Board of Education — May 7, 2024

Hey, thank you. I'd like to call this meeting to order at six o'clock. Thank you for coming tonight. Let's start off with the Pledge of Allegiance. Everybody please stand. Put your right hand over your heart.

Ready, begin.

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.

Is there a motion to approve the agenda?

So moved.

Thank you. Discussion? Student trustee preferential vote? All right. All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Opposed? Chair votes aye and so ordered. Okay, roll call. We have Patty, Jim, Melissa, Michelle Thomas Alrighty, and I'm here Okay We don't have any minutes tonight Okay, so we're gonna I'm gonna read out of out of closed session in closed session the board took action to appoint Jennifer connect to the position of elementary assistant principal effective July 1st 2024 at Step one of the management team salary schedule with the following vote. Ayala Quintero Houlihan O'Neill render vara voting aye Jennifer are you with us? Do you want to come to the podium just to introduce yourself and any family you brought with you tonight?

Thank you so much. I'm very excited to be here. I have 27 years in education, and so I'm very excited to be joining Redlands as a vice principal. And I brought my husband with me.

All right, congratulations. Thank you. In closed session, the board took action to appoint Nicole Steinhaus to the position of elementary assistant principal effective July 1st, 2024, step one of the management team salary schedule with the following vote. Ayala Quintero, Houlihan, O'Neill, Render, Vara voting aye. Nicole, are you here tonight?

Hello, thank you for the opportunity to join the management team.

I'm really excited. My family is not here, unfortunately. They got stuck at work, so.

We're all your family now. Congratulations. In closed session, the board take action to appoint Deborah Yanda to the position of elementary assistant principal effective July 1st, 2024 at step one of the management team salary with the following Ayala Quintero, Houlihan, O'Neill, Renner, Vara voting aye. Deborah.

Hi, my name is Deborah Annie Yenda and I'm really excited to be here 17 years in public education and I'm a product of Redlands and so I'm back after many years to serve as assistant principal and I'm really excited. And I have my four kids here, my brother who went to school at the school I'll be at, and then my wonderful husband right over here.

Congratulations. In closed session the board took action to appoint David Monaco to the position of director one technology services effective July 1st 2024 at step one of the management team salary with the following vote Ayala Quintero, Houlihan O'Neill, Renner, Vara voting aye David

Thank you. I'm David Monaco. I am very honored and excited to become the next director of the tech services department. I've been in the district for 23 years and look forward to continuing on in my new role. And I have my family here, my wife, my father-in-law, my parents, my sister. And I just want to thank them for all their support. I'd like to thank the Superintendent's Cabinet and the Board of Education and the entire Tech Services team. Some of them are here tonight, so thank you.

Congratulations, David. So we'll now continue to, with 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. Before we begin public participation, I'd like to acknowledge that the board received an email from the following individual, which will be included in the published minutes of the meeting. Colin Mitchell. So, okay, so we have, before we have public participation, I'm going to read the community input. This is the time where that any member of the Board 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 address the Board. form to the clerk of the board or his or her designee prior to the time the chairperson calls the item for the board's consideration. This is not meant to be a debating period. Complaints and problem relating to policy matters will be referred to the superintendent. The person wishing to address the board shall, when recognized by the chairperson of the board, step up to the podium microphone and announce his or her name. The chairperson shall, in the interest of facilitating the business of the board, limit the amount of time to 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, uh, that a different limit is appropriate. We have, uh, Paul Blatchley.

Good evening board members, Superintendent Cabral and cabinet. My name is Paul Blatchley. I live in trustee area five and I'm speaking to you as a concerned high school parent. So it's socio-economic, right? The reason the school's under performance because they're teaching students that are facing difficult circumstances. You know how long as a parent I have heard that argument used? When is the district gonna do something about that? I have an idea about how not to underperform. Right before you have high school kids take a state science test, tell them how REV is the lowest performing high school on science tests. This is a great example of the demotivation that exists in the district. We've argued a lot about whether or not the district is indoctrinating kids. You obviously have denied that. I've advocated for surveys, which would be a simple and quick way to identify when and where it's happening. There are obvious clues this is happening. Now they're not getting every kid, but they're getting enough. Kids in district schools are not being taught to be critical or independent thinkers. They're being taught. There's one answer to any situation. What the district is telling you is the answer, and anyone telling you different is lying to you or misinforming you. Your parents don't know and they certainly shouldn't be listened to. Ask your student if they're pro-Palestinian and if they say yes, ask them why. They'll probably answer that it's wrong for Israel to be occupying the territory that's rightfully the Palestinians. I never thought we'd see another generation denying Israel's right to exist, but here we are. Ask them whether or not a $20 minimum wage is a good idea, and it's going to benefit workers. And when it doesn't, who do you think they're going to blame? Capitalism, of course. It's not the government, right? But they don't realize that the government forces and the market reacts, and they're just a pawn in that little game. Ask them whether or not the Earth is in real trouble because of climate change, and they'll tell you yes. We need to get rid of fossil fuels and switch to electric, and we only have a few years before we're past the point of no return. Now maybe you'll say it's social media. It's TikTok or Instagram. It's the phone you gave them. It's not us. But if they're getting that indoctrination from other places, then it's up to the district to give them both sides of those issues and help them understand that everything they hear in the media is not to be trusted. Thank you. To be continued.

Thank you. All righty. Student trustees. Our student trustees tonight is Thomas Harron from Redlands High School. I understand that our other trustees will also be reporting. So Thomas, would you like to start us off?

So a lot of exciting things have been going on at Redlands High School recently. On the academic side, we get our CAS testing for the juniors and our science testing for our seniors last week. Our AP students started their national exams this week with AP gov, AP chemistry, and AP art history happening yesterday. Today we had AP human geography, AP micro, and I personally took the AP statistics exam. Tomorrow there will be AP lit and AP comp site A. In our performing arts, tomorrow night our district starts our all honor band. I think our first rehearsal is at clock. Our choral groups have been having auditions for the chamber singers in Lake Chantus groups. Next week, on Monday, students are auditioning for junior staff roles in our Redland Stereo Marching Band. Along with that, our amazing theater put on the musical Oklahoma, and it was some of the best performance I think I've ever seen from that department. Thank you.

An awesome job. Next, if you want to come up to the podium, we have Christian.

All good? OK. So at Orangewood, we've been having a ton of fun planning for our last event. We just finished testing, so we're all done with that. Sorry for other schools doing AP testing. We're clear. But we've had tons of fun. We just finished the BattleBots competition, and we placed first. So that's a win for the whole district in my opinion. Went to eSports Smash Brothers tournament. We didn't end up winning, but that's okay because let's focus on the battle bus. And then Avid just went on a trip today to Newport Beach where we learned about marine conservation. That was super fun, so I loved being there, being a part of it. And then, so we actually don't do prom at Orange Wood. We're allowed to go to our home school's prom, but we do something a little bit different. So we actually have a carnival that's free for any students to come on in, have fun, and our year's theme, this year's theme, for our carnival is Summer of Color. So it's gonna be tons of colorful games based off of summer activities. We're free to just be out. If you're graduating, it's gonna be just completely free summer for you. So we got games based off of video games. We got colorful ducks, all sorts of fun events, a color toss at the end, and we have an extra barbecue for certain students. So it's gonna be super fun. I love that. And I just wanna personally say comment. I've loved being here representing Orange Wood for the past two years as the school board trustee for Orange Wood. I'm just so thankful to be here and be a part of this. The district truly means the world to me, what you guys have done. Students, teachers, everyone's come together, parents even, all making us the Redlands Unified School District. So I really just want to say thank you to everyone. Shout out to Miss Severo in the Career Center. I wouldn't have gotten my job without her. I wouldn't have been able to get all the opportunities, the scholarships without her. Miss Pinto was always there for me whenever I needed to talk. She was the best counselor I've ever had, ever. So I'm so thankful. for just the opportunities. Again, my parents have always been there for me. I just feel like RUSD is the best school district I've ever been a part of, and I'm so glad to have been able to make such an important role, at least for my community. So thank you so much.

Christian, you're hired. From Citrus Valley High School, Alina Jose.

