Board of Education — May 9, 2023

All right, the time is 7.01 and I call the May 9th meeting of the Board of Education to order. Let's see, we'll take roll. Michelle Rendler? Present. Alex Vara?

Present.

Jim O'Neill? Present. And Patty Hollihan? Present. And I am present. All right, Carrie Ann, do we have any announcements? Sorry, wrong order. All right, Michelle Renler is going to say the Pledge of Allegiance. We do have a moment of silence directly following the pledge. So after the pledge, if you'll remain standing. Okay, stand.

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

Donna Todd. Donna retired in 2017 after a wonderful 16 year career with CNS. She immediately came back as a substitute CNS worker, which included the pandemic curbside service. She would travel to any kitchen to help the team serve the kiddos. Back in the day, she was amongst the fastest CNS cashiers in the department. She would always say it was the experience she had working at her family business, Jim's West Arrow Market in Fontana. Her big smile is the first thing you would see in the kitchen. We will miss her gentle nature and infectious smile she brought with every service. Donna passed away on April 17th after a courageous battle with lung disease. Please be seated. We have no minutes for approval at this time, so we'll move 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. And we have no cards on agenda items, thank you. We also have no public hearing this evening, so let's move on to presentations. We're going to go directly over the student trustee recognition as they are doing AP testing, and we don't want to take them away from that. We'll be recognizing them at the May 23rd board meeting instead. So now we would like to recognize. Sorry, kind of short. All right. For our retirees that are here this evening, once your name is called, if you could please come forward and remain standing up for a group picture. After the picture, we'll break for reception. So you're going to follow along this way? All right. First up, it's a long list, so bear with me. Carla Batten, teacher, Crafton Elementary, 34 years. And my apologies if I get anybody's name messed up. You can absolutely correct me. I welcome it. Thank you. Norina Bender, teacher, Moore Middle School, 25 years. Paul Bolak, teacher, Cote Middle School, 32 years. Lisa Brock, Instructional Paraprofessional II, Special Education, Redlands East Valley High School, 18 years. Hugh Cairns, I hope I said that right. I know I didn't. Safety Officer I, Redlands High School, 21 years. James Canales, assistant principal, Bryn Mawr Elementary, 35 years. Lisa Coronado, school bus driver, transportation department, 28 and a half years. Kevin Crawford, reprographics technician two, reprographics, 24 and a half years. Being on PTA, I'm pretty sure I made Kevin's job very difficult for a very long time. A lot of last minute things, so thank you for that. Lisa Dewey, teacher, Redlands High School, 23 years. Todd Fitzpatrick, teacher, Cote Middle School, 34 years. Mary Gaffney, instructional paraprofessional two, special education, Redlands East Valley High, 15 years. Heather Gill-Listrina, teacher, Bryn Mawr Elementary, 28 years. Diane Helvey, counselor, Clement Middle School, 21 years. Gregory Kennison, lead custodian one, Victoria Elementary, 34 years. Denise Kirk, teacher, Kimberly Elementary, 29 years. Carol Lemoine, thank you, thank you. Carol Lemoine, teacher, McKinley Elementary, 36 years. Wanda Lopez, data control clerk, Clement Middle School, 25.25 years. Miguel Olmedo, teacher, Residence High School, 31 years. It's a long track. It's a good one. Teresa Palmer, teacher, Kimberly Elementary, 34 years. Jacob Rodriguez, mechanic for transportation, 18.75 years. Mary Sandoval, teacher, Coat Middle School, 20 years. Amy Scullin, teacher, Bryn Mawr Elementary, 34 years. This one's a personal one. Sandy Sider, teacher, Smiley Elementary, 33 years. Sorry, I've got to get a hug in on this one. Catherine Smith, teacher, Totally Kids, 10 years. Sally Tappert, teacher, Bryn Mawr Elementary, 26 years. Nancy Thomas, teacher, Bryn Mawr Elementary, 37 years. And my apologies, I'm butchering this one because I know I will. Catherine Vaughn Obergon, assistant principal, Redlands East Valley High School, six years. Thank you. All right. Our last, I'm hoping we're not forgetting anybody. I don't want to forget anybody. I want to make sure that everybody, is there anybody else that's here that wouldn't be?

Okay, can you?

I don't, yeah, I don't want to forget anybody's names.

Okay.

All right, we're almost there. Okay, we'll do Eva Martinez. Child Nutritional Services Assistant 1, Cram Elementary, 20.75 years. Sherry Walsh, counselor, Redlands High School, 29 years. And then we have Eleanor Garvin, teacher, Beatty Middle School, 27 years. 29. 29. What an amazing group of individuals up here. Can we give them another round of applause? All right. Sorry. We have one more. Wendy Campbell, teacher, Kingsbury Elementary, 32 years. All right. We're going to do that one more time. One big round of applause for everybody up here. Thank you. Thank you.

All right, get nice and tight and nice and sweet and then move on over. All right. All right, step down and move over this way.

Do you want us to close it?

Yeah. Closer, closer.

