Board of Education — March 10, 2026

Thank you all for coming. We'll get started off with roll call. Vice President Hollihan. Present. Clerk Ayala-Quintero. Present. Member Olson. Here. Member Wilson. Here. And I am here. Would the students from Victoria please come up and lead us in the Pledge of 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 so much. Now, for our Empowering Positive Moments, our student highlight, Victoria Elementary's Odyssey of the Mind students are here tonight. Thank you, Angeline Dominguez, Aldo Mariani, Emilio Castro, Alexey Tapia, and Malik Almaruj. Did I say that right? Sort of? Maybe? A little bit? And their teachers, Robin O'Brien and Karen Burke. Thank you so much for being here. Can you please come up and share with us a little bit about Odyssey of the Mind?

Tonight we'd like to introduce some of our amazing students who have worked incredibly hard on the Odyssey to Mind teams. They are either picked because they are engaged or because they worked incredibly hard on their projects in the Garner Holt Lab. Since November, they have been meeting at lunch and after school in the Garner Holt space to design, build, and problem solve for their competition.

Odyssey of the Mind is a competition where teams of students work together to find creative solutions to engineering and design challenges. These students were on two separate teams. We had a train team that designed a train that had to pick up three different cargo cars. And we had a team that had to design a mechanical trip assistant that happened to be a frog that they came up with. And tonight they are going to explain how they came up with those. They did so well. Don't let me forget that. The train team finished second in regional competition. And the frog team finished fourth. And both teams are moving on to state March 28th. Okay, first up is Emilio. He will be talking about the train and how they designed it.

We designed the train by laser cutting cardboard and gluing on this. And we used popsicle sticks and rubber bands. And the rubber bands was not enough, so we used a ramp to go all the way in the seven feet.

Good job.

And our mechanical frog team, we have Malak, Sander, and Aldo that's going to discuss how they designed that. Okay.

We made the frog out of felt, and we stitched it together. We used a laser machine to cut out the arms and the body shape. We cut a hole in the middle to put the arrow in, and there's a hole for the syringe arrow.

Pneumatics. Pneumatics.

The frog was originally created for, he never really had a syringe for a tongue, but once we found out about another project we had in the lab, we decided to take inspiration from that and put it inside of our frog. We also put an arrow, as Malak said, that spins in a direction. And for the tongue, we use pneumatics, and we use a syringe for it right here. And then as soon as you push the syringe, it comes out. And for what we do, we just suck it back in to make the effect like it's eating it.

So wish us luck, and maybe we'll make it to national.

But what's the date? What's the date that you're going? The date is March 28th, during our spring break. Well, wish you luck. In Marina Valley. All right. Good luck. Thank you. Mrs. Burke. Mrs. Burke, can you bring them up so we can take a picture?

Dr. Patel, you can come take a picture also. Principal Victoria, Dr. Patel.

Okay, everyone look this way in one, two, three.

Okay, thank you. Good job, good job.

Good job.

Okay, moving on to approval of the agenda. Do I have a motion to approve the agenda with flexibility?

So moved. Second.

Andy, thank you, Patty. Any discussion? All right, we'll call for the vote.

Yeah, I'm on there.

To vote. Oh, because we haven't voted on any. Oh. Oh, yeah.

It says it, but it doesn't open. Are you voting already? Yeah.

It hasn't given me any prompts.

Let me try. Every time there's a time for a vote, we're going to refresh it.

Motion carried, 5-0. Motion was carried, 5-0.

Oh, we're doing a new voting system where I vote online and it comes over there and then she'll announce the vote. Thank you, Consuelo. Did we get it? Oh, she did? Okay. Now we're moving on to approval of minutes. Do I have a motion to approve the minutes of the January 27, 2026 and the February 10, 2026 board meetings? So moved. Second. Thank you, Patty. Thank you, Candy. Any discussion? All right, we'll call for the vote. I think that one was smoother. Did that go better? Oh, you didn't get it?

Resend it.

Oh, too soon. Was it something I said?

Okay, are we done? One more. We're waiting for Jeanette. Motion carried.

All right. During closed session, the board took unanimous action to appoint Benjamin Uribes to the position of assistant principal, Citrus Valley High School, effective March 16th, 2026, at step five of the management team salary schedule. Ben, are you here? Do you have anybody with you here tonight? Anybody here with you tonight? Oh, thank you. Thank you. Welcome. In closed session, the board took unanimous action to release and reassign employee number 2025-26-16, 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 2025-26-17 effective the 2026-27 school year. The board directed the superintendent or his designee to send out appropriate legal notices. And we're moving on to presentations. Tonight we have a presentation. Kirtan, are you ready?

