Board of Education — April 23, 2024

Okay, I'd like to call this meeting to order at 604. Thank you for coming tonight. Let's start off with the Pledge of Allegiance. I'll go ahead and lead the pledge. 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. Okay, you may now be seated. Is there a motion to adopt the agenda?

So moved.

Second. Did you get that?

Carrie Ann, you got it?

Okay. Thank you. Discussion? Opposed? Chair votes aye and so ordered. Alrighty, so we're gonna take roll. Patty's here.

Here.

Jim. Melissa. I'm here. Michelle. Present. And then Ethan. Present. Alright. Alrighty. We don't have any minutes tonight, so we will move on to public participation. This section of the agenda is meant for any member of the public to address the board on anything that falls under the jurisdiction of the Board of Education. So public participation, we have two speakers. Paul Blatchley.

Good evening board members, Superintendent Cabral and cabinet. My name is Paul Blatch and I live in trustee area five and I'm speaking to you as a concerned high school parent. So I spent 13 years in the Redlands Unified School District as a student and now I'm finishing 31 years as a parent. Before I leave this 31-year relationship, I have things I need to say in order to leave with a clear conscience. So here's what I think parents need to know. If your kid is neurodivergent or different than most kids in some way, it's likely they will be bullied by other students and unfortunately by teachers as well. Both my older students experienced both of those. If this happens to your student, look for alternatives outside of this school district. If you stay, get an advocate and take the district on. Your student is entitled to FAPE, Free and Appropriate Public Education. The district has deep pockets, $45 million in settlements, show they'd rather pay than change. For a district that has a goal of equality through equity, it's surprising that none of the schools are equitable. There are good and bad principals and good and bad teachers throughout the district. In elementary school, you're likely to have a conversation with your student about only having to put up with a bad teacher for a year. And if your student's in middle school or high school, just one hour a day. Why does the district have bad teachers and principals? Because they think they don't. Even if they did, they're powerless to do anything about it. The arrogance of the board, the district, and school sites is a real barrier to positive change. Other things that aren't equitable, the homework policy is inequitable. Some teachers assign a lot relying on parents to do the teaching. Some do their jobs and assign little. If you're stuck with a teacher that relies on homework, your student will be robbed of a work-life balance. Parents with kids in extracurriculars or sports know what it's like to deal with this problem. The district does a pretty good job of teaching rudimentary math and reading, but you're taking your chances beyond that. If you pay attention to the presentations made to the board, you know the schools that are performing and the ones that are not. Perhaps as a result of great teachers or an engaged cohort of students, we could find out if the district would just swap out the staffs from high-performing schools and put them in those lower performing schools and let's see if that makes a difference. But my students, having attended some of the high performing elementary schools, I don't think it's the teachers that are making a difference. At any rate, there are schools that are clearly superior. The district may be doing things to bridge the gaps, but it's not obvious in any way that it's going to make a difference in your student's school career. The district is obviously focused on being a feeder system to the California University system. So their focus is on the 30 percent that will go on to four-year colleges. If you're a parent of a student accepted to a university, you're likely to spend 100K or more on college. So it's big business to be continued. Thank you.

Thank you. Olga Romero.

Good evening board members. My name is Olga Romero, and I'm a parent of a student that attends Redlands Unified. And today I came to speak about the $7,000 that the board wants to approve. The EEBG, according to the California Department of Education, is a grant that can be used for a variety of things, like training, development, or purchase of specific items. I understand that it's a state grant and the funds do not come out of RUSD's budget. However, out of all the things that the funds can be used for, you board members seriously believe that a content creator-motivational speaker was the best option? Why not use that money to offer it for training for our paras? Why not train our paras, since a lot of them lack for no fault of their own, skills to deal with a lot of our special education students. Hiring a motivational speaker for one hour at a cost of $7,000 is absolutely absurd. Now before my time is up, I do want to take a minute and thank you Mr. Cabral for the changes that you have implemented in our special education. It doesn't go unnoticed with us as parents. I want to take the time to also say thank you for listening to us, for taking time and setting up meetings with us, hearing us, hearing our concerns. It's really nice to finally have someone on the board that we feel that we can count on. Unfortunately, us special education parents have been ignored by the board for many years. many board members just don't see what we see that you do for us. And I just want to take the time to say thank you. I know a lot of the times we come up here and we're very heated and we're very passionate, but I really do appreciate the time that you took to listen. And not only listen in the beginning of the school year with me, but actually see those changes. With those changes, I can see in special education students are changing, they're developing, they're learning. And I thank you because I know that a lot of it has to do with you. The rest of the board tends to ignore us and really just sit up there, listen and smart and laugh. But Those $7,000 I really do believe can be used differently. And in the future, if you have already made up your mind that you are going to hire this motivational speaker, in the future it would be nice for you guys to take some time and really look at the programs where they're lacking and where some staff could use training and use that money for that. Don't take the grant as just free money and let us spend it on useless things. A motivational speaker is really not going to do anything. will help not only them, but it will help our students. Thank you.