Okay, everyone, we're going to take a 10-minute recess. We're going to go ahead and celebrate our retirees. So we'll take a 10-minute break. We'll come back at 727. All right, I'd like to call this meeting back to order. We don't have a student representative tonight. However, we do have a quick report from Mr. O'Neill on their behalf.

Thank you, yes. Thank you very much. So at our last student meeting, we kind of had a reflective time. Their experience, they shared it with me. And they had some ideas about moving forward for this being our inaugural year. Obviously, we're going to move ahead to the next year. Just going to share a little bit about what they came up with, and I think they're good ideas. I don't think we can have a discussion about it tonight, but it's something that maybe we do need to discuss, and maybe a couple at a time can discuss it. But I think they had some really great ideas. One of the things that they said was, They wish they could find a way to get on campus student input to happen more than it does. It was difficult for them to have the student input that they, I mean we were getting their perspective, their own personal perspective about things. But next year they would hope that we'd be able to help them find ways to actually gain access to more of their students on campus. And then that way when they report to us, they would be able to have more information. So I thought that was good. And then they would love it if they could have a campus student advisor, a staff member on site that could help them with those kinds of things and provide a space when they did have meetings. It makes perfect sense. The They would like to see the other school campuses somehow. They would like to be able to meet at other school campuses and see what the other high schools and have some sort of connection with the other high schools. And I said, yes, that would be awesome if we could work that out. Certainly the selection process is sort of coming up on us if we want to try to get something done before the end of this year, if not at the beginning of next year. And they had quite a few little suggestions. One was Everyone certainly needs to have the opportunity. This being the first year, it was a limited number of kids that heard about it or didn't have full awareness of what was going on. So they think it needs to be advertised a lot better, and they wanted to rely on Christine. They brought her up as maybe they'd help them find ways to bring attention to the fact that we have student trustees. They would love to be able to see a two-year commitment out of a student trustee. So instead of having a senior, and the senior year, as we know, gets really busy, and things start to happen, and they have less and less time to commit to it, and also they said... The second half of the year, they finally had things figured out. They finally had a complete understanding about their role and the role of this board and how it works and functions in the school district. So it took a little learning curve, if you will, time to get that done. So what they suggested is to have a junior student trustee take a two-year term, and then each year it would be an every-other-year type thing. and to make sure that those students knew that that was the commitment, to not have somebody sign up knowing that maybe they were not going to be able to keep at it for two years. Let's see. Okay. They would love it if Dr. Wagner could find a way to give them course credit for their time served. So I guess, Dr. Wagner, you can think about that. But that was something that might be a good incentive to stay involved and also make that commitment. Because if they were getting course credit for it, then there's a little bit of leverage for them to stay involved and to be involved the entire two years. They would love to be able to meet before our meeting. So they said either by Zoom or in person so that they can have a chance to get more input, preferential input, if you will, into the board agenda items that we are overseeing in the district. And they would love to meet with the superintendent at least once a month and be an advisory group, more or less, to the superintendent. So I think they had some really insightful ideas, and I will summarize those and give those to the board, and then we can move forward with something for the future and see how we can put that together. And I think as a board, we've really appreciated them. We're going to appreciate them as a group at our May 23rd board meeting. But they've been just a great group of students, bright, articulate, thought-provoking, and it's been my pleasure to work with them and get to know them. And they're amazing, and I know they're going to be amazing in their lives. So thank you for that.

Thank you, Mr. O'Neill. They have certainly been a positive addition to this board. And I know there's, being the first year, I know there's some areas that were lacking a little bit. So I think I appreciate their input. And hopefully we can do better in the coming years. All right. We'll move on to board committee reports. I actually don't have one for CRYROP right now. Our meeting is tomorrow. So we'll move on to Redlands Compact. Mrs. Rendler?

Hello, the Rochford Foundation scholar interviews were held in April. There were 11 adults interviewing 31 students, and thank you, Jim, for your part. It was appreciated. Students were well prepared. It was great learning experience for all of them. I want to thank all the adults, including Jim, who took the time to help these students with their interviews. Any students wanting to get certification need to turn in their materials to Mrs. Leonard next week to be on time for the award nights. uh awards nights uh mr maupin will present a stargazing night on may 15th for anybody involved in compact club thank you to the redlands police officers association for the generous donation of 800 to go for senior scholarships which will be given out at the compact awards night on may 22nd which will be held at rev and that's all i have i want to go ahead and do uh rep foundation sure So as I said last time, just a reminder, AAA Academy for the summer program will be from June 18th to July 28th. And parents can go to AAA Academy website to register for full or half-day programs. And just a reminder that tomorrow evening is Evening of Appreciation at 6.30 in Rev's Blackstone Theater. The Arts Alive Student Showcase will also be presented tomorrow. tomorrow night. Everybody is invited to come and applaud our teachers and staff who work tirelessly for all the students in RUSD. And that is all I have.

Okay. Mr. O'Neill, City of Redlands Cultural Arts Commission.

I will forward the minutes. I was unable to attend that meeting. I was out of town, but I will forward the minutes to the board members.

