very close group of. Continued families and parents that come and we always ask them to bring a friend to the next meeting.

Michele Rendler? 0:47:37

And then just the two comments I had. I just wanted to encourage all the DLAC officers to get involved in their local PTA and their school PTAs. They would be a great asset to their PTA. And also I'm really happy to see the dual immersion program being looked into again because I think that's really important. So thanks for your report.

Jim O'Neill? 0:48:04

I think she can if he speaks loud enough. I think I just want to commend you and your staff, Sonya, I did a quick math problem here. I hope it's right. But you had 1,400 kids meeting the district criteria. And that's 83% of the total number of kids. And I know you're working hard for that last 17%. But 83% sounds like a pretty high number. I'd be interested to know how that compares to other school districts. But well done on that. Congratulations.

Patty Holohan? 0:48:38

Sonia, congratulations. Thank you. Congratulations to you. And one of my highlights of the year is always earning the state syllabi literacy at our evening on programs on awards night. So it's always great to see all of them coming in. So thank you. Thank you for your hard work.

Melissa Ayala-Quintero? 0:48:54

Thank you, Sonia, for your presentation. And we appreciate you making the effort to present to us over Zoom. We know how difficult that can be, especially answering questions. But thank you. We appreciate all your hard work. All right, next up, we'll move on.

Jim O'Neill? 0:49:19

While she's just nodding like that, can you take this out to dinner?

Melissa Ayala-Quintero? 0:49:27

Okay, next up, we'll move on to our student trustee report. Welcome to our student trustee, Christian Roll from Orangewood, who is joining us for the first time this evening. We are so glad you could be here tonight, and we hope we aren't keeping you from any homework, although, I mean, you have a good excuse for why you didn't do it. This is your opportunity to give us a report on what is going on at Orangewood and any other schools you may have a report for.

SPEAKER_14 0:49:48

Awesome. Okay, so it's my first time here. I'm so excited. Orangewood has so much going on. I'm so excited. I mean, just starting off, BSU got to celebrate the end of Black History Month and the start of Read Across America by reading to Victoria Elementary. The kids were so sweet. And I mean, our basketball season went amazing. I was so proud. Like I said, I mean, I got to see Jonathan in action and his free throws were amazing. I was so proud. And now we're starting up soccer. So it's exciting. Scared a little bit, but exciting. The Rubathon. We recently started our regional Rubathon for the district, and we ended up getting second place. I'm so proud of our team. I was the project manager, so it was stressful, kind of organizing everyone, but yeah. And now that we got second place, we're going to nationals pretty soon, and we finally finished building it, so, you know, Friday.

SPEAKER_13 0:50:56

Mm-hmm, Friday.

SPEAKER_14 0:50:58

hoping to finally show it off. Oh, man. And then there's been so many field trips going on recently because, oh, well, I'll get to that when I get to that. But we've been going to AVID, and also some of the other students who elected to join, going to Crafton, Mount Sinusinta. We're going to La Sierra pretty soon for the criminal justice. Pretty interesting, pretty excited. But all this is possible because of the amazing news that so many people get to graduate now with the reduced credits. I'm so thankful for that. It's amazing. You wouldn't believe how many students that day showed up and then we all got called into the NPR. The look on their faces when they knew they were graduating right then and there. Oh, my gosh. It was amazing. It was truly. Thank you so much. Yeah, but that's kind of what's been going on in Orangewood. We have fire, not fire fair. We have the end of the semester kind of spring break, sorry, spring rally, which is going on soon. I can't wait for that. It's been hosted by leadership, which is like our school's ASB. But yeah, pretty much. Okay, but I also had Rev. They messaged me. On Tuesday, SCSBOA Band Festival was being hosted at RHS. The Batman game against LLA and Boys Basketball Varsity was held at Bemis? And Junior Varsity was held at home for Wednesday. They're having a fundraiser right now at Chipotle and Shira Tea. And then SCSBOA Orchestra is having a festival at RHS. The Girls Softball is happening at La Quinta.

SPEAKER_07 0:53:00

I hope I said that right.

SPEAKER_14 0:53:01

La Quinta. Boys Tennis happened at Iguanda. I don't want to thank you. And Batman's happening at home. Yeah. So pretty much boys tennis is happening at home, boys baseball varsity is happening at home, and then junior's happening at CVS. And they're getting all the prom paperwork filled out. Oh, I'm so excited. I don't know. Orangewood doesn't have their own prom, but I'm hoping to join one of the others. And then band leaves. for their competition pretty soon, March 21st, and swimming for the boys' varsity is going to happen at Yucaipa, well, against Yucaipa, and swimming for the girls will also happen against Yucaipa pretty soon. So, yeah, that's what I have so far.

Melissa Ayala-Quintero? 0:53:50

Thank you very much. That was a very, that was a wonderful report. And I greatly appreciate you going ahead and letting us know how the reduced credits are affecting everybody. I think that's something we need to hear. So I truly appreciate you letting us know that it was well received. Anybody else have any? All right, so you are free to stay. You are free to go. We won't keep you. But if you'd like to hang out, you're more than welcome.

SPEAKER_12 0:54:26

Okay.

Melissa Ayala-Quintero? 0:54:28

Up next is our board committee report. Excuse me, I'm getting over a cold and it's been lingering for three weeks, so I apologize for my voice. I forgot my cry rock report, but I will email that to you tonight to let you all know. The only thing I am going to let you know is if you can mark your calendars for May 10th is the evening of excellence. But I'll send you all the details on that later on tonight. Up next we have Mrs. Rendler with Compact.

Michele Rendler? 0:54:58

Officer's meeting was last week, and RHS's Multiply Your Generosity project is a really neat one this year. They're going to be putting on a job fair for the unhoused outside the old Goodnight Inn, where some of our homeless are housed right now. Students will be partnering with Redlands Youth Council, Homekey, and Dave and Robin Durant. uh from the city he's the homeless solutions coordinator for city of redlands students and adults gave positive feedback on the dinner mixer that was last month and the students at the rochford foundation program enjoyed it and they used their newly acquired networking skills that night RHS SRO, Ricky McLaughlin, will be the next career speaker at RHS. So if you are interested at lunchtime, go listen to him speak. And compact volunteers are needed to help with Light and Power's prom on April 14th. It's at Trinity Church from 6.30 to 9.30. So if any of you out there have a compact club member, let them know about that. And the next meeting will be on April 4th.

SPEAKER_07 0:56:03

Do you want to go ahead and go into rep?

Michele Rendler? 0:56:05

I will. There was no meeting in March, but I wanted to remind everyone of two dates, the Harlem Wizards basketball game on April 21st at REV, and then Evening of Appreciation is May 10th, and they'll have a meeting April 12th.

SPEAKER_07 0:56:19

I'm sorry, what was the date for the Wizards?

SPEAKER_10 0:56:21

21st of April.

Melissa Ayala-Quintero? 0:56:26

And if, I mean, since you're on a roll, you want to go ahead and do Parks and Rec?

Michele Rendler? 0:56:31

sure commissioners reported on their respective parks each commissioner has like four different parks in the city that they look after and lighting is always an issue as well as the update updating to seating and walkways at all our parks there was discussion and an approved motion to pay for a design for the new bmx pump track which is going to be installed hopefully soon How vendors are approved for the downtown Saturday morning market was discussed in length. Some businesses weren't happy. Some people that didn't get into this group of vendors for this season were not happy, but that's going to be looked at, and they'll be meeting again April 13th.

