Board of Education — February 10, 2026

Thank you for coming. We'll start off with roll call. Clerk Ayala Quintero. Present. Vice President Hollihan. Present. Board Member Olson. Present. Board Member Wilson. Here. And I am here. Moving on to Pledge of Allegiance. Aubrey, would you like to lead us in the pledge this evening?

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

Thank you, Aubrey. Do I have a motion to approve the agenda with flexibility? So moved. Do I have a second? I'll second it. Any discussion?

We'll call for the vote. Vice President Hollihan. Aye. President Rundler. Aye. Board Member Olson. Aye. Board Member Wilson. Aye. Motion carried. 5-0.

In closed session, the board took unanimous action to release and reassign employee number 2025-26-11, effective the 2026-27 school year. The board directed the superintendent or his designee to send out appropriate legal notices. In closed session, the board took unanimous action to release and reassign employee number 2025-26-12, effective the 2026-27 school year. The board directed the superintendent or his designee to send out appropriate legal notices. In closed session, the board took unanimous action to proceed with the immediate suspension without pay and termination process for certificated employee number 2025-26-13, effective February 11, 2026, by issuing a notice of immediate suspension without pay and 30-day notice of dismissal. The board directed the superintendent or his designee to send out appropriate legal notices. Tonight, our student trustee is Aubrey. Hi, thank you for joining us. Are you ready with your report?

Hello, so starting off with Rev. Academic Decathlon has just finished their events this last weekend. We had our in-person competition, and we are waiting to hear our scores, which we will get on Thursday at the awards ceremony. Varsity Boys Basketball went undefeated in league this year for the first time in 20 years since 2006, and we have a home CIF game tomorrow at 7, which we are very excited for. Varsity Boys Soccer has an away CIF game on Wednesday, and Girls Soccer has a CIF game at home on Thursday. We also had four wrestlers who took gold at CBL this last weekend at Rev. And our girls and boys qualifiers move on to CIF this week. So all very fun improvements in athletics. We also had our annual winter rally along with the first ever Sadie's Dance, which I think went really well. I was a fan. I've heard a lot of good feedback. And we are currently still doing sign-ups for our blood drive this Thursday. We currently have 77 sign-ups, which is seven more than we had last blood drive. ASB applications are open for next year, with exec applications now open, class officer applications coming out the 18th, and commissioner and freshman applications coming out March 6th. For Redlands eAcademy, they have a Valentine's dance for 6th to 12th grade on the 12th at the Wildcat Cafe from 4 to 6. They also have a 6th to 12th grade dodgeball night on March 12th at REV, and an astronomy night on March 19th. Their polls are in and a name has been chosen for their mascot, so they are welcoming Sir Reginald, or Reggie, the Golden Eagle. For RHS, this Friday is their Clash of Classes rally. To kick off the games, they're doing a Harry Potter-themed spirit week. Monday is Morning at Hogwarts, wear pajamas. Tuesday is Quidditch tournament, wear sports attire. Wednesday is Twin Day. Thursday is Hogwarts Day, dress as a Harry Potter character. And Friday is Sorting Hat Ceremony. Freshmen wear yellow, sophomores wear blue, juniors wear green, and seniors wear red. Student government applications are open until March 20th. Mock trial applications are open until March 20th as well, and are only taking current RHS 9th and 10th graders. Speech and debate applications are open until April 5th, and AVID applications are open. So a lot of things for the new school year. That is all I have for today.

Thank you, Aubrey. Moving on to association reports. Stephen Caperton, you have a report for Redlands Teachers Association.

All right. Good evening, board members and Superintendent Cabral.

Excuse me one minute. I'm so sorry, Steve. Do you want to stay for the meeting or do you need to leave? You're excused. Sorry, Steve.

Thank you, Aubrey. We appreciate your report.

Thank you. Thank you.

OK.

Awesome.

Thank you.

Well, good evening, board members and Superintendent Cabral. I would like to start off tonight by correcting some factual misrepresentations made at the last board meeting and on social media. Blame for the district's ongoing financial issues was placed on the 2022-2023 staff raise. There have been lots of different statements, but the 13.25% raise, along with the implication that it was an absurd amount and funded with one-time money, was made that evening and has been circulating through social media. I would like to set the record straight. In 2022, the U.S. was experiencing inflation unseen since the 1980s. Inflation hit 9.1% that year. At the same time, the state legislature anticipated a surplus revenue of over $100 billion. The state took an unprecedented step and made the largest single increase to school funding in recent decades. That year, the cost of living increased by 6.5% with a 6.7% augment, resulting in a permanent increase of 13.26%. This was permanent, ongoing money. That year, the Redlands Teachers Association settled on a total compensation package of 13.25%, including 11.3% per salary with additional funds for health and welfare, stipends, and hourly compensation rates. The average salary settlement in the Inland Empire that year was over 9%. Over 14 districts in the surrounding area recorded settlements of over 10%, with several exceeding Redlands Unified. Many of them had fully funded health care, higher overall salaries, and all of them had significantly larger contributions to health and welfare benefits. In comparison, RUSD currently spends $5,000 less per employee on health and welfare benefits than districts along the I-10 corridor and ranks among the lowest contributors in the Inland Empire. This has created significant cost shifting to our employees, forcing many of the most vulnerable to refuse district health care due to the costs. In fact, this year, RESPA members received twice the amount for the health and welfare rebate than RTA and management employees. This was not a healthy sign. It was a sign that many of their members can no longer afford the very benefits that management touts as the reason people want to work here. Yes, it was a great settlement, and it makes for a great soundbite for the uneducated. However, it was one of the few times in our history that RUSD settled near the COLA. It was a year in which inflation significantly reduced the earning power of RUSD employees, and the district received state funding to address the issue. It was a time when RUSD had to make up lost ground from a decade of underinvestment in staff. The very next year, RTA settled a two-year financial agreement for a 6% salary increase spread over those two years. That was over 3% less than the cost of living received by the district in the same time frame. This was done in conjunction with an early retirement incentive program to allow the district time to fix its financial house. The district's financial situation is not the result of any single decision. Instead, it is the result of a multitude of factors, some within and others outside of its control. I insist that the historical record stop being misrepresented to create scapegoats for the district's financial situation. RTA has a proud record of fiscal responsibility, working within the budget to reach settlements that are reasonable, achievable, and that further the goal of attracting and retaining the best talent for our students. We face many challenges as a district, and it's time to stop pointing fingers at one another and to focus on the work ahead. Thank you.

Thank you, Stephen. Thank you. Liz with Resco, are you ready?

Good evening, President Rendler, board members, Superintendent Cabral, and guests. I would like to begin by apologizing to the Transportation Department and the Maintenance and Operations Department. During my remarks last month, I did not acknowledge these two departments. That was an oversight. Both departments provide critical support to our students and staff. Thank you for all that you do. This past Saturday, RESPA held its second site rep training of the year. In addition, on January 15, 13 of our members attended the organizing conference in Las Vegas. I'm proud of the commitment shown by the teams. In the coming weeks, members of the executive board, along with our organizing team, will be conducting site visits to support and engage directly with our members. The next few months are busy with an NEA ESP conference in March in Anaheim. where the ESP of the year will be honored, amongst other conferences such as Region 4 Conference, Summer Institute, and State Council. I'm excited to share that I am on the Summer Institute Planning Committee. CTA will also be hosting its first ever Women's Conference this April, providing another opportunity for leadership development and professional growth. Tonight, I am asking this board to pause. re-examine budget assumptions, explore alternatives to layoffs, and engage transparently with labor partners before irreversible harm is done. We are not asking for reckless spending. We are asking for responsible... thoughtful budgeting that centers students and respects workers. Because when we remove classified employees, you are not just reducing costs, you are reducing care and connection we make with students. President Rendler and board members, you have the responsibility to ensure that the budget decisions are transparent, equitable, and aligned with student outcomes. Layoffs should be a last resort, not a first response. Thank you.

Good evening, board members. My name is Jenny Dyerly. I'm the president of RAPA. Thank you for having me this evening. I wanted to share our excitement that the National School Public Relations Association announced its annual list of superintendents to watch. This year, our very own Superintendent Juan Cabral was selected as one of the 30 leaders from school systems across the United States for the 2025-26 school year to be honored. This recognition recognizes superintendents in their first five years with outstanding leadership who foster meaningful two-way communication and strengthening community engagement. So congratulations, Mr. Cabral. The RAPA is also working on our scholarships. We are excited to begin reading applications and then get to recognize students in the Redlands Unified School District for their excellence in academics. In March, RAPA will be supporting Angel's Closet with prom preparation. This is an organization that directly benefits students in our local schools so they can be outfitted for prom and other events as maybe, I can't think of the word, but different interviews that they might go on and to prepare for their coming events in the spring. Thank you so much for having me tonight. Thank you.

Jenny, I have a question. Is Angels Closet accepting donations for prom dresses and business attire for interviews and all that? Are they accepting stuff right now?

Yes, they're currently accepting those donations.

So you heard that. If you have anything, send it over to Angels Closet. Okay, now time for public participation. The Board of Education values the perspectives and participation of our community members. Public comment provides an important opportunity for individuals to share their views on district matters. The Board encourages comments, feedback, and input from all voices in the community, including those who may have differing opinions and perspectives. The California Office of the Attorney General asked us to share that in their view, matters pertaining to specific identifiable students or any group of students should remain private to the extent possible. If you have a complaint about an employee or student matter, please utilize the appropriate complaint procedure. Contact Dr. Rudy Wilson, Assistant Superintendent of Compliance, who can assist you with filing any such complaint. As a reminder, not all speech is free from consequence, and since this is the board's meeting in public, where minors may be present, we encourage all participants to conduct themselves in a civilized, non-threatening manner. Thank you for your cooperation and for contributing to a civil and student-focused discussion. Members of the public may address the board on matters within its jurisdiction by submitting a completed registration card to the clerk or designated staff member prior to the start of public comments on agenda items. When called, speakers may proceed to the podium, state their name and trustee area, and speak for the allotted time. The amount of time will be announced by the board president before the first speaker begins and will not exceed three minutes. Consuelo, how many speakers do we have tonight? We have 46. So your time is two minutes to speak.

The clock is not on.

Your side is not on?

No.

They'll get it.

We start? Okay. Jean Sacklin with two items.

Welcome, Jean.

Do I need to wait for it? Tonight I'm here to address the issues of book banning and layoffs. Book bans harm students, silence diverse voices, and undermine academic freedom. Banning books allows a single individual complaint to take parental controls away. We trust professional librarians. We respect educators' expertise, protect our student rights to access diverse stories. Layoffs are harmful to our students and their families, and they are unnecessary. Please reassess your priorities.

Thank you, Jean.

Erica Grossman with three items, 14M, 17A, 21A. Welcome, Erica.

This is regarding staff attending professional meetings and conferences, and I believe the majority of our USD staff conduct themselves professionally as educators while representing our district. Unfortunately, I learned that when our school board members, Candy and Jeanette, attended a California school board conference in Sacramento earlier this year, They were protesting transgender children. Candy posted a photo of herself and Jeanette on her Instagram account with a well-known anti-trans activist holding a sign containing a hateful message toward transgender children. Even if they protested during their personal time, it is deeply concerning for elected officials to use a taxpayer-funded trip and their positions as school board members to protest transgender issues. Additionally, the trans activists whom Pandy and Janet protested alongside made headlines last year for stripping down to a bikini top and bottoms at a school board meeting. Her children reportedly left her due to abusive behavior. Your behavior is highly unprofessional. If teachers were to fund protesting against racial minorities with hateful messages during a taxpayer-funded trip, they would face serious consequences. As elected officials, I expect you to conduct yourselves professionally and uphold the values of respect and inclusion when representing our district. Down to 17a. Regarding layoffs, our TA stated the district was misleading about the 13% raise for teachers. The deputy superintendent identified this as a major contributor to the deficit, and I request clarification. I've also seen claims that expanded Title IX enforcement is costing the district money due to past scandals. These measures, however, are essential for student safety and for protecting students. the district from future litigation. Superintendent Cabral stated that most sexual misconduct incidents are student-to-student and that the district failed to adequately address this in the past. Taking appropriate action should reduce reports and related costs. I believe the actions of Candy, Jeanette, and Michelle also contributed to an increase in complaints, so you should be working to reduce it as well. Special education spending has increased by $12 million, reportedly due to a 10% rise in student needing services over nine years. There was also $5 million in overspending on a single outside agency last year. If that amount went to one agency, how much was spent on all agencies? The district relied heavily on outsourcing rather than hiring paraprofessionals, significantly inflating costs. The district's history of denying service has resulted in litigation and additional expenses, including placements in non-public schools with the district covering tuition, transportation, and bus aides. Clearly, multiple factors must have contributed to the $17 million deficit. It is hard to trust a cabinet that fails to provide transparency and instead chooses layoffs. One more. What is this obsession with books? Please provide evidence that reading books with sexual content has caused students to engage in sexual misconduct or sexual assault. As the superintendent has stated, most reports of sexual misconduct are student to student, and we clearly need meaningful action to reduce incidents. It is quite embarrassing that sexual assault is being addressed by restricting books. The book Genderqueer does not promote sexual behavior. It explores young persons discovering their identity. Most importantly, it teaches that you do not have to do something you are uncomfortable with, and that is perfectly fine. This is a crucial message for young people. Interestingly, many well anti-trans figures argue that teens are less interested in sexual behavior nowadays and that this is one of the main reasons that teens become transgender, which does not make any sense. I'm very confused by the idea that some people claim to want to promote sexual behavior among teens while also wanting to remove anything that contains sexual content from books. I don't understand why people are so obsessed with teen sexual behavior. I find it quite pervasive. An individual who challenged the bluest eye in a push claimed that books about sexual assault causes teenage boys to experience arousal, that only sexual scenes from the books remain in your mind for life, and that menopausal women don't understand. This is deeply disturbing. I don't know whether he was describing his own experience and applying it to the general public, but that reaction is deeply concerning and reflects a lack of education. On the other hand, books like Gender Queer teach self-awareness, consent, and personal boundaries, lessons that help prevent harm rather than cause it. That is far more effective than what you are doing. You're just wasting our resources. Thank you, Erica.

Thank you. Next, we have Sue Headey with two items, 17A and 21A. Sue Headey? With two items. And then Michael Pacer with two items, 17A and 21A. Welcome, Sue.

Thank you. I'm a parent to two students in the RUSD schools. I'm talking about the reduced workforce. Dear school board, at the last meeting, I implored you to put on your creativity hat in order to prevent reducing the school workforce. And yet, instead of promoting new innovative ideas, you put more positions on the list that you can potentially eliminate. We have board members sitting up there not understanding that your job is to listen to your constituents. We are your boss. On Saturday, I was at a presentation by the San Bernardino County Unified School Board president, and she hammered that sentence into us attendees over and over again. Your job is to listen to your constituents. Your top priority should be listening to your constituents and follow our concerns. We have been promised certain services for our children, especially in the special education department. With less personnel doing the same amount of work, what do you expect will happen? Burnout and sick leave and kids falling through the cracks. Okay, I'm moving on to the next. I didn't know I had two minutes. New library material adoption policy. Dear school board, it's getting tiring to sit here and listen to your vendetta against our school librarians. Does any of you have a library and information sciences degree? Because if you want an extra set of eyes on the library material being accepted into our schools, you don't ask the janitor. to have the last word. And what does the school principal know about each and every book at the school library? His or hers knowledge is limited. They have enough on their plate as it is. If you need more people, people who you are actually now trying to, who you are trying to lose their jobs according to next year, why not ask our district librarian? Pull in the experts that are already working for our schools. But you don't want that, right? Because you don't want people with relevant knowledge. You want people instead who might join your white Christian agenda. So there's a... Last year I spoke to you guys too, but like I said in the last meeting, you're not listening. But I'll try again. We have a phenomenal children's literature festival at the University of Redlands. It's happening March 6th and 7th. It costs pennies compared to what you just put yourself in races on the school board. I really implore you to attend, to learn what... really quality children's literature is today. We have some of the top authors and illustrators speaking to hundreds of people, including our school professionals, about how to make better choices. So could you, if you attended? Thank you, Sue. Welcome, Michael.

Thank you.

Mike Paisner, parent in Area 5. Instead of cutting staff positions, I urge you to ask a question. What is and what should be normal? There was a time when normal meant turning a blind eye to sex abuse against children and paying for the resulting lawsuits. Now normal is an extra department to investigate complaints and prevent sex abuse. However, you haven't yet figured out how to pay for this new department. Instead of clinging to old approaches, cutting critical staff, we need a new normal for budget cuts. Paying executive $230,000 to $300,000 per year plus benefits while eliminating positions that directly support students should not be normal. Instead, cut executive salaries and truly prioritize student success. Make that the new normal for balancing our budget. If our current normal isn't prioritizing student success, shouldn't we try something else? Next item. Library materials. It's embarrassing when people with no knowledge of library science attempt to write library policy. Your ineptitude is obvious by insisting materials be wholesome materials. Samples of literature currently studied include Romeo and Juliet, where the protagonist commits suicide, Lord of the Flies, where schoolboys descend into savagery, and Fahrenheit 451, where books are burned. The word wholesome does not apply to these classics of literature that absolutely should be in our library. This policy also prohibits perceived pornography. I'm sorry, perceived by who? The weirdo that obsesses over which book passages will arouse teenage boys? The weirdo that speculates on the sex drive of menopausal women? Is that who we are supposed to trust to define perceived pornography? And heaven help me if the person who thinks a roadside memorial is a satanic altar says we should trust her common sense. Please, this policy is a bad joke. Try again.