Thank you. And back to Mrs. Rendler for Parks and Rec.

Meeting is on Thursday, so no report.

Jim, CSBA, no. And the Coalition of Support, no. All right, moving on to Superintendent's Report, Mr. Kelly.

Well, it's very special being able to celebrate the retirees for this year. That's always a very special evening. I want to thank our community members who waited outside as our retirees and their families were able to be honored. We just appreciate your patience with that. I'm looking at some signs here and I'm very excited to hear from these students. When I first arrived here in Redlands and found out that Latin was a course subject within the school district, I was very impressed. And I don't know how many districts around the state of California, I would imagine not many, that have the programs in the way that Redlands has that program. So we're looking forward to hearing from the students. We're excited to also be able to share that throughout today, we're talking through some potential resolutions and have really zeroed in on some things that I think are going to be very positive in the long run. But it's going to be great to hear how this has impacted you and how important this subject matter is to you. But we're looking forward to a very positive resolution. And once again, congratulations to our retirees this evening.

All right, thank you, Mr. Kelly. We'll now continue with superintendent's recommendations. First up will be consent items under business services. Mr. Hill, do you have any changes or additions?

Thank you, President. I have no changes or additions tonight.

Okay, can I get a motion to approve item A, consent items B through P?

So moved.

Second. Thank you, Alex. Thank you, Michelle. Any discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right, chair votes aye and so ordered. Moving on to consent items under educational services. Dr. Wagner, do you have any changes or additions?

No changes or additions, thank you.

Thank you. Can I get a motion to approve item A, consent item 14B? So moved.

Second.

Thank you Patty, thank you Alex. Any discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Chair votes aye and so ordered. Moving on to educational services action items. Let's go ahead and take items 15A through 15E together. Can I have a motion? Moved.

Second.

Thank you, Michelle. Thank you, Alex. Any discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Chair votes aye, and so ordered. Let's see. Moving on to consent items under human resources. Dr. Robins-Philips, do you have any changes or additions?

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

Thank you. Can I get a motion to approve item A, consent items B through N? So moved. Second? Thank you, Alex. Thank you, Patty. Any discussion? All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Chair votes aye and so ordered. Under human resources action items, we have one item. Certificated approved 2023-2024 declaration of need for fully qualified educators for submission to the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing. Can I have a motion?

So moved.

Okay. Thank you, Patty. Thank you, Michelle. Any discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Chair votes aye and so ordered. We have no discussion items, so we'll be moving on to the community import portion of the agenda. Let's see. This is the time, so public participation. This is the time that any member of the public may address the board on anything that falls under the jurisdiction of the Board of Education, provided the person submits a completed registration card to the clerk of the board or his or her designee prior to public participation. This is not meant to be a debating period. Complaints and problems relating to policy matters will be referred to the superintendent. The person wishing to address the board shall, when recognized by the chairperson of the board, step up to the podium microphone and announce his or her name. The chairperson shall limit the amount of time which a member of the public may use in addressing the board to three minutes, unless the chairperson or majority of the board determines that a different time limit is appropriate. We have some cards. I'm just going to go ahead and list off the emails right now before I forget, because I will. We have received emails from the following people. Ben Bartlett. Claire Tucci. Mary Jane, Ian Barrera-Sandry, Kate Feinberg-Robbins, and Michelle Whitmore. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to go ahead and call the first person up, and then I'm going to let the next person also call the next person that's up after them. That way they are prepared. First up, we have JB, followed by Olga Romero.

I hope everybody enjoyed the scriptures last time. So Psalm 127.3, children are an heritage of the Lord, and the fruit of the womb is his reward. I was glad to see the pride flag was voted down. We don't need a city that supports one of the deadly sins. We have no problem with same-sex couples, however. There seems to be a misunderstanding on that based on comments I heard last meeting from this podium. People are still free here in America to do what they wish, but pride is widening the gap between society and God, while simultaneously letting dark forces into our cities and schools. As a soon to be former lifelong citizen of Redlands, and parent of too soon to be ex-RUSD students, I applaud the city councilman's courage. I said now parents need their help with the cesspool that is the Redlands Unified School District. After watching Pledge of Silence abuse and cover up about RUSD child rape and molestation, I was sad this is not the town I grew up in. However, with strong leaders like the three that stood for what is right, then there is still hope for the future of Redlands families of all colors and sexual preference. Redlands can be a safe family town again, free from perversion, indoctrination, and assault. Maybe one of you will even speak up and start bringing Redlands back. And I'd like to ask you to please get a third party to monitor these reporting systems so that we can ensure that nothing is being deleted. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Jamie. Up next, we have Olga Romero, and after that, we have Candy Olson.