Melissa Ayala-Quintero? 0:57:19

Thank you. Mr. O'Neill, would you want to start your roll?

Jim O'Neill? 0:57:22

Going to be short, Redlands Cultural Arts Commission meets next Monday. Got postponed this week. And that's a CSBA. They meet next Monday. So things will be coming up. And there was no meeting of the Coalition to Support RUSD. Mr. Hill, nothing to report on that, right, for the coalition? Other than they're still having a fundraiser on the Redlands Community Foundation website. And they also are posting their information on Facebook. So they have a Facebook page as well.

Melissa Ayala-Quintero? 0:58:06

Okay, thank you. Up next will be our superintendent, Mr. Arellano.

SPEAKER_04 0:58:33

I get more than three minutes, right? Executive privilege. Anyway, the clock is ticking. Now I know how it feels, right? Well, good evening, Board President Ariel Quintero, Vice President Varo, who I know will be watching the video after the meeting today, members of the Board of Education, Cabinet, RUS team, and community. Tonight is my final RUSD board meeting, and my final day as superintendent of Redlands Unified School District is quickly approaching in early April. I want to first just thank you for allowing me the time to properly address the board. And to thank everyone who have been so helpful during my tenure as the Redlands Unified School District Superintendent. And just know that this has truly been the highlight of my 33 year career in public education. So let me begin with the Board of Education. I want to thank you for selecting me as your superintendent in September of 2017. You took a risk. You trusted me to take over a school district that had so much tradition, so many examples of excellence, and you allowed me to build on it. I very much appreciated how you have challenged me to grow as a superintendent these past five and a half years, and how much you've supported me in allowing me to think big and to think outside the box, and to be part of the most decorated eras in RUSD history. So let me just kind of point every single one of you out for a minute. Jim, I want to thank you for your guidance, your calm leadership during some of the toughest times in public education. Your perfectly timed jokes, your perfectly timed check-in calls on the phone or text messages when the world got a little heavy meant a lot to me. Your constant attention and checking up on me during those tough times really helped me to keep my focus and to keep my drive. We've known each other since 1994 when I served as your assistant principal back in the day when I had black hair and bangs, right? But I want you to know that your membership – yeah, we both had that black hair and bangs. Yeah, good point. Yeah. Your mentorship to me over all these years, Jim, has been greatly appreciated and very impactful. So thank you so much for your mentorship. Patty, thank you for your many years of service to the Board of Education and for your strong leadership during the pandemic. You provided me and cabinet remarkable support during those COVID planning months. And you encouraged us and allowed us to be creative, aggressive, and unique with our ESSER funds to create a safe environment. During that time, you absorbed a lot of hits that were not fair. but you always handled yourself with great grace. Your strength was a major force in allowing RUSD to be one of the very first school districts in Samuel County to bring our staff and students back to school and to work in a safe manner. And I've appreciated our celebrations and our heartbreakness with the Rams. And we will continue to text each other during Ram games. But Patty, thank you so much for your leadership, your strength, and your support of me. I really appreciate you very much. And I know Alex is watching in or will see this. I want to thank Alex for always pushing me and Cabinet to attain what most people in the moment would say is impossible. His resilience in constantly challenging me and us, and I mean constantly, right guys? Constantly challenging us to be better when it was easier for us to just say no. That constant push led us to outstanding academic and program outcomes. it led us to be the leading public education institution in several areas over the last few years and of course the building of the rev stadium twenty plus years in the waiting i know he's very proud of that and uh... i will pledge to continue to uh... Cheer on the Cowboys only if he cheers on the Rams. So that's our little football. But I want to thank Alex for constantly pushing us to be better. So, Alex, muchas gracias por tu apoyo. Thank you for your support over the years. Michelle, thank you for your kindness and your positive spirit. Whenever you saw me or cabinet having a tough day or struggling with an important issue, you would send a positive text or a positive email that would make us smile. You're always at school site and school events each week representing the members of the Board of Education, truly seeing, learning, and appreciating the hard work of our staff and the great achievements of our students happening on the campus. Your presence, your positivity, your kindness has been greatly appreciated by all in this district. Not as much as your warm chocolate chip cookies, by the way, Michelle. Those are a favorite. But thank you so much just for your kind heart and for being so supportive. I appreciate you as well. Thank you. Melissa, thank you for stepping up to serve as a member of the Board of Education coming from the ranks of PTA President Smiley. That was big, took a lot of guts, took a lot of courage. You've done a great job generating honest and vulnerable conversations amongst the board and amongst cabinet. And helping the team get to decisions that have been discussed, debated, and vetted over and over again. You have made us better. In just a short time, your leadership skills have truly grown. And I've said this to you many times. You have a very bright future ahead of you, not only as a member of the Board of Education, but as well within CSBA. And I hope that you continue to challenge yourself and be the leader that I know you can be, and I know you can be too. And I want to say that I've always admired your dedication to your family. And I appreciate that. So thank you for your courage, thank you for your leadership, and thank you for keeping it real. Appreciate that. Melissa, thank you so much. I also want to thank Christina Peracci, Ricardo Ruiz, and Donna West. for all of their support of me and my leadership during their tenure on the Board of Education. I feel truly blessed, and I mean that. I feel truly blessed to have worked alongside eight school board members who were so positive, so student-centered, and extremely supportive of me, and so committed to the success of the students in RUSD. And the community sees it and they feel it. So thank you to all eight of you for being outstanding community leaders. I'm sure it's very well appreciated by everyone in this room as well. During my tenure in RUSD, it has also been a sincere honor to work collaboratively with our union leader partners. I want to thank RTA and President Sue Act, who's here tonight as well, and RESPA and their president, Gladys Kershaw, who's here tonight, for all of the professional and good-hearted dialogue, debate, collaboration, and decision-making that was achieved in the best interest of students and the best interest of our remarkable team of teachers and support personnel. This professional and team-oriented approach has led us to compensation agreements that are responsible and have kept RUSD competitive and kept it as a desired employment destination for educators and support personnel throughout the state. And together, we navigated through the pandemic better than most districts in the state of California, coming to agreements where everyone felt safe and protected, and at the same time brought staff back to work and students back to school before most public schools did across the state. So a sincere heartfelt thank you to RTA and to RESPA and all of your team members for all of your support of the Board of Education, your support of my leadership, and for your willingness to work as a team. I've been blessed to work with all of you. One of the first objectives presented to me by the Board of Education was to establish positive relationships with the community. And there are so many members of the community I want to thank for their friendship, their support, and support of the district and their guidance in helping me lead this district. And it'd be impossible to name everyone, but I'd like to name a few of those people here tonight, if I may. I want to start by thanking Redlands Police Chief Chris Catron, Assistant Police Chief Travis Martinez for their support in helping me, helping us to implement all of the necessary safety protocols and policies and for their immediate responses when we needed help here in the district. They truly have been a great support to the district and I thank them. To former Redlands Mayor Paul Foster, Paul Barich, and current Redlands Mayor Eddie Tejeda, and Public Information Officer Carl Baker, for always including RUSD in relevant conversations related to the city, and for consistently asking us, how can we help RUSD? Those relationships have been powerful. To the Highland Chamber of Commerce and the Redlands Chamber of Commerce, I thank them for creating a board director seat for RUSD and for allowing us the opportunity to have impact to their projects that help build the successes of their local businesses and finding ways for those businesses in turn to support RUSD. Those relationships are appreciated. To Char Burgess and Shelly Stockton for always including RUSD in community-oriented activities, such as the Community Speaker Series at ASRI or Charlotte Huck Reading Festival, to name a few. They've always been there to say, how can we get RUSD involved in the community? And I appreciate their friendship. And Shelly, I'll miss running into her at Miguel Jr.'s when we all go there for lunch, right? To my good friends, Mario and Maria Salcedo, who spoke so kindly today, and I'm so humbled by your words. Thank you for helping me understand the needs of the Northside Redlands, which, as Mr. Saucedo mentioned, led to our ESP focus, our