Board of Education — August 8, 2023

Alright, I'd like to call this meeting to order. Thank you for coming tonight. We're going to start off with the Pledge of Allegiance. Everybody please 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.

You may now be seated. Please note for the minutes that all board members are present with the exception of Board President Ayala Quintero and Mr. O'Neill, who are absent this evening. Our next item is the approval of the minutes. Is there a motion to approve the minutes of the July 11th, 2023 Board of Education regular meeting? I move. Okay. Okay. 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. And we do have one person. Okay, before we start, so this is the time that any member of the public may address the board on any agenda item before or during the board's consideration of the item. provided the person submits a completed registration card to address the board form to the clerk of the board or his or her designee prior to the time of the chairperson calls the item for the board's consideration. This is not meant to be a debating period. Complaints and problems relating to the policy matters will be referred to the superintendent, To address the board shall, when recognized by chairperson of the board, step up to the podium, microphone, and announce his or her name. And the chairperson shall, in the interest of facilitating the business of the board, limit the amount of time which a member of the public may use in addressing the board to three minutes, unless the chairperson or majority of the board determine that the different limit is appropriate. So we have here, Dale Broom, come on down. I feel like you're the next contestant on The Price is Right.

I just had a question about this. It's in section 15, subsection I, regarding educational services, member event, understanding between Redlands Unified School District and University of Redlands. And I guess what I just would like to ask some clarification. This is regarding developing a comprehensive school-based mental health program. And the question I wanted to pose them that just because I don't understand all the details of this is what it will be the scope of this mental health services that will be provided to students and will this cover gender transitioning counseling and then also what to what degree is their parental notification or parental consent that's being obtained. And that's if anybody could answer that or if you're able to at some point I'd appreciate it.

Thank you. Somebody will be emailing you with some updates on the questions you had. Okay, now on to our public hearings. Public hearing on the Board of Education 2023-2024, initial proposal to the Redlands Education Support Professionals Association. The public hearing is now open. Is there anyone who would like to comment? Nope, all right. The hearing is now closed. Public hearing on the Board of Education 2023-2024, initial proposal to Redlands Teachers Association. The public hearing is now open. Is there anyone who would like to comment? Nope, okay, hearing is now closed. Moving on to presentations, let's begin with Mrs. Fee, our Director of Expanded Learning Opportunity and Early Childhood Education Programs, who's going to give us an update on the universal pre-K and expanded learning opportunity programs.

Hi, good evening to our esteemed board members and to Superintendent Cabral.

Thank you for allowing me to come back and just share some exciting updates.