Thank you, Michael.

Next, we have Dale Broom with one item, 21A, followed by Daniel Ambriz with one item at 17A, and Gina Porter with two items.

Did you say Dale Broom? Yes. I just can't hear her. There's too much noise.

Welcome, Dale.

Thank you. Yeah, this is Dale Broom. I wanted to discuss the library material agenda item that's on discussion, 21A, And, you know, in a school district, we need accountability. Accountability is very, very important. Accountability for everybody, including librarians. And so we've had now and presented to you guys on the school board that there have been two sexually graphic books that, of particular note, have pornographic images in them that have been placed in our school libraries, one of those being It's Perfectly Normal. It was placed in a middle school library with 60 images of full frontal nudity, six images of couples having sex, four of which are completely uncovered. And there was no record. This is now an old book. It's now been removed or lost. It hasn't been on the shelf for many years. But the point is that there's no record of who put those books in the library. And we need to have a process by which That is documented. Who approves certain books and allows certain books to be shelved in the libraries? And now we've uncovered another book called Gender Queer has been placed in one of our high school libraries. Now that book, I've looked at it, it has sexually graphic images, including oral sex. And there are things in there that are just not appropriate. In fact, it's pornographic images. Even though they may be cartoonish images, they are pornographic. And so the point is we need a policy that... that clearly delineates and warns librarians that they are not to place books, and they should screen the books to make sure that there are not pornographic images and sexually explicit content. And if there's any question, then that could be referred to the higher administrative level committee before they actually place those on there. So anyway, we need a policy to deal with this, and accountability is very important. Thank you.

Thank you, Dale.

Gina Porter with two items. What about Daniel? You said Daniel was next. Daniel Ambriz.

Hello. Welcome, Daniel. Good evening, I guess. So I was here about three years ago when we rolled out inclusion. And I put forward a request for you guys to come to one of our sites. That site was smiley. Yet to see any of you show up. I sent you an email earlier today in lieu of these budget cuts. You guys should roll up your sleeves, come to our sites, work our jobs. Don't bring any cameras, because I know that we like popping on the Instagram. I know we like looking at the socials, and we like getting our pictures up there. I want you to show up and work in one of our moderate-severe classrooms. You're going to have to leave the heels at home. You're going to have to leave the ties at home. You are going to have to possibly assist a student bleeding from the head who is defecating. These are the people who you're considering cutting. Our counselors, our health technicians, our paraprofessionals. I told you three years ago, we didn't have the infrastructure. And lo and behold, look at we are three years into inclusion. System's not working. Crazy. We're going to cut more people? Are you out of your mind? What are you thinking? What's it going to take for you to understand that this is a rash measure that's not going to help anybody? Is it going to take a student dying in one of our offices because we don't have a health technician? Is it going to take a nervous breakdown from one of our students because we don't have counselors? What needs to happen for you to get common sense in? What I think needs to happen is come to our schools. Do not come with a camera crew. Come on your free time. The plan I proposed is I would love it if one day a week every board member volunteers. I want to see you guys there. I would love to have you there. I'm at Smiley. You can find me any time of day there. Thank you.

Welcome, Gina.

Hi. I have actually three cards, but I'm a little confused as to where they're going.

I think maybe the other one is regular comment. Those are at the end.

It also deals with the negotiations, so I wasn't really sure. No.

No, I don't see one.

Okay. And so it is orange, but it's going to be for the end.

Let me see. You can start.

Okay. I can... You can start and then... Okay. And then one other thing before you start time. I have some documentation I was interested in sharing with the school board members, but I didn't have time. My daughter had a doctor's appointment. I didn't have time to go and make copies at Office Depot. Is that... All right. My name is Gina Porter. I'm the teacher librarian at Citrus Valley High School. Tonight, you're being asked to accept the 25-26 LCAP mid-year update, which is fantastic. Two weeks ago, the board voted three to two to approve a plan to cut up to 135 positions. Mine is one of those positions. I am one of the staff members who received a letter informing me that I may not have a job as I'm currently employed. The irony of this is that many of the 135 jobs that you're looking at potentially cutting are the very jobs that are being referenced in this LCAP report. These are our ACCs, our academic case carriers, our guidance counselors, our school nurses, our face liaisons, our librarians, our library paraprofessionals, our special education paraprofessionals. I can't speak for everyone, but I have talked to some of my colleagues who received that letter and who have been at the meetings trying to find out what is going to happen to our jobs. Speaking bluntly, we're scared. We are worried. We are stressed, not just for ourselves and our jobs, but for the students who count on us. Yet every day we come to work, We put on a brave face. We put on a smile. And we show up for our students because we are professionals. And we are here for them. I ask you to please look for other ways. Consider other things. Think outside the box. These kids need us. And we're here because we love what we do. They say you get into teaching not for the income, but for the outcome. And I think that is true for a lot of us. So that's the first thing. Okay. This goes along with the packet that I wanted to share with you all. I'm voicing my objections to discussion item 21A. The selection criteria that RUSD librarians have in place does not exist in a vacuum. We did not pull it out of thin air. We did not create it on a whim. Similar to Board Policy 1312.2, the one before it was changed in August, these policies follow industry standards across the board, regardless of the political climate or partisan leanings of the school boards at the time the policies are adopted. Librarians rely on the informed evaluations of trusted publications whose primary purpose is to review and evaluate young adult and children's literature for content and age appropriateness. We consider the needs, wants, and requests of our students and staff. We follow the Library Bill of Rights as set forth by the American Library Association, and we look to organizations such as CSLA, the California School Library Association, for guidance in choosing materials that will be appropriate for and enjoyed by our students. The item up for discussion tonight flies in the face of the district's own policy, 6163.1, which states that, quote, the governing board believes that school libraries have a responsibility to nurture intellectual growth and freedom. Other school districts, and I want to really point to Tracy Unified School District in that packet as a primary example, other school districts trust their librarians to do right by their students, and they have codified their support for libraries and librarians into their board policies. My question is, why won't this board? Thank you. Thank you, Gina. Thank you.

Lindsay Schmitz with two items 21A and 17A, followed by Joshua Hall with two items 17A and 21A.

Good evening. Welcome. I'm from Area 3. I have a joint statement on the library media adoption and resolution 2025-26-17. The time for civil discourse is done. Stop telling me how to raise my children. A quality public education entails access to a multitude of award-winning, diverse, and culturally significant books, which qualified, trained, and trusted members of the education community have selected for inclusion in their libraries and schools. Your kids can stick to wholesome texts if you want, but by making these decisions and changing these policies, you are infringing on my rights as a parent and as a citizen. You are harpies at the feast of knowledge, sirens singing a song of porn in the libraries to crash this district into the rocks with our children in it. You have behaved not only ignorantly, but arrogantly. You think you know better than people better educated and better read than yourselves. You have no humility. And now you've begun to target these people, to threaten their jobs and silence them to cover your disgraceful financial decisions. You are the poisoners of Socrates, the imprisoners of Galileo. Your LGBT students suffer, and you shout, let them eat cake, while you remove resources and endanger them. And 70 years ago... you would have been the people screaming at a little black girl on her way to school, accusing her of corrupting your children. Get your filthy, bigoted hands off my children's education and my community's jobs. Thank you, Nancy.

Joshua. Welcome, Joshua.

I'm going to be brief on 17A. The problem that I have with 17A is that the majority of the layoffs are coming from the bottom, and only three administrators are being laid off from the top. So that needs to be more equitable. I'd also like to speak about the book ban. None of these books are actually being banned. We've said this before. My side has said this before, and we'll say it again. You can get all these so-called bans. books that are being banned anywhere. Just because they're not available in the school library does not mean they're being banned. They're available at Smiley Library, the City Library. You can get them online. You can go to Barnes & Noble. They're not banned. Thank you, Joshua.

Next, Peter Hall with two items, 17A and 21A, followed by Pat Molnar with one item, 21A.

Welcome, Peter. So 17A, I think most of the people here, regardless of their politics, agree that the school board should cut positions from the top instead of from the bottom. And like so many other people have said, a lot of the positions being cut are teachers, librarians, paraprofessionals, and even health workers. Like they said, cutting these people is not going to save you money in the long run. You're cutting services, and that's going to jeopardize students. So I actually agree with everyone here who's speaking out against 17A, even though I don't agree with most of their other positions. That's all I have to say about that. My next comment is going to be about the library policy. As my brother said, these books are not being banned. They are available outside the school. They're easily obtainable. And the people who are complaining about this so-called book ban are actually trying to get the school district to restrict access to information that only the school board can provide. Last meeting, they were talking about restricting parental notification, especially in regards to students' records, even in regards to student medical records, which I think is insane. California has passed a law about this, and even though it's against the law for the schools to notify parents regarding sensitive matters regarding their children's medical records, that law should be repealed. All it does is it puts a wedge between children and their parents or their otherwise specified legal guardians. Parents or legal guardians should know everything about their children, even if it is sensitive, and We should not allow children to keep secrets from their parents. This is also in regards to the so-called forced outing policy. I mentioned this last time I was here, too. This is not a forced outing. These students are coming in and telling everybody on campus that they're gay or they're trans or they're whatever. The only people left out of the list is their parents. Excuse me, Peter.

I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Could you come back and do all this at public comment time at the end? Yes. Because this doesn't have anything to do with an agenda item.

Okay.

Thank you.

So, I'll speak for 30 more seconds on the book ban. No, on the, oh, okay, on the library policy. Yeah, the book ban, yeah. Children should not be, even though pornography and questionable content is easily accessible to students, especially because of the internet, that does not mean that the school should encourage it in the classroom or in the library. Thank you, Peter.

Welcome, Pat.

Yes, I put it on the wrong card because my phone was dying and I only had the one card open. Could I please speak on both things now?

So she's asking to speak on 17A as well as 21A.

Oh, you registered on one card.

I wrote it on the wrong color because that was the only thing left on my phone before it died.

Okay, you may go ahead. Okay.

So speaking on the layoff, I want to echo what a lot of people have said. You are destroying the base of the tree instead of trimming the top where these cuts should be coming from. You are endangering the most vulnerable kids. You are endangering the ACC's that keep kids coming to school, the foster kids, the kids who need extra support in all sorts of ways. The layoffs are going to harm children. You can be more creative than that. We need more competence from you in that as a board. Stop just blaming past administrations and start being more creative. Roll up your sleeves, please, and look for other ways rather than damaging the people who keep these kids alive, who transport these kids, who teach these kids, who keep these kids safe at school. We expect better from you. So that's on layoffs. Okay. And for the other one, which is on book selection policy, I have a report card for you. I've been teaching 30 years. I feel that I'm owed a little humor here. So, first of all, on understanding your job, at least from a certain portion of the students I see here, I give you a D for poor effort and a little responsibility. So... If understanding your job in terms of you guys being able to choose books is what I'm talking about here, if you can't bother to know what STEM is, Jeanette, if you don't understand the book policy and the reasons for choosing it, as Gina just excellently described to you, if you disregard her expertise, you do not understand your assignment. So your book policy is poorly written. Also, then, we have language. For our language grade, I give you a D-, a generous D-, because you are using vague words. Vague is a big, bad word in English classes. Intentionally vague. Using words like wholesome. Using words like choice. Using words like controversial and pornography. Excuse me if some people find things like sexual assault... arousing, that's a you problem, sir, not the student's problem. And the very people who are most threatened by this, who need these books, who need books like Genderqueer, they need to see themselves shown. I taught your child, Michelle. You can't even bother to meet me. So in terms of understanding the assignment, you promised to meet and you wouldn't. That's a you problem. I'm there. I'm willing to meet with you. But in terms of wholesome, who's going to determine that? Do you listen to your constituents what that means? You do not. Do not go to one church's attitudes on what is wholesome because we are not one church. Lastly, collaboration with the whole group, your whole constituents. So on a group grade, ignores and insults groups you don't like and destroys unity. So by questioning only the person who is not white, that is not a good thing. Thank you, Pat. Yeah, I hope so.

Next. We have Valerie Savis with two items, 21A and 17A, followed by Emily Huebner with one item, 21A.

Welcome, Valerie. Thank you. I wanted to comment on the budget crisis this district is facing. The situation was created with the approval of Patty and Melissa when one-time COVID funds were available. They knew it was temporary, yet raises were given and staff hired. That locked the district into ongoing expenses without ongoing funding. Now the money is gone and the budget must be balanced. Yet those same board members are refusing to accept responsibility. You cannot spend temporary money on permanent costs and then refuse to accept the consequences. Children even know this simple concept. That is not leadership. That is irresponsibility. I heard the gentleman from RTA explain the cause of this, but I also heard Mr. Hill explain it at a previous meeting. Regardless of the reason, I really hope all board members that you can come together to work on a reasonable resolution for all staff, all these families affected by this awful situation, because most of which sound like they're pretty critical positions. And then my other card. I support the library and media center materials policy. School libraries should be places of trust. But when it comes to minors, trust requires oversight and clear rules. This policy is simple. Decisions about library materials must be approved, documented, and tied to a name. The only reason to oppose that is to avoid accountability. While Patty and Melissa keep telling us to trust the librarians... Gender Queer, a book many parents find inappropriate for children, ended up in a school library. That leaves one question, how? This policy will answer that question in the future. With it in place, there will be no secrecy. Patty and Melissa, trust does not replace oversight. Blind trust failed here. Our children deserve better, and they deserve responsible governance. Thank you.

Thank you, Valerie.

Good evening. My name's Emily Huebner, Region 1. I've been an educator, community college and university level mostly, but I was very active in PTA when our child was growing up in Glendale. I worked in English and theater departments. Regarding library material adoption policy, it sounds like you're thinking about It does sound, I would say it sounds like a great idea. And that it would be great to advocate, I would advocate for choices of materials for the students, choices that all families could agree on. So perhaps thinking about books on civics and finance. I don't think you'll find that disunifying. And if the mission of the school board or the district is to help unify the community, maybe there are some better choices to be made. For reluctant readers, I think graphic novels are fabulous, audiobooks as well. There's a good graphic novel out now about civics. So to educate our young people about how this country came to be so successful and how to perhaps preserve the best aspects of that, that seems educational to me. I would advocate for keeping families excited about public school. There's a risk of losing active families to private school, charter schools, homeschooling. But public school is one of the great gifts in the United States. People move here because of our public schools. So I applaud what you're trying to do. Keep going.

Thank you, Emily. Next we have Avery Johnston Cabral with one item, followed by Nicole Maitzen with one item. Welcome, Avery.

Hello, Board. I am a library paraprofessional at Bryn Mawr Elementary School. I am acknowledging the book bans. I'd like to acknowledge the hypocritical decisions that are being made regarding what the materials allowed in the library. At my site, a majority of the students from third to fifth read at an advanced level, and I'm not talking about a third grader reading at a fourth grade level, although that's not to be dismissed because that is something to applaud them on. I'm talking about a third grader reading and comprehending at a seventh or eighth grade level. If you add even more restrictions than what you already have, you are limiting so many students who obtain the reading and comprehension skills that are way above their grade level. Because of your limitations, my students are not only losing access to a handful of reading topics, both fiction and nonfiction, but they're forced to read at levels that are so beyond their capabilities. To make matters worse, you are removing us from our positions, so not only are they losing access to books, they're losing us. If your child was in the district, how would you feel looking them into the eyes, knowing that you're the reason their favorite staff member who understood them better than a teacher could, better than you guys could, is now gone? Or that their safe place is no longer an option? You say you have the student's best interests at heart, but your actions are completely hypocritical.

Thank you Avery. Welcome.

It's my first time up here, so I'm a little nervous.

I didn't catch your name. I'm sorry. My name is Nicole Mattson. Nicole, welcome.

I'm speaking on the Title 17, yes. Good evening, board members. My name is Nicole Mattson. I am an LVN for Redlands Unified School District. My position and the expansion of the health department, I'm sorry, were created because of students not receiving the Medicare, the medical care required under their IEPs and 504 plans, which are legal binding documents. At one point, this entire district had only three RNs and two health techs, which led to serious gaps, including years of hearing and vision screenings not being logged and lack of medical care for students. By reducing our medical staff, it will again lead to gaps, decrease enrollment, and cause possible future lawsuits. Our health department provides families peace of mind. Knowing a trained medical professional is on campus to keep their child safe. Teachers and staff are not required to have CPR certification, but us medical staff members, we are. Reducing the very people trained to save lives can put students at risk. Just last week on a field trip, my medical training helped save a student from choking. Applause Thank you. For the past four years, I have served as a one-to-one LVN for a highly medical-needed student. Because of this support, that student has been able to safely attend school and thrive academically, as he is legally entitled to. I am trained and licensed to perform the following procedures for students requiring complex medical care, including G-tube feedings, seizure monitoring, catheterizations, diabetic medication management, and so much more. I not only speak as an LVN, but also a parent of a child with a disability. I know firsthand how critical nurses, health techs, and medical staff are, ensuring students safely access to free and public education. Thank you, Nicole. Thank you.

Next. It's Mark. Mark Lear. Welcome, Mark. Thank you. You have 12 items?