Good evening, board members. My name is Olga Romero. No, you can go ahead and start. Okay. Good evening, board members. My name is Olga Romero. I am the parent of a student who is currently enrolled in Redlands Unified. I am here today as a concerned parent. It seems that the more research I do and have been doing into these sexual abuse allegations, It has gotten to the point where substitute teachers are way too comfortable defending predators. By that I mean my child told me that last year Mr. Jara's long term substitute was defending him and went as far as making my child read a newspaper article that talked about Mr. Jara. In my opinion, that's emotional abuse. I'm sharing my child's story to say this. Some teachers, whether permanent or substitutes, are way too comfortable defending pedophiles. So comfortable that they will argue with their students. It's really disgusting. Another point I would like to make is, Why are administrators not fired on the spot when they are caught destroying evidence, and that also should include board members? If a board member is caught in any way destroying any kind of evidence, they should also resign. We need fairness. We need a third party independent monitor to also monitor our school, our tips, and our complaints. Lastly, I want to thank the special ed department for putting together the optimist games and also the possibilities prom, something that you failed to even mention today. Special education has been proven time and time again to not be on your priority list. As a parent, their hard work does not go unnoticed. I have been asking all year for the board to please approve a special education budget and so far that has not happened. Hopefully the board will practice what they preach and be inclusive and include special education and approve a budget that will include all children. Thank you.

Thank you. Up next we have Candy Olsen followed by Isaac Vega.

Hi, it's Candy again. I'll be talking about that. No, it's just for you, Mr. Kelly. They've all received all of those copies before, and they don't care about them. They're still in our schools, so I thought I'd give you the opportunity. I'm going to first talk about something that I found was very disheartening when my daughter was up here speaking about her story, feeling very uncomfortable. with a PE teacher, and she mentioned some examples along with her friend. I was sitting behind a teacher, his name is Steven Caperton, and he's a special needs teacher at Redlands High School. He was scoffing at my daughter. He didn't know that Ava's mother was sitting right behind him. He's a teacher. He doesn't know my daughter. She doesn't go to that school. She doesn't know of him. He doesn't know of her, and he's scoffing at her and shaking his head no, no, and talking to the union president right next to him and saying all these, I don't know what he's saying, but it's not nice. It's negative, and with the nodding and the scoffing, and I think that that's Part of the problem, my daughter was taught to be honest, and she never would have got up here and said stuff that wasn't true. She was uncomfortable doing it, but she was brave enough to do it. And I think that that's part of the issue is that we have teachers like that that would belittle and just immediately write things off. He has no idea whether what she's saying is true or not, but should be listened to with respect. And I think that's an issue probably that goes deeper than just one teacher. Secondly, I wanted to talk about the gross books that are in our schools. So I'm going to read a couple excerpts. One of them is Push. This book is at Orangewood High School. On page 127, it says, My clit swell up. Think, Daddy. Daddy, still he sex me up. He pump my pussy out in, out in, and all I come. Candy? Yes?

Pause your time, please.

This is in your school at Orangewood.

I understand that. I just want to make you aware, and that is fine when a parent checks out that book, or a child checks out that book with their parents or people. However, that's a family decision. There are students in this room, and I just want to make you aware, if you're going to proceed this way, fine. But I just want to make you aware that we do have students in this room.

They're in high school, right?

Yes. Okay, summer and middle.

Does anyone want, any kids in middle school want to step out?

I'm not going to ask them to step out, they have every right to be here just as well.

Okay, so I didn't know there were middle schoolers in this audience, so I apologize, it's not appropriate. But back when you interrupted my speech last time for the word ASS, you know it's not appropriate for adults but you guys think that this is appropriate for children i think we all know that the garbage in our schools is not appropriate now doctor broom has filled out four of those reviews those eight step processes that you guys kept hiding behind saying nothing will happen till you do the eight step process well he did it and he took his time and no one has done anything about it you guys have pornography in our schools that you can't even bear listening to We don't want to listen to it, and I don't even want to say it, but when I emailed it to you to read it, you won't read it, because it's disgusting, and it should not be available for our high schoolers to read. Thank you.

Thank you. Up next, we have Isaac Vega, followed by Joshua Oh.

Greetings board members, Madam President, Superintendent Kelly, other administrators, parents, community members, students. How do I follow that? Well, I don't envy your job. You make tough decisions, day in and day out. And the community lives with those decisions and we must respect those decisions. I lend my voice today. in support of a decision that's before this board and this school, specifically the Redlands High School Latin program. I support teacher Della Cruz, her students, future students. The legacy of Latin at Redlands High School spans over 130 years. That's a jewel of this district. There are few and far in between districts that offer Latin. I know. I called them. Los Osos and Ratchakookamunga, no Latin. The list goes on. Mater Dei, Latin, Santa Ana, but that's a different story. I'm here today because of these folks here, not because of us. I've had my time to study. that opportunity to learn what Mark Zuckerberg said was so intuitive to his mind, natural coding and mathematics. That's Latin. It's a logical structure. More importantly, it's the community that Latin fosters. Here we are on a 8 o'clock p.m. that we have young people together, not on their phones, not on social media, but they're together, they're here, they're here to support Lattin, they're here to support Ms. Della Cruz, and they're here to support the board. Previously, Lattin, a board member, described Lattin as a feather in the cap of Redlands High and this district. I believe that. That's one of the primary reasons that my family chose Redlands School District I thank you for your support in the Past of Latin program, and I thank you for your continued support. Thank you.