I am planning to just go ahead and go through the UPK and the expanded learning. And then if you have any questions at the conclusion of that, I'll be happy to answer questions if that's okay. So I just want to share, I have a lot more on the slides that I know that you have handouts so that you can ask questions regarding the information. I am going to be brief as I have been given a very short amount of time to speak tonight. because I could talk about both of these all night. I love the fact that we get to support kids in both of these capacities. So first we'll talk about universal pre-k or you might hear it as UPK and that is an umbrella term that's becoming widely used in the state of California and the purpose of that term is really to indicate that we are just offering more and more opportunities for our three and four-year-olds here in the state of California and so The way we are offering that here in Redlands is through our state preschools. We do have three state preschools currently in Redlands who serve three and four year olds. And then we have our transitional kindergarten or TK as we often refer to it. And that program serves four year olds. So I do want to share what the updates are regarding state preschool and TK. So state preschool is an eligibility or income eligibility program. So it's either free or a low-cost program for families who do qualify through income eligibility and a few other factors. They are hosted at Franklin, Lagonia Elementary School, and at And it is a three hour program, so less than half of a day, but a good amount of time for those kiddos to be there. Our transitional kindergarten program serves our four year olds, and this is available to all four year olds regardless of income. It is offered at all 16 of our elementary schools. And it is a little bit more than three hours a day, more like three hours and 20 minutes daily. We do have an early session and a late session for both state preschool and for transitional kindergarten. What's really new about TK now and what's been up and coming is they have extended the age range or the birth date range to allow younger and younger students to start participating in the TK program. And so the reason for that is they want to make it equitable to state for more and more four year olds to have that early education free of cost, but not having to qualify for it through eligibility of income. So our district has followed the guidelines to ensure that we are bringing on more of those kiddos. We have expanded the age range for this coming school year all the way up till June 2nd of 2024. So if we have a child who turns five between September 2nd, meaning they're not eligible for kindergarten, if they turn five between September 2nd all the way to June 2nd of 2024, they're eligible for TK. With that change, we are seeing mostly three-year-olds in our state preschool program and predominantly four-year-olds going into our TK program. This year, because of that change, we have added several more TK classes. So last year, we had one transitional kindergarten class at each elementary school with the exception of two, where we had two classes. This year, we have now expanded our program so that we have two TK classes at all but two of our elementary schools who still have one. We already, as of last week, were up above 100 more enrollments than we had even at the end of last year. So we are excited to see more and more of our kiddos having that opportunity to start their education early. Our next program that we get to offer to our families and to our students is Expanded learning opportunity program and that is Been branded in our district as exploration experience and the reason for that branding is to give just a name to it that really does give meaning to what we offer our students after school and the way we started last year through the Grant it's not even a grant. It's a program a five-year program through the state of California is a We brought, in addition to ACES and YMCA, which are after school programs that serve our families, we brought Exploration Experience to five of our elementary school sites and are offering opportunities with certificated teachers and classified staff focused on STEAM activities that extend their learning, very different than what they have experienced during the school day. In addition to that, We have added those extra opportunities at the middle school because we serve TK through sixth grade. That includes an additional 30 days per school year, and it does include a nine hour day for students. There is eligibility for these programs or for the ELOP program. Our targeted student groups would be students who are foster, homeless, or low income. However, we have opened it up to students in our district, all students, if we have the capacity at a school site and as long as we still have the funding. This year, we have expanded after doing a lot of collaboration with stakeholders. We held an ELOP work group. We reviewed surveys from families and students and staff from various school sites and worked on a new calendar for this year and used all that information to expand our program. to three additional elementary schools. These are some pictures of some of the places and activities that our kids have been doing. So this year, we are starting tomorrow at additional three schools. So now we will have this focused exploration experience at eight total elementary schools. We already have Anywhere from 150 to over 200 students registered at all of those schools and that is in combination with our aces Program or aces opportunity. We have decided this year we are blending that program so that it isn't ACES versus exploration experience. Instead we are partnering together and offering varied opportunities for all students who attend at those schools. We continue to have YMCA at our other schools where we have not quite branched out yet with the exploration experience model. And then at our middle schools, we have added Boys and Girls Club this year. They were the middle school that did not have an ASIS program. And we have also added Boys and Girls Club to support our transitional kindergarten as an opportunity, since they are half-day, as well as any other half-day kindergarten in our district. And then finally, we are working very closely with AAA Academy. Who is sponsored through the redlands educational partnership foundation and they are part of our expanded learning as well Hopefully I met my timeline and I am happy to answer any questions that you might have Very good.

Denise. Do you have any questions just to comment?

I'm glad to see extended to June 2nd from the April date That's going to please a lot of the parents that are out there. Yes. Thank you. We

I just have one thing. What are the additional schools that you added this year?

So this year we added Bryn Mawr, we added Crafton Elementary School, and Kingsbury. Thank you. And again, those were the next three schools that really have the highest population of the student groups that this program is actually intended for.

I just have seven questions for you. No, I'm just kidding. Just one. Go ahead. So due to the new TK age change, are students still required to be potty trained?

No. And so that is a challenge that we are working through and we are training and offering support and in fact, we have a partnership that's going to be helping us better support our Staff on how to navigate kiddos who might come to us with potty training needs So that's a whole new area for our TK teachers.

Yes, so are the TK teachers or aids

It's our paraprofessionals, so each of our TK teachers have support from at least one paraprofessional that's specific to TK support. In addition to any other paraprofessionals we have, as well as our healthcare technicians who can support with that as well as needed.

And since they're going to have to be maybe some of them, hopefully not a lot, are you guys looking into purchasing proper equipment to place a student to, I guess, change their diaper?