Yes, I do. I will be starting with 12A. So part of 12A, I'm part of Area 2. Remember that, Michelle? You know, part of Area 2 voted for Measure D. Measure D, the thing that you needed for that 7,000 new bleachers that you're voting on. Remember, elections are in November, Michelle. They're coming up pretty quickly. And I don't know if you know this, but where I live in Area 2 is a new development. I've been knocking door to door. It's a pretty big development, actually. You might have seen it. I enjoy living there very much, and I'm very close with my community and my neighbors. And just as you needed their support for Measure D for this to pass, You're going to need the support of me and my neighbors to get reelected this year, my friend. And right now, let me be honest, I've been talking about the embarrassment that has been this financial crisis, this board. And honestly, it was embarrassing our school even got to the point where we needed Measure D, that they were so unsafe that we needed to get to that point. So Juan Cabral being nominated for the best superintendent, I'm sorry, I think not. There is no vision on this board right now. There is no vision. I want a vision of student success. I want a board that brings my students safety and success at every meeting, not culture wars and division. We are the United States of America. And I'm not feeling so united right now, especially not by this board. I see you. You sit on separate sides. And yet you ask for my Measure D funds to go and make all these improvements at these schools using my property taxes, my money. And guess what? I support that. My students deserve this money. But you also waste their money on lawsuits and other things, Michelle. And I've tried. I've tried to talk to you. I've tried to reach out to you. I live in your area and you won't even communicate with me. Your social media is a ghost town, my friend. We can't even get into touch with our own representative for our area. I've reached out. Where's my emails, Michelle? All right, moving on to now 12B. Guess what? That's still Measure D. That's right. $151,207 on facilities. Once again, how did we let it get to that point? Michelle, poor leadership. We shouldn't be needing that much money in facilities repairs. Our students deserve world-class education. And you have failed them, especially my trans students, my queer youth. I wouldn't feel safe in your district. I just went on a wonderful, wonderful trip with my district, where we formed unity. I wish that we had money. for A, these basic repairs that we need, but B, for that, Michelle. But instead, you waste it on poor leadership, meetings that run every day until three in the morning. Yes, three, two, one. I'm tired of showing up to these meetings. I was just camping with 75 teenagers in the mountains. Over time. I didn't get the three-day weekend that y'all got. And here I am, after a long work day, eight hours, full time, as a library media technician, mind you. Not in this district, because I would never want to work in this district under its current leadership. I'm grateful every day for my job, and I'm grateful every day for my community, but this leadership of this board, every time I'm here, I'm embarrassed. And every time I talk to my community, I'm embarrassed, and they're embarrassed of you. So, remember, Measure D, just as this item says, was voted for by us, and you are voted for by us. And I am knocking door to door. I just talked with my neighbors yesterday. They're not voting for you. They're not. Be mindful of your choices going forward, Michelle, because everybody's paying attention, and I will make it known. All right, now let's talk about, hmm, 12C. Orangewood High School Restroom Project. You know, I love this project because every time it comes up, I get to talk about trans students, because you know who uses restrooms? Trans students. Right? The very ones that we should be keeping safe in our schools. And yet, yeah, Candy, this is in fact relevant. Thank you for looking over to Michelle. It is in fact relevant. Because as I said, trans students do in fact use restrooms. Do you have any questions on that? Or do I need to clarify that all people of all gender identities use restrooms? That seems like something that would be pretty basic for an educated professional to understand. Especially one that should have firm understandings of egg code, where that's required under law, that any student is able to use the restroom of their own gender identity. Yeah. But I thought we didn't pay attention to those laws. I thought we just tried to pass forced outing policies for our trans students, take away books that make them feel seen. But meanwhile, we're up here doing our own gender-affirming care, aren't we, Candy? Allegedly. But anyways... I'm really glad that Orangewood High School is getting these restrooms. Our students deserve the very best facilities. Once again, I do have a question, though. Where did the funding for this come from? Was it Measure D? Because if it was Measure D, I'd like to know. Because once again, it was your elected constituents who got you that funding, Michelle. And TikTok, we're coming up pretty quick on November, aren't we? But... I really hope that those restrooms help our students because I don't know if any of you have ever known what it's like to have to hold your bladder for the entire day because of gender dysphoria and all of the things you put our trans youth through. And without our nurse, I wonder how they're going to get through that especially. And no, not for top surgery because the nurses don't do that because they use their bathroom half the time, don't they? They shouldn't have to. Okay, next one. Board payment report. 12D. So I just wanted to talk about the board payment report, and I wanted to talk about the abhorrent choice that this board made, especially during a budget crisis, to raise your wages $1,400 a month. Mm-hmm. That's right. I know some board members that make about $400 a month. I literally am friends with these board members. And I'm not going to name names. But I am family friends with many board members. They make $400 a month. They don't do it for the paycheck. Seems like some of you do. And some of you are claiming that it was required under California law. No. Because some of those board members that I spoke with did not raise their wages this year because they knew it would hurt student success. And shouldn't the board share that shared vision of student success? I think that they should. In fact, I think every educated professional should always share the shared vision of student success. Do you want Cabral? I think that a leader that is the best superintendent up and coming should in fact be driving our board to cohesive leadership. You sit on opposite sides. It's embarrassing. I go to board meetings and I see unity. I see student success. I see student focus that drive every meeting, not division and culture wars. Yeah, it makes me sad too, Candy. I fully agree. It makes me really sad that we can't have awesome meetings that just drive our students to success. Instead, we have to go on and on and on about all these things because you continue to pass illegal policies and waste our money and lay off professionals. I was just on that field trip that we were talking about. Guess what? I had a student with diabetes. That student had low blood sugar, and I had to run down a mountain to go get that student an orange. It was closer than the nurse, and it wasn't that bad, but that was my other alternative, right? I ran. Student success and safety is always my number one priority. I really hope it's the boards. I'd like to see that. Next up, let's talk about 13A. Wrestling. You know who also wrestle? Our trans students. You know, the ones that we tried to ban. That illegal policy that y'all keep bringing up over and over again. But also those same students too. I thought we didn't want to recognize their culture or anything about them because we also passed that policy. Right? Well, anyways, it is my hope that these students, regardless of who they are, have a wonderful time on their wrestling trip. Because it shouldn't matter, binary lines, who is going on what trip. Once again, it should be student success. Not male success. Not female success. Not cis male success. Not cis female success. It should be student success. What are we not getting, Jeanette Candy? And Michelle, I like it if you would look at me when I'm talking, rather than dig through your purse. Especially when you're on the ballot this November. Yeah, okay, it's fine. You can continue rummaging through your purse while I talk about wrestling. Yeah, wrestling. I'm going to stay on topic so you don't stop me like you always try to stop me. Anyways, let's talk about some of the books that some of those trans wrestling students that we may one day have. would find gender-affirming within our libraries. Yes, that's right. Books can be gender-affirming care. And no, half of these books that y'all try to claim are pornography are not pornography. They are, in fact, supports for students. And I'm not saying every book is meant for every student. Don't get my words twisted. I'm saying the students that seek out some of the materials that we've talked about, and yes, Guess what? I've read those materials because one should read the materials in full that they're questioning. Okay, well, guess what? 13b is also about trans, well, not trans students, wrestling. It's about wrestling, which also, as I remember, trans students can, in fact, wrestle. So I'm going to talk some more about those potential students. Yeah, I really am. And thank you so much for laughing and chatting up a good one. Jeanette and Candy, while I'm chatting during my time, really, really shows respect. Thank you. Just like the respect that you show me when you reply, all three of you reply to the feedback that I give you via email and via your social media pages. Oh, wait, you don't hear your constituents. You'd rather talk and rummage through your purses and do all the other things that you do during board meetings. I just, in fact, got a photo of Jeanette on her phone while another constituent was talking earlier. Mm-hmm, that's right. So, continue to show me the disrespect. It's been noted. It's been very much noted. Thank you. Okay, anyways, back to the topic at hand of trans wrestling. Athletes, I hope that they have a great time on their trip. Also, let's talk about that book, Genderqueer. I'm going to be honest, it made me very uncomfortable reading that book. But guess what? There were multiple pages I read that talked about binding and the process in which it takes and how you can die by doing it wrong. And I would rather a student be uncomfortable than dead. Any questions about that? Because guess what? The students that are seeking out those materials, and like I said, those materials, I read them. Made me uncomfortable. Uncomfortable literature is not always bad. Yes, I stand by that. Because you have probably not even read the book in full. I read it this past week. When it came up at this last board meeting. I knew I would have to read the material in full because in order to understand why it exists in a library setting, I had to read the material in full. And like I said, it made me uncomfortable. It did. But also, I've been a queer student searching for my identity, and what I found online made me way more uncomfortable than that book. Anyways, now let's talk about 13C at your leading convention in Anaheim. Actually, I don't feel like talking about that, so I'm going to skip that. Thank you. 14M says, Let's talk about the approval for the staff to attend some conferences. Yeah, the one where Candy and Jeanette were representing the district on our taxpayer dollars, staying in our hotels. As far as I'm concerned, when I go on trips with my district, I'm supposed to be professional. I don't work in this district, so you find a very different side of me at these meetings, my friends. But as far as I'm concerned, when I am on taxpayer dollars, I am accountable for how I present myself. Embarrassing that you guys were out there protesting trans kids. And once again, as I said, we should share a cohesive vision as a school board for student success. Student success. Not cishet male student success. Ooh, I know. Woke. I'm so sorry. Yeah, I just heard that little exasperated come from behind me in the audience. I'm so sorry to be talking about such crazy topics as student success, safety, and making sure that our students feel safe in schools. I'm so sorry. It must be really hard for you. Yeah, it must be really hard for those people that, Michelle, don't silence the talk behind me during my speech. But if I made such a comment, oh, Michelle would be right on it, wouldn't she? Remember, she's up for election this year. Anyways, there's still people talking behind me, Michelle. You always gavel me when I'm in the middle of my conversations, even when they're relevant to the topic at hand. And I have heard no gavel for the comments behind me, Michelle. What's that about? Anyways, 14M. Personally, come on. Oh, sorry, sorry. I'm just going to yield that time to not even, because I was still on the last one, but we're good. I kind of wrapped up. Thank you. Okay, so let's move on now. 16A. So you're trying to subtly pass the release of temporary personnel for 2026 through 2027 school year, and I won't let you. Laying off all these beautiful teachers, SPED teachers, ELOP and elementary enrichment teachers, counselors, SLPs, librarians, nurses, their work matters, you guys. And I see all of them. Their names matter. Veronica, Camilla. Stephanie, Michelle, Alicia, Kimberly, Alexander, Jeremy, Tiffany, Karina, Catherine, Christina, Samantha, Sally, Christina, Anthony, Richard, Lilana, Jacqueline, Catherine, Tiffany, Emily, Keith, Tanja, Karen, Angelica, Sarah, Megan, Lorena, Alyssa, Hannah, Louise, I'm going to run out of time, but oh my God, this list, you guys, all of their names matter. I used to work just like that educator was talking about as an elementary sped para. And you know what I did? I took bites for my students. Because if it became between a student being injured and me putting myself in the way, I would do it. I've been punched. I've been kicked. Everything under the sun is a paraeducator, and you're the first ones to cut? Paras, are you serious? And library technicians, when we have increasing illiteracy? And you guys were so concerned about our library materials. Who is going to vet those library materials? Library materials do, in fact, get outdated as time gets older. Do you want to play the catch-up game? 10, 15 years down the road and you finally have to weed those materials, that's going to be expensive. What about Williams Act compliance? Remember how I brought that up last time? How are you going to ensure that when those Williams Act audits come through your schools that you are compliant with every single material that you need in your libraries when you don't have library staff? Or your curriculum is in order. Good luck. I wish you the best of luck. And all of those names that I didn't get to, I'm so sorry, but you matter too. Anyways, now let's talk about 17A. 14,000 times 12. What's that number?

16,800.

Yeah, once again, let's talk about how much you guys voted to raise your wages in all of this budget cut. 16,800 times 12. One, two, three, four, five. I don't know if Juan makes that. Honestly, Juan might make that too. Jason might make that for all I know. Respectfully, I don't frankly know, but I do know that most of you up here are now making that wage. And you voted for it. On my dollars. during an election year. Wow, that was pretty brave, wasn't it? I hope that people are paying attention to the mismanagement of funds that's coming from this board, from litigation to wage increases, all at student success. Like I said, I was in the mountains this weekend, and I ran to save my student's life. I would do anything for my students. I don't feel as though this board would do the same. Not all of the board. There's some of this board that very much, I see your policies are in line with me, and I'm very appreciative of you. But for the ones that I'm talking to, and you know, especially you, Michelle, you're up for reelection this year. Get it together. This is embarrassing. Our district... and financial ruin on your watch. They're trying to blame it on these two. Michelle, you are the president. Get this board together. Get this board together, girl. Because... It's embarrassing to be at these meetings. It really is. And I'm tired of showing up at these meetings, but guess what? I know that you're just as tired of me, and so are these people behind me, but oh well. I will keep showing up, because it matters. I once voted in an election, and my family, that's right, five votes, in Rancho Cucamonga, yeah, we got someone on school board. I'll do it again. I'd love to do it again. I'm going to put every single ounce of energy to do that again. All right. Now, let's talk about B. Yes, that's right. If you have anything to say, then you can say it outside and not during my time. All right. Library policy. Wait, no, that's not that one. Let's talk about B. I'm actually requesting some information on why we're partnering with a private religious school in North Dakota for our students to learn health sciences. Don't get me wrong, I actually love that our students are getting this opportunity, but when Loma Linda is right in our backyard, why are we partnering with a school in Loma Linda for health sciences, let alone a private religious school? Seems like we have one right here that's more likely to provide hands-on experience for our students and more resources. And in fact, I love Loma Linda. They saved my aunt's life. grateful for that hospital. They also provide jobs for people on this board. I can see, maybe that would be why you wouldn't do that. I can see that part. But, I'll be honest with you, like I said, I just want more information. I know I'm really sassy. This isn't me being sassy. I just genuinely am like, y'all, what's the reason why we chose this program over one that's more local? And I would really like you to reach out to me and give me that information, because I think that our money should be spent wisely. And if we can do it more locally, or we can do it more affordably somewhere else, especially in a time when we're looking to cut budgets, I don't think it should come at student success. I don't. But if we can get a different program that will still meet those same needs that's cheaper and more local, I think that's something that we should be paying attention to at this time when we're looking at our budget. So I would think before passing that one is what I have to say to that one. Anyways, I'm going on for a long time, so I'm going to skip to the next one. 21A, let's talk about library policy. Wholesome material. One second, let me get my... this one from my library. They called themselves the KKK. It's not really wholesome. Does it belong in my library? Absolutely. That's right. This is for the board. But the board should see the back of the book. One doesn't know much about the front of the book without the back. But they called themselves the KKK. That's not a wholesome book. Age-appropriate, absolutely. But also, who are y'all to tell me what age-appropriate is? I have 20-year-old students who that read at a third grade level. And that's where they're at. I'm not shaming them. That's where they're at. That's their ability. I have those materials available in my high school library. I should, right? I also have materials on the Holocaust, which are not wholesome. I have Mein Kampf, not wholesome. Does it belong in my library? Absolutely not. Ooh, let's talk about even Number of the Stars. That's a classic right there. I love that book. About the Holocaust. Does that belong in my library even though it's not wholesome? I think so. This policy is embarrassing. Perceived pornography. I mean, for all I know, Candy's up there getting off to this KKK-hood right here. Is that what your perceived pornography is? I'd like some context. because that's a pretty broad definition, especially one to paint so many literary materials with. Nonfiction, that's whole sections, yeah, nonfiction. Fiction books. All this policy applies to all of them, the whole library. You better be careful, especially if you want students prepared for their AP exams. If you want students prepared for life. Come on, uncomfortable is not necessarily bad, and not all books are for all students, but this policy, embarrassing. Anyways, it's been real. Bye. Thank you, Mark.

Next, Valerie Tabor with one item, followed by Greg Britton with four items.

Welcome, Valerie. So I'm here to talk about the library materials policy. This policy is not consistent with the policy that you just passed. It is a egregious overreach of power to just remove books that meet a vague definition that has no oversight at all, no community input. Not even definitions of these words. What the hell does wholesome mean? What does the prevailing concept of decency mean? That changes person to person. And I want to read an excerpt of the education law policy statement. Board policies, including library book policies, are unlawful if they are deemed impermissibly vague or arbitrary or capricious. Vague language and overbroad prohibitions may be challenged as having a chilling effect on book choices and speech protected by the First Amendment. The reliance on vague, subjective criteria and failure to require consideration of a book in its entirety, which is why you had to keep the form when you have the book complaints— including whether it has received critical acclaim, may be evidence that the policy is not tailored to be objective and to identify educational suitability, but instead serves to impermissibly enforce a particular viewpoint. Moreover, focusing on specific words or passages under the guise of protecting students from ideas or information ignores the educational or literary merit of books in their entirety, and impermissibly permits school board members to impose their viewpoint and idea of what should be orthodox on materials available to students in school libraries. The First Amendment requires school districts to have established regular and facially unbiased procedures governing the removal of non-curricular books. Book removals by schools that rely on irregular procedures, like this one, without standards or vague subjective standards as part of its review process are more likely to violate the First Amendment. Don't pass this policy. Thank you, Valerie.