Good evening, everyone. So for our Citrus Valley report, senior Riley Young Vahovic won the Superior Thespian Award for Scenic Design at the California State Thespian Festival. And Anthony Perez on the Citrus Valley Esports team won the second annual RUSD Smash Bros tournament at RHS last Friday. As for school events, our College Commitment Day was May 1st. The college commitment decisions of our Black Hawk seniors were celebrated with a large poster where they could sign their name and the college they planned to attend. Our spring musical, The Addams Family, closed last weekend. The show was 100% student run, including the Pitt Orchestra, Tech, and Design. Turnout was great, and many audience members, young and old, loved the show. Lastly, we will be celebrating Mental Health Awareness Month with a dedicated fair for students later this month. Moving on to athletics, CV baseball has won their first round of playoffs with an incredible score of 10 to 0 and are advancing to the next round. Our fellow Black Hawk Haley Smith will be going to state championships for swim along with Mikey Counts for track. And lastly, for club events, our CV link crew went to the Big Hearts for Little Hearts event held at the Burrage Mansion in Redlands to volunteer for the day. Citrus Valley's African-American graduates celebrated their success at CSUSB this past Sunday. Last Friday, we had our disciple I dignitatis lunch where the top 50 juniors were announced. They will be celebrated with the seniors on our senior awards night on May 29th. We are holding a spring splash on May 10th as our last dance of the year, and our possibility prom will be held later this month. Thank you.

Thank you. Great job. Ethan Morris from Red Lincys Valley High School.

School board, President Barr, I guess. What's up? How are you? So starting off our vocal music program, we'll host their spring concert on May 17th featuring music from classic and modern Disney films. Our instrumental music program also has their spring concerts upcoming with the orchestra concert on May 20th and the band concert on the 22nd. Our Cryop video production program will present their annual Red Film Fest, showing student-created works and short films on May 24th in the Blackstone Theater. Senior awards night is May 30th in the Blackstone Theater. As you can tell, I'm busy this time of year. Celebrating graduating seniors who have earned Redlands Community Scholarships. All of them are upcoming that week. It's RHS-CBS. And then last night, our league champion badminton team defeated Westminster in a close 11 to 10 game. The team plays tomorrow in the CIF semi-finals against Rowland High School. So a little bit more from Roxanne, our alternate.

Hello, this is my first board meeting. My name is Roxanne Garcia. I'm the student alternate trustee at REV. I will be talking about yesterday, May 6th, students including myself from every background joined together and hosted a peaceful protest on campus. Although we were met with some support from students and admin, we also faced heavy discrimination and hurtful words. The superintendent, principals, two sheriffs, and many security also made an appearance to view this protest. It was nice to see our Wildcats on campus making a change and still promoting peace even when people go against them in any way. This is the start of many futures and activism for these Wildcats. Lastly, our AVID RIMS recognition started. At last week's RIMS AVID ceremony, our 60 Rev AVID seniors recognized it for their outstanding achievement. A special shout out to Jolene Kilday, who is choosing to be the student keynote speakers. Along with that, May 14th is our district-wide avid recognition ceremony, and May 16th is our rev senior recognition ceremony, both at the Blackstone Theater. Thank you.

This time I'm going to take a quick two minute break so that way the people that just received positions, you don't have to stay for the whole board meeting. You're all excused and you can, you know, go have dinner and celebrate.

No, I'm not your opponent yet.

Alrighty, so next we have Association Reports, Redlands Teachers Association. Sue? Is Sue here? Come on down. You're the next contestant on The Price is Right.

Can't wait to see the prize I win. Good evening, school board trustees, superintendent Cabral, cabinet, staff, and community. Today, I got to watch something that doesn't happen every day, stormtroopers greeting students at mission as they kicked off the first week of testing. They were very, very well received. Other schools are busy raising excitement with school-wide parades and rallies to help motivate our students to do their very best. Our school staffs are getting ready for state testing, AP testing, and the year assessments, and of course final grades, but testing isn't the only thing going on in May. This week is Educator Appreciation Week, and I've seen some amazing outpouring from administrators, PTA groups, and the community groups showering our educators with notes and food and gifts of gratitude and appreciation. These things are really what helps educators refill their cups, especially right now as we're getting down to the last 22 days of school. I personally get very teary when I get those heartfelt notes from students and families, so I would please consider anyone to send a note to your child's teacher if you haven't yet. Last week, we had the first of two retirement dinners for our RTA members. We had 30 retirees attend this event and our next one will be in June with another 40. We had to make two different evenings because of the number of teachers that are retiring this year. For perspective, last year we recognized 18. While we're very excited for our retirees to be starting their next life adventure, we're also very sad to see such a large number of experienced, dedicated educators leaving the profession. Their retirement is going to leave a gap in RUSD. Last week, yes, we're still in the same week, we also recognized three RTA members, Jeremy Norberg from Moore, Julie Mendoza from Mission, and Dori Clark from Cope for their amazing service to our union work at a special recognition ceremony with 26 other teacher unions in the Inland Empire. We are so blessed to have these amazing educators part of the Redlands Teachers Association. Also last week, as part of my CTA work as an ambassador for CTA to the California PTA, I attended the state PTA convention. I saw many of our own schools' PTA leaders, and I had time to talk with them one-on-one. I also got the chance to see the RUSD possibilities choir that performed during the convention. One of the main messages I got from those conversations was everyone's desire that Redlands has the very best schools for our students. This week, RTA is looking forward to the rep evening of appreciation for our certificated and classified staff on Wednesday. This is such a special celebration and we want to thank the Rep Foundation for honoring our staff. And I also am looking forward to our special school board meeting when we are recognizing all of our USD's retirees. I believe that's May 14th. Good. And I think we've moved, excuse me, I had the date wrong, May 16th. Finally, we're excited to be bringing our initial bargaining proposal to the school board, RUSD, and the community at the next regular May meeting. The commitment RUSD has made to negotiate collaboratively with RTA has made a huge difference for all of us. RTA wants to thank you for this commitment, and we look forward to continuing to do so in this next cycle. And with that, I want to thank you very much for your time, and I will see you at the next report in the June meeting. Thank you.

Thank you. Redlands Education Support Professionals Association, Liz.

President Barra, board members, Superintendent Cabral, cabinet, and guests, on Friday, May 3rd, Respa and CNS hosted a lovely lunch for all CNS employees. Thank you, Jason Hill and Katie Guile for attending this lunch. I am also thrilled to report that the member retiree dinner on May 4th was a resounding success with nearly 90 attendees, making it a truly special evening. The enthusiastic turnout speaks volumes about the strong sense of community within our association. I am deeply thankful to everyone who made the effort to join us for this memorable event. A few weeks ago, one of our dedicated paraprofessionals took the initiative to write a grant to Home Depot, securing much needed resources for students in the special education class. And that is the handout that I gave to you all. Delivering these planters was a significant moment for our school community, symbolizing the generosity of Home Depot and the potential for enriching educational experiences for our students. However, it was disheartening to note that there was no admin presence during this event. One comment from a student stood out, this is the best day of my life. These words underscore the profound impact that such initiatives have on our students, on their lives, and the importance of our collective support and involvement. May 21st is Educational Support Professional Day. This is a wonderful opportunity for us to honor and celebrate the hard work and dedication of our classified staff who played vital roles in the success of our students. As we approach the end of the academic year, I also want to take this opportunity to extend my best wishes to all the retirees. We are grateful for your years of service. May the next chapter of your lives be filled with joy and endless opportunities. Thank you.

Redlands Administrative Personnel Association.

Hi, good evening. How are you guys tonight? I hope good. I cannot follow you, but I couldn't help but smile the entire time you were speaking because that's my job. You shine bright and I appreciate you. I wanted to start by just saying that this is a bittersweet time of the year because as we ramp up and things get exciting. This last month, it's also a time of sadness for me and many of my colleagues because we're also preparing to say goodbye to the kids for the summer. And so we celebrate the end, but we also are sad at that loss of our kids over the summertime. So currently we have CAST testing going on at all of our elementary school sites. We are all preparing hard right now for end of the year celebrations like promotions and graduations. Just today we had some grounds workers on our campus and they were like, We're gearing up to get those things set up for high school graduation. It's going to be our first time that we're going to make this amazing. So I loved it because it was a former custodian at my school and he was so excited for the opportunity. So I just love the team effort from everybody here in Redlands. This is Teacher Appreciation Week, so thank you to any teachers in here. We definitely appreciate the work that you do. Today is National Teacher Appreciation Day, and tomorrow is California Day of the Teacher. Who knew that there were so many days to celebrate the amazing people that make magic happen every day for our kiddos? Tomorrow is National School Nurses Day and I want to say a huge thank you to all of those who work in our school health office because we couldn't survive each day without you with those band-aids and ice packs and you're going to be okay sweetheart and so thank you to all of you. retirements as Miss Susan Apt had already mentioned. We have a few at my school site and it makes me kind of jumble up right now because these people who have dedicated their lives and passion for teaching are leaving us and we have a lot of retirees this year and I just wanted to really say thank you for giving yourself, your love, your passion, your tireless efforts each and every day to support our kiddos. We couldn't thank you enough for that. Then last month, I left out HR and I feel terrible for it. But right now, all of us at school sites are trying to fill our vacancies even for next year. So to HR, thank you for your tireless efforts because it is a busy time for you right now and we appreciate you. Congratulations to those who just stepped out of the door joining our management team. We can't wait to welcome you into RAPA. Next year, Dr. Kim Liam, the current principal at Beatty will be stepping up as the RAPA president. So I look forward to celebrating her on this journey to lead. Thank you guys so very much.