equity focus on the schools that need the most, and we provided them the most resources. And it's been amazing to see the growth of those schools. So Mario and Maria, thank you so much for your support, your kind words, and I wish you continued support as not only as part of your coalition but as a city councilman you're going to make a positive impact sir so thank you very much for your kind words I also want to thank Gilberto Gil and Eddie Flores of Northside Impact who also had a voice in helping me understand Northside Redlands, so I want to give a shout out to them as well. To former U of R Dean of Education Andrew Wall, current Interim Dean of Education Nicole Howard, Professors Annie Knox-Blankenship and Paul Jessup, thank you for the collaboration we've established over the years related to equity, innovation and school site leadership their partnership has truly made a difference in rusd becoming a great district so thank you for that to crafton hills community college president kevin around for the effort and commitment he's put forth to work with the district to make sure that our students have an opportunity to have dual enrollment opportunities so kids can get advanced credit uh... when they go to college but also for his personal kindness that he showed me over the years when we had those tough times and he'd be the first one to text me to say keep your heads up so thank you uh... kevin i appreciate that To the Redlands Educational Partnership for their many years of volunteer time and efforts to raise funds and create enrichment programs for our students that enhance their educational experience, REP has truly been a solid partner of this district and a staple in this district for decades. And I want to thank them for all their help. And I will miss playing in that Harlem Wizard basketball game, but now I can actually come as a parent and sit in the stands. So I'm excited about that. And so is Dino, by the way. To the Redlands Council of PTAs, I've enjoyed attending those monthly meetings since my arrival. I want to thank them for always allowing me time to highlight all of the RUSD accomplishments that we could all be proud of together. To Chrissy, Fitch, Heather Florida, Ioana, who have been outstanding presidents. And each of the individual PTA presidents, thank you so much for your support of not only me, but more importantly, of our schools and our kids. Thank you to former superintendents Lori Rhodes and Bob Hodges for building a strong program in RUSD and creating the expectation for me to continue building on that excellence that the two of you established. And Bob, thank you for the kind text messages and the positive words the last five years when at times you knew the job was getting heavy because you've sat on it. And you sent those messages to keep my head up. So thank you, Bob, for those moments of joy. And to Lori, I want to thank her for the very kind note that she just sent me last week with some very humbling and very kind words about my time here in Redlands. Thank you to both of Bob and Lori. To our elected officials, Pete Aguilar, James Ramos, and Rosalicio Cho-Bogue, for making time over the years to speak to our students and to our staff or to lend an ear to me whenever we had conversations or questions about upcoming policy or policy needs. Your time, your kindness, your approachable ways were very much appreciated, and I thank you for that. In my opening paragraph, I mentioned how fortunate I felt to be a part of the most decorated time in RUSD history. It's not a secret that we have outstanding classroom teachers, outstanding support personnel, outstanding central office administrators, and outstanding school site administrators. It has been a sincere pleasure and a joy to visit schools and see the support and the academic excellence that our students are receiving each day. It is solely because of them Because of them and our resilient students and our hardworking students that we've been able to accomplish so much in five and a half years, including a worldwide pandemic, as Mr. Salcedo brought up. So allow me to brag one last time, if I may, about our incredible staff and our incredible students. Four CSBA Golden Bell Awards in a row for academic case carrier programs, e-academy, Garner Holt Innovation Lab, high school mock trial program. And we are expecting a fifth next year, either for C-STEM or digital storytelling. Is that correct, Dr. Wagner? We're going to go for five in a row. Multiple California distinguished school recognitions over the last five and a half years. Redlands High School twice, Mission Elementary, Cram Elementary, Bryn Mawr Elementary. Model Continuation School Program, Orangewood High School, three times in a row now. Good for them, they're awesome. Samuel County Teacher of the Year, we had Camille Denke. We had Samuel County Support Personnel Employee of the Year, Kimmy Moore. We've had invitations now to present at very prestigious national and state conferences, ISTE, SISC Symposium, AXA Annual Conference, just to name a few. We've had numerous UC Davis CSTEM awards, Superintendent of the Year, several Administrators of the Year, several Teachers of the Year. We are now a LEGO demonstration district with four of the LEGO Ambassador, meaning trainers, four of 80 nationwide are here in Redlands. We've won several California School Public Relations Association Awards, one for our RUSD 2025 Excellence for All Students pamphlet, and recently, to name a couple, the Day in the Life employee videos in our online monthly newsletter. We've won several Association of California School Administrator. We've had state winners. We had Sabine. We've had several county winners. Every one of our high schools has had a mock trial county championship or a runner-up or a state mock trial championship. You mentioned Rube Goldberg. We've had Rube Goldberg machine contest winners at Orangewood High School, Kingsbury Elementary, Smiley Elementary. We have this year three National Merit Scholar finalists, three alone in this district. And in previous years, we've had multiple finalists and seven finalists the last four years. Some districts never have any. So to have some every year, outstanding kids. These are just... Oh, one last one. The City of Redlands Beautification Award. for all of our beautification projects of the district office and all of our school sites. These are just a few of the awards and recognitions that these amazing staff and these amazing students have earned over the last five and a half years. And I can tell you, nothing brings more joy to an organizational leader than to see your colleagues and your students recognized for their achievement. And this is why I say this has been the highlight of my career. The last people I want to recognize are the folks that I worked literally side by side for the past five and a half years. My amazing office staff and my amazing cabinet. The folks that I've had the pleasure of working are seriously, these are some of the smartest and most talented people I've ever worked with in 33 years. I want to thank Heidi Mackimow, Gretchen Ramos, Rose Romino, Carrie Ann Mackimow-Covey for always keeping me organized, making sure I didn't miss any meetings or events, and making sure, more importantly, that there was always Kona Coffee and Fat Feet Creamer in the lounge. But also, just for serving as my personal counselor so many times when I just needed support, help, and someone to listen. So I'm very grateful that I was allowed to stand on all of your shoulders. So thank you very much. It's been my honor. I want to thank the retired cabinet team members, Bernie Kavanaugh and Paul Cullen, who helped my transition into Redlands be a very smooth one. And they continue to be there for me when I need support, guidance, or sometimes just a moment to laugh, to forget about the stress of the job. I am grateful for their wisdom, and I am grateful for their friendship. And I got to throw this in there. I miss watching Bernie's veins in his neck bulge whenever I spent money. I know he's laughing. He's watching. He's laughing now. And then Paul, he always spent the money before he asked for permission. So you've got to love Bernie and Paul. But thank you for all your support and guidance. I want to thank Mary Rhone. I had to say it one more time. Mary Rhone. Mary Rhone Schell, who was our public information officer when I arrived and was since promoted to a position at county schools. Thank her for her brilliance in designing the RUSD 2020 pamphlet, award-winning pamphlet. and the Act Now logo. And just for her infectious laugh, she just was a support to me, and her impact is still felt in Redlands. And Mary Rowland, thank you for being here tonight. It means a lot. It means a lot. And to my current cabinet... Wow. It's been a run. It's been a good run. It's been hard work. It's been rewarding work. And somehow, it was still fun. So Christina, I want to start with you. Thank you for what you've brought to RUSD as the new public information officer. Your video production projects, your social media presence, your gift of words have truly highlighted the district in a positive way and have served the district well. And your parent forums have just been outstanding. And your just competence, your calm demeanor is so much appreciated. And it's going to serve the district well into the future. Thank you so much for all of your support and your kindness. It's very much appreciated. To Jason, the amazing thinker, you have the gift of taking on something very complex and you address it with such simplicity and great efficiency. You stepped up two times to take on challenges outside of your wheelhouse, which is why we call you the great experiment. First as the director of special education and then as the assistant superintendent of business, and both times you exceeded all of our expectations. You've been brilliant with the handling of ESSER funds. You've been brilliant with the handling of developer fees to get our stadium to be a realization. You've bought new ACs, furniture, campus sanitizing, stadium, new line boards, remodeling. Your impact is just amazing, and you have a bright future ahead of you. So Jason, thank you for all of your support, and you're going to be a force to be reckoned with moving forward. To Sabine.