Up next we have Joshua O followed by Eric Harnden.

Good evening board. My name is Joshua, and when I get to Redlands High School, I will be taking Latin with teacher Della Cruz.

Next is Eric Harnon and followed by Isaac Gutierrez.

Hello, Board. I'm Eric Harnden. I have students that go to middle school and are going to Redlands High. And I'm here just to support the Latin group. And I just am letting you know that the parents of students that are not quite in high school are still looking forward to the opportunity to take Latin. And I'll yield my time to the rest of the students here that have more important things to say, I'm sure. Thank you.

Thank you. Unfortunately, we can't yield time, but the sentiment, thank you. Up next, we have Isaac Gutierrez, followed by Prashanth Gowda. I'm sorry if I said that incorrectly. You can correct me when you get up.

Good evening, board. I'm here to support the Latin. I am a Latin 1 student currently. I just got back from football practice. It just ended like 30 minutes ago. I'm here to say that I want Latin with Miss Della Cruz. I think that she teaches it in a better way than anything else would. I feel like she really reaches out to students and helps them in learning this sort of complex language. And I really enjoy the history of it. That's why I took it. I really enjoy it. And it's nothing without Ms. Stella Cruz.

Thank you. Rashanth Gowda. Thank you. I'm sorry. I just want to make sure I was being respectful.

My daughter takes Latin, too. Our home is in the Redlands East Valley, but we chose to go to Redlands High School primarily because she wanted to take Latin. And she was quite disappointed when she came home and said that there is a chance that she may not be able to take in-person Latin. Her argument was, if I want to take Latin by video or Zoom, I would rather take it like in any Zoom program, which is available online. And she says, I already have a COVID fatigue with Zoom. I don't want any more fatigue through my school. And I want to have that interest in learning Latin in person, have a relationship with my teacher, also develop some mentorship so that We know what to expect when they go to college. The second thing is, she plays volleyball, she goes to different high schools, and she reads the Latin that's written in the gym and sports hall, or the theaters, and she's excited about mentioning, interpreting those Latin words, and she shares those information with her friends. They're like amazed, oh, you're able to read that. We have no idea what those are. I mean, that means that fuels their excitement, the passion for them to learn more. They want to achieve more by learning those things. We want to encourage that idealism. I know we have lost some idealism, we have become more practical, but you want the young students to be more idealistic at this age. You don't want them to lose that at a very early age. I ask the board to strongly consider in-person Latin. Thank you.

All right, up next we have, I'm sorry for the late noise, Ron Thompson, and then followed by Kane Smith.

Pardon me. Good evening, board members. My name is Ron Thompson. I'm the parent of a sophomore Latin student at RHS. A couple of pragmatic points. Thank you, superintendent, for indicating that this is being considered. From a pragmatic standpoint, I think Latin is pretty rare. I think we're seeing it in other school districts that face it out, either because of interest or probably lack of being able to find qualified instructors, I think. RHS has a very qualified instructor. I think it's going to be rare to see students like this in support of such a program. So I'd hate to see something like that go away. I think the second consideration is that there are students that have invested in time. My daughter has invested two years, and she's looking forward to taking two more years. At first, I kind of questioned this, but she's probably moving towards the medical field, and I'm seeing a lot of background there that is helpful in that field. It's probably true in the hard sciences and communications and many other areas. I think there is value to this that is sometimes perceived as sort of a dead language or something of that nature. So I'd encourage you to look at it and hopefully it's something we can retain. Thank you. Appreciate your time.

Up next we have Kane Smith followed by Austin Terrain.

Good evening, board members. What I'm reading off my phone will be quite brief, as I do not feel to commit this message to a premeditated script full of dry language. I thought it would be most suitable to be from the heart and speak freely. I took Latin as a freshman and have done it for the past four years. I'm AP Latin and I have been reading Caesar and Virgil in unadapted texts. In Latin one, I met my peers around me, and I must admit I had never found a more better friendship and companionship in all of these people. In Latin, I have found I have more elevated diction, I understand English better, and I understand language itself better. Originally with English, I was a horrible writer and a horrible speaker. With Latin, I was able to understand how to write better, how to speak better, and how to have a better word choicage. It helped me a lot on SATs and AP tests for a lot of English words that are considered complex or derivatives of Latin. Words like laudatory come from the word laudat, which means praise. A lot of things that come from very advanced things are from Latin. In Latin too, we had the online learning. I learned a lot still during that time, but I felt it was unsatisfactory. It wasn't satisfactory. It wasn't enough because online, you can hide behind a screen, you can fall asleep, and play video games on your phone. In Latin, if you're in person, you have to be 100% focused. It's a complex language indeed, but the complexity of it brings out the elegance of it. Thank you.

All right. Up next, we have Austin Tremaine, followed by Ifatha Sanaga.