Thank you. Moving on to board committee reports. Does anyone have anything they would like to report? Go ahead.

I do. Do you, Patty? Go ahead.

I just want to comment on CRIROP and we have our two staff members from CRIROP here today. And to remember that next Wednesday we'll be celebrating the evening of excellence at San Bernardino Valley College. And I hope, I think it starts at 5 PM. So hopefully we'll see you there. It's going to be a great evening, so looking forward to that. Thank you.

OK, Compact Club. They had their annual awards program a few weeks ago. Four seniors were given scholarships and certifications, and the scholarship money was donated by the Police Department Association and the Firefighters Association. So we thank them. Mock interviews were done last week for the Rochford scholars. And thank you to Jennifer King for your help in giving all our students that opportunity to interview. Thank you to Sarah Keller at Citrus Valley for stepping back into the role of advisor for compact. We appreciate you and we're looking forward to good things coming from Citrus Valley next year. Many students at CV are very excited to join. We already have three people that are ready to be officers at that club. And all our compact clubs have stopped meeting and they will resume in the fall.

Thank you. Anybody else have any reports? No.

I have one for Brad.

Go ahead.

The evening of appreciation is tomorrow night at REV. Awardees will be classified and certificated employees from secondary schools this year. Secondary schools Arts Alive winners will also be announced and note cards will be available for purchase for all of you who want to get your note cards. They're $10 a pack. AAA Academy summer camp for elementary school students so far has 230 students enrolled and there are 30 spots left For you to enroll your kids at the Lagonia site Kingsbury is full The camp will last six weeks and will go from June 17th to July 26th And the next rep meeting will be held on June 12th, and that is all

All righty, thank you. Now we're moving on to board comments. We'll start off with Thomas.

At RHS, the past couple weeks, it's been very busy. We had our prom, and then we've had a lot going on with our CAST testing lately. That's about it.

Good job, Thomas.

Personally, I took the AP statistics exam today. Oh, band stuff? It's looking like it's almost over. I have my banquet coming up 23rd, I think, and my concert coming up on the 24th. My concert on the 23rd. Yes. And then I also got an internship with Senator Ochoa Vogue.

Melissa. I didn't realize it was going next. Okay. Um, hi. Hi, everyone. Um, it's been a busy week. Um, I know- I- I don't have to tell you guys all that. I know it's, uh, the end of the year, so it's just coming at us faster than we can register how fast it's coming at us. So, uh, try not to think about it, just let it happen. Um, relying on my calendar heavily this month. Alright, so last week I got to go to the Inclusion Summit with a few of my other board members and it was fantastic to spend that time with you guys and I loved all the collaborative work we were doing together to make some positive changes in our USD. That same day, however, we had the Harkins Film Fest. So I was racing here and I didn't get to catch Ken's cameo unfortunately, I'm sorry. But I hear it's fantastic. And then the same evening I had stopped by the RTA retirement dinner to say thank you to some pretty special teachers. Shout out to the teachers from Smiley. I did beg them to stay and they would not take me up on that offer. So I tried. I really did. Um, we also had our RIMS avid senior recognition. Well, not ours, but it was the RIMS avid senior recognition at the Toyota arena. And it was actually quite special for RUSD because we had some pretty amazing kids there. We had our own Madison Lowers from RHS saying the Pledge of Allegiance. Then we had two scholarship winners for the one scholarships to Cal State San Bernardino. So we had one from REV and the other from RHS. Then we also had our avid graduate speaker, Jolene Kilday, as our rep mentioned. Thank you, Ethan. Who gave a fantastic speech. And just seeing all our avid seniors, some of them have been doing this for seven years. It was fantastic and just to see all those kids put in all that time, lots of TRFs and I'm sorry but my son has been griping about TRFs for years and he's finally happy to have them done so congratulations to you all. Then we had, let's see, oh, on Sunday, I got to stop by for the first time, our IE, uh, black grad recognition ceremony, and that was an amazing party to be at. Um, the best part was being able to line up in the middle aisle and high five every one of the seniors as they run down after receiving their stole. And I got to spend some time with our very own student trustee, Christian, who was there. Um, And I just got to say, I had never been before and I'm so glad I went because this was just pure joy, pure celebration for all these students. And I mean, I can't wait to do it at our regular graduations, but this was pretty special. So thank you.

Got me off guard. I thought you were going that way. So Mr. O'Neill and I attended the flag ceremony with Kingsbury first graders at the Burrage Mansion, which is their annual. Courtesy of the Rockford Foundation, it's always a great event and I enjoy having the children sing their songs pertaining to the American flag, national anthem. And I want to personally thank Tim and Carol Rochford for hosting such a wonderful event for our USD students. They also get to play out in the Rochford, the Birch Mansion and back. And there's acres and acres, and the kids just have a blast. So it was great, and it was great to go with Mr. O'Neill. And then I attended the evening honoring Dr. and Mrs. James Watson, 2024 distinguished citizens from the California Inland Empire Council of Boy Scouts of America. It's a nice tribute, it was well deserved. And all five children from the Watsons are RUSD, actually, Rollins High School grads. So it was great to see that, and kudos to them. attended the highlight with mixed emotions with honoring our teachers at the annual RTA dinner. Congratulations to RTA in hosting such a wonderful event. Obviously, as Mrs. App said, there is two evenings where we're going to, so the next one I guess you said was 40? Yeah, okay, so it'll be a longer evening, but that's okay And it was great and it's a nice tribute and we're sorry to see everyone leave but um, may they all have a wonderful retirement And a healthy one as well And thank you to rta for hosting that and for including the board as well. Thank you Last night I attended the axia awards axa for our very own amy drummond, and I don't know if she's here. I didn't see her But I want to congratulate Amy Drummond on, she received her award, congrats to Amy. Celebrating her and Mr. O'Neill and Mr. Cabral and our staff was there and it was a great representation of Redlands who was there. And finally, just on a personal note, just want to wish all the mothers living and deceased, thank you for all you did for us and to take care of your families. You are the backbone of each family and your word did not go unnoticed, so we appreciate everyone who is a mother. And to those mothers here today, have a wonderful Mother's Day. I pray you enjoy a nice and relaxing day surrounded by your loved ones. Thank you.

Thank you. Melissa?

Sorry, I forgot. There was one thing I really wanted to let you guys know. Our very own, well, she's not ours anymore, Dr. Juanita Watkins did receive at the IE Black Grad Recognition Ceremony. She did receive the Dorothy Ingram Educator of the Year Award. So I wanted to give her a very big congratulations, because we love her. And then the part I forgot, which I'm horrified by, I did not mention how appreciative I am of our teachers this week. It is Teacher Appreciation Week. This is actually very special to me just because when I used to volunteer, when I used to do PTA. That was my thing. I got no more joy than I did out of that role. That was my favorite thing because I got to celebrate all of our teachers, not just my own children's, but all of our teachers. I fed them, I made sure that they had plenty of recognition, and it was probably my favorite part of the year. So please, please, please text, email, it doesn't matter. Just shoot them a message telling them how amazing they are and how appreciated they are.

Thank you. Michelle?

Well, first, I want to congratulate the four compact students, Maureen Ribewell, Caitlin Marcellini, Katie Zoe, and Julie Cervantes for their scholarship awards a few weeks ago. You are all remarkable young women destined for greatness. Last Wednesday, I was able to attend the East Valley SELPA Inclusion Summit with my colleagues. Patty Buckmiller and her team, as well as our teachers, have been working hard to see that inclusion for special education students is happening in our USD. There's more to be done for sure, but I commend them for all the work that has been happening thus far. And I want to congratulate Amy Drummond. Even though I couldn't make it last night, I had a family engagement on being selected at AXA Region 12's, I think it was business administrator. Business administrator, so congratulations, Amy. Also, I just want to acknowledge Michelle Leonard's husband. for helping with teacher appreciation. He was manning the grill from the picture that I saw, so great job. Big congratulations to RHS principal Kate Van Luven and her whole team for their six year accreditation by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges accrediting commission for schools. Faculty, students, and families, you should be very proud of this accomplishment. A lot of work goes into it. I've been on that committee before. Film Festival at Harkins was so much fun. Students were red carpet ready and excited to watch their movies on the big screen. I made it to parts of five different movies, and I look forward to seeing the full length movies when they're made available. Thank you, Dwayne Cowles, for making this a reality again for our students. And I congratulate you on your retirement. You will really be missed. I had a great time seeing RTA honor over 30 of our USD retirees. It was amazing to hear that with this group, which was about half of the total retirees, there were over 400 years of teaching done collectively. I'm looking forward to the other half being celebrated next week. And congratulations to Juanita Watkins, used to work here in Redlands as educator of the year. Congratulations to all the 2023-2024 student trustees. You are all amazing students, and you definitely have bright futures ahead for you. Last Thursday, I had the opportunity to watch a musical at Beaty Middle School called Mean Girls Junior. I was so impressed by the acting, the musical talent, and the backstage abilities of these middle schoolers. If you have a chance to go see any middle school play or musical, they're fabulous. Special thanks to Mike Detrow for the time and effort he puts into teaching students all of these theater skills. He's very appreciated. I'm excited to see Inspire Choir perform next week. And if you have not had a chance to see one of their performances, you will be in for a great treat. And that is all we have today. Thank you.