Yes, so we are kind of aligning what it looks like in our state preschool and our RC special ed preschool classes where if there isn't a changing table, we follow the guidelines where there is a changing mat. There is sanitation afterwards if necessary, meaning if we have to utilize a mat instead of a changing table. But that's in the works as we move forward with lots of littles.

Because that's going to be a big one. It is.

Yes, it is. But I would love for any of you to come visit our expanded learning, our exploration experience. Probably not tomorrow, as we're just trying to figure out how many kids really are showing up and working on our staffing right now.

All righty. Thank you. Great job. All right. Moving on. Next we have Julie Swan, Director of Secondary Education, here to speak about the summer school programs.

Summer school. Exciting. It's over now as we start the new year. Good evening. Really excited to have a chance to share some numbers with you. I haven't had this chance for a couple years now. So you'll see several sets of data in comparison data with the years.

Sorry, I need a clicker.

So we're going to be talking about summer school, both high school and middle school. And middle school, a lot of it is connected to the ELOP, and we'll get to that. We'll start first with our high school. We're doing both credit and grade recovery, as well as credit advancement. It's in person. We require all the students to be there. And then we also offer dual enrollment, which a little later in the year, as far as our summer school. Our summer school runs from June 14 to July 21, or did run. And dual enrollment was actually from the first week of July till August. So it's site-based, in-person, obviously. And I say in-person because we use an online program. And so what we found over the years with using our online program not in-person is that our kids don't have as high completion rates. They struggle with completing the courses. So we required them to actually come in-person for the online program this year as well. So I'm just gonna throw some numbers up here at you. He has three years worth of data here to show you how we have changed over the years. A lot of it is the increase of accredited advancement as the years went by. Really big numbers changes in special ed prior to COVID or the pandemic and shutdown. We did not have special ed courses in summer school. So we have since added them every year and those numbers have increased as well. So for this year, we offered at Citrus Valley offer 21 courses for 421 kids and with a completion rate of 97% for credit recovery. Credit advancement was nine courses with 219 students and a 99% completion rate. And as you can see, they offered 12 courses for special ed as well as and had 21 students participating two years in a row, which is an interesting number with an 86% completion rate. REBS numbers, a little bit lower, but still a high level of success. They had 15 credit recovery classes for 380 students and a 93% completion rate for credit recovery and credit advancement with six courses for 199 students and again, a 99% success rate. Special ed rev really picked up the numbers or course offerings for special ed kids this summer. And they had 15 courses and 58 students that participated. Their completion rate isn't quite as high, but we're really excited to see that many special ed students having services in the summer as well. And we're not talking our traditional where we offer to our mod severe students a summer program. These are more of our inclusion students and our SDC students that are in summer school. Oops, skipped. All right, just 23 classes for 477 students and a 97% completion rate for credit recovery and advancement with 13 courses with 338 students and a 99% completion rate. Again, high number of special ed as well. And even OHS had summer school, had 12 courses with 194 kids, which is actually really high for them. And not quite as high completion rate, but OHS offers a, they do, every three weeks is a grading period. So these students did get to get some credits, just not the complete course. So there's your district-wide data. Overall, our credit recovery rate, completion rate was 75%, with 71 classes, our credit advancement, 28 classes, with a 98%, 756 students with a 98% completion rate. And again, overall special ed numbers, 103 students this morning, this summer with 43 classes. One of the things I noted in there, add some colors so you can see the different years and you can kind of look at The purple was in person prior to COVID, obviously. 2020 was completely virtual at home. 21 was a hybrid, some at home, some in person. And then of course, last year and this year. Our dual enrollment program had 78 students participating in three courses this year, similar to last year. As well as our standard credit recovery and credit advancement opportunities in dual enrollment, we also had some camps going on. So I want to make sure that we do a shout out for that. We had students that went to UCR for an engineering academy. We had high school students who went to, again, UCR for artificial intelligence camp. They were at the University of Redlands for the Are You Ready Conference with one of our highest numbers recently in the last few years participating, which we have 98 students who were there. for two days. Band camps, we had 64 students at RHS for the new member, and then 121 came back in July, last week. For REV, they had 64 students, and then they had three different opportunities for those students. worked, preparing for the year. The next one will be their weekend in Pilgrim Pines. And then finally at C.D., we had 52 students June 26th through the 30th, and then 100 students July 24th through the 28th. For middle school, we had boot camps and enrichment going on, along with ELOP. And let me explain that again one more time, make that connection. What Denise was talking to you about as far as ELOP in middle school is just sixth grade. So as part of that process, we're offering the extra days for our sixth grade. They had the extended day, they had ACES on campus and doing all that stuff, in addition to four hours of summer school with the teachers on campus. So they had two different opportunities. We offered transportation and nutrition, and they took two classes a day at the middle schools. Total numbers, you can see there, we had 122 students participate. 10 classes this year it was collapsed to just two sites based on just lack of Interest in participating so the numbers were low so reduced it to two the two sites that had the highest number And then we moved the kids from more inclement who didn't have it over there You can again you can see the numbers there And then here it is broken down over the years for each individual site. Clement had 15 kids joining Beatty for summer school. Clement also hosted C-STEM boot camp, or C-STEM coding camp for the summer. So they weren't without students. They had students there all day as well. So the C-STEM at Clement, some of our middle school kids went to UCR for robotics, and then there was one music camp at Beatty for 16 students, and that was part of their summer school program as well. That's it. Just an opportunity to share the numbers. Summer school has changed quite a bit over the last five years. Seems to be a little bit different each time. We seem to be, we feel very confident that what's happening is being successful and we're having a lot of kids complete credits, which was our, obviously, our commitment across the board since since COVID, right? Since the shutdown, our students struggled a little. So the state's made some efforts. You guys have been very gracious in trying to support our students. And so we've really put a lot of effort into making sure that summer school was another opportunity for them to make up those credits. Any questions?