Good evening, Board, President Randler, Superintendent Cabral, Director of the Cabinet and the Committee. Thank you for this opportunity to go over our second interim report for fiscal year 25-26. So the second interim report is required to be presented to the Board for approval by March 15th, so we're right on time. It identifies changes to the projected budget since the first interim that was presented back in December 2025 and any changes that were any revisions based on governor's budget that was in January 2026. It also identifies actual unrestricted and restricted expenditures through January 31st, 2026. This is our standard chart that I always present. It's the last five years of our CBETS enrollment and average daily attendance. As you can see, each year we have been losing students, and this year is different. Compared to last year, we lost about 182 students, and our ADA is down about 163. I just did a quick calculation. That's about $2.4 million just trade attendance related funding that we lost. And this is our little chart that shows LCFF revenue, which is our unrestricted main funding that comes through the state. So at 24-25, we were at $256.3 million. This year we're at $257.4 million. That's about a $1 million increase over last year. This is our general fund. So in the first column, you see our 24-24 actual. We ended with $90.6 million in fund balance. Adopted budget, we projected to start at $91.2 million and ending with $70.7 million. But when we ended the year, we actually ended at $90.6. So about $666,000 less than we projected. Our projected revenue this year is $355.9 million, so significantly higher compared to the budget based on state revenues and certain things that we couldn't realize at the budget time, but we can now. And our expenditure has also gone up $377.6 million. So our deficit this year is projected to be $21.7 million, bringing down our fund balance to $68.8 million. Okay. Any questions before I go forward? This is the breakdown of our $68.8 billion fund balance. So unrestricted side, we have $50,000 in cash, $1.4 million in non-spendables, commitment, which you'll be approving later on, for $3.2 million for textbook adoption, and our standard 3% economic reserve for $11.3 million, and lottery is assigned for $5.3 million. So the total is $21.3 million. And the $47.5 is all restricted programs, like federal and state programs. These are some assumptions for next two years. For 26 to 27, their COLA is 2.41%. The PERS rate is projected at 26.4%, STRS at 19.1%. The numbers you'll see in the next slide really include step and column changes, 5% to 8% increase in utilities, 10% to 15% in P&L insurance, which is our property and liability insurance, and any program changes like grants and entitlements. And for 27-28, projected COLA is 3.06, PERS at 26.9, STRS stays the same at 19.1, and the same changes step and column, utilities increase, P&L insurance, and program changes. So here's our multi-year analysis. We already went over actuals and second interim. So 26-27, we'll start at projected $68.8 million fund balance. Revenues are projected to go down a little at $352 million, and expenditures at $356 million. bringing our deficit to about $3.8 million and fund balance to $65 million. Then we start 27-28 at $65 million, revenues at $358 million, expenditure at $358 million. So deficit is only half a million dollars. We're hoping that it won't be a deficit surplus. And bringing our fund balance in 27-28 at $64.4 million. Thank you. So there are three possible certifications, positive, qualified, and negative. And I'm happy to report we're recommending positive certification. That means the district can meet its financial obligation for current year and next two fiscal years. Next steps will be in May 2026, we'll have the mayor revision from the governor that will dictate any changes in our budget for next year. And then in June 2026, I'll be presenting 26-27 budget that we'll be adopting in second meeting of June. Any questions?

Just thank you very much for all your hard work and your staff as well.

Thank you. Thank you very much. No student trustee tonight. On to association reports. Mr. Caperton, are you ready?

I apologize for my voice tonight. It's been going around. So good evening, board members and Superintendent Cabral. Tonight, I want to thank the RTA and RUSD bargaining teams for their hard work and dedication. After many months of tough negotiations, we have finally reached a tentative agreement that balances the needs of our educators with the district schools. I would also like to extend a personal thank you to this board, Superintendent Cabral, and the administrative cabinet for your support in this endeavor. I know at times it was a tough process, but the district's willingness to engage in open dialogue and to continue our shared work throughout this was appreciated. This afternoon, I was informed that members received their layoff notices for next year. While the district made great efforts to save jobs, this layoff had a disproportionate impact on Redland Unified's counseling staff. I have had the pleasure of working with our counselors throughout my entire career. I have always believed that they are indispensable to the proper functioning of our schools. We have seen firsthand how their efforts have raised test scores, improved attendance, and even saved lives. That last statement was not an exaggeration. The counselors impact on our students lives cannot be overstated. I have spoken many times for this body about the increasing behavioral and safety problems that our educators face. Far too often, the only readily available resource is our counselors. Their loss next year will have a tremendous detrimental impact on our schools. Because counseling has limited mandates in our contract and on Ed Code, it has historically been the first group cut when shortages occur. This is short-sighted and must change. Before anyone is released next year, I encourage this board and cabinet to take deliberate care to preserve each position that they can. Every position saved is more than just a job preserved. It represents us meeting our student needs in real, fundamental terms. This has been a challenging year, and it's not yet done. As you plan for next year, I implore this board to prepare for the realities that we will face in the coming years. We lost ground this year in overall compensation. We lost ground in staffing and meeting the needs of our students. As a district, we need major long-term changes. We need to maintain our competitive edge in salary and benefits. We need guaranteed counseling support, especially at our elementary level. We need greater behavioral supports and options within our schools to meet our student needs. I encourage us to work together and to plan for a future where Redlands Unified is once again the shining beacon that other districts strive towards. Thank you.

Thank you. Mrs. Brewster, are you ready?

Good evening, President Brindler, Superintendent Cabral, Cabinet, and community members. Tonight, my heart is heavy. The loss of employees across our district has been incredibly difficult. Many of our colleagues, friends, and friends are facing uncertainty, and the impact of these layoffs is being felt in our classrooms, offices, and work sites every day. Yet, despite all of this, our employees still show up to do their job. As negotiations begin to wind down, it is time for us to focus on the work ahead and the issues that continue to impact our members and student safety. For over two years, I have been raising concerns about PCM, Professional Crisis Management Training. Currently, our district has roughly 2,000 employees. Yet, only 150 employees are trained in PCM. This creates serious challenges across our schools. Because there are so few trained staff members, paraprofessionals are frequently pulled from their regular assignments to respond to other classrooms or situations where no one is trained. This increases workloads, disrupts services for students, and places an unfair burden on our small group of employees. 150 employees are PCM trained. That is a problem. Most importantly, it raises concern about student safety and staff safety. Safety training should not fall on the shoulders of only a few employees. It should be equitable, accessible, and available to more staff across the district so that our schools are better prepared to support students in crisis. Our members are dedicated professionals who care deeply about the students they serve. They deserve the training, support, and resources necessary to do their jobs safely and effectively. As we move forward, RESPA will continue advocating for expanded PCM training and equitable support for our staff. Our students deserve safe learning environments and our employees deserve safe working conditions. RESPA has consistently advocated for meaningful trainings across the board. What are we being offered, however, is a PowerPoint presentation. Our members deserve real hands-on training not just slideshows slides on a screen if we wanted to watch videos we could log on to keenan and complete modules on our own time that is not what we are asking for we are asking for practical hands-on training that supports staff to safely support students in crisis training matters safety matters Preparation matters. The district often speaks about how much they value and care about employees. If that is truly the case, then show our employees that they matter. Give them the training they deserve, give them the tools they need, and give them the support that keeps both students and staff safe. Thank you.