All righty, thank you. I'm going to go next and Jim wanted to go last. Not now? You want to go? All righty. So, no, he wants to do a special. Okay, so. Earlier today, Mr. Blashley was talking about encouraging our students and talking to our students about the rev scores and letting them know. I think people take things, different information with different perspectives. One of the things he mentioned is that how do you encourage students when they're, and when you tell them that Rev has the lowest science test scores. Well, to me it's like a competition. If you know you have the lowest science test scores, then you're going to want to perform. You're going to want to try your best to beat the other team. So just so you know, Mr. Blatchley, it's all about igniting fire under our students and engaging them. Getting them to want to compete against other schools. Teacher Appreciation Week is this week. And I just want to let the students and parents out there know that don't forget to get a gift card for the teachers. Everybody likes Amazon and Starbucks, any coffee. Any card would suffice if you're able to. I think it'll be great to be able to show our appreciation with some gifts towards our teachers. And what I did right now, as you saw me, I was on my phone. a little comment in regards to teacher appreciation, which I'm going to read. But then I also asked Chad Chippetee to write something for me. So I'm going to read what Chad Chippetee says, but I'm going to read what I wrote that's coming from my heart. So I want to thank all of the teachers. their love, their TLC, their patience, their coaching, their teaching. You provide our students, that you provide our students on a daily basis. Your dedication towards our students is appreciated by all students, parents, and staff. And we know that you go above and beyond on a daily basis. And we are very appreciative of what you do for our students. Now this is what CHAT TBT says. Thank you, dear teacher's name. Thank you for not just teaching us the curriculum, but also for imparting life lessons that will stay with us forever. Your influence has truly transformed our perspectives. It's not just about the books and papers, but the wisdom and insights you've shared that have shaped my thoughts. I am deeply grateful for everything. To the teacher who has shown endless patience and undying dedication. Your commitment to our learning has not only filled our minds with knowledge, but has also filled our hearts with gratitude. I think that you did a better job than I did, didn't you? Yes, yes. So, yes, Gary. So Jim, you're next.

Well, thank you very much. I have nothing more to say, as everybody said it. So I'll just be real brief about some things that I did. Adams family, boy, I thought I was in LA at the Amundsen or something. It was amazing, and to consider that it was all done by students, everything. So standing ovation for those staff members and teachers, and I call them directors, and they did an amazing job out there. At CV, that's correct. And then I was upset that I couldn't find in my calendar to see Oklahoma, but everybody that I talked to, it was an amazing show. And 55 years ago, I was in the Oklahoma production at Beaumont High School, and I was in the orchestra. So, cuz Lord knows they wouldn't want me singing in the musical, but It's a great musical, and I'm sure that everybody thoroughly enjoyed not only putting it on, but I talked to many people who just thought it was fantastic, so well done. Celebrating Amy Drummond, just a shout out to her, it was amazing. You won't meet many people as humble and as unassuming as she is. But if anybody picks up a pencil in the district, Amy Drummond was part of that and her purchasers. So she's done an amazing job out there and we really appreciate her. And what a well deserved recognition at the AXA tribute last night, or was it last night? Yeah, it was yesterday. Now time runs to. And then thank you Susan Apt and your team for putting on just an amazing and wonderful evening for our retirees heading out of the door at the end of their career. And East Valley SELPA inclusion, Patty Buck Miller, shout out to her. There was a lot of validation that we saw that Redlands is doing, a large part to her leadership. And certainly there's a lot more we can do, but I wanted to recognize her and keep up the good work for that and appreciated being able to go. The flag ceremony at Burrage Mansion, largest flag in Redlands, flying there at the Burrage Mansion and celebrating the role that Kingsbury had in the Pledge of Allegiance. So thanks for sharing that. And of course, a shout out to Tim Rochford, who's a very patriotic, He's also sponsoring the fifth grade essay contest on what America means to me. I think it was the prompt, I'm not sure. But anyway, that's going on. I think he told me that's over 500 students submitted essays. So wow, it's fantastic. It is Teacher Appreciation Week and Day, and yes, Alex, teachers do like gifts and things like that. But one of the things that I think teachers appreciate just as much, and I can basically say this for myself. is if students don't have to spend money, if they made something or wrote a little note, that speaks to teachers as well. They just feel good about being appreciated in that way as much as a Starbucks, I'm sure. I still have a little pencil holder that a student made for me while I was in my teaching career, and that student is now in her late 50s. It's a well-made pencil holder. You just gotta find a pencil to put in it, they're hard to find these days though. I like ducks, so she painted a little duck on it, and it sits on my desk, and I think of her every time I reach for a pencil, so that's pretty cool. And also, I taught some beginning teachers in my career at the local universities. And I had an idea, one of the things that I did is, we don't have to be kids to write a load of appreciation to a teacher. There are teachers out there that I had, that we all had, that spoke to us and took the time to help us on our journey. And you probably hadn't thought of them or really communicated with them for decades. If you know where they are and you have an address, if you sent them a little note and shared a little memory, I'm sure it would be very much appreciated because just because they're retired, they're still our teacher. So I wrote this, Alex, I didn't have AI help me with this one, it's very short though. I certainly on a personal level am proud and thankful of the work that all teachers do every day. And they make a difference, and I'm appreciative of the difference that they make for all of our students here in Redlands. So with that, I would like to move to maybe honoring our student trustees, if we could do that, Mr. President.

Yes, definitely.

You want us- The board members, if we'll stand down here, Alex can read their names or come up. And the superintendent is going to recognize them and give them a plaque of something they can put in their offices someday and hang up behind their desk or whatever they do. Is that all right, Mr. Superintendent? Yes, okay, Mr. Cabral. And then we can all shake their hands and honor them tonight, because I can tell you that I've been able to work with them. They meet once a month, and they've been just a terrific group of young people that have participated in the process. We're still building. This bike, if you will, while we do it as student trustees and things we're learning, it's a new thing across the state. But they have set the bar again higher this year. And we have a couple that are juniors, and they've already told me that they want to come back. So that's a good sign, if they can. And then the rest of them are seniors, and we want to honor them tonight for their time and commitment. their ideas, their sharing, and their really dedication to wanting to make Redlands the best it can be. So.

Test, test, test.

Is it on? Okay, all right.

All right, so I wanted to do it like I normally do when I'm at the elementary or middle school and I call out the names. So starting off with Redlands High School, Thomas Heron. So when I call your name, go ahead and come on up.

Alina Jose.

Ethan Morris. All right, all right. All right, Ethan Morris. All right. Christian Rolle.

And last but not least, from Redlands East Valley High School, Roxanne Garcia.

Those of you that don't know Kodak Moment means you can come up and take a picture. Kodak used to be a camera company. Polaroid company, film company, back in the days. And Michelle, if you can take a big step that way.

And Betty as well. That way we have room for Jim. Come on in, Jim. This way? Yeah.

There you go. All right, look here first. Ready? One, two, three.

Yeah, I would like to ask the family members who came tonight, please stand up so we can recognize you as well, because I know they're all very much supportive, provided transportation and everything. Thank you. Well, except for Thomas, you're welcome to go home if you want. No, Thomas has to stay, sorry. We'll make you stay. Another presentation. Right?

All right, so next we're going to do recognition for Redlands Unified School District's local control and accountability plan representative. Is this an award? Yes. So Rachel, Rachel Malatesta and Christy Hubbard. Thank you.