SPEAKER_12 1:20:34

Sorry.

SPEAKER_04 1:20:36

We go way back. I admire how you've handled so much unfair adversity with such grace and professionalism. You didn't deserve it, but you handled it. Your ability to handle difficult HR issues with confidence, with empathy, with deep knowledge, with precision is truly impressive, as is your ability to serve as the chief negotiator for the Redlands Unified School District. You've worked well with the unions. You've been the backbone of the collaborative climate in place between the district and the unions for so many years. And I want you to know that I appreciate the warm welcome that you provided me in September. And I want you to know that I have felt your support all along the way. And I have learned so much for you. I will officially and publicly say tonight, you're going to laugh at this one, right? You are the best HR assistant superintendent of HR in the state. As I often joke with her, she was always the second to some guy in Palm Springs, but you are truly the best, Sabine. Thank you for your hard work, your leadership, your long-term dedication to this district and to the community. And, of course, go Dolphins, right? Good girl. To Ken, go back even farther. I remember advocating for you to be hired as the principal at Rancho Mirage High School in Palm Springs and hearing, but he's never been a principal. And we hired you, and you left a lasting legacy there. I remember advocating for you here five years ago to be hired as assistant superintendent of ed services in Redlands. And rightfully so, questions were raised that you had only been a director, I'm going to say a half a year, but it was like probably half a day, right? Half a day. Yeah. But you were hired, and your impact to RUSD has been robust, and it continues. Your philosophy of finding the pockets of awesomeness, teachers who want to try new ways, new programs, or new technology, has served this district well. As exampled by our CSTEM program, our LEGO program, our Gardner-Holt Innovation Labs, ThoughtExchange, ELO programs, RapidMove, animatage boards, to name a few. students are receiving a 21st century educational experience thanks to your expertise in curriculum and instruction thank you for your dedication and your unwavering support of me over so many years and i want you to know because i feel like i've been a mentor to you i'm very proud of you young man very proud of you so in closing i want to say it's been a privilege and an honor to serve as your superintendent and to serve the wonderful students of RUSD. It has been very rewarding to work on our five pillar statements of our multi-year vision, enhanced learning through innovation, excellence in academics, collaborative community and parent partnerships, equality through equity, learning in safe and secure environments. It has been even more rewarding to meet so many of the embedded goals within each one of those pillar statements prior to June of 2025. I wish the district and everyone within the RUSD community continued success. I am grateful for all of your friendships that we've made, the support that you've given me, And all the nice emails and messages that I've received over the last couple of weeks. Please know that I will continue to cheer you on from afar. Thank you very much.

Melissa Ayala-Quintero? 1:24:30

I think we're going to go ahead and take a little five-minute recess, just so everybody can compose themselves after such a heartfelt speech. So we'll return at 8.31. We'll just take a little break. Okay. All right, we're going to start. Sorry, everyone. All right, we are back at 8.33, and we will now move on to the superintendent's recommendations. First up will be consent items under business services. Mr. Hill, do you have any changes or additions?

Jason Hill? 1:25:09

Yeah, President Ayala-Quintero, no changes or additions tonight.

Melissa Ayala-Quintero? 1:25:14

Okay, can I have a motion to approve item A, consent items B through AB?

SPEAKER_10 1:25:18

Moved.

SPEAKER_07 1:25:19

Second.

Michele Rendler? 1:25:24

Okay. I vote comment. I just have a comment. Wait, what did you just do, A and B? Oh, yeah. I just have a comment. Betty. So I'll be there in July because it announced there again. Okay?

UNKNOWN 1:25:41

Okay.

Melissa Ayala-Quintero? 1:25:49

All right, is there any discussion? Other than that, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Chair votes aye and so ordered. Up next we have business services action items. Approve and certify the second interim financial report per assembly bill. Nope, did I already read that?

SPEAKER_06 1:26:15

You're right.

Melissa Ayala-Quintero? 1:26:15

You're good. Okay. Second Interim Financial Report for Assembly Bill 1200, Education Code 35035G. Can I get a motion?

SPEAKER_15 1:26:25

Move to approve.

Melissa Ayala-Quintero? 1:26:26

Second. Thank you, Jim. Thank you, Patty. Any discussion? All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Chair votes aye and so ordered. Adopt resolution number 26, 2022-23, authorizing the use of California multiple award schedule CMAs for the playground equipment in accordance with California multiple award schedule contract number 420000092B to procure playground equipment from Game Time to be funded by maintenance and operation funds. Authorized Jason Hill, Assistant Superintendent, Business Services, and Amy Drummond, Purchasing Manager, to sign related documents on behalf of the board. Can I get a motion? Moved.

SPEAKER_15 1:27:11

Second.

Melissa Ayala-Quintero? 1:27:11

Thank you, Michelle. Thank you, Jim. Any discussion? All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Chair votes aye, and so ordered. Adopt resolution number 27, 2022-2023, resolution continuing authority to hold virtual meetings pursuant to AB 361. So moved.

SPEAKER_15 1:27:32

Second.

Melissa Ayala-Quintero? 1:27:33

Thank you, Patty. Thank you, Jim. Any discussion? All those in favor, say aye.

SPEAKER_12 1:27:40

Aye.

Melissa Ayala-Quintero? 1:27:41

Opposed? Chair votes aye and so ordered. Approved 2022-2023 Redlands Unified School District Transportation Plan. Can I have a motion?