Thank you. We have someone here from Rapa to talk tonight. Okay. On to public hearings. Public hearing regarding the adoption of the following instructional materials for the dual language immersion kindergarten program to be implemented beginning with the 2026-2027 school year. The Hutton-Miffin Harcourt Go Math. Hearing is now open. Is there anyone who would like to comment? The hearing is now closed. The public hearing regarding the adoption of the following instructional materials for dual language immersion kindergarten program to be implemented beginning with the 2026-2027 school year. McGraw-Hill, ELA, Mara Villas. The hearing is now open. Would anyone like to comment?

Welcome, Mark. Thank you, thank you. This is also kind of a place to go math. You have three minutes. I have three? Okay, perfect. Thank you so much. Awesome. So the big thing is both of these are materials that we're bringing into the district, and I'm glad we're updating our curriculum, making it accurate, but I do have a lot of concerns over... the staffing that's going to be responsible for overseeing that these materials stay in good condition and that these materials are able to see their way through the future with our students. I know when we don't have library technicians, we don't get materials returned. That's a cost to our taxpayers, that's a cost to the district, and I'm worried about the increased costs of that with library technicians being cut. Additionally, I also am very concerned about the fact, well, I love dual language immersion. I think this is a great curriculum that you are adopting. I've worked at dual language immersion schools myself, and I love dual language immersion. I've seen the power of dual language immersion and the community that it can build. And yet, you need to be able to form community. I'm worried we're going to be spending a lot of money investing into McKinley for dual language immersion, and we're not going to do it right, and we're not going to do it in a way that embraces culture. Literally, when I was looking, yeah, culture is part of dual language immersion, look it up, chuckle in the back of the room. On top of that, basically, like I was saying, part of the structure of a dual language immersion program is immersing one in culture and the language. And we already have policies on the docket that have already passed that prohibit flags The students, and I know there's loopholes I guess for if we're using it for curriculum purposes, but we're inviting students that are going to be coming from other countries. Why do we have to have a loophole? What about when they move up in education? That's ridiculous that they can't see their own flags on their own campuses. On top of that, it's also ridiculous that we're coming for all of the other elements of culture that also fall under that. Even being LGBTQIA is culture and candy, this go around. She actually just posted a video where she was targeting books. And so I'm worried that with culture in this, book as well, she might take offense to it because quite frankly, the book that she was targeting, it was called Pride Month. She posted it on her social media. And I do think this is relevant because it's our board member that's up here and it's about our curriculum and what's in our libraries. And she actually posted a video of her talking about this book that was approved for libraries. You could only buy it from library vendors. I checked. I work in a library. I can find that out. And she was taking issue with all of the educational terms in that book. And they were purely educational. There was no sex, no nothing. It was purely grade appropriate. And so I'm worried that she might look at some of the other elements of culture and other things in this material and take issue with it. And also I'm worried that that bias might reflect on how this program is implemented. Anyways, thank you for your time. Thank you, Mark. Thank you.

The hearing is now closed. Now on to 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 view 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 a student matter, please utilize the appropriate complaint procedure. Contact Dr. Rudy Wilson, Assistant Superintendent of Compliance, who can assist you filing any such complaint. As a reminder, not all speech is free from consequences, and since this is a 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 comment 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. Consuela, how many speakers do we have?

We have 38 total items being spoken on.

We're at two minutes. So we'll allow two minutes per person. All right. We'll call the first speakers.

Rachel Ugly, followed by Valerie Savis and Dale Broom. They all have one item. Hi.

I'm Rachel Ugly, District 1. Welcome. I'm sorry? I said welcome, Rachel. Oh, thank you. And I want to sign up for both 18A and 18B, so I'd like to have my four minutes for that, because basically they're the same thing.

Oh, that's one item? You're speaking to one item?

On 18A and 18B.

There are subsets of the same item. They're both about 6-1-1-5, so we're considering it one agenda item to be spoken about.

At my age, I have a hard time hearing. Can I speak on one or the other? Is that what you're saying?

You can do both, but it's a combined two minutes.

Okay. What I want to speak about is the agreement between the RESPA and the RTA. Basically, this board has a critical decision to make. Do they want to go ahead and teach... and focus on the academics, or do they want to go ahead and basically handle a situation like a dog, which is the more repetitive, something is seen, which is basically basic grassroots marketing. The teacher has their own desk. And now they're separating that from the wall in the classroom. And that's a compromise. What do the kids see? They see the teacher at the desk. That's influencing them the same way the TV and all the corporations market. Repetition is there. That's how they do when now the kids want blue. Now they want Lego. Now they want Barbie. That is not something that the teachers should be focusing on. They should be focusing on the education, what they're there to teach. And we don't need to have the board make a decision of trying to influence the innocent minds. That belongs to the parents. I understand a lot of parents don't want to deal with it, but it's still the responsibility they brought the children into the world. It does not belong to a school board or a teacher that can strongly influence them. Thank you, Rachel. Thank you.

Welcome, Valerie. Hi. Thank you. So I was talking about 18A and B. Teachers hold authority in the classroom, and that authority carries responsibility. When a teacher places any social or political advocacy flag on their desk in clear view of students, it sends a message about what viewpoints are expected or approved in that classroom. Students know the teacher controls grades, discipline, and the learning environment. Because of that dynamic, visible advocacy, symbols can create pressure on students to appear to agree with a particular social position, even when their beliefs or family values differ. In most private sector and government workplaces, employees are not allowed to display movement posters or flags in public-facing workspaces. These rules exist to keep environments professional and neutral for everyone who walks in the door and our classrooms should follow that same standard. Pride flags are widely recognized as symbols promoting specific views about sexuality and gender. When those symbols are displayed by teachers in the classroom, some students and staff may feel embarrassed, uncomfortable, or unwilling to express disagreement for fear of being labeled or judged. No student should feel pressured or humiliated because they hold a different viewpoint. Public schools should focus on education, not the promotion of social agendas. I urge the board to adopt a clear policy prohibiting teachers from displaying advocacy flags or similar symbols on their desks so that our classrooms remain neutral, professional learning environments that respect the beliefs of all families. I bet if Christian pro-life teachers would start placing their flags in the classroom, the viewpoint on this would change pretty quickly. What is being called inclusion might then start to be criticized as political or religious messaging. Thank you.