Thank you. Tricia Killian.

Hello, my name is Tricia Keeling. I've got two kids in the district and I don't have anything written. I just kind of wanted to respond to some of the things that were said earlier. It seems like some of the complaints that were made about the district in particular in terms of succeeding schools and schools that don't succeed, a lot of those issues are statewide, nationwide, and have to do with the realities of public education as a whole. socioeconomic realities has a lot to do with the way a school can succeed. I always encourage every parent I know to be involved, go, join a PTA, volunteer in a classroom, all of those things will help improve a school. And the other thing was in terms of the $7,000 motivational speaker, I understand that there are team building exercises and motivational things that are important for staff development. So I trust that you have made the correct decision there. And I wanted to thank the board for encouraging and continuing to do proper staff development. So thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, student trustee report tonight. Our student trustee is from Redlands East Valley High School. Ethan, we're glad you're here. Take it away.

Okay, so starting off with our friends at E Academy. Their knowledge fair was a big success and had a great turnout. Looking towards upcoming events this Thursday, they will host their prom at Yucaipa Performing Arts Center. And on May 23rd, E Academy will present their annual drama and choir showcase at the Blackstone Theater. On a personal note, I've worked that all two years that I've been at REV, and it's always incredible. And they have a lot of great talent among their students and staff that work to make that happen. I will advocate for vapid staff whenever, but at E Academy, it's really special, so. Moving on to Orangewood. Orangewood recently celebrated Earth Day with fun themed foods and games to tie in with a holiday. Orangewood Avid is taking a field trip to Catalina to learn about marine conservation. And they hosted their annual fire fair to allow families to visit and see what's going around campus. The event had a great turnout. Soccer season at Orangewood just started. The girls' team has dominated, winning both games so far. Moving on to RHS. Last Saturday, RHS hosted their prom at the Classic Golf Club in Palm Desert. Also last Saturday, their winter percussion ensemble took second place at state finals for their division. And this Friday, RHS Speech and Debate will host their showcase at the Grace Mullen Auditorium at 4 p.m. um, they also Thoroughly enjoyed their in and out that you approved at the last meeting. That was a very specific note in there Um, such as valley high school, uh cv cvs last rally of the year was held on friday The black hawks had a great time expressing their black and gold spirit. That was ran by elena Cv swim has finals this friday and cv baseball has playoffs this wednesday against ukipa for the sbl championships The Blackhawk Theatre Company will be playing on their spring musical, The Addams Family, this weekend and next weekend. CVS Theatre always does a great job. Last show was when I met Jim for the first time. It was at Mamma Mia when he sat behind us and then bought us raffle tickets. So, always special there. Over to my home turf at Redlands East Valley. The Career Center is hosting a Career Options Fair this Wednesday featuring hiring employers, military recruiters, job resources, college and training programs. Our instrumental music program will host their annual movie night this Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m. This is a fan favorite event each year. This year's theme is the music of video games. The band plays alongside live clips of games or movies and it's always really fun and the guard gets involved. This year they're doing a little Just Dance bit with the audience. Also on the topic of instrumental music, a special shout out to our winter guard, which took home fourth place in their division finals last weekend. And then closing out for REV, our annual possibilities prom is next Friday, May 3rd. This is a great opportunity for our special ed students, so a big shout out to all of our staff and student volunteers that work to make that happen every year. a couple of general notes the reason this one is so short today is because state testing is upon us and There's not a lot happening But we're all exhausted. It's just not a lot to talk about So, uh this week is cast and cast testing for seniors and juniors and then we're less than two weeks out from ap testing. So busy time and then finals, I counted 32 school days left from today until end of semester. So, exciting times. So, that's all.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, board committees. Go ahead.