SPEAKER_06 1:27:51

So moved. Second.

SPEAKER_07 1:27:54

Thank you, Patty. Thank you, Michelle. Any discussion?

Jim O'Neill? 1:27:58

Well, I was just going to say we got some student input on this one, too, didn't we, Mr. Hill? Yes, we did. It was good, too, right? It was very good. Yeah, we appreciate our student trustees. Yeah, it was excellent, so good for them.

Melissa Ayala-Quintero? 1:28:11

All right, well, thank you to the student trustees. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. All right, any opposed? Chair votes aye, and so ordered. Moving on to consent items under educational services. Dr. Wagner, do you have any changes or corrections?

SPEAKER_01 1:28:27

Thank you, President. Ayala Contreras, no changes or corrections.

Melissa Ayala-Quintero? 1:28:30

Thank you. Is there a motion to approve item A, consent items B through J?

SPEAKER_06 1:28:34

So moved.

Melissa Ayala-Quintero? 1:28:37

Thank you, Patty. Thank you, Jim. Any discussion?

Patty Holohan? 1:28:42

How wonderful to have Broadway Orchestra and to have musical theater artists, too, in our program. That's outstanding.

Melissa Ayala-Quintero? 1:28:52

Anyone else? OK. All right. Thank you, Patty. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? Chair votes aye, and so ordered. On to educational services action items. Adopt resolution number 28, 2022-23, resolution supporting commitment to equity and inclusion. May I have a motion?

SPEAKER_15 1:29:18

Move to adopt.

SPEAKER_07 1:29:20

Thank you, Jim. Thank you, Patty. Any discussion?

Jim O'Neill? 1:29:24

Well, I think I just want to thank all the people that worked with us to help us and participated in this effort, and it's a wonderful start. I know if Alex was here, he'd also agree and be thrilled with the work that we've accomplished on this. And certainly it's not an end point, but it takes us down the road a long way, and it's been a long time coming. So I'm very proud of the work that we've all done. Congratulations. to all the people that helped.

Melissa Ayala-Quintero? 1:29:57

Thank you. I appreciate that.

Jim O'Neill? 1:29:59

The leadership that was provided as well.

SPEAKER_06 1:30:02

The training.

SPEAKER_15 1:30:03

Yes, and the training, absolutely. The training, absolutely, the training. It was great.

Melissa Ayala-Quintero? 1:30:07

Thank you. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Chair votes aye, and so ordered. All right, we'll go ahead and take items B through H together. Can I get a motion?

Jim O'Neill? 1:30:20

Move to approve items B through H. Thank you, Jim.

Melissa Ayala-Quintero? 1:30:25

Thank you, Michelle. Any discussion? All those in favor say aye.

SPEAKER_06 1:30:30

Aye.

Melissa Ayala-Quintero? 1:30:31

Any opposed? Chair votes aye and so ordered. Moving on to consent items under human resources, Dr. Roberts and Phillips, do you have any changes or additions?

SPEAKER_00 1:30:41

I have no changes or additions this evening, thank you.

Melissa Ayala-Quintero? 1:30:45

All right, can I get a motion to approve item A, consent items B through AK?

Patty Holohan? 1:30:49

I will go ahead and approve and I'm going to abstain from letter J as in January.

Melissa Ayala-Quintero? 1:30:54

Okay. Thank you Patty, thank you Michelle. Any discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Chair votes aye and so ordered. For human resources action items, we have several items to approve and read out. Certificate is item A. Certificated established position and approved job description for transitional kindergarten classroom teacher effective March 15, 2023. May I have a motion?

Jim O'Neill? 1:31:31

I'll second. Go ahead, Patty.

Melissa Ayala-Quintero? 1:31:32

Thank you, Patty. Thank you, Jim. Any discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Chair votes aye and so ordered. Item B, Certificated Ratified Adopt Resolution Number 29, 2022, excuse me, dash 2023, approve employment of certificated personnel effective February 16, 2023, based on the approval by the Commission on Teacher Credentialing Education Code Credential Requirements. Is there a motion?

SPEAKER_15 1:32:04

Move to approve.

Melissa Ayala-Quintero? 1:32:05

Thank you, Jim. Thank you. Thank you, Michelle. Any discussion? Any discussion? All those in favor?

SPEAKER_06 1:32:12

Aye.

Melissa Ayala-Quintero? 1:32:13

Any opposed? Chair votes aye and so ordered. Item C, management. Establish position and approve job description for credential specialist. Effective April 12, 2023. May I have a motion?

SPEAKER_10 1:32:26

Move.

SPEAKER_06 1:32:27

Second.

Melissa Ayala-Quintero? 1:32:28

Thank you, Michelle. Thank you, Patty. Any discussion? All those in favor, say aye.

SPEAKER_02 1:32:35

Aye.

Melissa Ayala-Quintero? 1:32:37

Opposed? Hearing none, Chair votes aye and so ordered. Item D, ratify and approve amendments to contracts of Executive Cabinet members Jason Hill, Assistant Superintendent Business Services, Sabine Robertson-Phillips, Assistant Superintendent Human Resources, and Kenneth Wagner, Assistant Superintendent Educational Services. The Brown Act and Government Code Section 54953 requires that this Board make an oral report in open session before taking final action on an employment agreement for a local agency executive summarizing any recommendation regarding compensation including salary and or fringe benefits. Consistent with this requirement, the board provides this oral summary of the salary increases as set forth in the proposed employment agreement for the following. Assistant Superintendent of Business Services, Jason Hill. Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources, Sabine Robertson-Phillips. Assistant Superintendent of Educational Services, Kenneth Wagner. These amendments provide for the same total compensation as negotiated and approved on January 10, 2023, for certificated and classified bargaining units. The assistant superintendent's base salary for the 2022-2023 school year is as follows. Assistant Superintendent of Business Services, Jason Hill, 236,792, payable in equal monthly payments at the end of each month of service. Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources, Sabine Robertson Phillips, 248,780, payable in equal monthly payments at the end of each month of service. Assistant Superintendent of Educational Services, Dr. Kenneth Wagner, 248,780 payable and equal monthly payments at the end of each month of service. May I have a motion?

SPEAKER_06 1:34:24

So moved.

Melissa Ayala-Quintero? 1:34:25

Thank you Patty, thank you Michelle. Any discussion?

Patty Holohan? 1:34:30

All deserved, thank you.

Melissa Ayala-Quintero? 1:34:33

All those in favor say aye.

SPEAKER_12 1:34:34

Aye.

Melissa Ayala-Quintero? 1:34:36

Any opposed? Chair votes aye and so ordered. Item E, management, ratify and approve amendment to contract of employment for Mauricio Arellano, superintendent of schools. The Brown Act and government code section 54953C3 requires that this board make an oral report in open session before taking final action on an employment agreement for a local agency executive summarizing any recommendation regarding compensation including salary and or fringe benefits. Consistent with this requirement, the board provides its oral summary of the salary increase as set forth in the proposed employment agreement for superintendent between the Redlands Unified School District and Mauricio Arellano. Contract term effective July 1, 2022 through June 30, 2026 is ratified to reflect a 12% increase retroactive to July 1, 2022. This amendment provides for the same total compensation as negotiated and approved on January 10, 2023, for certificated and classified bargaining units. The superintendent's base salary for the 2022-23 school year is $330,064 payable in equal monthly payments at the end of each month of service. Is there a motion?