I have a question, just job well done by all the teachers at the camps and Summer School for Credit Recovery and our credit advancement. Kudos to all of them.

Really proud of all the sites because they all hosted their own summer schools. It was really good.

I have a few questions. Could you put it back on the district-wide data?

For high school and middle school.

Yeah, for high school. okay so um you know what let me go back because i want to i want to reference her can you go back to the we'll go to this one right now but the other one i want to go to is or let's just go to uh citrus valley So if I'm reading this correctly, so there's 21 courses, 421 students enrolled. Class average would be about anywhere between 20 and 25 students. And I noticed that that's the same pattern with all of the high schools. So we have a low class size, which is great. It's 20 or 25 to 1. now can now can you go back to the other other data the district yeah the district-wide data so and i go back and i'm looking at the purple which is 2019 when it was prior to the pandemic and the students are going to class and they're not doing anything digitally it's a teacher teaching them If you look at the class average there, the class average there is over 55 to 1. And then you look at the completion, we're at 76%. But then you go up to 2023, the class average is about 20 to 1, and the completion rate is 75%. To me I see that there's a huge discrepancy in students. There's more students and then there's less students in the class but yet we're getting the same results where if the students are being taught by the teachers and not using a computer that it seems like we're getting better results and there's more students in the classroom. So moving forward, are there any plans to revisit how summer school is taught at the high school level? And the only reason I'm bringing it up is because at our last board meeting, there was a parent that was complaining about how we were teaching the classes during the summer. So my question is, what are the plans for next summer school? Seeing how the data, it truly impacts. There's a huge difference in having the teachers teach instead of the students using a computer to teach themselves.

So how I would answer that right now is that no, we have not sat down and looked at the data and made a decision to make any changes for next year. Not that we won't do it, but it was just two weeks ago, so we have not got there yet. I do want to make sure that I share that every math class, credit recovery math class, was in person. So they got all math instruction in person this summer. When I reviewed the grades where the students struggled, we had some students who were not successful in the in-person math classes as well. So I think we had six kids who did not complete, if I'm correct. Depending on the school site, I guess I should say, because that was one site. There are other classes that were in-person, ELD, PE, Art. There were some that weren't on the computer. So they weren't all on the computer. But no we have not looked at that data yet, and there hasn't been that discussion We're we're prepared to do it either way We don't have to continue with the online program if that says the district we want to make that decision to do that But I think that you see with credit advancement the students do just fine on the computer