from compact Sergeant de Selms Redlands Army recruiter was the career speaker for the club Members learned about the bronze silver and gold certification process There are three students from our HS at our HS getting their certification this year Thank you to the fire and police associations for the donations to the senior scholarships applications and essays were due to mrs. Leonard and The recipients will be announced during the Compact Awards Night, which is on this Thursday, the 25th, at the Burge Mansion. It begins at 6.30. Compact co-sponsored the fifth grade essay contest titled, Why You Think Living in America is Great. And there were 335 essays turned in from fifth graders. Mock interviews for the RCAP students will be held next Tuesday, the 30th. And that's all for compact. I do have a report for rep just a quick one Okay, so for Redlands educational partnership. I want to thank everyone who came out to the Harlem Wizards game against the rep rebounders It was a really fun night portion of the funds received go straight to rep and Intern they go directly back to our schools to support teachers and students. So Deepika played Ken played a lot of our teachers played. It was a really fun night So if you missed it, you can come next year.

So and that's all I have for that Question Michelle The essays for So that's a lot more than last year.

The compact students went to some of the elementary schools and talked to the fifth grade classes.

This is the second year, right? Do they have enough judges? They did I guess didn't say okay because they didn't ask me to judge I offered all right Wow okay, that's great great news and then part of that not really the part, but Thursday is the Back towards compact awards right okay?

I do have a little bit of an update for CRIROP. Um, as you know, CRIROP is our Colton, uh, Redlands, Yucaipa regional occupational program. And they have, um, students in our, uh, programs at various schools, not only in our district, but in Colton and Yucaipa as well. So there are actually a few openings that they have for the upcoming school year that I kinda wanted to, um, Announce so that you know, we can get these positions filled. So hopefully, you know these programs start off at the beginning of the school year and They are administrative assistant one Classified substitutes a CTE aviation teacher. That one is really important just because we have our aviation program starting at rev so if you know someone a retired pilot, this is something that's right up their alley a CTE ROP nurse assistant certified teacher and CTE ROP video game design teacher, long-term substitute teacher for an NAC program, a student data technician, and testing proctor, and that is an on-call position. So hopefully anybody that might know somebody, or maybe if you yourself are looking, you can contact ROP to see if that would be a good fit for you.

Thank you. Go ahead.

I have one comment regarding Cryop, as I went, as the alternate. They had a class, the sign language class, did a fundraiser, and they saw a silent movie, so the movie was completely silent in sign language. And it was an hour and a half, and it was their fundraiser, and they did really, really well on it, and I want to commend them and the club for that American Sign Language.

Okay, so now onto board comments. Patty?

Okay, I attended the bike classic. It was nice to see so many familiar faces. I know I saw Michelle and I saw Mr. Cabral was there as well. And then also I want to congratulate publicly to Scott Welsh, who's one of the big supporters and been there for a long time and the leader of the bike classic. I know it's a lot of work and I appreciate everything that he did. And it was great to have Redlands High School Heart Academy and RHS Avid and CRIROP, our own CRIROP, and Citrus Valley come out and attend EMS Day, which is our emergency medical service day at Arrowhead Regional Medical Center. And thank you to Dr. Ken Wagner and Dr. Jason Gangle, our CRIROP superintendent and staff who attended as well. EMS Day is when our docs and our sheriffs and police work collaboratively to demonstrate and teach our children, our students, how the two entities work together. The canines were there. We had demonstrating how they search for suspects. The halopad had helicopters from San Bernardino County and private medical transports, although this time we did not do any rides this time. But that was a result basically of a December 2nd what happened in San Bernardino County. The tactical team really promotes this event and trying to educate our future students in their roles as a nurse or doctor police and our keynote speaker was sheriff Dicus Shannon Dicus and he did a great job and I want to thank everyone who was there I attended the fundraiser for Reynolds bench warmers an organization who supports all our USD sports for over 60 years Mayor pro tem Barrage was the person who was the guest of honor who was being roasted and And I want to thank Mr. Cabral and Mr. Morris and Michelle and Sabine Robertson Phillips for attending there. I know that Michelle had to leave for the other event and so did you for rep, so you weren't there to see the roasting, but it was good. But I do want to give a shout out to one of our alums. Jalen Phillips who is our Redlands East Valley alum and he also plays for the Miami Dolphins He donated a jersey that we had signed the he signed number 15 and we were able to raise $1,500 $1,600 on that Jersey, so I think that we should send a letter to thank Jalen. Would we please send him a letter? I think it would be great on behalf of the benchwarmers and the board. I think that was awesome. Yeah, so please consider supporting the Redlands benchwarmers. They've been there for a long time. I was actually a member for over 10 years, and it's a great organization that helps all women, all men, or girls and boys, everyone in the district. And then just as on a side note, I want to publicly thank Mr. John Best for being with us. I know he's accepting, or not accepting, his retirement tonight. But he's been with us for a very long time and I just want to thank him for everything that he's done. We'll miss him.