They're sticking around for this because they're part of the LCAP. Okay, okay. And the student advisory committees as well. Yes. Good evening board, superintendent, executive cabinet and guests and of course our student trustees and student representatives that were part of our LCAP student advisory committee. This year, as in past years, we've had the opportunity to bring our students together on each of our high school campuses to contribute their recommendations after looking at data and reviewing all the different actions and services included within the LCAP as we prepare and plan for the new school year. And this year, the process started off a little different. We brought all the high schools together way back in January, and our superintendent and Board member O'Neill joined us that day with this room was completely packed We had close to a hundred students in here across from all four high schools, and they had the opportunity Literally you see them with the l cap in their hand Diving in taking a look at what's in there. What's important to them. They broke up into a high school based groups, they asked questions, they participated and did some presentations, even just on that very first day that we're together. And then we moved out to the high school campuses and each one of our four high schools had a big team, close to 25 on most of our campuses, that met monthly. to continue reviewing the actions and services that are included in this year's LCAP, the data and outcomes that have already occurred this school year as related to those actions and services, and then make recommendations on what they would like to see included in next year's LCAP. Then each of those high school teams selected some representatives, many of them are the student trustee representatives that you see with you tonight, to come to the last LCAP adult committee meeting that we hosted here in the boardroom that Christy worked with this past year to present their recommendations to each of the small groups that were there that night. We did kind of a round robin. You see them each up with their presentations. They did an absolutely fantastic job advocating for things that were important to them that they wanted to see considered by the LCAP committee for recommendation to you as we develop next year's LCAP. So they came with their charts and all of their new recommendations and then answered questions, some tough questions, from the representatives there that night about what was important to them and what their priorities were. So we want to honor and thank all of them. Not all of them are here tonight. We have reps from each of the high schools that are accepting. certificates on their behalf, as well as letters of recommendation regarding their civic engagement as part of this committee from our superintendent. And we hope to see many of our 10th and 11th graders back next year, serving a second year on the student committee. And of course, we want to wish our 12th graders well. So we're going to start with Citrus Valley High School. Up there you see our regular participants representing Citrus Valley High School tonight and accepting certificates and letters on behalf of the whole committee are Ethan Black and Alina Joss. Can I send them all up? We're going to send them all up front. Absolutely. And we'll have them stand right up there. All right, representing Orange Wood High School and accepting certificates on behalf of the entire LCAP student committee there at Orange Wood tonight is Christian Rolle. From Redlands East Valley High School, representing the entire committee, tonight we have Roxanne Garcia and Ethan Morse. And representing Redlands High School and the fantastic committee from that school, we have Briley Guillen and Thomas Heron.

Yeah. Ready?

One, two, three.

Mr. President, I have a comment.

Before we continue, are there any board comments?

No, I just, Rachel and Christy, you guys, I wanted to tell you how impressed I was when I came that one day and you had all the students in here and you know what, they were engaged. They were taking their roles seriously. I was very impressed with all that. I know that they were very interested in what you were doing with them because none of them were on their cell phones. So that's the evidence right there that they were really focused on what they were trying to do. And you had it very well organized. So my hat's off to you two for offering that and helping our students be a participant in that really important activity. So thank you.

Is Robert here from Crayola? Oh, do me a favor, Robert. Can you come up to the podium? And then the next recognition we have is for student bravery. But what I wanted to do is, Robert, can you, so you were here about a month ago. And you shared with us an incident that happened after the student had the, I believe it was a CPR class.

Yes, sir.

Just a recap of what you mentioned last time, last board meeting.

You stole part of my thunder. I was going to say that I was just here a few months ago. Okay, go ahead, go ahead. You got it. All right, so my name is Robert Harshberger. I'm the emergency medical responder teacher at Citrus Valley High School. President Varr and board members, thank you for inviting me back. Today I'm here to announced, recognized one of my students who at the beginning of the school year was heading to school, not only witnessed an accident literally beside her and a little bit behind her, but had the knowledge that she's learned over the past two years of my class and a little bit of the athletic trainer program, but primarily emergency responder. She kept a cool head, called 911, Check to see if the occupant of the first vehicle was okay, which he was. Check the occupant of the second vehicle, who was not okay, stayed with him, helped to control his bleeding, helped to keep him calm until fire department and first responders arrived on scene. Okay, and that individual, if I may go ahead and introduce her now, is Lauren Silva.

Ready?

Here, one, two, three.

Great, something with a hero? Good work.

Thank you, board. I just want to say thank you to Mr. Harshberger for everything that he's taught me and that I've learned over the years. Thank you.

All right, next we're going to do a school dual trophy presentation and Michelle will take over.

Go ahead. You taking over? All right. Well, good evening, board members, Superintendent Cabral, cabinet, and community members. I'm Dan Rendler. I'm a member of the organizing committee for the Redlands Bike Classic. And along with board member Rendler, we coordinate the professional cyclists that go out and visit the schools. We call it our school visit program. We also have with us this evening Mark Shaw, who's our executive director. And I just want to say thank you to Mark for his leadership for the past several years of the bike classic. Do you know how much we pay Mark Shaw? Zero. We pay them the same amount we pay the volunteer, and some of you may be them, that sit on a corner for half a day or so to help out and make the race safe. So that's one of the things we're most proud of is that it's an entire organization of volunteers, some 400 or so if you look at it throughout the five days of the event. So we're very, very proud of that. We're honored to be here this evening to recognize the partnership between the Redlands Unified School District and the Redlands Bicycle Classic promoting health, safety, and fitness within our community. We'd like to share with you two results from our efforts from this past event that took place on Sunday, or April, Wednesday, April 10th through Sunday, April 14th. So it was a very successful event this year, very pleased. Redlands Bike Classic is the longest running professional stage race in America. So we should all be really proud of that and the work that we have here and done in the community. The two areas we want to talk about this evening, the first is the school visit program and the second is our youth races. So on the school visits, it's hard to explain it, to get the experience unless you actually go to one. And if you have, great. If you haven't, I really encourage you to go to one. We have anywhere from a couple cyclists to – and this year we added a men's and women's team together at one school. They come in their kits. They come with their bikes. They have dialogues with the kids. And if you could just see the faces on the kids when they're having the dialogue back and forth, they do tricks. They show how they do water bottles. And they basically get them all excited about the race and about the event coming up. I know Superintendent Cabral came to McKinley, so thank you for doing that. And Board Member Rindler, of course, has been to many of them, so it's quite the experience. Just some statistics for you. This year we had 34 men's and women's team visit 35 schools at three school districts, Redlands Unified School District, San Bernardino Unified School District. and Yucaipa Calamesa Unified School District. So we touched and had a dialogue and had engagement with over 8,000 students. So very, very successful this year again as well. So one of the things I mentioned we do is we encourage them to come to the youth races. And so this year I'd like to share with you some of the results of the youth races. But before I start, I want to say thank you to Brian Zander who leads this. Brian's a teacher at Judson Brown, but also a member of the committee and works really, really hard. He would be here doing what I'm doing this evening, except for he's feeling ill this evening. So if you happen to run into him or see him, please tell him thank you for his leadership role. It's just very exciting. I know Board Member Rendler and Superintendent Cabral were wearing the pink shirts along with the other volunteers down there. And so you guys can talk about your experience as well. I know Board Member O'Neill would have been there, but he was up there flipping pancakes for Kiwanis. Oh, eggs? Which I had breakfast both days up there, so thank you. Had to go ride my bike to work it off, but that's another story. But we do appreciate all your participation. Thanks to the teachers, the principals, and the administrators who all volunteered as well. I mentioned pink shirts. If you're at the event, we have different colored shirts for the different volunteer groups. And for the public races, we had the pink shirts. We appreciated all their work. As part of that, and that's what we're here for this evening, we have a school duel. So the school duel we've been doing for several years, and it's not about competition, it's about participation. So the school and the primary school and secondary that has the most kids that actually come out and race win these trophies that we have up here. So I am, well, let me tell you a statistic first. So this year we had 539 youths race on Saturday, and 350 of those roughly were within Redlands Unified School District. So a big year this year. I think everybody's kind of waiting now for the weather to see if we made the weather okay, and we did up until like the afternoon of a couple days. It was a little bit close, but everything went off successfully. So this year we're proud to announce, and I know we were talking about this earlier, but for the eighth straight consecutive year, does anybody know who I'm going to say? Yes, Judson Brown for the elementary school. And I believe we have assistant principal Robin Rivera here to accept it. And then while we're getting set up here, we also have had a tie for the secondary schools. So we have both Cope and Moore who tied this year. So I figure maybe we have a bike ride off or something like that to see who gets the trophy. But I believe we also have Juan Ortiz, the Assistant Principal, and Adrian Alcantar here as well, too.

Thank you very much. One, two, and three.

All right, and can we get some, hold them up like we're actually excited, and then you can take them off. We can't see if we do that.

No, but it's not. Okay. Next we have superintendents report. Juan?

Yes. We wanted to make sure that we got all of our presentations done, all the awards that we were going to give out. We skipped me, so we're coming back to me, and then we'll go back to the presentation we have that we know that you're waiting patiently to do. I'm only going to take about an hour, so that's okay. I do want to give a brief report on recent settlement agreements that our district reached with two agencies, the Office for Civil Rights and the Department of Justice. One you may have seen because it was publicized I think a little over a week ago.