Thank you, Valerie.

Welcome, Dale. Good evening, Board. I'd like to speak on agenda items A and B. And I also want to urge the Board to reject the agreements that were negotiated because it undermines the intent and the purpose of the Board Policy 6115, which is to stop teachers from pushing their sexual preferences, their gender ideology, or other social agendas on the students. This propaganda has no place in the classrooms. It has no educational value. Now, a couple of things I would agree with the previous speaker on, but I want to add a few additional things. You know, we have a thing called the Federal Hatch Act for all federal employees. And this should be carried over even to the school district level, where you're not allowed to push your political and social agendas while you're at work. We don't have total freedom of speech when you're employed by an employer. You have freedom of speech when you leave work, but not during the time that you are at work, especially when you have a desk that is a public workspace area where you're interacting with customers. In our case, the customers are the students and the parents. We need to respect their... their values and their beliefs. So number one rule of business is don't piss off your customers. And this is going to drive more parents and students out of the public school system if you continue to push these social agendas in the classrooms by allowing them to have them on their desk. Also, I want to bring up another important point, which is that in many ways the gay pride flag represents not just a social agenda, but it is a sexual agenda that is being pushed. And this is a form of sexual harassment, okay? No, this is a form of sexual harassment for people who are straight or cisgender. And I would refer this to Dr. Wilson because the parents are going to start filing Title IX complaints, okay? And then we also have the issue of what if a parent opts for children out of this material, okay?

Thank you, Dale.

Next, we have Douglas Hauser with one item, Joshua Hall with one item, and Erica Grossman with three items.

Hello, Douglas Hauser. Thank you for the opportunity. Welcome. I completely agree with what was said earlier. I understand that there's a school district that allows teachers to wear small pins to express their viewpoint and that that should be acceptable. However, if the board decides that they're going to allow the desk to be used as a point of propaganda, I would at least ask that the scope of the We could easily, if you allow the teacher to put a flag on their desk, they could easily have a giant flagpole with a huge flag on it, coupled with a cube with the signs on it, whatever, and a runner hanging over the front of the desk. I would suggest that a flag of this size or smaller be allowed. You can all see it very clearly, right, and what it represents. So this is five inches by three inches or smaller, and to limit it to one flagpole. flag or one representation at a time so a teacher doesn't have a whole desk full of their own political viewpoints. If teachers object to this and say, oh, no, I really want to do this, it reveals that they do not want to educate. They wish to indoctrinate. And this is totally inappropriate for the classroom. The students are a captive audience. And so if you're going to allow some representation on the desk, though I would prefer not, I would suggest... One flag at most, one symbol at most. They can change it from day to day, week to week, whatever they want, but only one at a time and smaller than five inches by three inches on the desk. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Douglas. Welcome, Joshua.

In relation to 18A and B, I want to say that during COVID, teachers and school administrators and faculty uploaded videos of themselves talking about how they introduced, you know, male teachers and stuff introduced their boyfriends. Female teachers introduced their girlfriends to their classrooms. They talked about what they did in the bedroom and stuff like that. And lives of TikTok, the creator got doxxed. for posting what teachers and school staff and faculty were posting onto Instagram. She posted it to lives of TikTok, and so I just want to say that teachers and school administrators and staff who insist on displaying the LGBTQ pride flag on their desk or on their classroom wall should be forced to retire and put on a sex offenders list. No one cares who you sleep with or where you put your genitalia as long as you keep it private. But don't make it public. And if you insist on making it public, that is a sex crime. Even if it's just to adults who are not consenting. I'm not consenting to... what they want to advocate. So they should not be allowed to do that. Schools are for education purposes only, and if teachers insist on indoctrinating as opposed to educating, teachers, I mean, parents and guardians are going to pull their kids out of school, and we're going to continue to see schools shrinking in favor of homeschooling and private schooling, but even private schooling is not immune. Also, I want to say that Gen Z is the first generation to be dumber than the previous generations, and the indoctrination of LGBTQ plus culture and ideology in the classroom is a big contributor to that.

Thank you, Joshua.

I think I just have two items, because one is a community input.

Welcome, Erica. Thank you. 17A, 17B, and 16J.

Oh, yeah, 17 AB combined. Yeah. Okay. Oh, yeah. I'm Erica Grossman from Area 2. This is regarding staff's personal items. It's been a complete waste of time and resources for the school board to attempt to take away teachers' freedom of speech. We all remember that just last year, Jeanette made a comment that became unforgettable, that for some people, Nazi symbol is a belief. When I speak with others, they don't remember your name, but they remember you as the school board that said the Nazi symbol is a belief. Members of my family are of Jewish descent, and that symbol is frightening. It is a symbol that was used to justify the murder of millions of people. I'm not Jewish myself, but seeing that symbol still terrifies me to my core. To compare a hate symbol like that to the pride flag? which represents living people, is deeply offensive and unacceptable. It is ridiculous to suggest that having a pride flag on a teacher's desk causes any harm, other than possibly making people who already feel hatred towards the LGBTQ plus community, like the three of you, uncomfortable. Thank you. Thank you, Erica. I've got another one. So this is 16J. I'm pleased that the district acknowledged the importance of mental health, including substance abuse as a mental health issue that requires far more serious attention than simply holding a red ribbon week. I believe this policy can significantly improve students' well-being on campus, their academic success, and attendance. That said, it is deeply concerning that the district is laying off school counselors, professionals who know students well and work closely with them every day. I personally witnessed students seeking out counselors when they are experiencing emotional distress. By removing these vital support figures, the district is taking away one of the most important resources students have. This does not make sense while the district is simultaneously addressing the need for mental health support for students. I don't understand why cultural competency training related to LGBTQ plus students is limited to staff serving grades seven and up. I was at an elementary school recently where a third grade student was shouting homophobic slur and no adult intervened or corrected the behavior until I stepped in. Can you imagine how behavior like that would affect the LGBTQ plus students? All students, regardless of age, deserve to be protected and supported. Thank you. Thank you, Erica.