Thank you, that's my report.

And the reason why I have tennis shoes on today is because we had a tour and I didn't want to change shoes. So, if you're wondering.

Jim? Joe?

So good evening, everybody.

I want to thank all the principals who scheduled the bike team visits a couple weeks ago. The teams had as much fun as the students did during the assemblies. And because of those assemblies, we were able to register over 450 kids to come out to race on Saturday. And for the eighth time Judson and Brown got the trophy of the school duel for elementary school and Moore and Cope actually tied for the middle school high school trophy. So I want to just congratulate everyone who participated or who volunteered at the race. And a special thanks to Brian Zander for his time and effort to make this a successful part of the bi-classic every year. I had the pleasure of attending the Teacher of the Year awards at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints last week. The five recipients, Haley Sembrono Johnson from Clement, Paul Devaux from RHS, Ashley Tiedemann from Mentone, Julie Mendoza from Mission, and Martha Gonzalez from Moore Middle School. You are all amazing educators and our families are fortunate that you chose RUSD to call home. Last Friday, I went to RHS to watch the 2023 daisy chain and ushers bring the top 60 students in the 11th grade at RHS as the newest daisy chain ushers for 2024. They listened to inspirational speeches and a heartwarming speech by one of their favorite teachers, Mr. Paul Devoe. Lunch was served and information about their responsibilities during graduation was given out. After that, I went over to Rosalba Schlesler's room to watch the reclassification celebration lunch where they celebrated over 20 EL students at RHS who qualified, which is a big feat. Rosalba and her team do a lot of work with these kids, testing them. helping them throughout the year. Um, congratulations, uh, to all the students for your wonderful achievement. I'm very proud of each of you. Your hard work has definitely paid off. And, um, I got to watch a basketball game at, uh, I watched sixth graders play. At first, I- it was Beatty and, uh, Clement. No, Beatty and Cope, and then Moore and Clement, right, Wes? Um, but those games were really fun, so I'm looking forward to going to see Moore. And that is my report.

Melissa.

Okay, I have a really quick one. I want to thank Jim for inviting me and my family out to the Kiwanis breakfast. He was cooking for us, and my son declared them the best eggs he'd ever had in his life. I did ask Jim later on about what was in those eggs that was so special, and they come out of a carton. So that was a special note for my son, so I know I'm buying eggs in a carton from now on. I also want to thank mr. Rawl for Having us for the last superintendents awards for the year and I also want to thank Carrie Ann for doing everything She does for that because she's the magic behind the scenes and also our principals for hosting Having us all those nights to come celebrate our students It's it's a really great event and I really appreciate you for for doing that and Thank you to Ethan for throwing that 32 days at me because I have 32 days left of my senior this year and I was looking at my calendar and I was trying to cram in all the events and there's days that we're spending a lot of time together. And some of those days are double booked, triple booked. It's just a soak in the moment kind of thing and as much as you guys are, you know, fantastic, I am not looking forward to spending that much time together, but this is where we are. So 32 days left, people. It's kind of one of those scary things when we're talking about how many Fridays until Christmas. But this is where we are and I'm looking forward to it. Thanks.

So I'll be really quick. I don't come to all the meetings, but I do watch them all. And a couple of meetings ago, someone was talking about Prop 28 money, and specifically mentioned Blackstone Theater. And considering that's kind of like half my thing, I thought I would yap a little bit about it. It was a really big push from Emerald and our performing arts AP, Mr. Krutz. But the plan over the summer is to rewire the entire theater lighting system to support LED lights because currently we are still traditional lights, which are very Expensive to replace and uh heat the building a ton. So we blast all six of our air conditioners all day And i'm sure that's not cheap. So the plan is to push that money towards rewiring over the summer. It's already planned. It's booked. It's In the system, uh, our new light board already showed up We can't use it because none of the lights work for it, but it's there. It's ready to go. It's happening It's behind the scenes. So no one knows yet, but it is happening that money is being spent. I also know some of that money is going towards photography classes that Rev is getting next year, towards actual film development, which is kind of cool, which I didn't know we were getting, but it's fun. So I was watching the live stream, and I was like, dang it, I wish that was the one meeting I went to so that I could go and say that. But now you know. Besides that, I got to tour the packing house with you all earlier, and that was really fun. And thanks for inviting me, and I will shut up.