Our agreement with the Office of Civil Rights was reached on April 24th and was publicized shortly thereafter.

A couple of facts for the board and for our folks to understand about that investigation. It started on March 12th, 2020, and they focused on three specific school years, 17-18, 18-19, and 19-20. tasked with doing is really looking at, oh I changed it on my screen but didn't change on that screen. Next. Thank you. I forgot I was supposed to ask for that. What they were tasked with doing is looking at Title IX specific to sexual harassment prevention and whether or not we were following Title IX the way that the provisions are outlined. Those are the three school years that they focused on, and they also were looking at our policies that were last revised on those dates. Again, they completed their report, so they started in 2020, they completed it in January of 2024, and then we went into a negotiation on an agreement. After several meetings, we reached an agreement on April 24, 2024. The Department of Justice, which has not been publicized, next. Thank you, Patty. That has not been publicized because we have an agreement in principle, which we just reached on May 3rd, which is just this last Friday. It's got one more step before it becomes finalized, which it has to go through courts. Once that is done in a few weeks, then the full report of findings will be public information. Their investigation was initiated in 2019 and then they re-engaged in 2020. So there was a bit of a pause and they came back in 2020 and looked at our policies, procedures, and practices and what's a little bit different from their investigation is they interviewed over 80 district staff, parents, and community members. Again, looking at Title IX specifically with respect to prevention of sexual harassment, not only among students but also among staff.

They completed their report in March of 2024, so just a couple of months ago, and we reached an agreement in principle on May 3rd.

One thing to understand, next please. Thank you. Prior to the agreements being reached and prior to any negotiation or any word from either agency that they had completed their report, we had already put in place many safety practices related to Title IX compliance. specific to the prevention of sexual harassment, the reporting of sexual harassment, and steps that staff at the sites and at the district office must take anytime a student reports or anytime an adult reports, staff and or community member. Some of these include creating a Title IX director position, which exists currently. The initiative that we call Act Now, which is the Actions Create Trust, daily safety walks, daily class walks using a progress advisor, our hall pass policy. our raptor system if you've ever gone to our sites you have to check in and you have to be allowed in after showing your id see here say something campaign which is a very active campaign to allow for folks to anonymously report and then spriga which is specific to redlands unified school district which is another reporting system that is very simple for folks to anonymously let us know if something is happening And then if you're a staff member with us, then you participate in micro trainings once a month that are related to compliance with Title IX, compliance with CANRA, and with reporting. And then we established, this board established and approved a board's boundaries policy, which is specific to the students and their connections with staff. These current safety practices that some have been in place since 2020, 2021, were acknowledged by OCR and the DOJ. However, they weren't a part of their investigation. And that's important to understand because we did have many, many practices in place while they were completing their investigation and while they were completing their report. And they did at least through conversations with them both groups acknowledged that They were very happy with the work that we have done up to this point. I They then provided actions that are required through the agreements. Some of these are from the Office for Civil Rights and some are from the Department of Justice, but collectively they make up a number of actions that we will have to have in place by this fall. and some of those actions we've already begun to implement and some were in the process of implementing. First bullet is all of our current practices must continue and we of course are going to be doing that. Second, and it's a very big addition to our team, is going to be the addition of an assistant superintendent of compliance to replace the director of Title IX. And what they are looking for is they're looking for somebody who is going to directly implement Title IX provisions and policies that sits on cabinet and only reports to the superintendent. And so that is not a recommendation, it is an action that they are requiring. They are requiring for myself, all of cabinet to get annual Title IX training for all of our students to experience or to participate in age appropriate Title IX training. prevention of harassment training. We're talking about going into second grade, third grade, fourth grade classrooms and making sure that there is a clear understanding of what it means to be harassed or how we can report that and have them understand what a boundaries policy violation is. We are going to develop that training and implement that in the fall. Title IX training for all staff. centralized tracking system that we currently have one, but we need to update it and make sure that it is going to keep all things Title IX in one place. We are going to update all of our board policies to include the Assistant Superintendent of Compliance and any updated policies. We are going to survey all of our students, staff, and parents twice a year to ensure that we are getting feedback on an understanding of what prevention of sexual harassment means. We are going to report our progress and update OCR and DOJ weekly and monthly, and they are going to check to make sure we are in compliance. Our agreement with OCR is a three-year agreement. Our agreement with the Department of Justice is five years. Second to the last bullet there is to ensure parallel investigations are happening for all relevant cases. What does that mean? That means that if we do have an incident where somebody is being investigated, staff that is, the police may be doing an investigation on their own. We must do a personnel investigation at the same time. We cannot wait for one to be completed before we start the other. We've already begun to implement that process, but it's something that they are requiring that we do moving forward. And then the last bullet, hugely important, is that we offer current and past students support, and that would be support emotionally through counseling. We're going to be required to help support any students who may have been victimized in the past or any students who report any kind of harassment in the future, and we are prepared to do that also.

We want to make sure that the board understands all of these provisions and these requirements and these policies We've not only already begun to implement them, but some of them are already in place I have put together a task force of administrators and we will make sure the first deadline with the Office for Civil Rights is about 20 days away and And we are going to be ready to send them our implementation plan by the 24th of this month Questions I have one I have two actually

Um, so I Looking at the timeline this started in march of 2020 And ended in april, but actually both investigations were about four years long. Is that typical?

Um, i've not experienced many investigations by doj or ocr I wouldn't say that it's typical but I think covid maybe had a hand in why there was a delay So I would say if we asked them they probably would say it's not standard

And then the second more of a comment I guess being that we on the board are also I know our staff goes through micro trainings and cabinet and our Superintendent but being that we as board members are also mandated reporters Would there be an opportunity for us to maybe attend training so that we can stay up to date on these things upset Two questions I saw mentioned on the

I don't know, third page, I believe? Sprigo. What is Sprigo?

Sprigo?

Yeah, what is that?

Sprigo is an anonymous reporting system that we have that you can find online. There's several different ways that you can report if you're being victimized in any way, and Sprigo is one of those ways.

What we tried to do is we have WeTip, we have Hear Something Say Something, we have Report to Your Counselor or Administrator. Sprigo is another

Attempt to make it easy for folks to report to us that that they are having An issue that needs to be investigated is that in the schools or is that for the public? It's for the public for schools for students for everybody.

I Think this question is more how would and someone access that?

It's on our website. It's on your school site website. It would be listed inside the poster that you see posted at your high school and

Questions? First one on the required actions. Under annual age appropriate Title IX prevention, it says a microtraining in semester two. Should we do that in semester one when the school year starts?

We're required to do a full training at the start of the school year and that Is going to look like? 20 to 30 minute training with every single student either in the classroom setting or a couple of classrooms at a time kind of setting The second half of the year requires a micro training which is more of a refresher Which is maybe a quarter of the time And then my other question

You said we have to have all this implemented by fall like going already going or yes, okay, okay Who will be the one overseeing that?

These things are actually happening and being done and that the ones that we've already been doing are still being done who will oversee that the new title 9 coordinator will be the assistant superintendent of compliance and they will be tasked with ensuring that we are complying with all of these provisions and

I just have a comment. I just want to thank you for implementing the current safety practices that we have now and that they were going. Because if you look at theirs, there's over 10. So I'm glad that we were able to get ahead of everything that we did. So thank you for getting that.

Thank you for saying that, Patty, because that's important to know. As board members, could we participate in some of the task force meetings? Do you want us there or do you want to just let us know?

I think there will be an opportunity, perhaps,

after we begin the implementation stages. Right now what I'm trying to focus on is there are many deadlines that we must meet and I wanted to get a group together so that we don't miss anything.

So you mentioned student training. Did I hear you say specifically elementary kids was must be age appropriate and the expectation is that every student receive training every student not just elementary but every student yeah elementary middle school and high school and the kind of question that thomas just asked i we've had just brief conversations in our student trustee meetings and one of the things is that this you know our our protocols and our safety practices are out there But there's not a focus on them at the student level. They see the posters, but they don't really read them. They're not too much aware of what it says. The writer, Nat Thomas, is kind of a... And he just asked the question, you know, about access to the internet safety practice. So... I'm glad to hear that we're doing some of that training at the student level. The other concern I have is we offered workshops at some of the schools this last year and attendance was poor among adults and parents being there. I know we're going to have to really focus and try to get more engagement at the parental level at those workshops too. As important as this is and as much as there's going on in our society, we ought to be able to fill those MPRs with concerned parents. And I don't know how we're going to do that, but it'll be a focus, I think.