Next, we have Erin Fernando with two items, followed by Peter Hall with one item and Lauren Sebrin with one item.

Welcome, Erin. Thank you, Erin.

All right, Aaron Fernando, area two. So my first item, I want to voice my support for the mental health policy you're considering today. It's nice to see a simple, common sense policy being proposed. It affirms the position that parents should be notified of and give approval to their kids receiving mental health services, but still allows the mental health professional to use their discretion on whether that would be inappropriate or detrimental to the student's well-being. That should sound reasonable to everyone here. No one is being forced to exclude parents. In fact, the primary goal is to include parents. But if it wouldn't be in the student's best interest, then the mental health professional has the option to delay notifying the parents while meticulously documenting their reasoning and contacting appropriate agencies if necessary. So once again, kudos. It's nice to see common sense winning for once. All right, and my second item. I just wanted to say I support you approving the agreement between the RUSD and RTA regarding your ceremonies and observations policies. It's the least the board can do to make it right for their teachers after passing a disastrous, poorly thought out policy. Regarding some arguments against this agreement, I just want to point out that some viewpoints absolutely should be shamed. A pride fag absolutely should let students know that bullying LGBTQ students in the guise of just expressing their opinions is not allowed. A sign saying everyone is welcome here will actually offend some people who want to exclude people, such as anti-Semites. And I say, good, offend the anti-Semites. They should be afraid to voice their closely held beliefs in the classroom. Just because the horrid beliefs happen to be mainstream Republican talking points doesn't suddenly make them neutral. And I hope all the snowflakes melt down because of my colors.

Thank you, Aaron. Thank you.

Peter Hall? Welcome, Peter.

I'm here to talk about 18 A and B. One of the people that I associate with already kind of touched on this when she talked about how if a teacher or a staff member put up a pro-life signage on their desk or whatever, how people would complain about that. And the policy would go from talking about inclusion to talking about how some kinds of inclusion should not be allowed because it's offensive to people. But yeah, we all know that this policy proposal is came into effect as a workaround to the ban of pride flags on school property. So as a compromise, you're going to let teachers and staff put the pride flag on their desks and stuff. Well, other people could put other flags and other signs on their desk, and a bunch of people might not be happy about that, too. Somebody could put the Israeli flag on their desk or on the wall behind their desk, and a bunch of people might not like that because of Israel waging their war against Palestine and Iran. Some people might put the Iranian flag on their desk. Some people might put the ISIS flag on their desk or Hezbollah. Some people might put any type of flag or banner on their desk, like the Confederate flag or the Nazi flag. That was mentioned a couple minutes ago. Somebody could use this policy as their justification for putting something up like the Confederate flag or the Nazi flag and say, hey, I'm allowed to do this because of this policy and it's also part of my culture. The Confederate flag is still considered to be a legitimate aspect of American culture. Heritage, not hate. The other side might say hate more than heritage. I know they would. So this is just a stupid policy. Don't allow it for anybody. The school should not allow teachers to commercialize their political or beliefs or whatever in front of students. Thank you, Peter.

First, for clarification, I had submitted two requests. You mentioned I had one.

I only see the agenda item regarding the flag policy negotiation.

Yes, the flag policy and also about referring to the layoffs.

What item was that on the agenda?

I think it referred to item 17.

You can talk about that in public comment because there is no item regarding layoffs on this agenda.

Okay. Just to be clear. All right. Good evening. My name is Lawrence Hebron. I live in Area 3 of the Redlands School District. After a long and acrimonious debate about flag policy, I understand that a negotiated settlement with the teachers has allowed those teachers to keep many of the same flags and banners that had been forbidden to remain in the classroom as long as they stay on the teacher's personal workspace, that is, their desks. Well, doesn't that defeat the whole purpose of the flag policy? Of course it does, but that's not the matter I want to address at this moment. I want to question the professionalism of those teachers who think it is appropriate to proclaim their personal opinions in the classroom, especially when those personal opinions often offend the very people who are paying for that classroom and that teacher's salary. That is not what a teacher is paid to do. They are paid to provide instruction in the basic skills necessary for their students to be able to function successfully as an adult. They are not paid to take advantage of the classroom and a long-term relationship with the students in order to indoctrinate those students with the teacher's personal ideology. And I don't care which side of the issue you're on, pro-life, pro-choice, gay or straight, MAGA or Marxist, Christian, Jewish, Islamic, atheist, or other. These areas are the prerogatives of the parents. It is profoundly inappropriate and unprofessional for teachers to do this. And if they don't have enough sense to realize this on their own, then they probably don't have enough sense to do this job because this amounts to ideological abuse. Ideological abuse. If the school board cannot conjure a better solution than the current negotiated one, then maybe the teachers themselves need to rise up and start policing their own because these unprofessional members of the trade are embarrassing that trade and all who practice it. They also are driving disgruntled parents to private schools and homeschooling, which jeopardize...

Thank you, Lawrence. Thank you.

Next, we have Kate Appleby with two items, followed by Valerie Tabor with three items, and Mark Laird with 14 items.