Welcome, Greg. Evening. New topic. Oh, by the way, next time I'm going to sign up for 25 different items so I can hear myself ramble longer than otherwise would be permitted. 14E. I noticed there's a field trip for multiple days to Catalina. Sounds nice. Three days in Catalina. One, with the budget restrictions, is that really a good use of money? Two, you're spending a bunch of money on something that's going to help a very narrow, small segment of your student population, and I just really question whether that's fair. And with the Catalina trip, unlike the athletic trips, you're outsourcing the education. Have you checked out? Have you monitored? Do you monitor what is being taught and presented to the students at these various field trip educational events? The school is required, if you have controversial topics, to present both sides. If they do that in this Catalina trip, talking about the environment and the ocean, Is the same rule apply when you outsource the education? And you should make sure that it is. Because your job is to educate, not indoctrinate. Related to this, item G, the Hawaii trip. Again, it would be wonderful to go to Hawaii. and congratulations if the volleyball team deserves it, great, but you're spending a whole lot of money on a very narrow range of students. I really question whether that's really fair or not. In times past, I've seen news reports where the choir or the band or the team wants to go to Europe or something, and they raise their own money. They take responsibility and earn money. The trip. And that would be a good thing to apply here. Item L. The partnership with Cal State San Bernardino. Written in suitably vague edge speak. Talks about equity. and bringing presumably students who wouldn't otherwise qualify for Cal State to Cal State. Well, when the left talks about equity, almost invariably they are talking about racial and ethnic preferences, which are illegal in California under Prop 209 adopted in the 1990s and when they tried to repeal it, the voters rejected that by an even wider margin because the voters understand, the citizens understand that judging and treating people based on their ethnicity or the color of their skin is wrong. It's also a practically wrong policy because if students are not prepared, they can't qualify otherwise for a university other than by their racial or ethnic identity, then they may drop out. They may not be able to succeed at that. And that often happens where they admit the people based on those criteria, and they can't. keep up with people who got there based on merit and competition. So if that's what's going on, it shouldn't be going on, and you should be clear in what this policy is as to what really is going on. Back to books, of course. Choosing appropriate books for children is not banning books, as the left likes to say. We have seen that these librarians who are supposedly so well trained have allowed into the libraries grossly graphic, sexually inappropriate books for children. And we elect you, the school board, to run the schools on behalf of we the people. And ultimately, the responsibility for what's happening in the schools lies with the five of you, not with unelected librarians, not with staff, not with the superintendent. They all work for you in running the schools on behalf of we the people. So I commend you for adopting your book policy. And the next policy of, because many of these books would get in there, how did this get in here? We have no idea who approved it. And if the librarians think this particular book is good, they should be willing to put their name. And yes, I think this is good because. And then the principal will look at it and decide whether it's appropriate. And ultimately, if there's a challenge, it comes to the elected school board members, as it should. Now, there's some comments here about the culture war. And we're wasting time on that, says the leftists who turn out and force every meeting to wage and defend the right to wage culture war in the schools. They talked about the weirdos. Well, the weirdos are the ones that want, and you see this all across the nation, not just in Redlands, all across the nation, that want to sexualize children from the earliest age. That, in my mind, in my opinion, is a weirdo. Another, the librarian who spoke, said that they rely on the American Librarian Association, which is, by the way, is headed by an avowed open Marxist. Interesting choice.

Thank you, Greg. B with two items, 21A and 17A, followed by Lamar Simmons with one item. Welcome, B.

On 17A, I'm appalled the board is considering these cuts. Candy and Jeanette, you campaigned on protecting children. Does that not extend to kids in special education? Because here you are cutting funding for positions that would keep students safe, including my child and his school. The Redlands Teacher Association, people on both sides of the political spectrum, and I have all informed you of student safety issues because there is not enough support in the classroom. You say you don't have the budget. I have noticed the budget doesn't seem to matter when it comes to security so you can debate hateful policies that marginalize LGBT plus students. It doesn't matter when we waste everyone's time banning books. It only matters when it endangers students like my child who was hit in the head with a chair in the classroom because there were not enough paraprofessionals to maintain safety. There are ways to fund these positions. I handed each of you proposals crafted in consultation with professionals within the district, proposals I read out loud because you can't seem to bother reading anything that I hand to you. You don't care about children. You don't care about safety. And I'm not just talking to the three board members who we all know will vote three to two to cut services to special education in my child's school. I'm talking to Superintendent Cabral, who was up there scowling at me during President Caperton's comments and who has yet to apologize to my child or even acknowledge what happened, despite me explicitly asking him to do so. You, Superintendent Cabral, who sold your soul and participated in the lie about the reason for these cuts the four of you are not interested in protecting students the only thing you are interested in doing is burning our children's futures to the ground on 21a Here we are again discussing book bans. This despite the fact that the public made it clear that they are against these policies and provided you evidence showing you how deeply unpopular they are. This despite the fact that you already passed policies on this with a vote of three to two, set up rubrics to evaluate books for perceived pornographic content. content hid that Bale Broom submitted two books for review, put together expert panels to review them, ignored those panels, and then used your quote-unquote common sense to ban them. Three to two. This despite the fact that you, Michelle, said that you were trying not to engage in partisan politics. You still put this abomination of a policy on the agenda that we all know, we all know is going to pass. Three to two. I don't even know anymore. This isn't participatory democracy. It's just not. Your job is to represent the people, and you are not doing that. You won't speak with anyone who disagrees with you. You won't compromise with the public or with other members of the board. You won't do anything except push your agenda and use your warped judgment to pass these gross policies. Three to two. I come here every meeting. I propose ideas. I show you research, legal opinions, talk with employees within the district, and propose ways to address systemic problems, and you just don't listen. So pass your hateful book ban policy. I will continue to show up, and others will continue to show up, so that you continue to feel the heat and the anger from the public that you have chosen to betray.

Thank you, B. Welcome, Lamar.

Oh, thank you. I wanted to talk about the RIF, the effects of the RIF, as well as the lack of pay increases. I'm going to call it by the numbers. So by the numbers, 7.1% drop in enrollment since 2019. You guys already know it. I think everybody here knows it. A response to that was a proposed cut in 9.85% of certificated staff. These are staff that are in direct contact with the students. And then there was a 2.3% COLA released for statewide for all the teachers for their funding to go up. But we're getting a 0% raise in Redlands Unified School District. But me as a special education teacher and the rest of the special education teachers in our district see a 12.8% increase in students with disabilities. And we're going to face this next year with decreased support and services. There's going to be less librarians, less paraeducators. Less assistant principals. It makes our jobs much more difficult to help these students. When even after this, honestly, when I leave here today, I will go and write an IEP for another student. I ask you to consider this and consider other options. Not funded education devalues it. We need to find another way, please.

Thank you, Lamar. Thank you. Next, we have David Kovach with one item, followed by Alicia with one item.

Welcome, David.

I am not speaking to rebuke or criticize any person here. It is not in my nature to suggest to anyone to do something that I have not or would not do myself. I too have volunteered my time in a leadership role, balancing the responsibilities of work, family, and service. I tried to make decisions that did the greatest good. Sometimes the most meaningful decisions are not the broad ones, but the ones that protect and support individual people. After all, A community is made up of human beings. I never believed it was right to ask others to shoulder a burden I was unwilling to bear myself. For all of us that did not receive an RIF notice, I encourage you to join in supporting our brothers and sisters who have. I leave you with this quote from Martin Niemöller. First they came for the socialists, Did I not speak out because I was not a socialist? Then they came for the trade unionist and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak for me. If I have caused any person here to think twice about their own personal accountability in the RIF issue, then I have done what I came here to do. May God bless us all.

Thank you, David.

Welcome, Lisa. Hey there. Good evening, everyone. I'm here tonight because of the district's protecting a deficit of $20 million. I want to say this clearly. Fiscal responsibility matters. A budget that doesn't balance is not sustainable, and ignoring that reality only creates a bigger crisis later. But you all are supposed to know that, right? I'm here to say this, though. The first solution cannot be cutting the people who hold this district together. All these layoffs is just not another budget decision. It's a decision that will be felt in classrooms, in student services, in school safety, at homes, within our community, as well as our joint communities. And that's going to be felt immediately. From what I've seen across California, and what appears to be true here, this deficit is not because teachers or school staff failed. It's the result of a structural problem. Declining enrollment and attendance, reducing revenue, combined with ongoing costs that grew during the years of one-time funding, including staffing and compensation commitments that now are colliding with new financial realities. So tonight I'm asking for two things that both sides of this issue should agree on. First, before any layoffs move forward, I want the district to publicly present a clear itemized list of non-classroom reductions, including administrative staffing, consultants, because golly, contracts and discretionary spending, and show the community, show us, what has already been cut, and what is still on the table. Second, I want a plan that prioritizes the early retirement incentives, vacancy freezes, and contract renegotiations before we permanently eliminate jobs that directly support our students. If layoffs become unavoidable, then the public deserves to see proof that the district exhausted every other option first and that the cuts were made with student impact as a top priority, not the convenience. The district can be financially responsible and morally responsible at the same time. Thank you.

That was all of our speakers.

Okay, we're moving on to board committee reports. Does anybody have anything to report?

We had our CRYROP meeting just last week, I believe. There's just a couple of things I kind of want to read out. On January 16th, we had 26 students from Redlands East Valley High School's digital video production class attend a behind-the-scenes look at a live news broadcast at KESQ Palm Desert in the Desert. It looked pretty actually interesting because they got to... watch a live broadcast and they got to see what goes on and apparently you have to be very, very quiet because you can hear everything so you're not allowed to laugh, giggle, talk during the broadcast. It seemed pretty cool. We also have, oh, our student services team for CryRob and cabinet members toured the Redlands High School Adult Transition Programs including their coffee, florist, and restaurant at Studio 24. And Cryo-Op and RISD are joining forces to determine how best to serve students utilizing Cryo-Op's workability and We Can Work grant funding. So hopefully we'll see some good come out of that. Cryo-Op is also looking to hire some positions. They are looking for, I mean, as of last week, I hope this is still a current list, but they are looking for classified substitutes, testing proctor on call, certificated substitute teachers, nurse assistants, certificated substitute teacher, a virtual enterprise one and two teacher at Bloomington High School, and a veterinary assistant one and two teacher at Bloomington High School as well. So I can give that list to anybody else that is interested, but for now, that's what they have open. That's it.

Anybody else? My committee didn't meet.

We had the steering committee for the compact clubs last Thursday, and the mixer dinner is tomorrow night, and then the planning is in the works for the mock interviews through the winter.

All right, Superintendent Cabral, do you have anything for us?

Yes, thank you. Just one second. I wanted to clarify a couple of things regarding budget reductions. First, I'll say that I became superintendent or I wanted to become a superintendent because I want to be the person that says, you know, I am responsible. I am the CEO of the district and take full responsibility for what's happening right now. And I accept all criticisms. And I actually embrace the fact that the community, our staff, would hold me accountable. And I actually believe that the board's duty is to hold me accountable. Having said that, I inherited a budget. In 23, when I took over, and it is a fact that one-time money was used to give a big raise. That is a fact. That is not to say, and this is where I want to make it very clear, that there is any blame on our staff. I said at our last meeting that I believe that that was great for our staff, and I appreciate that it made us competitive. But the reality is that COLA, having been what it was at that time, we did not see all of that funding And leadership at that time knew that we would have to use one-time money to make up the difference from what we actually received versus what we're giving. That is not to say that it was on any of our staff. It is to say, though, that we must take responsibility for that. I identified that when I came in and that is why I wanted to do an incentive. I wanted to see how many positions we could reduce so that we could try to make up for this decision that was made. That was an immediate attempt to reduce staff. That coupled with The hope that enrollment would not continue to decline but stay at the very least level could have helped make sure that at this point we did not have the deficit that we have right now. Unfortunately, we did lose an additional almost 400 students within that two-year time frame, which just also meant that COLA was not going to be, again, fully funded because COLA is attached to per-student increases. And if your student numbers go down, then the total COLA you receive is going to be less than what you thought it was going to be. It is not easy to recommend any kind of layoffs. I appreciate every position that we have and I will say again that every one of them impacts our students and we need all of them. We also need to reduce our budget and our goal was to look at positions that were not inside the classroom and that meant looking at positions that were outside and that is why the list is filled with positions that impact our kids uh... but are not for example classroom teachers uh... or pair educators that are in the classroom we have Paraeducators on the list who are itinerant, who will be assigned back into the classroom, that'll help with additional folks in the classroom. The ones that are on the list today are site-based, funded categorically. Those sites have decided to eliminate that position. Anybody in those positions will be absorbed into a paraeducator position. STARTED BY SAYING I DO TAKE FULL RESPONSIBILITY, WHICH IS WHY WE HAD TWO MEETINGS. On the 23rd and on the 26th, everybody who was given a letter of possible reduction was invited to this boardroom so they could hear directly from me why we are in this situation and why we made the decisions that we made. We did that on those two dates so that they could hear from me prior to the board taking action. I stood here, boardroom was filled with our employees and they were able to ask me any question that they wanted and I guaranteed that they would have an answer. And we did that on that Friday, the 23rd, and we did it again on the 26th. I've also added office hours. where I have already gone to two sites, where I make myself available for any staff member who would like to personally share with me anything, but also to ask me directly why this is happening. I do care for everyone that's impacted, and I want to make sure they hear it from me. I had great conversations where I was able to talk to many of our staff at two different sites. I'm scheduled to be at another site tomorrow, and I'm looking forward to talking to as many folks that are willing to speak to me. And I am scheduled to have office hours the rest of this semester at every single one of our school sites. And I plan to add divisions and departments to give as many employees as possible to tell me directly how they're feeling. And I'm okay with whatever feeling that is because I accept that. It is not easy, but I am going to lead us through this the best way that I feel that I can. I am making recommendations to the board that I feel should be acceptable to everybody on the board. Of course... We have already seen that it's not been entirely that way. And I respect that. But I wanted to make it very clear some of the things that have been stated where we do have some clarity. And I can take any questions if you have any.

I had a question. You mentioned categorical spending, the cuts that are talked about tonight, categorical spending per school.

They're site-based. And so a site does have the ability to use their categorical money in the way that they choose. And if they've chosen to eliminate that position, it's likely because we are going to reduce site budgets next year. That may have something to do with it, but also because they may decide to do something different with it. It could be a different position, for example.

Okay. Thanks for sharing that. I think that's important for people to know.

All right, moving on to business services consent items. Mr. Hill, do you have any changes or additions?

No changes or additions tonight.

Do I have a motion to approve business service consent items as listed under 12A through 12E? So moved. Second. Thank you, Patty. Thank you, Jeanette. Any discussion? All right, we'll call for the vote.

Clerk Ayala Quintero. Aye. Vice President Hollihan. Aye. President Rendler. Aye. Board Member Olson.

Aye.

Board Member Wilson.

Aye.

Motion carried, 5-0.

Now on to business services action items. Mr. Hill, any changes or additions?

No changes or additions. Thank you.

Do I have a motion to adopt resolution number 19-2025? I think it's 13-8.

13A.

13A. Resolution number 19, 2025-26, transfer of appropriations. Do I have a... I'm off. Second. Thank you, Melissa. Thank you, Patty. Any discussion? All right, we'll call for the vote.

Chair Cayala-Quintero? Aye. Vice President Hollihan?

Aye.

President Rendler? Aye. Vice President Hollihan? Aye. Board Member Olson? Aye. Board Member Wilson?

Aye.

Motion carried, 5-0.

All right, moving to educational services. Mrs. Buckmiller, do you have any changes or additions?

Not tonight, thank you.

Do I have a motion to approve educational services consent items as listed under 14A through 14M? So moved. Second. Howdy. Thank you, Candy. Any discussion?

Yes, I want to comment. Go ahead. Just on some of these trips, some of you mentioned, most of the ones, especially like the cheerleaders going on their competition, speech and debate, the girls volleyball going to Hawaii, they have fundraised on their own too. So that is something that they have done. We are not paying for that, and I wanted to clarify so you know. What is being paid is a substitute set for the coaches on that one, but most of them are on here. And students, fifth grade students going to Lagonia for Catalina Island for their science camp will be an unforgettable trip for them, and that'll be awesome. So I just want to say I'm glad that we are able to go, and they will be able to do that. Most of it's been paid, like I said, through booster clubs.

I wanted to say something along that line. I think that I would ask the superintendent for next time. I think it would be helpful for the public and for us because regarding, like, for example, the extravagant Hawaii trip, I requested information on how much money that would be costing and who's paying for it. And it sounds like the site is paying for the subs, not the district. Is that correct? That's what you're telling me. Same thing.

District.

Yeah, but it's under their budget, right? And then the booster club is paying for everything else. So that is $20,000 to $25,000, and that's money that they've raised. So I think that... For all of these type of trips, I think it would be helpful if we could just get a breakdown of the cost, just who's paying for the trip. That would be really helpful for us as board members, I feel like, and also for the public to know

I think a lot of times some of these say funded by... Well, if it's a grant, I see that often.

On the trips, sometimes I've seen that, but this time it wasn't there, and I would appreciate that for the future agenda items.

Snowden?

Generally, the funding lines are so that the county auditors, when they cut the checks, can fund them. A lot of the ones that are sponsored through... You know, boosters don't funnel through the county. So part of the board is, I mean, part of these are for the board, public, but a lot of it's for auditable reasons. So we just have to combine those together.

Well, it doesn't have to be an attachment. I mean, just in a description, it could just say something. Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, you're accurate, but I'm saying that's why you see differences here, because we're trying to, a lot of these pass through audit, and so we're trying to make sure they're auditable. But we can't work on that.

It's going to be approximate, too, because sometimes we're bringing, so it would just be approximate numbers.

Well, I think probably most of us asked for the costs right now when we're dealing with budget constraints. But I was really impressed by how much of these trips and events are funded through booster clubs, parent groups, families paying part themselves. That is really impressive. So thank you to all those groups to allow this to happen. Okay, we'll call for the vote.