Good job, Ethan. By any chance were you part of the planning to developing the plan on how we were going to spend the Prop 98 money at REV?

Well, it's like, of our technical theater team, we kind of all just know what needs the money the most. So it's like Emerald who works with, Emerald's our wonderful, wonderful theater technician. Theater operations director is her full title. And she works there every day and she knows exactly what needs it the most. Blatchly was right, our sound system does need some love, but it's one thing at a time, and the light system is still from opening day at Rev versus the sound system which has been replaced. So that took priority for us, also because it costs more behind the scenes to replace the current system. But yeah, that was something that was really important to us, and when the money came through, we were like, well. The theater is a natural place for it because all the performing arts use it versus if, you know, just funneling it into choir or funneling it into in future years, that money can go there versus right now it's going to everyone in the space that we all use, so.

Awesome. Ethan, you're very articulate, you do an excellent job of speaking. So maybe you can help me if I get stuck, okay?

That's thanks to our, you know, I started kindergarten a year late because of my speech impediment, so that is entirely thanks to our speech therapist in the district. From like, because I started at Franklin, and then all five years I was at, all six years I was at Crafton, was with Miss Villalobos mostly, but a lot of them came and went over the years, and it was not this good then, so. Good job Ethan, thank you.

I'm gonna I'm gonna steal this comment from Patty because earlier she reminded us about an administrative professional day tomorrow So all of you principals that have secretaries cabinet members that have secretaries Want to make sure you take care of? Carrie Anne for us and Angie. They do an awesome job of taking care of us and everything that we need. So just so you know, lunch is on us by three one, okay? So Earlier today there was a comment on on speakers and seven thousand dollars being spent on speakers There's this one speaker a lot of speakers that cost ten to twenty thousand dollars so seven thousand dollars for a speaker is is not very expensive when it comes to providing professional development and And, um, many times we do not get all of the management personnel. Um, I love you, mama. My little girl, just, bye. So many times we it's rare and it's only twice a year that we get all of the management staff together in one location and in order for everybody to hear the same message I think it's important for us to be able to utilize funding to provide a professional development especially for all of our management leaders. Um, uh, because we don't all get the same message at the same time and, um, with everything that we are dealing with as educators, um, and I'm talking about certificated, I'm talking about classified, uh, management, um, uh, things are different. They are not the same, um, things are not the same as they were five years ago, uh, before the pandemic. There's just a bigger need for all of our students and we just need to make sure that we are providing our supervisors enough information at the same time to uplift them so that way they can also uplift our staff. So just so that parent knows the reasons why we're spending that money for speakers. I also attended the superintendents awards last week. I think we had over 200 students awarded. And I also attended a fifth district reflections event in Etiwanda. We had three of our RUSD students that made it to state finals. So hopefully once we get those results, we'll be sharing it with the staff automatically. The three that were referred get Golden State medals just for being referred to the state. So it was awesome to see a large group of Redlands Unified School District students being presented at the Fifth District Reflections Award. And those are all the comments I have for today. So anybody else have anything? That's it. Okay, so superintendent

Thank you so much good evening everyone I Heard you mr. President. So I've been directed to buy McDonald's tomorrow for my staff Just plain. Okay $7,000. Yes. Thank you for saying something about that because I I do want to assure everyone we have professional development money that is going to be spent on all of our employees and And that includes already plans for paraeducator training and safety team training, some of which is going to happen over the summer. The money that is set aside to fund any kind of training for administrators does not impact the money that we have for paraeducators and for our safety team and for other classified divisions that we have plans for. As well as training that we have for our certificated staff And so it is an opportunity. I do understand though that it is a lot of money But it is something that we look at very closely and we do not take lightly because every dollar that we spend must be value added to the team and we feel like That is what we are doing With that recommendation that the board will decide ultimately tonight whether or not we move forward so thank you for mentioning that and I just want to make it clear there are already plans and There is no impact to the training that we have planned for our classified folks and our certificated folks in the upcoming year I'd like to say thank you to everybody for your participation superintendents awards this last one We did have over 200 students recognized and it was it was an excellent event Harlem Wizards. I've already signed up to play next year Thing is I have to start stretching now to be able to play full court basketball And so I needed at least a year in advance. So I'll be out there with dr. Wagner. I think we can take them They're pretty good though

I think Ken thought he was getting off if you decided to play.