Welcome, Katherine. Welcome. Good evening, Board. Kate Appleby from Area 4. My first item is Business Services Consent Item 13J. This is the Memorandum of Understanding with Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act. I read through the entire thing. I just have a question, hoping someone can get back to me with it. In Exhibit C, it lists the AJCC partner services chart. It lists, at the bottom of that chart, all the districts that they currently work with. RUSD is listed. However, on the available services, RUSD is not listed as receiving any of those services. So I'm a little confused about one, why we're not listed. I'm assuming it might be because we haven't signed this yet, but it seems weird that they would put RUSD listed. The whole thing is confusing, but again, It's buried deep in this MOU. Additionally, what services will our students be receiving? Like if we're not even on the services list, it's hard for me to know what services our students are going to be receiving. Again, just a question on that one. My next two items are 16 I and 16 J. So the board policy and the administrative regulation for mental health. First up, on the policy in paragraph 10, it is at the end of the very first page. It states that all certificated employees serving students in grades 7 to 12 will participate in at least one hour of cultural competency training to support lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning individuals as other differences. And I was just wondering if this was the state-mandated PRISM training that was supposed to start this year. And I don't actually know if any local district has done it. The training is provided by the California Department of Education and can be readily found on their website. And then to the administrative regulation under Section 5 protocols for high-risk pupil groups, there is the following paragraph. The district staff, who oversees the mental and behavioral needs of students, is responsible for coordinating implementation of these groups' specific referral protocols. In collaboration with the director of special education, foster youth liaison, homeless liaison, and school site administrators. Two paragraphs down, it talks about collaboration with school-employed mental health professionals, county mental health agencies, and community organizations at the school site on the day-to-day. Do you know who that person is? Do you know who those people are? It's the counselors you just cut.

Thank you, Katherine.

Welcome, Valerie. Thank you. So my first item is, if I can remember what my first item is. My first item is going to be talking about the mental health policies. Similar to what Ms. Appleby just brought up, I am curious about what does cultural competency look like, especially when you are obligated to have specific referral processes for these vulnerable populations. Are you going to have culturally appropriate processes, especially for our queer students, given the way that you all treat them currently? So I would just like to bring that to your attention and hope that you will actually have experts in the field come in and tell you what does cultural competency look like, because there is a high crossover with LGBTQ youth and our homeless and foster youth. So they are extremely vulnerable population, and they do need culturally competent care, as well as the rest of them, obviously. If they're needing counseling, they need culturally competent care, regardless of whether they're queer or not. Um, my second point is that's the end of my first one. My second one is regarding the bridges grant. I just wanted to voice my appreciation and encouragement that you are looking for grants to support our students. Um, I am curious about how you are going to be staffing the grant if you are making all of these, um, these changes and you are using this grant to provide wellness centers at three sites what does it actually look like to staff them because you just cut our counselors so i'm just wondering how you're actually going to do that is that for academic case carriers is there somebody else that's going to be staffed there because i think it would be a real shame to use this grant this free money and have no one to staff it now that you've upgraded the facilities so You just want to put that on your radar too. My last point has to do with, of course, our favorite topic tonight, the flag policy. Aren't you tired? Aren't you tired? I'm tired. I'm tired of talking about these damn flags. And we told you it was a waste of time. We told you it was a waste of time, and yet you wanted to push it through anyways. Are you enjoying fighting with the union? Are you enjoying that? I'm not. I think this is a waste of time. I think you should be spending your time as our representatives figuring out what the hell is happening with our money. I think you should be looking in how to reduce the rifts. I think you should be focusing on things that actually matter like literacy and math and chronic absenteeism and suspension rates. not whatever this is. So since we know that the flags are really just the, it's the tip of the iceberg, right? Like even if you decide that you want to keep fighting, there will be pins, there will be posters, there will be things that are not flags. Can we be done with this? It's just a waste of all of our times. So please pass this resolution. Keep the dang flags. Thanks. Thank you very much.