SPEAKER_06 1:35:48

So moved.

Melissa Ayala-Quintero? 1:35:49

Second. Thank you Patty, thank you Michelle. Any discussion?

Jim O'Neill? 1:35:55

End date, it says through June 30th?

SPEAKER_07 1:36:00

That's when the original contract was. That was the original contract. Oh, that's the contract date.

SPEAKER_15 1:36:03

That was the original contract.

Melissa Ayala-Quintero? 1:36:04

Yeah, okay, I get it. And it'll change, okay.

SPEAKER_15 1:36:07

Yeah, thank you.

Melissa Ayala-Quintero? 1:36:08

And all those in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Chair votes aye and so ordered. Item F, approve student attendance calendar for the 2024-2025 school year, second and final read. Is there a motion?

SPEAKER_06 1:36:25

So moved.

SPEAKER_10 1:36:25

Second.

SPEAKER_07 1:36:26

Thank you Patty, thank you Michelle. Any discussion?

Patty Holohan? 1:36:29

It's hard to believe we're already doing that one.

Melissa Ayala-Quintero? 1:36:34

All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Chair votes aye and so ordered. In closed session, the board took action to appoint. Mark Blind to the position of Director III, Title IX and Compliance effective July 1, 2023 at step five of the management team's salary schedule with the following vote. Ayala Quintero, Hollihan, O'Neal, and Rendler voting aye. Mark. There you go. In closed session, the board took action to appoint Shanna Kemper to the position of principal of Redlands East Valley High School, effective July 1, 2023, at step three of the management team's salary schedule with the following vote. Ayala Quintero, Hollihan, O'Neill, Redler, voting aye. Shanna, are you here? Welcome. Do you have anybody with you? I do.

UNKNOWN 1:37:39

This is the first time my parents have actually been in town for a management appointment, so I hope

Melissa Ayala-Quintero? 1:37:46

We have them stand. We want to welcome them as well. They're all tall.

SPEAKER_12 1:37:48

Thank you for your confidence in that. I'm very excited. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_06 1:37:59

You're already in red.

SPEAKER_12 1:38:01

I am.

Patty Holohan? 1:38:03

Blue's taking a sit for a while then. Good job. Congratulations, Shauna.

Melissa Ayala-Quintero? 1:38:10

All right, thank you. In closed session, the board took action to appoint Jeffrey M. to the position of principal, Rise E Academy, effective April 10, 2023, at step four of the management team's salary schedule with the following vote. Ayala Quintero-Hollihan, O'Neal, Rendler, Varo, sorry, excuse me. Ayala Quintero-Hollihan, O'Neal, Rendler, voting aye. Mr. Ram, welcome. I actually missed one. In closed session, the board took action to appoint Patrick Kelly to the position of interim superintendent, effective date to be determined. In regard to the public employee discipline dismissal release part of the agenda, I would like to report the following. In closed session, the board took action to approve that employee number 2022-23 may be released and reassigned pursuant to education code section 44951. Effective for the 2023-24 school year and direct the superintendent or designee to send out appropriate legal notices with the following vote. Ayala Quintero, Hollihan, O'Neil, and Renler voting aye. In closed session, the board took action to non-reelect employee number 2022-23-05, probationary certificated employee pursuant to education code section 44929.21B, effective at the end of the 2022-23 school year. The board directed superintendent or his designee to send out appropriate legal notices with the following vote. Ayala Quintero, Hollihan, O'Neal, Rendler voting aye. Okay, we do not have any discussion items, so we'll be moving on to the community input portion of the agenda. 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 and or his or her designee prior to public participation. This is not meant to be a debating period. Complaints and problems relating to policy matters will be referred to the superintendent. The person wishing to address the board shall, when recognized by the chairperson of the board, step up to the podium 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 a majority of the board determines that a different time limit is appropriate. And first we have Dana Brown. Welcome.

SPEAKER_11 1:40:52

Hi. Can you hear me? OK, I did time this, so it should be three minutes. Hello, my name is Dana Brown. I am site rep for Victoria Elementary, and I've worked in special education for over 10 years. The topic I wish to speak on is a vital necessity for mandatory behavioral training for all instructional paraprofessionals for RUSD. Prior to 2019, I worked for Modesto City Schools in the Central Valley, where every permanent instructional paraprofessional regardless of classroom grade level, was required to have mandatory PRO Act training, which was required to be renewed within a specific time frame, or else they would not be able to work on campus. This training provided a legal and safe atmosphere for all staff and students. Redlands Unified School District does not have such a mandatory requirement in place. And thus, instructional paraprofessionals across the district are getting hurt by students in situations that they should have had the proper training may have been avoided. Instructional paraprofessional staff are being aggressively hit, kicked, scratched, pinched, slapped, pushed, and spit on, to name a few. Site reps across the district have brought their classified staff concerns to the respite union, and I am now speaking to you, the school board of RUSD, By not providing mandatory behavioral training such as PROACT and RPCM training, the district is failing all classified staff and all students of every grade level. We cannot support our students safely in their classrooms and campuses without having the essential training in place. I beseech the school board to take this issue seriously, as not having mandatory training puts each and every staff member and students in a serious liability situation every day our students attend classes. In conclusion, I am restating the vital need for mandatory behavioral training for all instructional paraprofessionals, regardless of classification, should they be a base, a one, a two, a three, and our state preschool, which is part of our respite union. Should the training to be a success, the mandatory behavioral training should be as follows. Mandatory on a weekend date, paid mandatory time, and should by law be required to be renewed at a set time. Thank you for listening and I look forward to a positive outcome on this topic. Thank you.

Melissa Ayala-Quintero? 1:43:19

Thank you. Carry on, do we have any other cards? All right, we are moving on to board member comments. Michelle Renler, if you want to go ahead and go first.

Michele Rendler? 1:43:42

Just like to report that the compact dinner mixer was a huge success with 50 students and 50 adults. It was pretty fun. And I attended the Air Force ROTC banquet at RHS along with Duane Cowles. That was really neat to see those kids, the accomplishments they have and what they're going to be doing in their futures is amazing. I attended Civics Day along with everybody. That was really fun. I've been to Orangewood and saw the Rube Goldberg project that they're working on, and I'm going back on Friday to see it. It's completed now, right? So see the completion of it. I went to Read Across America at three different schools, Lagonia, Franklin, and Kingsbury. That's always a lot of fun. I attended the digital, Raising Kids in the Digital Age, I think it was, about cyberbullying and digital, I don't know exactly what you call it, media? I don't know. At COPE last month. and I was able to participate in the Parent and Family Engagement Workshop series at PTA School Smart. I originally went to the first one just to see what they were doing and ended up attending all seven, so I got to graduate with the nine others. It was pretty fun. We had a good time. And we just laughed and called it the Michelle Workshop because there were, I think, six of us with the name Michelle, all spelled different, all spelled different. and I attended McKinley with Melissa at the African American Living Museum that the fifth graders do for Black History Month and attended the Teachers of Excellence Awards and I want to congratulate Anna Aguirre Krista Burgess, Edward Stark, Andrea Jessup, and Jennifer Baldwin on their awards. That was wonderful. Tomorrow, I'm hoping to get to COPE to see some of the career speakers, and I'm really looking forward to the brunch on Thursday, the PTA brunch. I haven't been to one in a while, and I'm looking forward to it. And I also want to congratulate the winter athletes. First, the CV cheer, varsity cheer team, for bringing home a CIF title to Citrus. And congratulations to Jonathan, Marika, Myla, and Julia. Good job. And I think that's it. That's all I have. Thanks.