I had something to say. On item L, I had spoken to our superintendent. It's the MOU for CSUSB. I just was poking around in there and I had seen that it was talking about how the student must meet a minimum GPA requirement and they have to be first-time freshmen with a 2.5 GPA and the A through G requirements. And I was a little concerned because CSUSB has a, that is the CSU standard, I guess, for admission, the GPA requirement. But I just wanted to express that CSUSB does have, if just say you have a 2.49, so anywhere between a two and a 2.49, They do have a multi-factor admission that would allow for work experience, educational programs, veteran military status, first-gen college students, low income to be a factor. It is not included in our MOUs. And I spoke to Superintendent Cabal because it's an automatic admission. And so I just wanted to let people know that if you were questioning someone who does not have a 2.5, if they would still be eligible. And it looks like through Cal States and especially CSUSB, there are other avenues for you to explore. So I just wanted to touch on that.

All right, we'll call for the vote. Erkayela Quintero.

Aye.

Vice President Hollihan. Aye. President Redler. Aye. Board Member Olson.

Aye.

Board Member Wilson.

Aye.

Motion is carried by vote.

Now on to action items under educational services. Mrs. Buckmiller, any changes or additions?

No changes or additions. Thank you.

I have a motion to approve educational services action items as listed under 15A through 15F. I'll move.

Second. Second.

Thank you, Melissa. Thank you, Patty. I mean Candy, I'm sorry. All right, any discussion? All right, we'll call for the vote.

Chair Cayala-Quintero? Aye. Vice President Hollihan? Aye. President Redler? Aye. Board Member Olson? Aye. Board Member Wilson?

Aye.

Motion carried, 5-0. I have a motion to approve the new board policy 5131.8, mobile communication devices, second read.

I move.

Second. Melissa, thank you, Patty. Any discussion?

I just want to thank our superintendent and cabinet for working on those changes and getting those reworked a little bit. So just as a parent, a student in the district, I very much appreciate those changes. So thank you.

I had something to say about that. 727, let me find the page. The language was still a little bit... sloppy per se. I felt like we could have streamlined it a little better. I like the part we added about placing them on silence as an option as opposed to turning them off. But I addressed this. I spoke to Patty already about this and asked if we could maybe just combine all, because the language changes throughout the policy, like sometimes we're calling it smartphones and mobile device, and sometimes we're calling it a device, and sometimes it's being called, you know, all of the different things, the tablet, the iWatch. So I just thought it might be cleaner if we put all items in the first paragraph and then said something to the effect of, for purposes of this policy, here on all of these devices, such as cell phone, smartphone, tablet, iWatch, smartwatch, will be referred to as device. And then clean up the rest of the language because it's just mismatched throughout the policy. Sometimes you call it a personal electronic device. Sometimes we call it a smartphone. Sometimes we call it a mobile communication device. I just think it would be cleaner if throughout the rest of the policy we just called it a device. And then we clarified at the beginning that all of these items will be here on referred to as a device. I don't know. Because do you notice how the policy... Electronic device?

Isn't that what we had initially? Mobile communication, I...

But that's not what happened. It's referred to as different things throughout the policy. So I just think it would be a little cleaner. It doesn't really affect the policy at all. It just makes it look more proper, in my opinion.

On the beginning, we should call it a mobile communication device because that's the name of the policy, right?

Or just say all of the following things will refer to as that from here on out. And then you can say that over and over if you like. Or you could just say device.

You can put refer to as the mobile device.

Or you could just say device if you wanted it even shorter because you have the definition of what a device is at the very top.

Well, that would make it more clear. Paragraph.

Forgive me if I'm mistaken, but I just thought that these were the changes you specifically had asked for. You wanted like...

Right, no, I... You wanted the word tablet in there, I think. Yeah, and it was included in the first paragraph, yeah. But I'm just saying, and I appreciate that that was added in there, and the watch is added. I'm just saying that, do you see how the language changes? Sometimes it says mobile communication device on the 1, 2, 3, 4 down. Then it's like, we're talking about a student's personal electronic device.

Can we clean it up and just make it all say one word? That's what I'm talking about. That's all I'm saying. Can we just do that? I mean...

Okay, because it doesn't change the content.

Other than that, I like the content of the policy.

I wanted to point one thing out really quick, just to make sure that you understand what airplane mode means, that we're on the same page with that. Airplane mode allows students to still listen to music and watch videos. If they've been downloaded. which kids will do. So I just want to make sure if we're talking about not having access to phones, that might put a little bit of a... Well, they're not allowed to have it out, right?

It's supposed to be put away in the backpack?

Yeah, the original language talked about having them off because it takes a while to get them back loaded. Yeah. airplane mode allows a student to start the music before they enter class and then keep it on while it's in their pocket, put away.

And they may have like an AirPod or something.

They're not allowed to have AirPods though, right?

No, but it just creates a complication of what the intention of the policy is, is to not allow students to use their phones. Airplane mode allows them to still use their phones.

With limited capacity. I did have a question. I don't know if maybe I missed it, but when did we discuss having it silenced and not visible? Just because I feel like that's what we're already technically doing right now and it's not working. Like I know we set off for an airplane mode, but silence and not visible just seems...

I think it's still using.

Yeah. Like here. I'm just... Well, we could say a not in use. I don't know.

I mean, implementing this policy has its other complications. We definitely want to collaborate with our union groups with respect to what it would look like because they are dealing with it on a daily basis. That's why airplane mode came about, because kids are smarter than us when it comes to some of these things, and they will figure out how to use it if they have access to it.

I just really have a hard time with powering it off completely. While they're in class, just have it powered off. I really have a hard time with that because in an emergency, I don't think a kid should have to power up their phone in order to get a hold of someone. And also, it loses all the GPS. If you're worried about your child... and where their location is, and want to make sure that they're at the class. I don't know. I think that powering it off is not really very safe in an emergency situation. Kids would have to be powering them back on if there was some tragedy that was going on, and then that takes quite a while for it to power up, and it might make noise, which you don't want. So that's why I feel like on silence would be... or do not disturb mode would be better. I would not appreciate if my kid's phone went dead for the entire day and then what if something happened and they walked off campus or I don't know. I guess we're just overly... We didn't have this when we were kids and we got home just fine, right? But... Now that we have the ability to track our kids, it's nice to be able to, when you're concerned, if they got to school safely and they're in their class situated.

I get it. I mean, we're tracking adults. I mean, parents are still tracking their adult kids, so I totally get it. I just was pointing that out because I just want to make sure we know what we're passing because another idea would be to just Not to delay, but like to just get some experts who are dealing with it on a daily basis kind of chime in and say, hey, what would be better? You know, we could talk to some of our teacher leaders, some of our teachers, staff, and just really get that kind of feedback first, maybe.

How would we even know, though, if it's off or on silence? Like if it's in their bag, like you wouldn't even know.

I that's where I would say the experts could say, like, I know some of our teachers have a, um, place for the kids to put their phones before they even walk into class. I don't even know if they turn them off. I think they just make sure they don't have them on them. Others make sure they stay in the backpacks. I mean, we could kind of get an idea from them. What is, what would work best?

And then, um, I don't mind doing that if we can wait. Are you asking us to pull it then?

That would be a thought, just to kind of get some feedback.

That's fine with me. I'm okay with that.

I'm okay with pulling that.

We already have a motion, so let's just vote it down and let them rework it.

I still have a couple things. So initially why I brought up the airplane mode was because I do track my daughter. She's at school on certain days of the week from, you know, for over 13 hours. And so I do, you know, she'll, you can put your airplane mode phone into airplane mode and save the battery. And there are situations where, I mean, some of our kids, and I know they do do still the music thing. I mean, I don't, condone our kids using AirPods, but some of them just live in it. Even my adult children still live with AirPods in their ears 24 hours a day. Drives me insane. But I do know that especially when a kid is doing any sort of studying or focusing on something that sometimes music does help them. So I was aware of that when I suggested it. But my concern still is going to be the safety aspect of it. I don't mind the language being changed. But I feel that personally as a parent that leaving it in airplane mode is better than turning it off. And I am a little worried about saying that it can be silenced and not visible because I feel like that's just where we are right now. It's supposed to be silenced and not visible. But I really, how am I going to say this? I'm struggling with having a policy to begin with. I've always had a struggle with a cell phone policy because, yes, we are not, even though we may all be attached to our phones, this is not the same experience that we had, and so it's hard for us to make these decisions. But I just feel that we need to be very mindful of how we're going about this, and I would absolutely love to get teacher input on this. but I feel that even when some of us can't put our phones down and we use it for constant communication, it feels very, very restrictive to start imposing these on our kids, especially, like I said, when we need them for tracking them. My daughter leaves campus between her after-school activities. I need to know where she is, and so airplane mode would save the battery and other things. I would be very careful about how we're going about this.

I think that could still be an option. I'm saying we can get input to see how it's being dealt with right now.

Is this tied to a new law? Yes. And the law, what is the specific wording of the law?

K-8 cannot have phones. Well, they're not supposed to have their phones out at all. High school are able to have them non-class times.

That's why I said in the classroom, just turn it off. And the deadline is, is that July?

What is the deadline?

I think it is July. When?

I want to say it's into next school year, so July 1st.

It's next school year? No, I think it's July, but of course it wouldn't be.

We can verify that, but I do think we have time.

Okay, so we have time to ask for some experts, maybe some school districts that are doing it well, that have it all under control. That would be great.

I don't think there's anyone.

You don't know anyone? I said I don't think there probably is anyone.

There are districts that have already implemented it. We could get feedback. I don't know that it's going well, but we can get input. It still might help us.

I still want to know about that one school in Fontana District that has very little violence. We'll call for the vote and let it go.

What are we voting? Clerk Ayala Quintero.

We're just voting to pull, like, I know we have a motion, but can we just not, do we have to vote on the motion?

Legally, we have to vote.

No vote would make us go back and get input.

No. Vice President Hollihan? No. President Redler? No. Board Member Olson? No. Board Member Wilson? No. Motion not carried.

Okay. Can I say one thing about that? Yes. Could we just streamline the language in the meantime so that when we're really ready for the meat of the policy, then we are ready to go? That would be cool.

Yes.

We have a motion to ratify the adoption of resolution number 18, 2025-2026, National School Counseling Week, February 2nd, 2026 through February 6th, 2026. So moved. Second. I have a discussion. I don't know why we're doing the resolution. I don't know why we're doing a resolution after the fact. We usually ratify it. like spending or people going places or doing whatever, but this doesn't make any sense to me.

I missed that one.

It was our error that it was not on the agenda in January. We're bringing it forward for ratification to officially note that the board is in favor of a resolution for counseling.

Not that we're going to do it over again.

Unfortunately, it's a ratification.

Wouldn't it need to say that it's a ratification?

The dates would imply that.

Okay, any other discussion? No. Okay, we'll call for the vote.

Sir Cayella Quintero? Aye. Vice President Hollihan? Aye. President Rendler? Aye. Board Member Olson? Aye. Board Member Wilson? Aye. Motion carried, 5-0.

All right, we're moving on to human resources consent items. Mrs. Bruick, any changes or additions?

No changes or additions.

Thank you. Do I have a motion to approve human resources consent items as listed under 16A through 16C? So moved.

Second. For consent items.

So moved. I'm sorry. I didn't. Candy. Thank you, Candy. Got it. Thank you.

Wait. What? What change is that?

We're talking about the changes that we had earlier?

That's for 17. That's for 17. Okay. Okay. Do you have a motion? Oh, I didn't hear it. I'm sorry. Okay. All right. Any discussion on this one? All right. We'll call for the vote.

Vice President Hollihan? No. No.

President Rundler? Yes on A and B and abstaining from C. Board Member Olsen?

Aye. Board Member Wilson?

Aye.

Motion carried with the ayes being

For one.

Clerk Ayala Quintero, Board Member Olson, and Board Member Wilson, and Board Member Rendler on items A and B.

Continue with Human Resources Action Items. Mrs. Bruig, do you have any changes or additions?

I have one change for item 17A. I have a clerical edit to Resolution 17, page 1. for item one, we had instructional paraprofessional two positions being reduced by one hour. It actually is one position being reduced by one hour for special education and one position being reduced for one hour for general ed.

Thank you. Do we have a motion to approve the adoption of resolution number 2025-2026-17 for the reduction or elimination of site categorical categorically funded classified positions as a result of lack of work and or lack of funds.

I'll move.

Second. Thank you, Melissa. Thank you, Jeanette. Any discussion?

I just appreciate you clarifying, Superintendent Cabral, that this is just a shift over from, I mean, being that we are reducing school site budgets, that this just is hopefully everyone's going to get moved into a regular pair position that isn't site funded. Excuse me.

Off the vote. Kayala Quintero? Aye. Vice President Hollihan? No. President Rendler? Aye. Board Member Olsen? Aye. Board Member Wilson? Aye. Motion carried with the ayes being Board Member Olsen, Board Member Wilson, President Rendler, and Clerk Ayala-Quintero, and the nays being Vice President Hollihan.

Do I have a motion to approve or ratify the clinical experience agreement between the Redlands Unified School District and University of Mary, effective December 10, 2025? So moved.

I'm second.

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

Yes. I was a little shocked by this one. I'm trying to understand, I don't know if, Lisa, could you speak to the nature of this? Because when I looked up University of Marysville, it's in North Dakota. And it's a speak language pathology student. Would you be able to, is this like an online course that someone would be shadowing in our district?

It's actually a current employee who started their program who's with us now who'd like to finish their program with the university that they started with. So we are trying to approve this so that the employee can finish their program.

Thank you. I guess my main question is why are we having to ratify it, especially under that situation? It's from December 10th. It was...

So this was brought to us then, and so it was so that she could continue her program. So it's with the dates that coincide with, so there's no lapse for that employee.

So in that regard, then, she's already doing it? Is that what you're saying?

Yes, the employee's already in the program.

for the vote.

Chair Cayala-Quintero? Aye. Vice President Holgen? Aye. President Rendler? Aye. Board Member Olsen? Aye. Board Member Wilson? Aye. Motion carried 5-0.

All right, now we're moving on to public participation. Community input. Public comments are permitted under submission of a completed registration card prior to the start of public participation. This is not a forum for debate. Policy concerns will be referred to the superintendent. When called, speakers may proceed to the podium, state their name and trustee area, and speak for the allotted time. The amount of time will be announced by the board president before the first speaker begins and will not exceed three minutes. How many speakers do we have?

20.

20. Three minutes. So you'll have three minutes.

We're going to start with Gina Porter, followed by Katie Swift, and then Janessa Greenleaf.

Welcome back, Gina.

For background, I'm Speaking tonight about the current state of our negotiations with the district. My husband and I have been teachers in the district for 24 years. We have two children. We don't live in Redlands because when we got married 21 years ago, we couldn't afford it. To be perfectly honest, right now, if we were trying to buy a house, I don't think we could afford a house anywhere. Tonight, though, I don't want to focus on me. I want to talk about our other teachers, our support staff. I have friends who have been teaching for 12, 13, 15 years, and they still can't afford to buy a house. The cost of living is too high. Our salaries are not keeping pace with that. Asking for a cost of living increase is not being greedy. It is being principled. We are asking to be treated as professionals and to be recognized for the work that we do, because the work that we do is important. As our experienced staff retire, how does RUSD expect to attract highly skilled and dynamic new teachers if we're viewed as a district that does not value its employees? It was brought to my attention by some friends, some coworkers, that San Bernardino City Unified is having a hiring fair. And they're also negotiating with their employees for a 5% raise. Have you bought groceries lately? It costs us about $100 more every week to buy groceries than it did two years ago. Have you noticed the price of gas? It's creeping up. Again. Interest rates remain high. Rents are out of control. Buying a starter home is out of the question for many. But you're asking for us to keep our pay stagnant. I know a lot of other teachers and other educational professionals who have two jobs or teach summer school or take on coaching positions. I was selling my plasma. I did that until my veins became so scarred that I can barely give blood for normal blood work that I have to have periodically. Yesterday, our daughter got braces, $6,200 because one of her teeth came in like this, like that way. Our sons last year, same doctor, same treatment plan, $5,900 last year. And I asked, I was like, what the heck? And they said, well, the cost of everything has gone up. A lot of people, not just teachers, not just our support professionals, but everybody, one emergency away from economic hardship. So, you know, please consider that when you go to the table. Thank you. Thank you, Gina.

Welcome, Katie. Good evening, members of the board. My name is Katie Swift. I'm an educator in the district. I stand here because a 0% raise at a time when the state has recommended a 2.3% COLA is shameful dismissal of the professionals who power this district. Every day, Redlands teachers act as educators, counselors, and crisis managers. We take on countless tasks that never appear in our job descriptions, managing crises, documenting data, and providing the emotional scaffolding our students need to survive. We continue to reach into our own pockets to pay for supplies just to ensure our students don't fall behind. but we are reaching a breaking point. Teacher burnout is not a buzzword. It is a quiet crisis in our hallways. By withholding the COLA, you are effectively asking us to take a pay cut while inflation rises. You are asking us to subsidize the district's budget with our own family's livelihoods. We deserve a contract that reflects our worth and honors the reality of what it takes to teach in 2026. Do not just thank us with words. Show us our value in the budget. Thank you, Katie.

Welcome, Janessa.