One of the things we're going to do – so a couple of points. When we go into training for students specifically, you can kind of envision being in a classroom, almost getting a lesson with only a class at a time so that it's a little bit more engaging and so that there's time for question and answers. I did a couple of them not specific to this training but just some time with high school students in classrooms and the Q&A piece is hugely important because then it allows students to ask questions that clarifies what the boundaries policy is also you can get into scenarios where some kids might think that there's gray area and you allow them to see that no it's not gray it's going to be this way or that way and so that can be very powerful And then the idea that we have to have more family engagement at some of our workshops in the evening is to include dinner, which we are going to budget for that next year.

Cabinet learned very quickly this year that I'm a fan of food, and it's, I think, an investment.

And so if we can add dinner to some of our workshops, I think we'll get more participation. because folks won't have to worry about making dinner that night. They can come to the school, have food, and then learn an important topic. Assistant superintendent of compliance is that going to be a person I mean is there some restrictions as to what person that can be or Like outside the district or how does that work what they are looking for is for somebody who has no Employment connection with Redlands Unified School District, and so we're looking at a candidate who's coming from the outside We're gonna actively recruit we need an expert in Title nine and

Okay, sorry, I have two more questions. For the age appropriate, they're actually both on the age appropriate Title IX prevention of harassment training for students, will there be an opportunity, I know we're talking about parents being able to attend a training, however, will there be an opportunity for those that would like to see what the content is of those trainings, like will we be providing

any sort of handout or so we this can be a very Sensitive topic and so we are first going to create the trainings. We're going to send those to OCR and DOJ they have to be approved once they are approved then we will inform parents first and and they will get a copy of what that training looks like before it's delivered. We will have conversations with parents and make sure they understand why it's important that their child participate in the training. And then we're coming up with backup plans if we have folks that maybe do not want to participate, how we are going to help the parent be trained to maybe with them at a different time instead of in class.

Can you maybe do like a workshop with that training for parents so they can see what it's going to be?

One idea is if a parent feels like they don't want their child to participate in it, we invite the parent and the child and then we do an evening or afternoon training where the parent can participate with their child.

The last part of it is, so sometimes when we're getting really deep into conversation and we're, you know, in these meetings and such, it's kind of like a time limit. We've only budgeted so much time for these things. My concern is if when we're doing these, you know, trainings for students and they do have questions, how long would a typical, I guess if you're doing a class, how long would that training be? Is it, I mean, I can't imagine that the OCR is like setting a timeline.

Like a required number of minutes that we're we're working with these students or what happens if it goes over, you know Well, we'll uh, I think we'll have plans for that but we're going to look at a 15 to 20 minute presentation Time for q a that's sort of the what we're trying to develop We do have a team part of the task force is tasked with coming up with the age-appropriate trainings the the

Challenging part with the trains is they don't exist and I'm doing a public all call if anybody has Any training for especially elementary age students?

we are looking for any examples that may exist out there, but we have looked almost at every Avenue possible and it looks like we're gonna have to create ourselves but we will meet the challenge and we'll make sure that we have something by this fall and

Any other questions? I just have a few. When was the Title IX process enacted for school districts?

They're constantly updated. There's actually a new update coming in. I believe it goes into effect either July 1 or August 1st. But what we're seeing, the bulk of the provisions and policies that are in place right now is 2022.

So since there were new Title IX provisions enacted for school districts in 2022, what type of training has the state or the county offices provided districts?

We have training through several different law groups that offer it. We as a district have been trained by ALRR several times, and they have a very robust Title IX training.

And then are they going to continue providing the training for cabinet? Uh, maybe do you receive okay. So what an administrator's teachers?

all administrators um will be There's a minimum requirement. So doj is requiring that all administrators participate in a minimum of three hours training in title 9 annually staff will go through an annual training, but it won't be as um, bust long as

So let me see here, I wrote down prevention of sexual harassment within the last three to four years. So throughout the last six years, and I know you've only been with us for about a year, Juan, have any districts reached out to you in regards to the steps and procedures that Redlands Unified has been taking throughout this Title IX process and everything that we've had to deal with with sexual harassment. Has any district reached out for assistance from us?

Several districts have reached out for the practices that we currently have. I would say that we are leading the way in a lot of the provisions that we've already implemented. specific to site-based, um, hall policy, for example, um, our daily walks, our micro trainings. Um, we have had several districts ask how was that implemented. Uh, they asked for kind of the model of what we use. Um, some have, you know, maybe have also implemented them, but yeah, we've had several.

Even though we've struggled quite a bit, we're also at the forefront of what needs to be done and we're able to help others because of what we're having to deal with.

And I have to commend our site administrator specifically because they are boots on the ground making sure that these practices are implemented at their sites on a daily basis.

Thank you. Those are all the questions I have. Anything else? Nope.

Okay, I do have some current events as part of my report. First of all, retirees, I always say this to all our retirees, I'm jealous. I also want to retire with good health one day. So congratulations to you. We're looking forward to seeing as many of you on May 16th. We have over 100 retiring between teachers, classified, and managers. So congratulations to you, 4.30 PM, May 16th. Amy Drubbin, excellent dinner last night celebrating our business manager. Amy, congratulations to you. She's awesome if you haven't had a chance to work with her. Our kids are talented. I say that all the time. Harkins Theater, over 1,400 tickets were sold to go watch eight schools produce 12 different movies that were shown that evening. It was a lot of people there. It was awesome. So congratulations to all of our kid actors and our staff that helped our students. We have an inspired choir performance coming up on May 15th. Everybody's invited. There's going to be choirs from RHS, CV, Rev, Beatty, Clement, Moore, and Cope. And then I was invited by Sierra, shout out to Sierra at RHS, to go watch Oklahoma. And yes, it was really good. I mean, I keep saying our kids are talented, but wow It was a it was a great performance. I I'm always get jealous because I'm not that talented and so I don't know how kids can do that But good for them and it was it was good and Thank You Sierra for the invitation And then teacher week What can I say? I mean the number one impact to student learning number one and you can google this The number one impact is the teacher There is nothing else that impacts learning more not technology not Anything else so teachers it's because of you that we are as successful as we are and then to segue into Another important person, our very first teacher, at least for many of us, our very first teacher was our mothers. Happy Mother's Day. My mom comes from Sura America, she's Mexican, and she celebrates it twice because she's Mexican-American. And on May 10th, she gets something, and then of course on Mother's Day, she wants something else. So she's figured it out, she gets to celebrate it twice. So mom, I love you, happy Mother's Day. All right, that's all I have, thank you so much.

Righty, thank you. So let me see, next up, diploma. Alternative pathways to a diploma. Mrs. Buckmiller, would you like to introduce your staff?

Oh, no.

Well, we have that one. All right.

We are very excited to present to you tonight a wonderful opportunity for our extensive needs students and an alternative pathway to a diploma for them. Can you guys see it? OK. Oh, it's back.

There it is.

Okay, I'm doubly excited to have my team that's been working so hard on this to present with me tonight. So I have Rita Davidson, who's our coordinator overseeing secondary, and Jennifer Robeson, who is a program specialist, and Lisa Perry, who's a TOA. And they have been doing all the hard work, so I'm excited for you to hear from them in just a minute or so. Okay, did that change yours also? Awesome, thank you. Okay, I just want to go a little bit over the planning and what we've been doing, working on this since we found out about it being a new law that was enacted actually on July 1st. So we've had committee planning and a whole work group working on this comprised of site administrators, teachers, district office administrators, and really people that are working in the field that have been on the planning committee. We've also collaborated with other districts in our SELPA, in particular Colton, because they were a little ahead of us in implementing their plan for the alternative pathway to a diploma. We've already done some staff training with all of our teachers who are in a secondary mod-severe setting with the administrators and with the site counselors as well. And I'm also happy to say that we've done parent training at our CPAC. That's our Special Education Parent Advisory Committee and on our website as well. And then curriculum training for the staff and a flyer, kind of an avid one-pager that we have. You can click on it there. I'm just going to show you. But it's like a one-pager that explains everything we're going to talk about tonight in a one-page format for you. So I'm going to turn it over to Breda, who's going to explain about our graduation options for our students.