Welcome back, Mark. Thank you. All right. The first thing I'm going to talk about is 13A. I'm noticing Measure D on this. Remember, we voted on Measure D, Michelle, and I'm not very impressed thus far with how this year has gone since I voted for Measure D. Our kids need it. I know our kids need it. But right now, with the financial mismanagement in this district that has become very public... Under your leadership, I think selling something that even though it's as needed as Measure D is right here, we can see how many projects it's doing right now, like half of this list is Measure D. And right now the public is not viewing us favorably. I'm not, that's right. I don't know who you're talking to, Jeanette. My neighbors are not viewing y'all favorably. My neighbors that remind you are in Michelle's area. She's up for reelection. Nobody that I've talked to is viewing this district favorably. And I know there's some people, they're on the fringes, y'all. You need to go meet people out in the real world. Because I'm telling you right now, $47,950 for construction at McKinley is, And the whole reason I can tell you why you're doing that is so that way you can make your DLI school successful because it needs to transition into a TK through 8 to make that a thing. And if you fail, like I've told you, you are likely going to fail at making DLI successful under current policies. If you fail at making it successful, that's $47,950 that we've spent. And not all of it's going to be wasted, but come on. And the fact that there's this many items on the agenda tonight for repair means that this was pushed off to the point where students weren't safe. I saw moldy tiles that made me vote for Measure D. Like mold in a workplace, toxic, literally. And lots of other things that made me vote for Measure D. But I can tell you right now the public perception of this board and of this school district is not very pleasant. And you know what? It's time for you to start recognizing that, Michelle. Now for 13b. Like I was saying, this is a lot of items. We got one, two, three, four. It's like at least six items just for repair. I'm like, I don't know. I'm like, there's a whole bunch of repair projects on here. And it's because we postponed maintenance that should have been done years ago. And I get it. There were financial issues, right? But that's also why you come to your taxpayers. And that's why we voted yes. And if those were issues that kept getting put off, I want to know, I've seen it before in districts where, like I said, moldy tiles. I've seen people go out on leave of absence for that while paid by the district and literally claim a whole bunch of money, sue y'all. Is that part of the settlements that we've got going on? Is it the fact that our campuses are literally falling apart under your guys' watch? I'd like transparency on that. Anyways, I'll be honest with you. I was just at a conference today. I'm tired. I know all of y'all are like, ooh, 13 cards, whatever, 16 cards. Y'all, I don't want to be here either. I'm tired. Like, I do want to be here. I care about all of, like, this. This is important. But I'm tired. It's been a long work day. Okay, 13H. Well, 13H. Is it 13? I don't know. H of what I circled. Okay, we're talking about William's Act. Yeah, I'm very proud. Thank you, Patty, for getting back to me. I had asked for what the results of the December Williams Axe finding was, and fortunately, this go-around, we had no results. You had library staff this go-around. you are not gonna have no results next year. Especially when students don't return their texts, don't return their materials, damage those materials, and then there's nobody to inventory those materials. Who does that? Your library media technicians, the textbook clerk at the high school that you're laying off. Yeah, she does that, or he does that, or whoever it is that's there does that. I wish I knew them, they're probably pretty cool. And I'm really worried that next year when Williams comes around, we're not going to do this well. And one, that's because of student success. Two, that's because that's a very expensive thing to not do well on, is Williams' compliance. They will ensure you are compliant, and they will keep tracking you down every year to make sure that you are compliant. And so I'm urging you, you need to look into what is the cost of library staff versus the cost of getting out of compliance with the Williams Act. Have you done that calculation? I'm very worried that with no library staff to look over our instructional materials, make sure they're in good condition, make sure they're ordered, who else on campus is gonna do that? And if you tell me one of the many, many other people that's already taken on more job responsibilities because y'all can't get it together, then that's ridiculous. That's not a priority for them. Assistant principal, oh wait, we've laid off most of those. Other assistant principal, they're now busy doing the other duties that the other assistant principal was helping with. Principal, they don't got time. I genuinely wanna know who's gonna be ordering materials for your schools. How are you gonna maintain Williams Act compliance? Any answers? No. Okay, let's see. You can start my time, don't worry. I know I'm like hemming and hawing. Okay, let's see. Okay, donations. I didn't even read through the list of donations, but I'm sure most of them were laid off. A lot of them. And also, even if they got a thank you this go-around, RTA was just up here saying that y'all undermined, there was some compromise here on negotiations, but He said it himself, cost of living did not make the advances it needed to this go around. That means next go around it better or you're losing qualified educators from this district. And right now with the way costs are going, lawsuits, other things, I'm not seeing a future where right now we can keep the staffing that we need to keep and I'm really worried about it. Like genuinely, Michelle, I'm worried. And I know you think that I'm just up here half the time just wasting my breath so that way I can make you mad. No, I do it because I care about kids. That's why I'm here. Shocker. I'm an educator that cares about kids. And no, I'm not here to indoctrinate kids. I'm not here to do any of these things these other weirdos that have sexualized children are claiming that we're here to do. I'm here to support my students regardless of who they are, meet them where they're at, and support them every step of the way. I wish I could say the same about this board. And like I said, right now, a thank you card's nice. A paycheck is is what pays the bills. Thank you cards, I'm gonna keep your staff. Get it together. All right, now, five, I mean, K, let's see, yeah, K. Congratulations, Shannon Nelson, new payroll manager, but I'd like her to calculate for me how much overtime we've spent, especially on that flag policy that Val was just talking about. Like we said, it wasn't going to be a success. We are basically at the point now where my desk would be just fine, and I'm happy about that in Redlands because it should have been. That's my culture. I should be able to represent my culture in my own desk. And many people are up here being like, oh my God, they're sexualizing the children. You're sexualizing the children. A boy handed me a little sweatband with Patrick on it. from SpongeBob SquarePants on it in first grade, I had no idea what sex was. It's love. I felt, ooh, warm feeling inside. Ooh, I have a crush. And anyone that's worked with kindergartners, first graders, how many of them walk around, oh, that's my girlfriend, oh, that's my boyfriend? We correct the behavior. Right? But people are joking because it's true. Like, literally, like, work with the kids. Like, we're not sexualizing the children. Okay? We're not. I don't know where or what any of the public is watching or hearing in order to come to that conclusion. That's not something that's happening. But what I am seeing is a board that's constantly passing policies that go against my own culture and a board that has inferred that my flag is of only sexual nature rather than of culture. Even Candy, like I said, that library book, let's go back to that. I wish that I could have had it here today. If I could have gone to Barnes & Noble and bought it, girl, I would have. But guess what? I had to make sure that it was transferred from San Diego through a public library because it's only available within the library setting because it's a material that's appropriate for libraries. Yeah, and when I looked it up, had reviews, met Title Wave best qualities, all the things, and was great appropriate girl. So that felt like a clear target to me when you were saying that that was all about sexualization rather than people who love other people. All right, that was kind of passionate. Oh, and congrats, Shannon. I, well, L, L, let's