Hello, my name is Austin Tremaine. I'm an alumni of RHS and I took Latin for all four years. I understand Latin was never a class of high enrollment. I'm sure you guys are all aware. My first semester I found myself in a class of just 10 people and after a few weeks, nine after one moved away. That by all standards is a very small class to teach. But those of us that were in that class picked it for a reason. We didn't all just decide to go into some random foreign language. We wanted to learn specifically Latin. I know this to be true because of my original Latin class of the nine, all of us went into Latin two, six of us into Latin three, and five of us into Latin four or AP. We stayed not because we wanted some seal for being bi-literate, not because we wanted prestige of any kind. We stayed because we loved the material. But more importantly, we loved our teacher. We loved Magistra because she taught us all what we needed while still making us smile and laugh. The class never felt like a class. It felt never like I had to be there, but that I wanted to be. It was that, my Latin family, and it was my home. That environment fostered one of the best educations I received in all of my schooling. I understand that it has been said that the school board does not intend to remove Latin, and that may be true short term. But taking the step to bring Latin to a telepresence is the first step to removing it. Many others, as well as myself, have massive discontent with this, and it should be clear why. Latin is a difficult subject, there is no doubt about it. It requires a good environment to be taught in and to teach it properly. Switching to any online form of schooling for this subject is a surefire way to destroy this environment that Latin has fostered at RHS. Students will feel isolated. I would like to remind you that during my senior year, we were all adapting to a new norm. All classes for the first semester and part of the second were entirely online. Latin was not the same during that time, and I struggled to keep up during the online courses. For many, online schooling is a challenge. Pair this with a difficult subject and you're setting yourself up for disaster. Latin needs to be a hands-on look at the material, and that was something that Magistra could provide us in person, but not online. It's a poor choice to switch the subject to online at all. Once students' grades begin dropping, attendance will likely drop as well, and the school board will have more than enough reason to eliminate the class entirely. This will push Latin down a horrible path in the future. Even if your intention is not to remove Latin, this will likely be the first step towards it. Latin is a class about passion and love for the subject, not just being there to get your credits. It is undoubtedly only going to be made worse by the decision to keep it online. For the sake of the students at RHS, for the parents of those students, and for the legacy of Latin at RHS, I'm going to urge you not to follow through with this decision. Latin was the most influential class in my life. It should be for many other students to come too. Thank you. followed by Vessi Zelmanova.

Hello, board. Hello, everyone here. Thank you for coming. My name is Ifatah Sinaga. I'm an AP Latin student as well. I'm not as well-spoken as many of these wonderful people talking right here, but I'd like to speak for my reasoning for advocating to keep Latin in Rutlands High School. I've been her student since a freshman. Coming into this class, I was very inside of my shell and although I was very hyper and happy, but her being there as a teacher and as a community, it really helped evolve my own character and my own personality. I'm going in a few months, I'm going to be attending UCI as a political science major and for me I would have never imagined to move ahead in this step without her or without my fellow peers. Latin itself is a community that teaches us to be kind and loving and it teaches us a philosophy to really get to know one another and have compassion. DLC herself, she prioritizes community. I know in this community, we prioritize community and we prioritize diversity. We're taking away a diverse program from this school that motivates children, not just children, but teenagers, grown teenagers to go to school and learn. We want to learn. We want to learn Latin. We want to learn Virgil. We want to learn Caesar. We want to learn the grammar. All the quirky stuff that people say are dead and useless, but we ourselves consider it to be a vital thing in our life. Little has been communicated to us from the school, and we feel that we haven't been kept... We've been given surface level information. We feel it's unfair that you guys have not, not you guys, but the Rutlands High School has not given us information about why it's been taken out. There has been no student input nor teacher input about why this has been taken out. It's giving us questions and comments and we would like to not complain to you nor do we want to be aggressive but we want to make this peaceful and we want to come off as gentle and we can hopefully communicate things more Better, I guess. I don't want to come off as an attack, but I want to come off as a student expressing her concerns, especially as someone who cares a lot about her community. I've been an avid volunteer for this community at Rutland's Runs. I am the president of my Octagon Club and my Red Cross Club, and we deeply want to encourage students to always be there for another. So thank you.

Thank you. Up next we have Vessi Zalmanova and followed by Annabel Sue.