Thank you. Yes, so prior to this ed code, we only had the two options, the certificate of completion and the regular diploma. And we found that our students weren't getting enough opportunity in terms of post-graduation options, such as employment or school or trade school. So we're really excited to talk a little bit about what the alternate pathway to diploma means for a lot of our students. So with the ed code, there are eligibility and credit requirements. Eligibility for the alternate pathway to diploma is listed on the left-hand side. So these students must be eligible for the CAW, the California Alternate Assessment. That criteria is really thoroughly described on the CDE website. They needed to have entered grade nine in 22-23. They would have to participate in the standards aligned curriculum by California. This is an alternate curriculum, which we actually already fortunately have, which is unique. Jen will explain more of that. Unique Learning Systems. Oh yeah, it's actually called UNIQUE. So what happens after graduation? They can earn a diploma and graduate, so that's an option, which wasn't necessarily before. They often would just go on to a certificate and be done or go on to the Adult Transition Program. They still can, with the alternate pathway, matriculate to an adult transition program. So that's a really important component to consider when we discuss this with IEP teams. If they get the alternate diploma or if they take that alternate pathway, they're not just done. They still have an option for four additional years if the IEP team deems it relevant and if the student has those needs. Another option would be community college or trade school. And of course with the first option, you know, employment. It opens more doors by having a diploma. They're going to get more opportunity, which is great for our students. The minimum coursework requirements are on the right. Three years of English, two years of math, two years of PE, two years of science. three years of history or social studies and one year of visual or performing arts. And we did work, Lisa Perry and I actually worked all through spring break on courses and presented that to the curriculum committee a few weeks ago.

Okay, so you might be wondering, what is the difference between the alternate diploma and the certificate of completion? So ultimately, the IEP team is going to decide whether it's an alternate diploma or if it's a certificate of completion. So in that first box, the blue one, all students with an IEP who utilize a alternate curriculum or participate in the CAH or receive pass or fail grades those students could have either certificate of completion or an alternate diploma. So where the difference lies is in that first column where you can see if a student is dependent on others for their communication or for their daily living skills. If they require assistance with the curriculum, like significant assistance, then that's going to be our student that's going to get that certificate of completion. On that other side, students that can communicate clearly, they can follow one or two step directions, they can engage meaningfully in the curriculum, that's going to be our students that are going to go for that alternate pathway to a diploma. All right, some key points with unique curriculum. So it is a standards-first approach. We love that about unique. Also, every lesson is created with age-appropriate content, which aligns with the grade-level alternative standards. The unique learners will have the same access to concepts as their general ed peers. And they'll also follow a scope and sequence. And then a really cool thing also is that for the 2024-25 school year, they're adding more social studies, science, and math to the curriculum. And this is just one of the alignment tools that we use with N2I Unique. And it just shows you this is a reading literature alignment tool. And on one side, you'll see the standards. And then on the other side, you'll see the California core content connectors and how it aligns.

OK, so what will this look like for students and teachers? How is this going to be different for the kids in our classes? So they will be in the same extensive needs class in those what we call mod severe classrooms right now. And they're going to be either earning the certificate or the alternate diploma. The teachers will continue using unique. Many of our teachers are already using unique. But now it will be mandated that they will all be using unique in the extensive needs classes. The IEP team will decide on what pathway is most appropriate for the student by looking at some of the conditions that Jennifer just talked about. And then there will be separate attendance for the class section. So it will be listed on their schedule rather than saying living skills. It will be listed as Dynamic English 10, Dynamic Biology, what the team has decided to call it or the curriculum committee has decided to call it. So that will be listed separately. Students who have earned the required credits or the initial list that Dr. Davidson showed you, those years that they need to earn the diploma, they will be able to participate in graduation ceremonies and senior activities. They will be earning credits toward graduation using alternate curriculum. That will also be listed on their IEP. And their transcripts will reflect the courses taken with pass or fail grades. And then the graduates can also continue to the adult transition program. That's really important. A lot of parents want the alternate diploma, but they worry that they're not going to get the education for 18 to 22-year-olds. They will still be eligible for the adult program.

So this is a sample of a four-year plan. This is just a sample. It's as if somebody was just starting out fresh in an extensive needs class, and we set them up with an alternate pathway to a diploma. It is important to note, though, students can still have an individualized schedule. So just like any other high school student, they may be in some mild mod classes, some extensive needs classes, possibly even some gen ed classes. And that will all reflect and be taken into account on a four-year plan. This is just an example with using the courses that we created. So in terms of credits for graduation, they can earn a minimum of 130 credits, but they will have more because they'll be enrolled with six classes all four years. Our staff is already trained, so we already are having these discussions with students trying to set up as many IEPs to start off the year on the right foot as we are able. Ninth and 10th grade students are our focus. 12th grade students on a non-diploma track are going to continue on that certificate of completion because there's to make up those credits. There is an exception for current 10th grade students. If teams believe that they are a good candidate for the alternate pathway, they have two options. They can become a fifth year senior and lose one year of adult transition, or they can go on to adult transition and then just go out for that class that they need, the class or two that they need left.

Any questions? We already know you got all your questions out.

I have one question. You said that IEP teams will decide which pathway is most appropriate How much involvement does a parent or guardian have in that it say in that?

Sure as much as any other team member certainly more because they know their student as well So I think that it's going to be really crucial for the team as a whole to talk about Strengths and needs and their ability to participate in the curriculum and what that means but a parent is always part of the IEP team Thank you

I have a question. Is there a plan in place to maybe follow up with the student after graduation to see if any impact to having the alternative diploma would have in their life?

Yeah, we do have exit surveys, but we also have been working specifically with RHS on following our students after they complete the adult transition program. So that will be something that we look into, yes.

Any questions Jim You're still thinking thinking thank you for that.

Thank you for your patience What's been the reaction the reception We haven't had nearly as many questions as we thought like from like parents and admin and counselors I mean, it's been really like OK, this is it. This is the plan, and everybody has received it really positively. So we've been very fortunate. Good. Good.

I just want to understand this correctly. Who's eligible to receive the alternative diploma? Is it certain students in certain special ed classes, or is it all special ed students, even SAI, SDC?

There are certain criteria that have to be met. It's students who are eligible for the CAW, the California Alternate Assessment is one of them, and students who participate at least some of their time in an alternate curriculum.

So, and then which students would normally qualify or fall under CAH?

Sure, so typically it's students in the extensive needs classes, the MODS severe classes.

Okay. Yeah. So this is just, so this is basically MODS severe classes?

Essentially, yeah.

Okay.

But there are some students in mild MOD depending on the IEP need, or the student need rather, where they discuss what assessment would be best and what curriculum. So it is possible that they would be in a mild MOD program and still be eligible.

Okay so let's just say we decide or you decide in an IEP meaning that a student in an SAI class would benefit from this and they finish by 11th grade. Would we be able to allow them to get their diploma since they'll be done with their 130 credits?

That's the minimum requirement but we still have an IEP team decision to discuss and so that wouldn't be something that I imagine anybody would recommend. It's a unique situation. But we have the adult transition program, they still are eligible for an additional even four years of those living skills and job skills.

And the reason I'm asking is because I'm talking about like an SAI student. Like a mild mod student? No. Yes, mild mod student, yeah. Has there been any discussion about considering that?

Yeah, no, we're just, yeah, no, you want to say that?

It's still in the early stages?

The law really outlines it for us. And so it really needs to be a student who's CAH eligible, taking the California alternate assessment. So it does mean that their skills are lower. So no, we're following the law to the best we can.

Okay. So when you're talking about following the law, it's just specific to the modern, severe students.

Okay.

Alrighty. Thank you.

That's the majority, yeah. That'd be the majority.

Yeah. For the one year of visual performing arts, what kind of option is that?

Well, it will depend on, I think, all the high schools have different options. So we would work with each high school on what's available and continue to help support and improve those programs, possibly push in paras or whatever it may be.

I do want to add that our Inspire choir could also count for that. And so we're working to have that be part of it.

Thank you.

All right, great job. Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Business service consent items. Is there a motion to approve items 15A, consent items B through I? So moved. Second. Thank you, discussion? okay student student preferential vote thank you all those in favor say aye aye opposed chair votes aye and so ordered okay is there a motion to approve items 17a consent items b through h i'll move for education services second thank you you got it okay uh discussion

some great trips in there, great experiences for them.

Any student preferential vote? Aye. Okay all those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Okay opposed chair votes aye and so ordered. Okay moving on to human resource consent items is there a motion to approve items 19a uh consent items b through ac?

I'll move.

Okay, so did you get the second? Alrighty. Thank you. Discussion? Student trustee preferential vote? Aye. Okay, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Chair votes aye and so ordered. Okay, moving on to human resource action items. Okay, classified adopt resolution number 30, 2023, 2024 pertaining to layoffs and or reduction of classified positions. Is there a motion?

Second.

Okay, thank you. Discussion?

I think obviously we don't like to lay off, but considering all the retirees that we had, I'm glad that we were able to work this out and set some of this.

It's true. Any other comments? Nope. Okay, student preferential vote.

We take a student preferential vote on human resources action items, no.

We appreciate it anyway, but no. Yeah, well, thanks. I redact my statement. All right, there you go.

We appreciate your...

Here you go. Thank you for putting him on the spot there. Happy to do so. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Chair votes aye and so ordered. So we have no discussion items this evening, so we will go ahead and adjourn the meeting at 8 o'clock.