SPEAKER_07 1:46:10

Okay, Jim.

Jim O'Neill? 1:46:11

Thank you. Well, let's see. I did a few things over the last couple weeks. I participated in the mock interviews at Redlands East Valley High School. A compact club sponsors that every year at different high schools. And it's always great to do those mock interviews with students and to coach them a little bit for future teaching interviews here in the district. So we hope they continue to do that. The compact clubs are doing very well out there. Also, Read Across America. Went to Bryn Mawr, Ligonier, and Smiley, although I was too late at Smiley to finish, so I have to have a return date to go back and do some reading there. But, you know, a shout-out to all the organizers and all of our schools who put the activities together for Read Across America. Always well done, well organized, well run. Lots of people participating. Kids really seem to enjoy it. I usually take a book of jokes because I don't have a lot of time, so I try to have something to lighten the... Yeah, that's my specialty, yeah. So anyway, the run through Redlands as a Kiwanian was... Was it last weekend or two weekends ago? Last weekend. It just seems like it's so long ago, but it was right here. Yeah. Great success. 2,500 runners. I think people were really ready to get back to it. It's a major fundraiser for our Kiwanis Club. And a lot of that money goes towards scholarships. They're the Kiwanis Foundation, which I'm also involved in. And we completed interviews, screening at our different high schools. We gave away this year celebrating the 100th year of the Kiwanis Club in Redlands. We were able to commit $100,000 in scholarships to 31 high school seniors, so it was a pretty exciting time for us as Kiwanis to be able to do that. This morning, ran over to the CSTEM, heard the keynote speaker. Yeah, Michelle was there. Thank you for hosting. We were host district, as we should be, setting the bar again for what's happening at CSTEM. Saw a lot of Redlands people there. And I wasn't there for the student competition, but I heard that we did very, very well in the student competition. Dr. Wagner was sharing with me so congratulations to all the teams that put on That participated in the competition today and of course all the teachers that were there and staff That were a lot of administrators as well as teachers who were there. So it's awesome to be the leader of the pack so to speak I I also got to sneak in, probably shouldn't admit this in public, but the Charlotte Hook Reading Conference. I like to go to that every year, but I have to come in the back door because I don't stay for the whole thing, and I'm not eating anything, but I like to hear their keynote speaker, who was amazing this year, and all the teachers and administrators that were there as well. It's a wonderful conference, and I know everybody got a lot out of it. Also recognize the teachers at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I always appreciate them taking the time to recognize our outstanding educators. It's such a great thing that they do. I haven't missed any, and I don't intend to miss them in the future because it's just well done organizationally. celebrating those teachers. And what's really cool is sometimes I get to see from my work days some of the teachers come through there. And one of the teachers recognized was the teacher that I'd hired. And she made me feel really old because she says, I'm going to retire next year. And I went, really? I just, like, I just hired you. So anyway, that was pretty exciting to see those teachers getting recognized. I want to do a shout out to Mr. Hill and Heather Rowe. Something that's kind of been on my radar for a few years now is crosswalk safety around our schools. What's that? Well, there's a lot of them, Patty. But, I mean, we could go down the list. There's a lot of them that need to be addressed. But we'd had that recent complaint at Dearborn. There was a couple others. But that wasn't the point. The point was that I recognize when I go around to schools that there are a lot of kids and parents that walk their kids to school. And a lot of the crosswalks are... In disrepair, the paint is not very good. The signage around the school isn't very good. And so one of the things that we did a few years ago, and that was I think before Jason was here, it was when Bernie Kavanaugh was here, we met with the city, and there was pushback. It's like, well, you know, the crosswalk at RHS... We didn't build a school on two sides of the street. There was just some negativity that came through those meetings about the crosswalks. They didn't really want to have a lot of support. So Jason and Heather, I asked them, I said, maybe if we try to meet because there's new people in the city now. And Chris Boatman... was extremely positive and got his team together. They met with Mr. Hill, Mrs. Rowe, and myself. And Jason and Heather put together a brilliant and wonderfully comprehensive report that addresses concerns. They had pictures, they had documentation of all of the crossing areas around our schools. And went in and we made the pitch and made the presentation. Just nothing but positivity came out of that. And I can't think of Chris Boatman's assistant that's in charge of the traffic, but what's his name? Harris, right? So they already responded back to us, and they just said, you know what? We're going to go out and recheck all this. We're going to put together a maintenance program. They're going to revitalize a lot of these crosswalks and add some signage and consider other improvements in some of these crossings around our schools. So hats off to you, Jason and Heather. Thank you so much for that. I'm just... Absolutely. It will sure make it safer. So it's one of those things I can kind of check off my list now, and I really appreciate it.

SPEAKER_12 1:52:52

Can I ask you a question?

Michele Rendler? 1:52:55

Sure. When I was on the Cultural Arts Commission, they were trying for they had been trying for a while to for each school to have that school the crosswalk painted in school colors or with the theme or something about the school to make it more visible safer so people would stop maybe um and i don't know where that ended up is it still kind of

Jim O'Neill? 1:53:18

I think part of the problem was who were they going to get to paint those things? And, you know, muralists don't come free. What it's going to be, it got to be complicated. But I think they could probably revisit that. But, and I'll bring it up with the city, but the real issue is, let's make sure, like the particular crosswalk you brought up there on 5th and Dearborn, the paint's completely worn off, and it's a very busy street now because everybody coming from Yucaipa avoids the traffic on the freeway. It's an expressway now. And even though there's a four-way stop sign there, It's kind of a guideline for most people. Yeah, there's nobody around. So anyway. But I think we're on the right track. We're definitely moving in the right direction on making it more safe for sure. Let's see. Where am I? I lost my... Well, why don't I just go to this? I'll skip the rest of it. To you, Mauricio. Thank you. I don't know if I can say the words. Thank you so much for all you've done for us. And I'm not sure, but I think you set the bar so high that it's going to be challenging. We're going to have to build a lot of scaffolding just to get up to that bar. So... It takes a leader, and you provided that. And I just appreciate it so much. I know we all have, but I'm an old man, and I get emotional. So I'm not going to say too much more. I'll save it. I'll put it down in words. But I was going to say one thing that I just thought of. This is the way my mind works these days. I kind of wanted to do a shout out to our safety people. Because in walking around all these school sites, I got stopped a lot saying, may we help you? Why is this old guy walking around on our campus? Is he with somebody? Did he wander out of the home? Why is he here? And when I went into the front office, I'm recognizable. A lot of people know me. And without exception, there were a couple schools that they didn't recognize me, but there were a couple that did. They still put me through the safety protocol. It's a good thing I have my license with me. So I appreciate what they do in terms of safety, but I'll end on just,

Melissa Ayala-Quintero? 1:56:15

appreciation to you as well so thank you so much thank you Jim I'm gonna go ahead and do my really quick but I did want to touch on a couple of things I want to apologize to mark because I don't think I gave you the opportunity to mention if you brought anybody with you tonight Thank you, Marissa. Welcome. Sorry about that. The same thing for Jeff M. I don't think I gave you that opportunity as well. My apologies. Well, we thank you for being here anyways. And then one more other thing I did want to touch on. I want to acknowledge the receipt of emails from Laurie Yandall and Sarah de Treville, because I didn't get to do that earlier. So my apologies for those.