I live in area two, and this is my 10th year teaching at Highland Grove Elementary School. I currently teach kindergarten. Before I talk about what's going on with negotiations, I would also like to open my classroom for you guys to come see. I have only 20 students because my chemistry of my class is not conducive just based on the needs that all of my kids have. And my staff, my other kinder teachers, have opted to max their classes so that I can get a handle on mine. We need more support. Please come see the reality of what is going on in our classes. Just come be a person. Come see. My primary focus is ensuring my students have a strong academic foundation. Routinely, I must supplement the district materials with my own funds and personal time to create the hands-on environment and lessons that are necessary for kindergarten success. Part of that is not your fault. Part of that is curriculum companies not understanding what kindergartners and TK students need. But I want to be clear. The investments that I make are not to have a Pinterest perfect room. I am not that teacher. They are for the academic success of my students. They need hands-on. They need colorful ink. It's just a fact of teaching five-year-olds. And let's be honest, the $350 federal tax deduction definitely doesn't cover what I spend to fill these gaps, and I spend conservatively. I don't spend as much as some of my colleagues do. I really give my all for all my students. I went to pick oranges on a tree at lunch because my student spilled his lunch and would not eat any of the cafeteria food. I gave up my lunch so that this student could have something to eat. Seeing RUSD propose a 0% raise for a second time in this stalled negotiation process feels like a dismissal of that dedication. We are not asking for a raise that reflects our full value. I know that. It's not fiscally responsible because, to be honest, you couldn't afford us at what we provide for our kids. You can't. We need a teeny bump to keep up with the cost of living. If our USD salaries can't keep pace with the cost of living in our city, then I don't know how much longer I can stay in this city or my colleagues, how many of our colleagues already can't afford to live here. Please show us that you value us, not with donuts in the lunchroom, but with compensation that we deserve. Please. Thank you.

Thank you, Janessa.

Woo!

Next, we have Elena Martinez, followed by Michael Pacer, and then Cordelia Cullen.

Hello. My name is Elena Martinez. I'm a third grade teacher at Lagonia Elementary. This is my fifth year at Lagonia. I have been born and raised in Redlands, fully educated all the way through. It is an honor to serve my community as an educator, but financially, the lack of raise means increased stress, as my rent is high. half of my paycheck. This leaves me with little options for savings for a future home that feels completely out of the question, and also for emergencies. I would love to start a family of my own, but I feel like I just cannot do that with this salary. And this also causes me to have anxiety in the classroom, and this takes so much energy away from my students that need me desperately. I am one of the safe places for them daily to go to. And recently, I've had to cut back also on classroom supplies. I used to supplement significantly, but I just cannot keep up anymore. I would do extra projects and enrichment. I love my job, I love my coworkers, and I love my kids, but unfortunately, I cannot pay my bills with love. I urge the board to take action and to offer the educators the raise they deserve. Thank you.

Thank you, Elena. Thank you. Welcome back, Michael.

Thank you. Mike Paisner. Ms. Friendler, since you won't meet with me and you never reply to my emails, this is the only opportunity I have to communicate with you. So I'm going to take this opportunity to remind you about the governance policy you passed this past December, where board members committed to act with respect towards fellow board members, staff, students, and the public with courtesy and respect, even when you disagree. You committed to professionalism, civility and professionalism. You expect from RUSD staff and students both in person and online. There's supposed to be a commitment to the diverse community, fostering a district-wide culture of belonging and inclusion. And it acknowledges that the posts you put online reflect on the entire district. I bring this to your attention because Ms. Olson violated this twice in the past couple of days, and I know you will do absolutely nothing about it. Specifically, Ms. Olson put up a post attacking decisions to use they-them pronouns approved by the board. Her position is in conflict with California law. She also liked a post that directly attacked fellow board members. This is on you, Ms. Rendler. I expect nothing from Ms. Olson. I know she's not capable. But you need to hold her accountable to what you agreed on in that handbook. And your failure to do so reflects on you. Again, I expect nothing from Ms. Olson. Your legacy as board president will be remembered as a low point in the Redlands School District, where the mission statement was forgotten, our finances were in shambles, and bigotry and incompetence ruled the day. That is your legacy. I look forward to the time the next board can start correcting the mess that you, Ms. Rendler, have created.

Thank you, Michael. Thank you.

Cordelia here. Next is Mark Laird, followed by Erica Grossman and Joshua Hall.

Welcome back, Mark. Thank you, Michelle. All right, so one, earlier we were talking about why we lost, well, how we lost 400 students. That's under your leadership one, and yours, Michelle, 400 students. And I know that every district's losing students, But come on, we need to be looking into creative programs that will increase our student engagement, and we are actively cutting programs. And I know it costs money to run those programs, but why do you think everyone's running to all the local charter schools, the other districts in the area? It's because of their programming. And right now, Redlands is looking pretty embarrassing. Heck, they don't even offer a school nurse. That's pretty basic. I wouldn't put my students in this school if I was a Redlands student. And in fact, I know because some of the students have transferred to some of the schools that I've worked at. And when you get students from other districts, the state gives you oftentimes more money. And so if you competitively launched your DLI program, like you are doing, and you did it well, ensuring that culture is taught and other things that you've banned are taught, then maybe we could get started on this revenue-generating opportunity. But I don't want to see you guys talking about how we don't have the money. What revenue-generating opportunities have you pursued? List them. What? And I'm talking like, we could be putting in EV chargers at the high school and be making money off of our students from every time they park. And it probably would be grant funded through the state. Ever consider looking into what grants are available for energy efficiency? Our campus is run on electricity. What have you done to lower our operating costs as a district during this time of financial crisis? One, I haven't seen anything. In fact, I've seen you raise your wages. And once again, y'all say you're working harder. The hard work is coming from the culture wars you've created. I've seen boards accomplish so much more together. And you're not together. And I don't fault some of you for that. But I definitely fault the president for the lack of a cohesive vision on a board. And what I'm here to talk about tonight is student success. I'm sorry, under this board, I don't think my students can be successful. And I say my students, knowing that none of my students are in this district. I still care about them. I will still advocate for every student regardless. And I live here, unlike some people to speak at these meetings. And I am an educator. And I do speak quite a bit, as others have said. I provide insight within my own experience within the education world. And I do that with my neighbors, like I told you, Michelle. Your time is coming up. My community, brand new, no solicitors allowed, and I can go door to door because I live there. Thousands of people live there, thousands of families, right in your area. You need to watch your vote, and you need to watch your actions, Michelle, because we're all paying attention. And next time, don't dig through your purse while I'm talking, which you didn't do this time, so thank you. All right, fine.

Welcome back, Erica.

Thank you. Yeah, that 0% raise is ridiculous. It's embarrassing. Okay. I learned that Candy and Jeannette protested transgender athletes at the CIF meeting last week. Your behavior does not promote safety or equal opportunity for girls. You're bullying trans girls and modeling that behavior for students, showing how to target people who do not fit social norms. Trans women face the same risks as cisgender women, and in many cases, those risks are even higher. When you target trans girls, you also put cis girls who don't conform to traditional standards of femininity at risk. Recent findings in Epstein files revealed the story of a trans woman who was assaulted by Epstein when she was 16. When she came forward in 2007, the media mocked her identity instead of focusing on Epstein's crime. Cisgender women who are perceived as trans women have been attacked or even murdered around the world. Being transgender is like living with a disability in a world that is not designed to support you. Why choose to bully and make life harder for people who are already struggling to exist safely and with dignity? A new documentary film, The Moms Club, highlights how an extremist group in Southern California has been attacking school boards that support LGBTQ plus students. Redlands and a former RUSD student appear briefly, and I recognize several familiar faces can be invited into this boardroom. In the film, they were wearing Leave Our Kids Alone t-shirts and behaving violently, even toward law enforcement, punching and kicking. It was absolutely horrifying. I've seen multiple photos of Candy wearing the same shirt that says Leave Our Kids Alone. alongside the same violent individuals shown in the film. This is deeply concerning and upsetting. It is hard to believe that Kenny claims to care about the safety of our students. And Michelle, you are doing nothing but supporting this violent ideology. Shame on you. Thank you, Erica.

Welcome back, Joshua.

I want to talk about how transgenderism as a social construct from the elite and government and corporations and all across the board, it's a social construct that was imposed on us and I will prove it by reading an email from Jeffrey Epstein with a plastic surgeon by the name of Robert Trivers. Now Jeffrey Epstein has been in contact with multiple people from multiple governments and corporations, and many people from Hollywood and LGBTQ community, dating all the way back to 2009 and beyond, talking about imposing transgenderism onto us before it became a famous fad, but here's an email between him and Robert Trivers, a plastic surgeon. December 17th, 2018. It is very simple. I will compare male to female with female to male. With greater molecular control over development, we are increasingly capable of producing novel phenotypes, more feminine men by blocking testosterone receptors, or castration, and at the same time increasing estrogen production. The one blocks male features, the second encourages female features. More masculine women, heavy testosterone dosage, incredible external effects, heavily bearded men you would never know, you would never guess if they had a female bun on their body. First time, male female is four times more frequent than female male. The first is attractive. He has a mantle of the penis so that if your fantasy is to put it in your mouth, otherwise you are completely heterosexual, it would be much nicer if the rest of the organism is female, then you get the best of both worlds. So many transsexual women are very attractive and easily make

Where are you going with this? Excuse me. Hello.

Can you take him out, please?

Joshua, I'm sorry. Your time is up.

Could you please escort him out?

Next is Pat Molnar, followed by Carol Rivera and Jenny Johnson.

Well. Welcome back, Pat. Hello. Thank you. Thank you for having me back here. Okay. So I have a transgender son. And it was very hard. It was a change. I'm talking about diversity and inclusion. And it goes back to people and who we are. I did not expect that I had a transgender son when my child was born. But I love my kid. And if we lead with love, so much will change. The board can get better. I am here, Michelle, and I talk to you about my son. And the policies that you're producing that you are voting yes on, they're making it hard for kids like my son to survive. They're saying that we're excluded, we're different, we're all the same. But the kind of world that I see being created over on this side is a world that is homogeneous, that is simplistic, that is ignoring the complexities of the world. relating this to why people come to the district. I came here, I moved to this area in part because of the quality of the schools, in part because of mission statements like this that embraces the fact that we are a district that has, that embraces our many different cultures, that embraces the idea of democracy, which is not what I'm seeing happening here, that embraces the fact that we have differences. We are Mexican. We are Asian. We are neurodivergent, like me and my children are neurodivergent. We don't think the same. We think outside the box. My classroom reflects this. I have been a teacher doing great work for 30 years. I can stand by this. I taught your child. You know how much I put into your child. And I put that into every child. Kids come to my room hungry. I give them snacks. Kids come to my room and they don't get it and they have anxiety attacks. I make them feel safe. Kids come, and if Candy's kids were in my classroom, they would feel cared for. They would feel respected. I would not disrespect them. I would let them post a sticker. I would let them put up a flag. I would let them feel included because a flag that says only this flag counts is a flag that ignores things. This also goes with books. When you take away books from people that reflect the way they are, reflect the trauma that they experienced in high school, you're telling them to shut up. You're telling them that experiences don't matter. You're silencing them. Guys need to do better because there's kids that are suffering and they're suffering and they're believing and they're blaming themselves like I once blamed myself. Stop punishing the children. Stop making their life harder under the guise of protecting them from sins that don't exist.

Thank you, Pat. Thank you. Welcome, Carol.

Good evening. I live in Area 5. My name is Carol Rivera. I'm a special education teacher at Redlands High School. This is only my second year working for RUSD, but I have been teaching for over 10 years. I want to bring your attention to certain numbers, especially since we're going through negotiations at this time. And after all, we are here because of a numbers game. When I first moved to Redlands from L.A., I did a five-hour round-trip commute to go to my school site. Though my commute is now only five minutes, I make over $12,000 less than if I had stayed at my previous school. I now pay $650 a month for health insurance when I used to pay zero. This year alone, my home insurance has gone up 23% and my property taxes have gone 3.5%. Utility bills have gone up as well, which all residents in Redlands are feeling. My husband works and I work two jobs to make ends meet. By the way, I canceled my clients to be here today, which at the end of the day makes me feel exhausted and impedes me from being the best teacher I can be. I contemplate doing that five-hour commute again, but I would really hate to leave my students and colleagues. I am a good teacher. I'm an asset to my school site. But seeing that the board is not willing to negotiate fairly with RTA really leaves me at odds. What RTA is asking for is not unreasonable. We're just asking for a living wage. I ask the board to please negotiate in good faith and give us the raise that we deserve. I want to mention, I didn't realize I had more time, but I've been part of two strikes. I know what it is to fight for what we need. And in all honesty, I'm willing to do that again. Thank you.

Thank you, Carol.

No Jenny Johnson?

Welcome, Jenny.

Hi, and good evening. I am a teacher at Mentone Elementary and Kindergarten, which is Area 5, but I live in Moreno Valley. The very fact that you sit before all of us, you have been entrusted to lead our district. That is a great privilege and it is a great responsibility. You set the temperature for the district. From here, it trickles all the way down to Mentone to my kindergartners. Effective leaders lead by example. The most effective leader said, the son of man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. I'm not suggesting that you lay down your life, but I am suggesting that as a leader, when there's a sacrifice to be made, you go first. On December 9th, the board approved compensation increase for yourselves, yet you will not give teachers a cost of living increase. You are essentially asking us to do more with less. You are cutting staff like our librarians, our PE teachers, our counselors. My kids love library. They love PE. Can I teach PE? Sure. Am I going to do it the way Daniel Lemonian does? Not a chance. Not with the intentionality that he gives it. I'm focused on phonics and math. I need to get those babies ready for first grade. That is where my focus is at. Our school counselors are the hardest working people I have ever seen. Crisis at school does not take a day off. This year I got hit by a chair by a kindergartner. I've had shoes thrown at me the first time ever. And I've been a teacher for 20 years. I've been in this district for seven. Our assistant principal has spent mornings in my classroom to make sure that I could teach while he helps that little one. Those are the positions that you're talking about cutting. That is detrimental to my students. Your choices are hurting the very people that you are called to serve. I have been at hours of equity training. I love it. I find it helpful and fascinating. Yet the decisions that you are making contradict making RUFD more equitable, closing the learning gap. It is going against Our mission, excellence in education. So just a side note, the fruit snacks that I buy for my three children at home last year cost $9 or $10. This year they cost $19 at Stater Brothers. The board's refusal to give a cost of living increase will make me choose between my children and my students. There will be no extras in my classroom. No stickers for bringing back your homework chart. No treasure box for Fun Friday for doing a great job. No Christmas gifts to give to their parents. I don't want to have to choose between my own children and my students. As a woman of faith, as a wife, as a mother, as a teacher, in that order, I'm calling you to lead with excellence. I am asking you to act justly, love mercy, walk humbly. Micah 6.8. Thank you, Jenny.

Next, we have Peter Hall, followed by Dale Broom and Jeff Pogge.

Welcome back, Peter.

Okay, so as we just saw, my brother was removed because of his last comment. But I'd just like to say that a couple meetings ago, I didn't see anybody invite Bay Hamilton to leave when he interrupted Superintendent Cabral twice. And the first time he did it, nobody reacted. And the second time, the only person to react was Superintendent Cabral, and he only mildly reacted. And Bay Hamilton got away with that. I don't care what you say. Also, the people who supposedly defend free speech are the very same people to attack it when somebody says something they don't like. My brother wasn't attacking anybody specifically. He was reading an email between Jeffrey Epstein and some transgender doctor, and they were talking about how to make men look like women and women look like men, etc., and I don't understand how that was objectionable. Also, these people, today they talked about, again, how non-binary and transgender people should be allowed to use the bathrooms that relate to their gender identity, but Quite recently, a couple years ago actually, still fairly recent, a student named Hunter Heckle in Virginia County raped two female students at two different schools, and he got away with it for a long time because he identified as a trans girl, and the school didn't want to publicize that a trans girl raped actual female students. And recently, a female wrestler in Washington was sexually assaulted during a wrestling match by a trans athlete, and the girl only found out that her opponent was trans after the match was completed. She was pinned because her opponent grabbed her in the vagina, and she didn't know how to get out of that, and so she just let her opponent pin her. These people will occasionally say something that I agree with, like how the school board should cut from the top the administrative positions instead from the bottom. But then when it comes to looking for ways to cut expenses, but then they undermine those positions by whining about how we need to affirm everybody and fly the pride flag publicly and affirm the sexual orientations and gender identities of students. How is that actually helping students learn? All that's doing is feeding Vanity and ego. Okay? Children naturally are hyper-focused on themselves, and they have to be taught how to not be that way. And the so-called adults in the room are actually encouraging them to become little monsters who only care about themselves and nobody else. Thank you, Peter.

Welcome back, Dale.

Dale Broom, Area 1. You know, I want to... I just want to applaud the board here and the administration for taking a very difficult situation with this budget deficit that we have. I hear the stories of the employees, and it's very, very difficult, very sad that we've had to make these cuts. But one of the things I want to bring to the board's attention is what can we do to bring more students back into the public school system? That is a really important soul-searching question I think we really need to look at. What can we do? I will tell you, I've talked with a number of people who send their kids to private school. Private school tuition is really getting expensive. There are a lot of parents who may consider sending their kids back to public schools, but what do we need to do to restore the confidence of parents to send their kids to the public school, to pull them out of private school and bring them here? Number one, we have to improve academics. We've really got to improve academics. That's probably the major thing that is important to parents. But they also want to make sure that their family moral values are not undermined in the educational process that goes on in the public schools. Yes, they can supplement their Christian education, their religious education outside of school, but they don't want those values and those morals undermined when they send their kids to public school. So the best way that we can do that is we've got to keep the classrooms politically transparent. neutral and socially neutral. So we're not pushing political and social agendas in the classroom. That is really, really important. And I tell you, I've been talking to a lot of parents as I've been canvassing, and this is a very big issue. They do not want those moral and family values undermined in the educational process. They want us to stay focused on education, not on political and social agendas in the classroom. And the other thing is they're concerned about discipline. They want to make sure that we have strong discipline in the classrooms and that the students are not ruling the roost. We need to make sure that we can get that discipline maintained in the classroom and order so that learning can take place. So I think those are just, I just want to give you that feedback. I think that there are a large number of parents who would consider moving their kids back into the public schools if we can take care of these issues. So that's just, you know, we need to bring in more revenue. And the way to do that is we have to have more students in attendance. So thank you.