Right right with credit investment because those are the the babies that just want to get ahead and you know They have all the all the tools but the babies that we need to help that are you know? Need to earn that credit recovery to make sure that they graduate So I did the numbers if we have 75% so 25% that means you know 436 students Didn't get to you know complete the credits that they needed You know, so that's a huge number to me if we can minimize But there's always a balance. I I think we need to have maybe both programs available but in the future if you Can look at you don't want to say something can't go ahead

I thought I might add a clarification and Ms. Swan can confirm, but 71 classes at 1747 enrolled doesn't mean that there was 71 teachers that had 20 kids each. A lot of those classes are duplicated by a teacher, so one teacher may be teaching four or five classes on ingenuity at a time. So the 71 divided by the 1747 doesn't mean that that's the teacher to student ratio. Is that correct, Ms. Swan? Yeah.

Right. So then you're including all of the sections.

Yeah, where in 2019, there was likely 23 teachers that taught 1,532 kids, individual classes of kids at 50 to a class. Right, right. So we still may have 23 teachers teaching 50 kids or 40 kids at a time that just the classes themselves, like English 9 semester 1, English 9 semester 2, with the same teacher, it looks like 71 divided by?

like you're doing right but but still based on the numbers we see that the sections have less students than we did in 2019 but one teacher may have multiple sections at a time they can't like one teacher could have you could be teaching English 12 English 11 and English 9 all the same time you couldn't do that in person So that's the part of the timeline.

And I understand that, but what I'm saying is that not all the students learn the same.

Oh, you're absolutely right.

That's why we made sure math was the most important. And I just want to make sure that we reach even these 436 students to maximize the ability for them to earn the credits so that way we make sure that they graduate. Especially now with the additional funding that we're getting and we can have lower class sizes.

So- If you were actually to pull that data and look at it as well, you would see that that completion rate, that completion rate is all four schools. And so if you looked at each one, I think you'd have to look at each school, too, when we look at what courses were offered at each individual school. So there's more to the analyzing that data that we would need to do.

And I got added to the idea, one of the things that I think was great that all of the math classes, because that's where the kids struggle the most, Throughout the United States is math. So for us to have a teacher actually teaching the students from math, I thought that was a great idea. I'm glad you mentioned it and that we are doing that. So that's awesome. But thank you. I don't have any further questions. Anybody want to add anything? No. All right. Thank you, Julie. We have no student trustee report this evening, so let's move on to the associations report. Is Susan Apt here this evening? All right, come on down.

Good evening, school board trustees and Superintendent Cabral and cabinet. Tomorrow is showtime. It's the most exciting, terrifying day for educators. It's probably the thing we look forward to the most. And at the end of the day, we'll collapse onto our couches. But it will be all worth it as we greet our students and start our year. But I'm going to try to keep this short because we all need to get home tonight and get some sleep for the big day. We are excited. We are hosting a meet and greet for our superintendent on Thursday at the RTA office. Unfortunately, our office is not so big that we can open up to the community. But luckily, I'm sure you're going to address that. There is one on Wednesday for the community here at the district. We are also hosting a new educator dinner on August 31st, and for the first year we are going to be doing a new educator breakfast. to meet our ELOP teachers that start a little bit later in the day and can't necessarily go to a dinner, but can definitely enjoy breakfast before they go to work. I had the privilege of visiting every principal, with the exception of one, and that will be on Friday, will be our last one, to talk about their goals for this year and how the association can work with them and their staffs to meet those goals. And our motto this year is, when we work together, we succeed together. And finally, I'm going to take a point of personal privilege, if you don't mind. I have always been part of my children's PTAs, and this year, I have the honor of being selected by CTA to be their ambassador to the PTA for the state. And that is all I have for you this evening.

Redlands Education Support Peer Professionals Association, Liz Huerta Brewster.