SPEAKER_13 1:57:12

Yes.

Melissa Ayala-Quintero? 1:57:14

My report is very quick. I just want to thank Principal Sherman at McKinley for welcoming Mrs. Rendler and I to the fifth grade African American Living Museum. It was fascinating and to see some of these students get so immersed in the person they were researching was wonderful because a lot of them were doing it off of memory and off script. So it was very fun. There was a couple of repeat people, but my favorite was Thurgood Marshall, and he had made his own gavel out of cardboard. Adorable. So I want to thank Principal Sherman for that invitation, and thank you to Juanita for walking around with me because... A lot of people, a lot of kids, and sometimes it can be a little scary. So thank you. And then to Mauricio, it's not goodbye. It's see you later, but we'll touch on that at a later time. Patty, do you have anything?

Patty Holohan? 1:58:14

So I would like to congratulate Shauna and Mark and Jeff on your new positions. It's always wonderful when we can promote from within and with our USD families. Congratulations. I know you'll excel on your next endeavor. I want to thank Sue Abt for inviting me to the San Gregorio Council meeting at the Mission Inn the other night. Went with Melissa and Risa was there as well. So thank you. It was a very lovely evening. I appreciate it. And the fact that we can all sit there and enjoy a nice conversation and company is excellent. So thank you very much for that. I, too, participated in Civics Day. It's always such a great event. And our students just keep getting smarter and smarter. And you were there at Civics Day. So thank you for joining us on that day. And if we can please send a letter to the optimist and telling them thank you for, I don't know, probably the 80th time that we've done this. And we appreciate it. We have some retirees that we accepted tonight. One of them I'm going to mention, Jennifer Patterson. She's 31 years. She's in Arroyo Verde. And I just want to thank her for her hard work. dedication and to Sherry Walsh she's retiring RHS for 29 years she was actually a student at Redlands High School and then she was a teacher and a counselor so thank you to Sherry for all her hard work as a Terrier and all the things that she has done I attended an event for scholarships for at Crafton for the with the Crafton And what a great partnership that you've had. And I know, Marisa, you were pretty instrumental in that relationship. So thank you. And they're just looking for funds to be able to do more scholarship and more fundraising to do. And they were just asking people in the community, what do you see about the connection? What is it that we're lacking? What can we do to improve? So that was a very fulfilling evening. And I have a follow-up meeting with them as well. I, too, participated at Read Across America, and I started at Lagonia, where I started in kindergarten many years ago. So when I told the students, who were my tour guides, I said, I went there, and they said, you did. And I said, yes, I did. That must have been a long time ago. Well, that's not what I wanted to hear. But they go, no, no, no, because I think one of the teachers said, hey, you know. I think they were fascinated that I went there, and it was just awesome. And every time I get on that campus, it brings chills because I remember being there as a student thinking it was so big, and then here I am. And then I went into my classroom where I went to kindergarten that they've put a divider in half. It's just very chilling and awesome and rewarding for me. Yeah, it's great. I also went to Smiley and Judson and Brown and read Chris America. I attended the first graders play at Judson and Brown, which was very good. And it was all the first grade classes. There's three of them. And interestingly enough, each child had a small part, whether they said something. And I thought to myself, because you could see the ones that were literally stage fright. I mean, they're like this. with their eyes, you know, just like, I can do this. And they get up there and say it, whether they said it really fast or slow, they still said it. And I thought, how awesome to learn public speaking at such an early age. And they will take that forever. So congratulations to first graders at Judson and Brown on a great performance. I attended the Redlands Bowl annual dinner. Most of you know I'm very involved at the Redlands Bowl. This is our centennial year for 100 years at the Redlands Bowl. This is the summer music festival that we provide for free of charge on Tuesdays and Fridays starting in June through August. And if you haven't seen the schedule already or not, we are getting Frankie Avalon, which is kind of fun. And then we're also getting the Spinners. Ooh! Spinners is big. That's a good one. We've got a good tribute band for the Eagles and just a wide range of great music So Tuesdays and Friday evenings, you know the summer sometimes Tuesday. I leave I head on over to the Bowl our Musical is hello, Dolly So put that on your calendar because we're gonna be celebrating a hundred years and it was grace Stuart Mullen who? the one that had the vision and said everyone should deserve to be able to see something regardless of your economics and So it's because of her that we are able to do this. So please join us over the summer. I am actually hosting and working at Arrowhead Regional Medical Center for a free 5K walk. We're not charging, but it's more of a health day, and it's free. So anyone, if there's track people out there who want to come and just get a better time, it's at Arrowhead Regional Medical Center on March 25th at 8.30 a.m., and it's free, and you can go online to do that. So I appreciate that. the fight the uh redlands kiwanis when they do it because i ran that half marathon many many years in a row and it's a tough race and i know the money went to great cause so it's always great to get out there I do want to invite you to or welcome you to enjoy your spring break, everyone who's out there, and have some time off. I know some of you may not, but if you do, enjoy the time off and get rested and come back to finish off this quarter. And then, Marisa, I just have one word for you or a question. If everything's so great here, why are you leaving us? Thank you. I'm teasing. You know, it's this. We have this. Five golden bells. I'm just putting him on it. You have been truly. I was the president when we hired you, and going through the process, so I had to negotiate in contracts and all kinds of things with our attorney with him, so I was the person out there negotiating, and we came through, you know, I didn't know you, Jim knew you, and you just went above and beyond what we could have ever expected. The times that we went through, yeah, they were hard. But, you know, we made it through together, and I appreciate your support because those were some very hard nights, but we went through it together. I wish you all the luck at San Bernardino. You're going to need it. Hey, we are Redlands Unified. This is a fine institution. Always know that you're going to have a home here if you ever want to. Yeah, someone cut me off. Hey! Hey! Oh, thank you. You know what? Thank you for everything you've done on behalf of the board and behalf of Rutland Unified School District. We wish you all the best. But you know what? We're going to see you around here because you're still a parent. So we'll see you with a different hat on. And you're always welcome here. This is your home, and know that. Just don't, yeah. There you go. You'll come back. But you have it. And we wish you all the best. You're welcome. That's it, President.

Melissa Ayala-Quintero? 2:05:20

All right. Well, that is everything. I want to thank everybody for coming out tonight. And I will adjourn this meeting at 9.13. Have a good night, everybody. Safe drive in the rain.

Jim O'Neill? 2:05:34

Jeff M. Jeff.

Names followed by ? were matched to a speaker by comparing the audio to known voice samples. They are automated identifications, not part of the official record, and may be wrong. Speakers shown as SPEAKER_nn were not matched. The adopted minutes are the district's official account of who spoke.