Thank you, Dale.

Jeff Pogge.

Welcome, Jeff.

Hello.

All right. Thank you.

Jeff Poggi, Area 2. I received in the mail this flyer randomly. Teacher recruitment fair in San Bernardino City. REFLECTED ON IT, I HAVE NOTHING AGAINST SAN BERNARDINO CITY UNIFIED. I WAS A TEACHER IN JUVENILE HALL FOR 15 YEARS. BEFORE THAT, IN COMMUNITY SCHOOLS. I WAS A SITE VICE PRESIDENT FOR THE UNION. WE WORKED ALL OVER THE DISTRICT. WE ENCOUNTERED PEOPLE FROM ALL OVER OTHER DISTRICTS. What I wanted to say tonight, I didn't want to address a single agenda item. What I wanted to do was make sure I addressed the idea that Redlands, for all my years and all my travels, was the gold standard. People were envious of other teachers in Redlands. That was a goal, to teach in Redlands. And now I'm running into people around. I can't teach anymore. I run into people around who want to get out of Redlands and who do not want to try to work in Redlands. And this is despair-inducing. What I see here with the board is For months, I would address specific agenda items like the flag ban and book bans. They're neglected. The majority, the great majority of people addressing the board want the board to reject this ridiculous culture war policies. That's why you don't have any time to do anything else. Last thing I want to say is this board does not want to follow the people. This board wants the people to follow the board.

Thank you, Jeff. Next we have Jay Rents, followed by Valerie Tabor, Greg Britton, and Leah Whiteley. No, Jay? Valerie?

Welcome back, Valerie.

thanks um i just want to say that once again your inability to consistently implement board policy is astounding you had me body walked out of here when i dropped a f-bomb and then you quietly tap tap tap tap when he's reading the epstein files in front of a nine-year-old how dare you how dare you have me body walked and allow that filth and once again You force us to be the ones to hold you accountable. You didn't do a dang thing until people started protesting in the audience about protecting the rest of us from having to hear something that has nothing to do with the jurisdiction of this board. How dare you? Second of all, I want to say that I've had multiple, multiple conversations with people talking about all of the walkouts on our schools. Nearly every single one of our high schools, nearly every single one of our middle schools have had ICE-related walkouts. So what are you doing? This is something that the community cares about. And once again, I'm up here asking, is there a lockdown procedure? Is there a plan? all these things happening in Minneapolis of pepper bombs being used on students, chaos at pickup or drop off. What are you doing? Where's the policy? Where's the lockdown procedure? Where's the transparency? I know these walkouts aren't directed at your board, but they are an indication of what our community cares about. So when are you going to start caring about what our community cares about? Ever? Ever? Lastly, I want to use my last couple of minutes to say again, how dare you write me a letter in response to my complaint about discrimination on this board, specifically my representative, and you, and you, about how you are not protecting and you are discriminating against our LGBTQ community, my family included. How dare you say that you are committed to inclusivity and do nothing when she goes on social media and talks about how all of these videos they shouldn't have they them pronouns, screenshotting every single instant of a rainbow flag, respect our spaces, safe spaces, everyone belongs. How dare you do nothing to prevent that behavior? She's talking about her behavior on the board, what she is advocating for. and you're doing nothing. And then you have the audacity to write me that frickin' letter and tell me that you are committed to inclusivity. Well, I have to watch, as a member of the LGBTQ community, watch her say that my family doesn't matter, that they, them pronouns doesn't matter, non-binary students don't matter. How dare you? Fuck you. Thank you.

Greg? Greg Britton?

Welcome back, Greg.

Thank you. The left. We've seen a number of the employees come up here, and they're understandably concerned about being able to afford living expenses, rent, house payment, and so on. And the employees are asking the board to pay them more money that you don't have. The federal government can do that, unfortunately. You can't. They should really be directing their, if they're concerned about the cost of living in California, they should be directing their attention to the governor, the state legislature, which has produced highest in the nation gas prices, double the national average electricity prices, sky-high water prices, housing prices that most people really can't afford. And there's where they should be directing their attention on that. Turning back to things that are within your jurisdiction, I understand that there is a negotiation underway about the flag policy and the having a politically neutral classroom. Parents trust. Parents are the primary. They give their children life. They teach them their values. Parents are the primary guiders of their children. And that's the way it should be. That's the way it has to be. Anything else, putting the government in, doesn't work. But then they trust you, the school district, to educate them. And they want them, you know, you want to have a good education so you can get a good job. The citizens more broadly want the children to be able to be responsible citizens and keep the republic. Way back to Benjamin Franklin. It's a republic if you can keep it. And that's not being taught. Remember we talked before. Only 3%. of high school students in America can pass the citizenship test. And that's a pretty easy test. I've taken it. It's a pretty easy test. And then to pass on the history of the nation. Any nation needs to have a common history. This is what we want from you, not the teacher's political and social views and their opinions about various stuff. And as in Dale's excellent remarks, if you want the parents to trust you, then you can't be undermining and indoctrinating the children contrary to what the parents are teaching at home. Stay in your lane. Math, reading, science, history. And leave the moral education, the value education, to the parents. Where it should be. And just 16 seconds. In Mississippi, a black child is 2.5 times more likely to be reading proficient even though California spends twice as much money per student. Why is that?

Thank you, Greg. Leah Wiley? No, Leah? I think we're done.

Okay, on to board comments. Anybody want to start? I'll start.

Just a few places that I attended. Went to the City of Redlands Chamber Annual Awards Dinner. Congratulations to all the winners. And one of them was Mike Reynolds, who was a former treasurer for the City of Redlands. And he's a big supporter and one of our volunteers with the red shirts at the Redlands Bowl. So I just want to publicly tell him congratulations. um civics day was fun all of us who participated that was a great day and um it's years of history that's been going on for many many years and it's nice to see our young ones come in shadow and then um you know hopefully do their public service in the future and they did a great job so um thank you to the optimist for hosting once again for hosting the lunch and if Mr. Cabral, if we can send a letter to Optimus thanking him, please, for hosting the event, that would be great. And then I attended the Chocolate Fantasy for the Boys and Girls Club this weekend where Tim Rochford was honored. And I want to just give a shout out to Mr. Rochford because he's very generous to the community and a longtime Redlander. So congratulations to Mr. Rochford. Thank you. And then also just congratulations to Mark Blind on his retirement. I saw that on here. And thank him for his service, and thank you for being with us, and wish him all the best. I notice that he's leaving in March, like soon. Yeah, not June. So congratulations to Mark, and enjoy the holiday weekend. Thank you.

I'd like to go next. Anybody have anything?

I just wanted to give a shout-out to the Golden Bell Award that we received for the Bridge Program. Seeing the videos about the program was really exciting, and the county recognized us for that award. And like Patty mentioned, Civics Day was very... enjoyable learning alongside the students about what they think the board is and should be doing and trying to give them a little guidance and so that was a good day I just wanted to mention also that actually Friday I was not protesting against transgenders. I was supporting girls in their talks with the CIF executive committee in terms of having a safe and fair playing field. And the trauma that they go through with having to compete against biological boys and lose out on their scholarships and their awards and having to dress in the locker room with a boy there. And some of them even choose to dress in their cars because they don't want a boy staring at them. It was to support the girls, which doesn't require being mean or hateful. It just requires being honest that they don't want to be competing with the boy. So that's what that was, and it was a great time to support them, and I feel a responsibility to do that.

I just had a couple comments along the same lines to address some of the things that were said during public comments. Regarding CSBA and protesting up at CSBA on our funded trip, we didn't go up to protest. We were walking into CSBA on the sidewalk as we passed by a woman named Beth Bourne, who has been a hero, championed championing children's rights to not be mutilated and castrated either chemically or surgically. She has been a huge advocate for that up north and she was standing outside on the sidewalk and I totally support that children are not born in the wrong body, and I believe that they are equally and perfectly made by God. And I was happy to see her sign that kids are not born in the wrong body or something to that effect. And we took a picture with her, and then we traveled into our conference. So the idea that we went up there and protested at CSBA is totally absurd. We walked into our meeting, we saw her and said, hi Beth, keep up the great work, took a picture, went into our conference. We did not talk to anybody up there or be activists or engage with the public. We just said hi to her and we moseyed on. And we appreciate the work that she has done exposing the traumas and the tragedies that children have undergone with sex change operations and hormone therapy. Another thing, just like Jeanette was mentioning, the same thing regarding our attendance at the CIF Executive Championship. I wanted to clarify that I don't even think there was a trans athlete there. I didn't see one at least. We did not go down there to protest any trans athletes whatsoever, and I don't believe there was one present, at least that I saw. We were there to protect, to stand for the girls, to support the girls. There were many female athletes there giving their testimony, just like Jeanette described. The stories are heart-wrenching. These girls have trained their whole lives for these sports, and we were there to support them. because they deserve an equal playing field. And the stories are just really horrific and very sad, what's happening to many girl athletes in this state. So that's why we were there. And all of the things that were already said, the civics days, all of the fun events that we did, it was a great couple weeks in the district.

Again, just a thank you for everyone, cabinet, our superintendent, our CNS, the optimists for civics day. I want to do a special shout out. I forgot my notes with their names to be sure, but I believe it was Zach, Marissa, Delilah, and Nora who were specifically shadowing as board clerk. I hope I was able to provide some information about the role and hopefully inspire them to... either explore an avenue in public service or to see if maybe, you know, maybe they'll take more of an interest because they did seem very interested. I want to acknowledge that February is Black History Month, so thank you for all the contributions that our African American community members and those who came before us have made to our community. So I want to acknowledge that. I do, however, want to talk about something that's a little bit uncomfortable. I want to clarify some things. After the last board meeting, I received a lot of thank yous for my vote, and I have to clarify that I don't want to lay off anybody at all. I mean, with the way this economy is, it's horrible. I mean, everybody is drowning, if not just treading water. Um, and it's horrible the way these things turn out and it's how our society is functioning right now with food costs rising, childcare costs rising. I mean, everything is going up and no one is talking about how we're going to fix it. And it's always, you know, like everybody at the bottom needs to fix it. And it, yes, our... enrollment is down and our attendance is down and costs are up and there's never going to be, you know, well, I hope one day that there will be a solution to that because, yes, our teachers throw way more money than they should, but... into our classrooms it's not to say that it's not appreciated it shouldn't be that way and getting a $350 credit back on your taxes is nowhere near sufficient because I've personally seen some of our teachers drop thousands of dollars into their classroom but I want to acknowledge that my vote My no vote was not because I didn't believe that these cuts needed to be made. I know there's some misinformation going around that I'm more than happy to drive this district into financial ruin. That is not the case. At no point have I ever done anything in this seat to cause harm to this district, to cause harm to anybody. And yes, I was one of the board members, as were two other board members here, for any of the past votes. However, what I did ask for was I asked for a smaller list. I asked for a paired down list because I, again, did not know at the time what I was going to vote because this is something that has been tearing me up inside because how can I actually look my community in the face and determine that someone or some position is less worthy than others? That is not the truth. Everyone in this district is absolutely worthy and necessary in our kids' educational experience. However, I don't agree with the assumption that this is my fault, Patty's fault, anybody's fault. And I take very personal offense to it because I have done everything I can sitting in this seat. I have volunteered in classrooms. I've seen the hard work that our teachers and our staff and our paraprofessionals provide to our students. So it does matter to me. But while I was sitting here, a nurse came up and gave us a list of required medications and procedures that students need. And with the paring down of nurses, I saw that it was not possible. for our students to maintain you know i mean safe there was no way it was going to happen with the suggested cuts so i voted no because i asked for a smaller list and i did ask for our superintendent ask our superintendent for a smaller list other possibilities i suggested we cut our paper costs because look at the paper and our shredding costs and like i'm looking for any other avenue But I understand that a no vote wasn't what everybody wanted to hear. And I don't want anybody to misunderstand that I am trying to escape responsibility. Okay, I need everybody to understand me. I acknowledge that cuts need to be made and I want to acknowledge that when I voted no last time, it may not be a no next time, but I am very aware of the impact it has on our community. So I thank you all. I appreciate the kudos, the support, and the emails that we've got, but please understand I am thinking of everyone as I'm making these decisions. So I just, I hope that you'll understand where I'm coming from. And I'm more than happy to have a conversation with anybody that I need to. So please reach out if you would like to talk.

Good evening. So I went to the DLI meeting at McKinley. There were about 50 parents there. And a few teachers even there that are ready and able to do DLI, dual language immersion. They are very excited. Also went through the Sanctuary and Wellness Centers at REV and CBHS. I'm very proud of all the work that our counselors are doing at those schools. Everybody said Golden Bell Awards for the Bridge Adult Transition Program was wonderful. I had a great time. I want a special thank you to Natalie Kling, Sarah Ostash, and Samantha Kling. for all that they do for those students every day. It's amazing. And Civic State, yep, that was a huge success again. I want to thank Christine Stevens for putting it together. She did a great job. And the Optimist Club, once again, for doing the lunch. It's always fun to go to their meeting. Last week we had about 70 students from Redlands Unified participate in the Cool for School through Redlands League, which used to be Assistance League. And we have four more Thursdays, so there will be about 500 more students getting some new clothes and backpack and shoes, and it's pretty fun. And I also want to congratulate Mark Blind on his retirement and hope he has a great time watching all those baseball games coming up. Also, I have something else I would like to say. As board president, I fully support the superintendent and cabinet and the tough decisions that were made to protect the long-term financial stability of our district. These are not easy choices, but they're very necessary. The proposed layoffs reflect three clear realities. The expiration of one-time COVID funding, declining enrollment, and lower attendance. Since 2018, enrollment has declined by approximately 2,000 students, and attendance has remained near around 93%. reducing the funding that the district receives from the state. The superintendent and his team's comprehensive plan reflects sound fiscal stewardship and careful thought, including a focus on minimizing the impact on students in the classroom. These reductions are not about lack of care for staff, but about responsibility and honesty with our financial realities. Layoffs are never easy, and I care deeply about the employees who will be impacted, and I'm really offended by anybody who says that I don't, because I do. These decisions weigh heavy on all our hearts. However, as trustees, we have a responsibility to maintain the financial stability of this district. And as before, I always urge the board to put aside personal political interests and stand united in supporting different things that come forward in these unfortunate but necessary decisions to align staffing and resource with the current funding and enrollment realities. This is going to ensure that the district remains stable and able to serve students now and into the future. And I'm very glad, Melissa, that you voted yes, because I was very disappointed that two members chose personal and political gain over making these tough choices the last board meeting. Because I feel like, let's be transparent here, the other three board, you knew that we were going to support the superintendent's thoughtful, comprehensive plan and pass it. So it allowed you to oppose the plan. It's unfortunate. that election concerns and special interest clouded decisions to support the hardworking and dedication of our district leadership. Thank you.

I need to respond to that. I don't appreciate being called out when you have no idea. Did you ask me about why I voted the way I did? No, and if anybody can go back, I mean, I probably have it. I can provide you my board comments that evening. My board comments read as though I had voted yes. So I do take great offense to that suggestion. I even had a meeting with our superintendent. Juan, would you agree that I was trying to find other options because I was having a difficult time with this?

Yeah, you asked for a different list. I said that we'd have to all talk about it. Just let you know that the list, how it was created and why the recommendation was going to be everybody on that list and why I felt like we needed it. And you shared that, is there any way we can do something different? I said it needed to be discussed in the meeting.

Can you, and I'm allowing you to speak on this, but did I mention anything to you that I was very uncomfortable with the voting process the way we have it? That I didn't feel comfortable being that I was the one going first, that that was a fair assessment of, like, because whatever I voted could possibly influence other board members. Did I express that to you? Yes. Because I was hoping that we could change our voting system so that we're all voting at the same time. Because otherwise, how do I know that my vote doesn't impact someone else's? I don't think it's fair that you're calling me out. Because I have a, what is my personal interest in?

That is my opinion and that is my comment. And that's my opinion.

And I wish you would have had a conversation with me about that.

I'm going to diddle that. I think that was insensitive of you to make a decision or a statement on that on how we voted.

Okay. Superintendent's comments.

Just an announcement. We are celebrating Black History Month at Clement Middle School on February 20th from 4.30 to 7.30, and the community is invited. It's an annual event that we have. It was hosted at Clement last year also, and the kids do a wonderful job of having historical figures represented. So hopefully you can make it. 4.30 to 7.30 on February 20th, our Black History Celebration at Clement Middle School. I think it is a Friday.

On to discussion items. Who would like to open up discussion regarding the Board Library Media Center material adoption?