Good evening, board members, Superintendent Cabral, and cabinet, and guests. Our classified staff have been very busy this summer with various trainings. Our grounds crew had a hands-on training with Toro on August 2 at Cope Middle School, and inside the class training with Keenan. Our safety officers had two trainings last week. One was held at Citrus Valley, and the other one was held here in the boardroom. I want to thank Joe Williamson and Gary Coopersmith for inviting me to participate. I learned a lot. Things I didn't even know. CNS kicked off the new school year with their annual multi-district opening year meeting with Harupa Palm Springs, Colton, Rialto, Upland, and Morongo school districts present. Guest speakers included our Redlands' very own Juanita Watkins, coordinator of diversity and equity. She touched on building relationships from a place of love and not passing judgment based on external circumstances. There was also another keynote speaker, Manny Feinberg, who connects his outdoor adventures, such as rock climbing, to meeting realistic goals in the workplace, such as focusing on major outcomes, commitment, and building momentum in servicing students. And every single one of them got in and out, which I'm sure that just made them all happy. Food just brings us together. Our clerical staff had the opportunity to participate in training offered at the district office on various days. Paraprofessionals had training on de-escalation IEPs at a glance amongst other topics this morning at REP. Transportation went back yesterday to do their yearly bidding on route assignments which I had no idea the process and I appreciate Apolonia letting me sit in on those. Our classified staff are the heart of the district and I want to thank every single one of them for their hard work and their dedication to our students here at Reynolds Unified School District. Thank you.

good evening board superintendent cabinet colleagues and community members um tonight we do not have a big report for rapa because we have not had our first meeting for the school year however i did want to extend my gratitude on behalf of rapa to every single Department here to get us prepared for tomorrow to welcome our students We had our back-to-school night just earlier today. Mrs. Rendler came so we loved having a board member there Superintendent Cabral came as well. So that was absolutely fantastic to our technology team to all of the directors who have come to support at each school site. We are eternally grateful. All of the administrators really appreciate the support, and we have the best team here in Redlands, and we are so grateful for that. So at the next meeting, I hope to have some updates from each department. But right now, we are just excited to welcome back everybody, all of our students, and all of the families tomorrow. So thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. moving on to board committee reports will start with cry rob and We have a meeting next week, so I'll have an update then redlands compact

Yes, compact clubs will be starting at each school. I think Citrus Valley is still looking for an advisor for their club. I will check on that one. But the fall mixer is set for October 12th at the Burge Mansion. And the dinner mixer will be February 15th at the Orton Center. So more information on that coming. And that's all I have.

Redlands Education Partnership?

The meeting is next week, so I don't have anything.

City of Redlands Parks and Recreation.

And that meeting is day after tomorrow, so I'll have more update for after that.

And Mr. O'Neill's not here for the other. So next we have the superintendent's report.

Thank you, again, just want to echo thank yous to everybody who has us ready for school tomorrow. Schools look great, did get to go to Franklin, great turnout and also went up to Mentone who's having back to school night, or I think it's over by now. And that was a lot of fun and look forward to all the back to school nights we have this week. Also want to tell all the kids at home, go to bed, you have school tomorrow. It's going to be a great day. I'm so excited. It's day one for me in Redlands and I'm just super excited about tomorrow. Also need to give a shout out to my son. He is starting his first day as a PE teacher in a middle school at a different district tomorrow. So he needs to go to bed too. Meet and greet, yes. So tomorrow, my goal has been to meet as many people as possible. And tomorrow in this boardroom at 4.30 is a chance to meet the new superintendent. 4 o'clock, sorry, thank you. 4 o'clock tomorrow. Anybody who would like to come by, it'd be great to meet you if we have not already met. And that'll be tomorrow for the entire community, open to everybody. Thank you so much.

Thank you, Juan. We'll now continue with the superintendent's recommendation under business services consent item. Is there a motion to approve items 13A, consent items B through AA? Can I have a motion?

Move. Second.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Chair votes aye and so ordered. All right. Approve the revised 2023-2024 Board of Education meeting dates. So moved. Yep. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Chair votes aye and so ordered. Adopt resolution number 8, 2023, 2024 authorizing the Assistant Superintendent of Business Services to make applications for and to sign certain assurances with respect to the applications for local, state, and federal programs, projects, or grants. Authorize Jason Hill, Assistant Superintendent of Business Services. to sign related documents on behalf of the board. Is there a motion?