He was cheering on and as soon as you said he'd join you. Third quarter. We're tagging in. I think you were tagging in.

That's right. Bike Classic. It was my first experience in the Bike Classic and the call time for helping was 6 a.m. So I was there at 6 a.m. I should have got there at 5 30. Work started earlier than that. I felt bad. I'm like, oh my goodness, I'm late. And I gotta say, Mr. Zander, who is a phenomenal teacher, if you have not seen him over at Judson and Brown, the work that he did for this bicycle classic, phenomenal. We had almost 600 of our students participate. And you should have seen these kids racing. It was awesome. It was one of the best things I've ever seen. And they had to go uphill. Nobody really seemed to care about that. I was like talking about it all morning. These kids have to go uphill, but it was pretty awesome. So Mr. Zander, great work. I look forward to next year's. I Talked about systems day. I want to say welcome to our new principals who are going to be announced here in a little bit And I'm not going to be able to say anything just yet. But no Welcome to the team and to your families also. I then on a personal note I will be at the U of R at 5 p.m. on Thursday because my son is getting his master's degree and he is going to participate in the ceremony at the University of Redlands and I'm super excited for him and for us and so if you're looking for me on Thursday evening at 5 o'clock that's where I'll be at the football stadium celebrating my son and then afterwards we'll probably be at McDonald's celebrating Chuckie cheese. Yes. Thank you. That's all I have Ready?

Thank you case. Thank you Juana next we have Dr. Wagner will be recognizing our system administrator. That's it

Thank you, President Vara. I'm actually going to invite up our coordinator of student innovation Deepika Srivastava to give you some information on C-STEM and to recognize our C-STEM teacher and administrators of the year.

Good evening, President Vara. Superintendent Cabral, members of the board, members of the cabinet, and distinguished guests. Tonight we will recognize C-STEM, 2023 C-STEM educators that were awarded by University of California Davis in October. But before we do that, I want to give you a brief summary of the C-STEM program in Redlands. In 2019, Redlands Unified engaged in a system-wide innovative approach to integrate coding and robotics to increase mathematic engagement and achievement in the classroom. And we have grown this program from two teachers and one school in 2019 school year to now six elementary schools, four middle schools, three comprehensive high school, and one online academy. The C-STEM program in Redlands has been awarded the 2023 Golden Bell Award by the California State Board of Association for closing the opportunity gap, achievement gap, and skills gap that exist in math and computer science education. So tonight we are here to celebrate our awardees. The first one is Lydia Tekin, the 2023 C-STEM Educator of the Year Award. Ms. Tekin has been instrumental in growth of her C-STEM over the last three years at Smiley Elementary. In Ms. Tekin's C-STEM math class, you will assuredly see students ambitiously running and testing their solutions to math problems using coding and robotics. She's determined to use C-STEM to remove barriers so that all students can learn and be successful in math, and she has demonstrated success and achievement for all students in her classroom on 2023 CAS. So Ms. Tekin, we are also joined

Can I say something really quick? I actually know Lydia. I've known Lydia for years and I can't tell you how big her heart is, how amazing she is, and how hard she works for our district. And I specifically asked her to bring her kids today because I wanted them to see how proud of her we are.

We are also joined by Lydia's three children. I would like to invite them for also the photo. They've been patiently waiting for their mom to get awarded. And the principal, Miss Cynthia Slaughter, who's here, will take pictures for you.

And this is very well, of course.

Her husband is still driving. He's a jeweler. Can we also have Miss Robinson Phillips and Mr. Hill? Can you join us?

Ready, one, two, and three. One more, one, two, and three. Thank you all so much. Oh, yeah.

The next we have Laura Shea as the 2023 C-STEM Educator of the Year Award. Ms. Shea is a sixth grade C-STEM teacher at Moore Middle School. Her commitment to preparing students for successful pathways in mathematics through the C-STEM curriculum and innovative teaching strategies is evident in her outstanding performance and remarkable growth of her sixth grade students. She had two students in her classroom that maxed out the math cast force in 2023, and almost every student grew and tested, met or exceeded the standards in 2023. Tonight, she's not here because she is attending her son's graduation, so we will have our RTA rep, Ms. Susan Abt, to accept the award on behalf of her.

Come on.