Good evening, board. I want to thank you for your time tonight. My name is Vessi Zalimanova. I graduated from RHS in 2001, and I took four years of Latin and passed the AP Latin exam. I'm a political science major at Crafton Hills College, and I'm the director of external affairs at my student senate. Last semester, I had the opportunity to intern for Congressman Pete Aguilar, and this semester, I had the honor to intern for our governor, Gavin Newsom. And I bring these accomplishments to your attention because each of my successes can be attributed to the four years that I spent in Magistra's classroom. Magistra Dela Cruz is an exceptional instructor. Not only is she passionate about the subjects she teaches, but she is caring and understanding towards her students. I was her student during the onset of the pandemic and remember how difficult online learning was for me and my peers. Sorry. While I'm sure technological knowledge among school staff has improved since that time, it doesn't change the reality that online learning does not offer the same conscientious and comprehensive level of support that in-person connections with instructors bring. Being a part of McGeester's class in person taught me public speaking skills, time management skills, and important communication skills, like knowing when to ask teachers for help. She's the only teacher who was able to make that impact in education in my life. And as for the subject itself, I could stand up here and list every possible benefit of learning Latin, but we'd be here until the morning. But I would say almost any career or any subject that you would think of pursuing can be noticeably bolstered by basic knowledge of Latin. Latin improves cognition, logic, and critical thinking skills. It provides a stronger understanding of the English language and serves as an inimitable foundation to learn any language, especially romance languages like Spanish. In preparation for this meeting, I read this board's governance policies. They include academic achievement for all students, fiscal responsibility and well-managed resources, fostering an environment that attracts and retains high quality employees, and providing opportunities for every student to participate fully. If you support the transfer of Latin into telepresence, you will not be advocating for the academic achievement for all students. Not all students have the resources or the proper environment to engage in an online course. This move would be discriminatory towards students who struggle to succeed online and would not be providing students the opportunity to participate in the course fully. If this transfer goes through, it would be a clear mishandling of the incomparable resources that in-person Latin classes offer. Not only does Latin offer students a significant intellectual boost in language and reasoning, the class provides them with important world history often not taught in detail in other high school courses. Lastly, this change will do the opposite to foster an environment that attracts and retains high quality employees. Magistra is a high quality employee whose class you are trying to make less accessible. Whether there are 20 students or two students enrolled in the class, they deserve the quality education of an in-person program under the administration of Magister de la Cruz. Thank you. And sorry, with my last like 10 seconds, I wanted to mention that I took class with Austin Tremaine, who is a speaker up here, and we took four years of Latin together. And I know so many of the students here who are my underclassmen. Thank you for your time.

Up next, we have Annabel Soon.

Hello, my name is Annabelle Sue and I'm an RHS alumna, class of 2022. In all my years of being in school, being in Latin is probably the one experience that has impacted me the most. I took Latin as well as served in Octagon Club for all four years of my high school career, ELC was my main supporter. I learned so much more in that class than I did in any of my other classes because we learned things about life, how to navigate it, and how to see things differently, whether it be through poetry or philosophy or just socializing in class. I'm now a music major at Cal State San Bernardino, and performing for a crowd is no easy feat. It takes courage and so much confidence, and I can honestly say that being in Latin, serving as president in Octagon Club for my senior year, and learning compassion for your community from DLC has taught me that it's okay to be myself, which gives me self-confidence, and that translates to giving compelling performances. I recently performed as a solo at Richard Nixon Memorial Library, and I wouldn't have gotten there without the things I learned from DLC. DLC cares so much about all our students and really puts a lot of effort into connecting with our students to Latin and make it fun. For example, she made us all these shirts. You can't find teachers like that anywhere. Not all teachers form this connection and this bond. Latin at RHS isn't just a simple class, it's a community. It's where students like me can be their weird, quirky selves with no judgment, because Latin as a language and as a culture encourages this type of personality. This community can't be created in a Zoom setting. In a Zoom setting, you can't learn leadership, compassion, and just being a good person to each other, like I have from DLC. I had to take Latin my junior year online because of the pandemic and because of this poor learning environment, I wasn't able to advance enough to take AP Latin. Learning through Zoom held me back in my aspirations for my academic career. I personally will never forget my time in Latin with DLC and all my friends. Thank you.

All right, thank you. So that is it for our speakers today. I want to thank everybody that came to speak for coming out. And when we get to the board.

Okay. You guys did an awesome job of speaking today and I appreciate you all coming. Can one of you come up to the podium and show off some Latin for us?

A stylistic thing in Latin, commonly in poetry, that is used in Greek and in Roman poetry. Commonly in Greek, though. Greeks write everything in a diatonic examiner to show that it's sung and performed in theaters and in plays. With the Aeneid, a main subject in AP Latin curriculum, everything is written also in hexameter, that way it can be sung and performed. The opening line of book one, line one in Virgil's Aeneid book one, where it begins with the prologue of the story's settings is, That means, I seen of arms and a man who first came from the shores of Troy and exiled by fate.

Thank you for that, and thank you, Alex. Okay, it's now time for board comments, so I'm going to start on this, and Mr. O'Neill.

Well, thank you very much for coming tonight, it's great to see. I think I see a Bryn Mawr student out there too, so I don't know which one. Yes, okay, there she is. It's nice to see you again. I want to just congratulate our retirees tonight. This night's about them in a big way. And thank them for their dedication and their service to our students and our schools.

Okay. Patty?

I want to thank our students for coming out tonight, Redlands High School. I'm also an alumni many years back. I went up to Spanish three, that's when we were able to go, so I understand your language. I'm also Catholic, so we had Latin mass when I was younger. And it changed after Vatican II, so thank you for being here today. I'm sure we'll be talking about this. I want to congratulate our retirees. Thank you for your hard work and dedication to our students. And I'm sure that you left some students, many, many students with warm thoughts and memories that will take them with them on their journey along as they move on. And then lastly, I just want to wish all the mothers and guardians and foster mothers and dog moms and cat moms a wonderful, restful, and peaceful Mother's Day. I miss my mother every day. So have a great day, mothers. Thank you.