Move. Second.

Those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Chair votes aye and so ordered. Move on to consent items under educational services. Is there a motion to approve items 15A, consent items B through A?

So moved. Second.

Those in favor say aye. Aye. Chair votes aye and so ordered. Moving on to educational services action items. Let's go ahead and take items A and B together. Is there a motion?

So moved.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Chair votes aye and so ordered. Moving on to consent items under human resources. Is there a motion to approve item A, consent items B through AY? So moved.

Second.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Chair votes aye and so ordered. Okay. Moving on down. Certificated established position and approved job description for teacher on assignment special education inclusion effective August 9th, 2023.

So moved. Second.

All those in favor say aye. Aye. Chair votes aye and so ordered. Certificated approved resolution number 7, 2023-2024, action regarding teaching outside credential authorization.

Moved. Second.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Chair votes aye and so ordered. In closed session, the board took action to appoint Kerry Kevitt to the position of credential specialist effective August 9th, 2023 at step three of the management team salary schedule with the following vote. Houlihan Renler Vara voting aye. We do not have any discussion items, so we will be moving on to the community input portion. Before is, is she here? I'm sorry. See, I'm just, Carrie, where are you, Carrie? Come on down, Carrie. Any family here? All right. Did you want to come up and say anything? Or do you want to say anything from your seat?

But I just thank you so much for everything, all the support, the things that made, I appreciate it.

It's been such a wonderful journey in this district and I appreciate being able to begin a new chapter. Congratulations and welcome. Okay, so now we don't have any discussion items, so we will be moving on to the community input portion of the agenda. I'm going to skip the part that I need to read and we'll just go straight to the cards here. Let's see, yes. We do? Okay. All right, here we go. 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 determine that a different limit is appropriate. All righty, so we have Dale Broom, Dr. Dale Broom.

Thank you school board and superintendent. My name is Dale Broom and I'm with the group Awaken Redlands and we have submitted formal complaints on eight school library books and we've received a response letter on July 26 from the high school principals whose committees reviewed five of these books and found them acceptable to be retained within the libraries, particularly the high school libraries. These books describe graphically teenage prostitution, rape, child rape, incest, sex trafficking, sex for drugs, teen fornication, sadistic and homosexual sex acts, and pedophilia. One book openly promotes teen transgender treatments such as cross-sex hormone therapy and surgeries. without adequate warning to our teens about the complications that can result. I'm absolutely shocked that our principals in this school administration would allow these books to remain in our school libraries. I have appealed their decision for district review and I would highly recommend that this committee include parents who do not work for the school district because if you work for the school district that's a conflict of interest. Even the committee commented as they reviewed these books that they do contain sexually graphic material, but it was not overtly graphic or arousing to an average person or sufficiently provocative or the book did not endorse or romanticize dangerous sexual situations. These comments sound like that of post-menopausal women who have no sex drive. How in the heck do they know what is provocative to a teenage boy? They felt that the overall value of exposing teens to this down and dirty exploits of sex trafficking, incest, rape, and pedophilia far outweighs the harm that teens might experience by reading these books. They have no understanding of the long-term harm of exposing teens, particularly teenage boys, to pornography. Porn can be so addictive and destructive to young adults that they have difficulty in dating and marital relationships. This leads to spousal abuse, divorce, and isolation. Nearly every pedophile or sex trafficker first engaged in consuming soft porn. and which eventually led to a lifelong addiction to porn and even child pornography. Tim Ballard, who is portrayed in the current blockbuster movie, Sound of Freedom, commented that the main reason that we're having such a huge amount of sex trafficking is because of open borders and exposure to porn on media and in the internet and school and public libraries. So I want to also just urge you to reconsider that decision and pull these books. They do not meet even the RUSD policies regarding school library books and I would urge you to sit down and compare that with the policy that has already been written. And finally, these do not really have any significant literary or artistic value. They are indeed exposing our children to porn. Thank you.

Thank you. Michael Paysner.