And finally, we have Dr. Patel as the 2023 C-STEM Administrator of the Year Award. Dr. Patel has been a champion for elementary C-STEM program and teachers. Under her leadership, Victoria Elementary School now offers multiple grade levels of the C-STEM program, in addition to math intervention supports to students using C-STEM program. And the school grew 14 points on the 2023 CAS math assessment. Tonight, she is occupied with something at her school site, so we will have the Director of Elementary Education, Ms. Jean Joy, accept it on her behalf. Thank you, Board. Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you, Deepika. Right, moving on to the superintendent's recommendation, business services consent items. Is there a motion to approve item 14A, consent items B through O?

So moved. I'll second.

Thank you. Discussion?

I have a question, yes. So when they do obsolete vehicles and then they either give them to the auto shop? That's how it goes, right? We give them, Ken? Jason?

When we, when we, uh, we set the vehicle. Yeah.

They go to the auto shop?

We offer them to the auto shop.

Yeah, well, what if they say no? Then what? Then we discard them. Oh, you do. Okay. That's all.

Right. All those in favor say aye. Aye.

Aye. Aye.

Aye. Opposed? Chair votes aye and so ordered. Okay, now going on to consent items. Okay. Is there a motion to approve, um, under educational consent items, is there a motion to approve item 16A, consent items B through E? Moved.

Second.

Thank you. Discussion? Nope. Okay. All those in favor say aye.

Aye. Aye.

Chair votes aye and so ordered. Okay, moving on to action items under educational service. Adopt resolution number 28-2023 through 2024 Education Support Professionals Day, May 21st, 2024. Is there a motion?

Move. Second.

Thank you. Discussion? Can we have that read out?

Read that resolution. Out. Kind of special.

You go, Jim. Careful what you ask for. I think it's important. Whereas education support professionals in the Redlands Unified School District include paraprofessionals, school secretaries, custodians, bus drivers, technicians, maintenance workers, and many others who make our schools run smoothly, safely, and professionally, and whereas education support professionals are on the front lines of public education, supporting children to reach their highest potential, and whereas education support professionals strengthen our schools by the work they carry out every day with a dedicated and caring nature, and whereas the Redlands Unified School District education support professionals are, more often than not, from the local community vested in our schools and actively participate in community and school activities. And whereas the Tuesday of the third full week in May has been designated Education Support Professional Day by the California legislature, whereas the observance is an opportunity to thank education support professionals for dedicating their professional lives to our children. and whereas the occasion is not only a chance to honor education support professionals, but to encourage more young people to plan careers in education. And whereas the board urges members of the community to let education support professionals know how much their hard work and dedication is appreciated, now therefore be it resolved that the Redlands Unified School District Governing Board joins with educational agencies throughout the state in proclaiming May 21st, 2024 to be the 2024 Education Support Professionals Day. Thank you.

Good job, Jim. Thank you. Is there a motion?

We already did. Oh, we did that? We're voting now.

So are we second? We're voting. Did you get it? First and second? Okay. All right all those in favor say aye. Aye. Chair votes aye and so ordered. Okay adopt resolution number 29 2023 through 2024 day of the teacher May 8th 2024.

I moved. Second. I'll second but I would actually really like Jim to read this one out.

Thank you very much. It'd be my pleasure. day of the teacher. Whereas teachers in the Redlands Unified School District are conscientious, well-qualified professionals. And whereas assisting children to reach their highest potential is a demanding career requiring dedication and a caring nature. And whereas eminently qualified teachers are needed for the schooling of a well-educated citizenry. And whereas the free public education available to all Americans is essential to this nation's democracy. And whereas a second Wednesday in May has been designated Day of the Teacher by the California Legislature. And whereas the observance is an opportunity to thank teachers for dedicating their professional lives to our children. And whereas the occasion is not only a chance to honor teachers, but to encourage more young people to plan careers in the classroom. and whereas the board urges members of the community to let teachers know how much their hard work and dedication is appreciated and urges students to consider teaching as a career as well. Now therefore be it resolved that the Reynolds Unified School District governing board joins with educational agencies throughout the state in proclaiming May 8th, 2024 to be the 2024 day of the teacher And my anniversary. Interesting.

It's not in the resolution.

It's not in the resolution.

OK. We had a first and a second, correct? All right. All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Chair votes aye and so ordered. Is there a motion to approve items 18A, consent items B through V?

Did you do C through E first? C through E. On action items, C, D, and E?

O-L-A-N-C-E-D-N-E. Okay, so under educational service action items C, D, and E. Can I get a- All righty. Can I have a motion to approve education service items 17 C, D, and E?