Michelle?

Good evening.

Good evening, everyone. Thank you again for taking time out of your day to come to our board meeting. Just want to let the students know that I, too, took Latin in high school. My school only allowed you to go to the second year. We didn't have a teacher that could do anything higher. But it really helped me through the years. And like Patty, I'm also Catholic. And when we get to a Latin mass and I understand a lot of it, it's pretty exciting that I remember some of it, because I don't remember anything I learned in Spanish. And I also want to send an apology to the Air Force Junior ROTC students at RHS. I missed mentioning you in my report a few weeks ago. Thank you so much for bringing the color guard to perform at the opening flag salute at the Wizards game in April. You are all appreciated very much. And once again, the Inspire Choir concert was awe-inspiring. Listening to the students from RHS, Moore, Smiley, and Cram sing their heart outs just makes you remember that it's truly all about the kids. A huge thank you to Cindy Van Horn and the rest of the paraprofessionals and all the volunteers who helped with the Inspire Choir. Thanks for your efforts in teaching these students to love music. If you haven't attended one of the concerts, I encourage you to go to the next one. You will not be disappointed. I was able to attend the morning session of the secondary school's equity team's training. And I want to thank Dr. Sharina Bedders and Juanita Watkins for including me in this important work. I only wish I'd been able to stay longer. It looked like it was going to be a wonderful day training our teachers. I want to thank Betty Crocker for allowing me to tag along with you and CNS on the farm to school garden field trip at Andreas High School in San Bernardino. I was impressed with the hydroponic garden. and what the students there are learning from farming, business, management, sales, and more. Hopefully we can bring this kind of program to RUSD. Maybe it's a new CTE career pathway. Today, I participated in the Rethink Your Drink at Rev. Thank you to Robert Clary and Shauna Camper for supporting this event that's put on by Child Nutrition Services and the San Bernardino County Department of Public Health. Thank you to KCAL Radio for being there, and to Betty, Richard, Josie, Carly for making this such a wonderful afternoon for the students. Most of the students that I spoke to were really happy to be able to fill their water bottles with fresh filtered water every day. Many were not even aware that REV now has six hydration stations around their campus. Thanks to Jason and Joe Williamson for your help with the funding and obtaining the necessary equipment as well as the installation. I want to give a special congratulations to my friend Julia Smith at REV on her retirement. Although she officially retires at the end of July and wasn't included in this group tonight, I wanted to give her a special mention. Congratulations to all our retirees this year. Wow, 1,540 years of total service to Redlands Unified. You are all our heroes. And as always, I want to thank everyone who came to speak to us tonight. I'm glad that you feel comfortable coming to speak at our board meetings. I appreciate your dedication to advocating for all students in our wonderful district. We take your concerns and ideas to heart, and I wish everyone a happy Mother's Day.

Thank you.

I want to give a shout out to all the retirees. Congratulations to all classified and certificated retirees. Best wishes and thank you for your lifelong commitment to educating our students and we truly appreciate your service. To you students, I'm at awe with the way you presented yourselves today. You did an excellent job of preparing your speeches. And I would like to see if there's any possible way of maybe coming up with some kind of transportation. of having the Citrus Valley students and REV students driven to RHS. So that way we have a good enrollment amount of students enrolled. And that way we don't, because I do believe there's a huge difference in presenting and having a class in person. then having it online, it does make a huge difference, and I know what you're talking about. And you have shown us by expressing what your teacher means to you. And if that's the case, then we need to try and figure out a way of making it happen. But if you can look into it to see if that's a possible solution or if you guys can also think of other out of the box ideas to make sure that we continue the Latin program that we have at RHS. And we extend it out to our other comprehensive high school students and even our Orangewood students that would like to probably participate in it. Thank you.

All right, well, I have a nice little hodgepodge. I wasn't going to say anything tonight, but apparently I have a little hodgepodge of different things that I need to talk about. Really quick, I just want to make an announcement. In CIF baseball, Rev won tonight, 6-0 versus Palm Desert, and will host San Marcos in the Division III quarterfinals on Friday, so go Wildcats. Great news there. I want to thank the Latin students that came out. I see a lot of familiar faces there, and see even some surprising ones. I'm pretty sure I see Emma back there. So I want to thank you guys all for coming. I know it can be kind of scary sometimes, and I know for the ones for our alumni that are returning, I know it can be a little inconvenient. But it makes a difference and we appreciate your showing so thank you for that. I want to congratulate all our retirees. It's an amazing feat and your years of dedication to our students is not going to notice and we thank you for that. There is nothing like a good teacher and I'm sorry that we're losing so many. And my last is I want to wish everybody a happy Mother's Day. It's not just, you know, those of us with screaming kids that are probably yanking on us and annoying us, but it's also grandmas and single moms and also grieving moms. You know, I mean, there's so many different types of moms out there, bonus moms, stepmoms, even chosen moms. So please make sure you thank the mom in your life. and let her know how special she is. So I want to thank you all for coming out tonight, and we'll see you next time. The meeting's adjourned at 827.