Hello, my name is Michael Paysner. I hate to state the obvious, but at this point it simply needs to be said. Redlands loves explicit book readings. Explicit book readings are happening in the most unlikely of places, like here at previous school board meetings. Now, I'm not a fan of explicit book readings myself, but unlike others, I don't judge. If that's your thing, okay. The problem is this board's got work to do, and these readings are taking up your valuable time. So I have some suggestions for you. If you are fans of explicit book readings, and maybe you are, I suggest you hold an extra meeting each month exclusively for those who love to come here and do explicit book readings. Everyone who's a fan of that activity can come and make a whole night of it. However, if you are not fans of explicit book readings, I have another suggestion. A while back you had a wonderful librarian come and explain the process for how a parent can manage their child's reading material. Considering the comments at the last meeting, it's obvious some people either can't find the library or maybe they have a phobia of libraries, I don't know. But they obviously do find their way here and clearly they're capable of reading. So I suggest you make a quote unquote reasonable accommodation for them. I know a compulsion to read explicit book passages at school board meetings technically isn't a disability. Since this compulsion obviously kicks in during school board meetings, let's have a librarian here with a laptop and the appropriate forms. She can set up a table. When someone's compulsion kicks in, they don't have to be embarrassed. You can tell them it's okay, we understand. We've made an accommodation for you, just see the librarian. And one more thing. No matter how many times the small but vocal extremist group comes here and performs their little stunts, don't ban or restrict access to books, particularly books by Nobel Prize-winning authors like Toni Morrison. I actually have a copy of the book, The Bluest Eye, here in the room with us. And I'd like it noted in the minutes, even though I'm holding this book up for all to see, not a single person here has burst into flame, been struck by lightning, or turned into a pillar of salt, as they suggest. Seriously, this book has some passages that are difficult to hear because it explores difficult topics from how we define beauty and ugliness to why people hate and how we survive trauma. This book can also promote empathy, which is perhaps why some people feel so threatened by this book. It doesn't have all the answers, but these are topics that are important to explore and discuss, and our kids are going to have to deal with these topics whether we like it or not. If you haven't already, you actually should read this book. I urge the board not to ban or restrict access to any books. Recognize calls for book bans for what they are. A small piece of a larger agenda by a vocal minority trying to impose their religious beliefs on all of us. Thank you.

The following email was received for public comment for tonight's board meeting and will be reflected in the published minutes of the meeting. Rissa Owen Turner regarding inclusion. It's time for board member comments.

I want to wish everyone a wonderful school year, 2023, 2024. I hope you were able to have some rest and some downtime this summer. It's great to see everyone here and have a great year. Thank you.

I went to the CNS opening year meeting. Our Redlands CNS department, they collaborated with six other districts. It was another phenomenal meeting. The whole day was wonderful. Betty Crocker, seeing her in action for the last time here in Redlands. Betty, if you're listening, I'm going to miss you a lot. And also went to the C-STEM. It was the last day of the C-STEM at Clement. The projects that our students built, they were nothing short of amazing. Seeing these students helping each other problem solve and come up with solutions should have made all the parents there and the teachers very proud. And thank you Deepika for the invitation to that. Today I also went to Franklin with Juan. And thank you, Dr. Acosta, for showing me around and letting me see the classrooms. It was wonderful. Also went to Mentone this afternoon and got to see some of the classrooms. Hadn't been to that school in quite a while. It was really nice. The San Bernardino County Library was there and they handed all these little paint, little pallets to kids. It was pretty cool. They had lots of fun things. to do the kids when they're walking around the school. One thing I want to shout out to our operations maintenance and operations department. You guys are amazing. All of the grounds at both those schools look beautiful. So kudos to all of you. And that's all I have. And have a great first day everybody tomorrow.

Thank you. I just have a few words. I just want to let all staff, classified, management, teachers, paraprofessionals know that all of the students are excited to come back to school tomorrow. It's going to be an exciting day, but that can only happen because of your hard work and dedication and preparation for our students tomorrow. And I hope you all have a wonderful and safe day. And we're going to have a great time together with the kids coming back to school. So everybody's looking forward to tomorrow having a big start. Hope you're all ready for it. And we'll adjourn the meeting at 754.