I'll move. Second.

Alright, discussion? No? Okay. All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Opposed? Chair votes aye and so ordered. Okay, thank you. Now moving on to human resources consent items. Is there a motion to approve items 18A, consent items B through V?

So moved.

Second. Discussion? No? Okay. All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Opposed? Chair votes aye and so ordered. Alrighty, next. So We're going to read out a closed session. In regard to public employee appointment part of the agenda, I would like to report the following. In closed session, the Board take action to appoint Wes Cullen to the position of Principal Redlands High School effective July 1st, 2024 at step four of the management team salary schedule with the following vote. Ayala Quintero, Holahan, O'Neill, Renler, Vara voting aye. Wes is back there. Wes, can you come up and introduce yourself and anybody else who's here with you?

Thank you, everyone, board and executive cabinet. I really appreciate this opportunity. I'm so thankful and honored to be selected for this position. I'm here with my wife tonight, Carolyn. She's an elementary counselor in our district at Kimberly Elementary. Both of our kids go to Kimberly. And I kind of know the sub-principal at Cope right now, who's running the ship over there. He's probably in the parking lot watching the live stream right now to see this with my kids. He's babysitting right now. I just really appreciate, I got a call yesterday morning to interview with Executive Cabinet this morning and went back to work and stared at my phone for four hours until Sabine called at 1 o'clock to say I got the job and she said, make sure you have a staff meeting at 3.15, which I did, and make sure you're at the board meeting at 6. So here I am and I really appreciate it. And do I ask for money now, Jason, for facility improvement? No. We'll do that later. Thank you again. I'm very, very honored. I appreciate the opportunity.

Congratulations. In closed section the board take action to appoint Michael Lava to the position of elementary principal Cramb Elementary School effective July 1st, 2024 at step one of the management team salary schedule with the following vote. Ayala Quintero-Hollahan, O'Neill, Rendler-Vara voting aye. Is Michael? Come on up, come on down. Come on down, introduce yourself and anybody else that came here with you.

Thank you. Good morning, or good morning. See, it's been such a busy week, I can't even figure out what time of day it is. Good evening and thank you board and executive cabinet. I am Mike Lava. I've had the good fortune to be here as assistant principal for the last two years, both at Highland Grove and Arroyo. I am extremely excited to be part of the CRAM team. In fact, I'm wearing my CRAM Cardinals red tie tonight. Very excited to get started. My wife was not able to come tonight. She's very busy with family obligations that could not be delayed. So I'm very appreciative of the district here. Can't wait to get started. And I look forward to a wonderful time at my new location at CRAM. Thank you.

Congratulations. In closed session, the board took action to appoint Esther Tamanaja to the position of elementary principal, Bryn Mawr Elementary School, effective July 1st, 2024, at step three of the management team salary schedule with the following vote. Ayala Quintero, Houlihan O'Neill, Renner, Vara voting aye. Esther, is Esther in the house?

Good evening, Redlands board, cabinet, and community. It is my pleasure to meet you and be named as a new principal of Bryn Mawr Elementary. I come to Redlands with 19 years of experience in education, nine of which was in administration. I also bring a sense of passion and dedication to serve diverse and underserved population. I am the only child of immigrant parents. My father being third generation farmer and a carpenter. And my parents, like many immigrants, came to America with the hopes to give me a better future. And they worked two to three jobs, day and night, to make ends meet. But they knew, even with very little education, that school was the only hope for me. and luckily in school I was able to find great mentors one of which was my third and fourth combo teacher who taught me how to read and speak English and instilled in me a passion to read and then later on my principal who mentored me when I was going through a really rough patch in my personal life so then naturally I became an English teacher and then later on a principal hopefully to be able to pass on being a mentor to others as I once received. So whether we, and I'm a testament to great mentors in education and that public education does provide access and opportunity for students. And whether we sit in the classroom or in the boardroom, we all play pivotal roles in the lives of our students. And so I am excited to bring that passion as a new principal of Bryn Mawr Elementary. Thank you so much. I have my best cheering squad, my children and my husband with me as well. Thank you, have a good night.

Esther? Esther, I just wanted to thank you for sharing that with us. I also really want to thank you for allowing RUSD to be a part of your parent's vision for you, so thank you very much.

Congratulations, Esther. Okay, so we have no discussion items this evening, so we'll go ahead and adjourn the meeting at 7 o'clock.