I don't mind since I asked for this on the agenda. Just try to get over there. It's a big agenda this time, huh? Yeah. All right. So... We passed a policy, I believe it was last year, about sexually explicit content and pornography that we didn't want it in our school district. And then we had a policy for challenging that type of content. And then this year, we just found out about a book. In fact, it was brand new, off the shelf. It's called Genderqueer. It was just getting unpacked, hadn't even been checked out by a student yet, which is the good news. The bad news is what's inside the book. And I don't see any kids in here, but if there's anyone online, please take discretion, because the content in here is not for children under age 18, at least. Here we have boys having sex with each other and masturbating right there. We have a reference to kink.com right here on that page. And that is an adult sex website that you have to be 18 years old to enter. But mind you, this book was accessible for 13 years and up. We have graphic descriptions of oral sex, of two boys having oral sex right there. You can see their genitalia. It's completely full frontal nudity there. And we also have the glorification of drug use, oxycodone, lorazepam, for a simple minor procedure. The issue is that, as we've been saying for quite some time, that we don't have a procedure or a policy to indicate a procedure as to how books get into the library. The site where this was located, the principal had no idea that this was in the library. Our superintendent had no idea this was in the library. And it just magically appears. I had looked for this book before when we had done book challenges in the past, but we didn't have it. And so I felt very comfortable that, wow, one of the worst books out there we don't have. And I should note that this is an award-winning book, too. So that whole argument about award-winning, it really means nothing. And there's almost basically no educational value to it, no literacy value. It's all comic strip. And look at all this blood. I mean, with the period and menstrual cycle, it's like covered with blood. It looks like a It's just very obscene and graphic. I have to say that... If we cannot protect the children from depraved content like this, then we have no business being here, honestly. It's just the parents send the children to school, and they entrust us that when they drop them off at the gate, that we will not do anything that could harm them intentionally. This was intentionally brought into our library. And it was to give to kids for consumption. It's pornography. And here we have a problem in our district with sexual student-on-student sexual complaints, others with adults. There is no reason to promote anything that is so despicable and have it accessible to minors. I really, really support the idea of a procedure because we can have accountability. At my work, everything I do is documented with a time and date, my name, and what I did. If anyone has a question, they look back and see. If there's a problem with the medication reaction, there's the time I gave it, there's what I gave, there's how many milligrams, there is... Everything about it, including which IV I put the medication in. There are so many details about every decision I make at work. And yet here we have, in the educational system, it's so different. There is a lot of autonomy. And I wish that we could just trust all the librarians and trust all the staff. And in a perfect world, that would be great. And I think most of the staff and most of the librarians are great. And they do not have bad intentions. But Obviously, this is not an honor system. We have to have accountability for when people go off the tracks and something like this happens. We can't have this happen again. It's not safe for our kids. And if I was a parent and my kid came home with this, I'm sure they wouldn't show me. But if they did, I would have lost it. This is just disgusting. So I support a policy that would have accountability, and it would also make it known that we do not want sexually explicit pornographic content in our libraries in the first place. Instead of just the workaround where, oh, we can do a book challenge policy for the same wording. Instead, we should just prevent it. It'll save us time and money in the long run anyways. Prevent it from getting in. And the principal will have to sign off on it as well because in this case, neither the principal knew about it nor the superintendent nor the assistant. I'm assuming the assistant superintendent of education didn't know either. I didn't ask Patty, but you didn't know what was in there, right? Yeah. So that is my recommendation. I really support this policy moving forward. We've given it a year of trying to mess around and come up with a way to screen books coming in, but we really need to get something going in terms of accountability and making sure this doesn't happen again.

Do you have something you want to say? You can go first. Go ahead.

Yeah, I just wanted to explain a little where I'm coming from. I've been actually asking for something like this policy for a good year or so because... I'm the type of person that wants to get to the root of a problem and not just try to put a Band-Aid on it. And I do feel that having some accountability and transparency in what books get put into the library and by whom would help us get to that place where we don't have to even be spending time and money on... And I do have to correct you, Candy, on one thing. The oral sex was not between two boys. The oral sex was between a girl with a dildo strapped on her and a boy. So, sorry, that was a little detail.

Well, the first picture is not with the strap-on. The first picture is full nudity with a penis. The second picture is a strap-on. We're both correct.

But, you know, I'm not trying to make fun, but it is really a despicable book. There is, you know, I felt very bad for the... main character in the book because she has obviously a very severe debilitating case of gender dysphoria or really hating herself and her parents don't seem to care. She just goes along through several years in this book of being in pain. emotionally, psychologically, and there's no resolution to that. It's not any kind of book that has any redeeming answers or value other than finding the kink.com link in the book. So anyway, it just was an example of why we need a policy that will build in some accountability, some oversight, and transparency. And I think we've all given examples of our current jobs where we... have to answer to someone. We have to show our work. We have to show why we're doing something and not just because we want to. And so I think it'll be a really good policy for the district and can help parents feel better about what's going on in their children's school.

I don't think we need this policy because I think we have procedures where there's oversight by cabinet and by the superintendent and principals even maybe on some different things. When something comes into a school, I think there's oversight. They can check to see what it is. We can put this in there, any books that come in, whether they're donated or bought. And I just think the wording of it is a little, there's a few spots. I do like the part about somebody having to sign off when something comes in. So let's put that in the procedure of how things come in. I think they do that for other stuff when something comes into a school, right? Somebody has to sign off on it that they got it, they received it. So is there a way to rework that process?

As far as the process, the process right now for donated books, I think is what you might be referring to, because when we purchase books, there's purchase orders, there's got to be approvals. A donated book goes through a different process where there isn't an oversight that includes a principal approving it.

Can we put that in?

If that's what you're asking, could we add something like that? Yes.

There was some issue with the principal specifically not recalling signing off on books at all for the library, so I'm not sure if that's actually accurate.

It is to the extent that any purchases of any monies have to be approved.

So is he not aware?

Well, I'd have to check specifically on that. But any time we purchase any books, just like anybody can see them on the agenda, anybody using any of the funds, whether it be a site fund or any amount of money that comes from like me that I'm in charge of, you would need to sign off on it.

So what part of the policy did you not like, Michelle?

I just don't think we need an extra policy. Like, it can go into something else and be handled the same way, and we just don't need another policy.

We need a policy because we've been waiting for it for a year, and we've not gotten one produced by the district administrators. We've been asking for something.

Part of this could go in the AR of another policy that we have, too.

But this is not part of a book challenge process, so we wouldn't go into that.

What I understand President Rendland should be saying is that you could, as a board, direct me, as a superintendent, to come to the next meeting with a process that will be implemented that would include oversight that's being discussed, absent of having to pass a policy. You could direct me to do that, and I will come forward with something. Make sure it can get signed off. Right. be something that would include that oversight that is being discussed.

And that would be in the form of an AR or what?

It would be a form of a procedure that we would implement district-wide that I would share with everyone.

That would be like in the handbook on the site? Is that where you would find it, the procedure?

Yeah, I mean, just like we have whatever processes we have at every site, we can include that, yes. Melissa has her hand.

Yeah, I looked over it, and I don't see why we need to start a whole other thing with a whole other policy when we could just direct our superintendent to just, if there is a different, if there is nothing in place about, I think the question is it's a donated book, then... I feel like it's a lot more responsible, especially from a financial standpoint, to just direct the superintendent to get somebody to sign off on a donated book, get somebody else to look at it, only because our principals aren't credentialed librarians. I mean, the independent authority of an obligation, wholesome, like... paragraph two it negates the entire book challenge policy in general i mean guiding concepts of decency what is this all all we have to do instead of wasting our superintendent's time our principal like they all have bigger jobs to deal with and juan can you please get somebody else to sign off on a donated book somebody else to look at it can we just do that

I would recommend what I'm hearing is it would be oversight that would be specific to the site, which in this case would be the principal, is a process where a principal, and I'm hearing that we need to be able to track down how did this book get in. Well, we would have documentation to support that. this book was put in the library on this date, and this is the person who signed off.

Because technically, I mean, we should, I mean, obviously, I don't know that we have, but, I mean, just like we accept donations, you know, on behalf of the school district, technically, shouldn't we be getting some sort of paperwork to paper trail? If a parent donates a book, shouldn't we be having them, you know, like, this parent donated this book, a quantity of whatever, to this school? I mean, technically, we're taking in an asset.

We may do that to some extent, but what I'm hearing is we need there to be oversight. And I'm saying that we could add that.

Thank you. You're talking about the donations that we accept here? In this, you know how we do, it could be instruments, it could be anything, something like that, where we do accept donations. It could actually be on there. It should apply for a book as well. It should be applied for anything on there. And so any accountability we could do that you could work to get that done instead.

Just saying the donations that are generally on the board is because there's a tax write-off, a monetary amount that the tax write-off, when someone donates a book, they don't tend to go through the district for a tax write-off.

Right.

So they serve two different purposes.

You only do that if you donate a set of books for a classroom.

Well, generally, if I go to donate something and I say I want to receive a tax write-off on this donation, it's going to go through the business office for that tax write-off, the donation forms, which ends up on our forms. Or if it's cash, right, all monetary items always go through the business office. Books like this don't funnel through the business office. And so, you know, we're not in the position to approve or deny books and adding them to donations when there's no tax incentive.

No, yeah, I acknowledge that.

But adding a process to a school site to saying, you know, and limiting the ability for people to add to the library catalog could be possible scenarios.

And that's the point that I think is important is the desire for the accountability is about what books go into the library. And, you know, I mainly, I want to point out what is needed in my opinion and why and how we do it can be discussed. But really the only way to get to that point discussion seems to be to bring up a potential policy so that's where i'm at with it i don't really have a big preference on how it is done but i want it to be known by every single principle that it's serious and they need to take it seriously and that there needs to be documentation

Accountability, number one. Yeah, the accountability would work.

I think that would work if it's in a procedure, right?

Also, Jason, I just wanted to mention this. Like Juan was saying, we can see when books are purchased by the purchase orders listed. However, a lot of times they just say something general, like office supplies or something like that. It's not always designated that there's actually books there.

Yeah, because in the county purchase order system, there's subject lines and there's a board subject line. You might have 2,000 line items on one order, so what they write is books. If they wrote every line item, that book would be five times the size of it. You'd have books this fat of every single line item that the district uses across the board. And if you really think about the amount of items that come into a district, it's hundreds of thousands of pencils.

So to assume that a principal is going to know that books are on... Well, the principal sees the order, right? Right, but...

It's what you see in the expenditure report is just what the board line item is, what that one little statement box we put in. What the principal sees, or I say principal, but it's anybody who oversees the budget that it's purchased from, right? So every time you order something, it goes through a series of people who oversee that budget. So each one of those people could look at that full order.

Got it.

So a principal saying I haven't looked at the order might mean they're not looking at the actual line items. He's just looking at the overall order. We don't know that without talking to them.

back to the original issue I really disagree and I do want it as a policy because we do not have a single policy regarding this type of adoption of how it gets into the library and again we've been asking for this multiple times working with the district staff and it has not happened so I'm just I really want something formally in policy because there needs to be a policy that includes the same language The perceived pornography, erotica, graphic descriptions, graphic descriptions of sexual acts, sexual violence, and or sexually explicit content. If we don't have a policy, then it's really hard to hold people accountable. And there's no reason we have hundreds of policies. There's no reason one is going to break the bank all of a sudden. We have no procedure or policy to hold someone accountable when it's not followed. So I don't understand why this huge resistance against actually having a policy. We need it, actually. And I don't like the idea of, well, let's just make it a procedure, just like the name change procedure, where it floats around somewhere and nobody can find it again. That'll be what happens with this.

We don't know that that's what will happen with this.

Well, that's what happened in the name change procedure. And when was that from?

2019.

Floated around the district. But that's the thing.

We have an entirely new superintendent. I don't see why...

I think it needs to be formal. It needs to be official so we can hold a staff accountable. We have... If you can't say that a staff broke a policy, then how do you discipline them? I mean, honestly, it needs to be formal. It needs to be formalized. And the idea that we can't have a simple... This is not a big, long ordeal. I don't mind about changing some words. If you don't like the word wholesome, that's fine, too. But the main thing is it cannot have pornography. Principal needs to sign off. And... You need to have someone signing with their title and the date and why they're putting it in. And that needs to be the formalized process. How many other millions of policies we have and all of a sudden a tiny one like this, we can't do it? I mean, it needs to be formalized. We won't be able to hold employees accountable.

I would like to see... Sorry, were you going to say something? I would like to see if... I don't know who can do this, but if any of that can fit into another one that we already have that pertains to material-like stuff, you know, and if it could go into that one, if that's easy enough to try a procedure first and see how that, let's try it, make it an actual procedure that principals or people are following, I would like to try that.

I don't see why a directive to our superintendent isn't sufficient. I mean, a superintendent would then express that too.

You haven't noticed that there's so many different people, different principals, principals getting moved, coming and going. You haven't noticed where things fall through the cracks? Like what? Just a lot of things.

But if it goes across the district, I don't see what... I mean, this isn't specific to a certain school.

What do you mean if it goes across the district? What does that mean?

I could just add. Holding any staff accountable does not require a specific policy for that act that would be violated. I mean, we hold staff accountable... and use the board policies that exist. I just want to make sure you don't have to have a policy that says don't do this to hold somebody accountable for doing something they weren't supposed to do. If we have a process that we implement, and I can't speak to anything that happened when I was in here, but if I implement a process and it's a directive for principals to follow, there's going to be accountability for that to be followed. just like there is right now for any thing that we implement that doesn't have a policy attached to it.

Yeah, I believe addressing it, giving you the authority to take care of this for accountability and work with principals would suffice.

Or at least the opportunity to take care of this outside of a whole policy, because like I said, it's just going to add time and money and additional work to our staff, which is money that we have to pay out to them. I mean, it takes away from other items that they need to do. But again, if you're confident that you can... I mean, ensure that this is going to be followed and we're asking you to take care of something, then I'm fine with it.

Can I ask you, Melissa, what you mean by it's going to cause additional money and things for staff to do? Because...

Someone's got to rework this policy, right? Whenever we make changes, someone's got to put it together. That is time taken away from other things that they would do. These are discussions that our superintendent and cabinet would have to have. I mean, this is time on the board. This is extending our meetings, keeping them here. It adds. So it's not when we could just say, Juan, make sure you're taking care of this, and it should be fine. And if it's not, then we can have another discussion.

Well, the problem is that we have been saying that. We have been saying we want accountability. I've said it from the dais. She has, too. We've said it in private. We've talked amongst ourselves with Juan and with our leaders over here, and it's not happening. So that's the issue.

But this is the first time it's ever come to a board meeting, correct?

Because we had to bring it as a policy request. We don't have to bring a policy. We can have a discussion about things. We've been asking for this up here on the dais about accountability. Okay. Hasn't been done. Okay.

discuss this for a length of time. Do we need to vote on what we want to ask you to do?

This is a discussion. What we'd be looking for is direction. So I'm hearing come up with a procedure. If there's a desire for a majority of the board to see a policy drafted, then that would need to see a majority consensus.

I would like a procedure.

I would like to see if there is an existing policy that this could fit into if there's already one that we could just fit this into.

I'm sure we can find one about curriculum. We could add it onto a curriculum policy. Right.

But I do, you know, I'd like the procedure idea. Um,

And the wording, you like the wording, right, to make sure that the content doesn't follow in those categories, right?

Yeah, I don't. Yeah, the way we had it written on the other one, I wanted to. The same wording. The same wording, yeah. And I like the idea of the signing off because I think that's really important. And if it's a procedure, that'll go in there for sure.

I think the curriculum one, it would fit on that.

See, but this is a different conversation then, because if materials or media contain one or more of the following, it shall not be allowed in any school library. That completely negates our book challenge policy.

This is only about new books going into the library.

But how are we going to know until the board has the opportunity to see them? How are we going to know what? How are we going to know the content of the book until it gets here? The principal. So the principal then has to report. Is the principal a credentialed librarian? So they're using their independent authority to see if it's perceived pornography?

If they can't understand it and figure it out, then they can ask Juan, what does he think?

I just want to clarify because I'm a little bit confused. Because if we're going to do a procedure but also then look for a policy that this language will fall under, then that's saying two different things. Because... I feel like what we want is we want to make sure that there's oversight. I'm saying that we can create that in a process and I think that theoretically and in practice, you hold me accountable as the board to make sure that it's implemented. That's the way it should work. If somebody does not follow the process that I've implemented, And we hold them accountable to that. You hold me accountable to the fact that my procedure didn't work. I mean, we don't need a policy for all that to happen.

What is the resistance to tacking it on to a policy that we already have?

Because we have a process right now. This is the way that I feel about it. And we had what you've already pointed out, something that happened with the donated book. We don't need over one incident to have an entire policy written when we could have a process added that includes that oversight that really is the point of the entire policy. We already have a book challenge process for anything that goes in that is working to the extent of the books that we've gotten challenged. We have oversight already for purchased books. There has not been a purchased book up to this point that... That caused this. This is caused because of a donation. The process of donation was different. It did not include the same oversight. I'm saying that we can just include it.

I'm good with that. I like Michelle's idea. Michelle, if we have three of us agree that it should be tacked on to another policy that's similar, I don't know. I said or. Is that a possibility?

I think our superintendent deserves the opportunity to take care of this on his own. He is the one that runs this district, and if he fails to do so, then we can hold him accountable.

The process he wants to do will work for him.

Saying that it can be done that way, yes. I'm confident and I'm okay with being held accountable.

When are you going to get the draft to us?

I can have it by the time we meet again on March 10th. I can have drafts to you sooner than that. In the SU, we can look at it.

Okay. And with that, we are adjourned.

So that brings me to the question. When we have a discussion item, like we had last time, a discussion item, then what happens? Because like this, we solidified what's going to happen. But at our last meeting, we had a discussion item, and it's still hanging.

Okay.

Yeah, we gave the two things you requested for parent notification. We got you the... I gave you the case. I emailed you the case. Remember? I know you didn't respond, but I emailed it to you. And we... Michelle asked you to ask the OAG. Yes. What did they say?

Which is still pending. They didn't answer? Not... No, they did not. Shocker.

When's the next time you meet with them?

Uh... I don't. I have to look at my calendar.

Really, we'll have to figure out how long we're going to wait for them again because we've been waiting all year. Yeah. All right. Thanks.

All right. We're going to adjourn at 10.08.