see. You can leave at any time if you don't want to hear me, crowd. Thank you. Approve in accordance ‑‑ okay, we'll pass that one. I don't know why I circled it. Sorry about that. Now let's go down to ‑‑ oh, okay. Yeah, I remember why the last one I had it circled, too. But I'll just combine them. I'll end them together. So basically, I'm seeing board payment reports. And I wanted to remind the public that the board voted to increase their salary by $1,400 a month. Multiply that by whoever's on board. Think about how much that's coming out of taxpayer dollars. You now make $1,900 a month. Most board members that I know make about $400. What's up with that? Hmm. Like I said, I'm paying attention and I'm very, very concerned about the financial integrity of our district and for you to be laying off essential staff, nurses, counselors, all the things while giving yourself $1,400 a month. What in the world is going on? And I'm going to get to wellness centers in a moment. I know you all normally like to tune me out. Yeah, I opened the wellness centers in my district. You should be listening to me for those parts because I've got a lot of feedback for you. And one of the things that I can tell you is if we can't afford to pay for counselors, we can't afford a wellness center. you're gonna have a room with under-qualified staff because any of those risk protocols that y'all had in that little mental health thing, yeah, those require counselors or administrators. You cannot have a wellness aide do it. How do I know I was a wellness aide? And you know what? There were times where we didn't have appropriate staffing and it put me in some very compromising positions that honestly, I wouldn't want y'all opened up to liability. It's not a smart move. So, Maybe next go around, don't vote to increase your salary when we're facing such budget shortfalls. It's really not a good look. All right. 18, I mean 14A. 14A. Hmm. What's this one? Oh, it's a financial report. Yeah. Once again, layoffs of all of our counselors and support staff when, ooh, the budget said that we actually were certified as positive and that we could afford to pay for the next three years' worth of, or was it two? I'm sorry. It's been a long night. Don't misquote me. Look it up. However many years' worth of that stuff, right? Okay. But, Reframing, reframing. So basically with this, what I wanted to say, and I'm sorry, I'm really tired as you can tell. I don't have my normal zest. Is that I'm really, really worried for our students when all of these positions are getting cut and I don't have a solution. But I know that y'all, should be looking into some public grants, and I'm happy to see the Wellness Center one. There's some ways, and I'll go into that, that we can make that revenue generating for the district. It's really important that you do that, because we need more revenue generating opportunities. The other piece of it, though, is we need to be looking at revenue-generating opportunities everywhere. One of the reasons within my own district was costs are going up, inflation, right? Okay, we need to bring costs down through the grant-funded ways that we can. We need solar panels, we need EV chargers, which, by the way, if you put EV chargers on your high school campus through grant funding, it's basically free money, and you're going to make daily income for every student or staff that goes there. Why are we not looking into these creative, problem-solving things, and we're just up here hemming and hawing about culture wars? Solve the budget issues. Don't solve culture wars. Solve the budget issues. People are losing their jobs. It's embarrassing. So please, look into some revenue generating opportunities. I don't care what they are. Have a carnival at your high school. Rent out the gym. I don't care what it is. Look into some revenue generating opportunities. Save some jobs. Get it together. All right. Okay, general offend. You know what, I feel like I touched on what I needed to touch on with that one, so I'm not even gonna take that time. Let's talk about wellness centers. Yeah, I remember I said that I opened wellness centers. They got the grant funding, they didn't set them up appropriately, and they ended up having to lay off half of the department due to budget shortfalls while I was working in it. And honestly, it was pretty hard. And I'll be frank with you, the other piece too, and they worked to get us the staffing we needed, but in the beginning I was put into some compromising situations. There was no counselor on the day that my student needed to go to the Merrill Center for mental health evaluation. And I was the only one, not the principal, not the administrator. Nobody else other than the counselor and myself had the personal relationship with that student. And I literally had to stand. And this is not something you should be expecting of your wellness aides. It's out of their job scope. They shouldn't be doing this. But it's just a reality of what might happen if you have no counselors. And so I was standing on a cul-de-sac. And literally, there was a man with his vehicle from the government, social services, to take the student to the Merrill Center. Myself and the student. And the student was looking around, literally fight or flight, looking like they wanted to run away. And I told them, I said, baby, Wherever you go, look at my legs, look at your legs. I'm going to find you and I'm going to make sure that we're where we need to be. And then it was, oh, I'm too big to fit in the car. So I sat down in that car and I said, baby, if my long self can fit in the car, you can fit in the car. Let's go. I went home and I cried the most I've ever cried. I went home early that day because it was too much for me because I'm not trained to do the work that a counselor should do. And now you're going to ask that of your wellness aid that you're going to have in your district because you're not going to have staffing. And that's shame. Shame on you and it's liability. So please, don't just build these fancy rooms with beanbags. It's the people that make a wellness center a wellness center. Make sure it has appropriate staffing. neuropsychology care. Like I said, mental health for me is a very big thing. And I've seen the differences this type of care has had for my students, so I'm grateful to see it on our agenda tonight. So I just, I know I don't give thanks to the board very often. Thank you for that. But like I said, I am still very worried about our students receiving the appropriate care under current staffing conditions, even with this neuropsychology agreement. And so I really urge that one of the ways through the Child, Youth, and Behavioral Initiative that my district was able to make things revenue generating was by making services billable. That took extra counselors, though. It took interns. It took support services. It took a whole team, y'all. But soon that department will be revenue generating, able to bill for services through private medical insurance. That's a great thing. That's something that we could see happen here. As you're building your wellness centers, though, I encourage you don't make the same mistakes that we made. You need to make sure you have a confidential locking space or you're going to have to seek extra funding. It won't meet counseling needs. It won't meet child behavior health initiative needs. Please make sure that that happens for the kids. You also need to make sure that you have the appropriate staffing that is needed. And so I think I've spoken enough on that. Please also address that. Now, gee, I think every teacher or an educated professional, educator in the room with me, when they hear the word PLC wants to cringe at this point in time. I'm going to be honest with you. PLCs have been drilled up the wazoo and in a time of budget shortfall. Why are we, I wish I had the number right now. I remember when I was looking through the agenda at home, my jaw dropped at the amount of money that we spent on this out-of-state conference in Arizona to teach our teachers and district staff. Honestly, I wonder how many were district staff versus frontline teachers. Professional learning curriculums. Those happen here. We are the professional learning curriculums. And yes, I understand every now and then we need to go seek out professional advice. But the amount of money that we spent on this, I really want, and I don't know enough information, but I want to know if it was worth the investment. Because it was a decent amount of money in a time when we need to be cutting things. Things like out-of-state travel. Things like hotel expenses. Things like conferences. And I hate to say it, I am the first one to sign up for everything of professional development. Heck, I was just at a conference today, right? Learned a lot, lots of great resources and things to bring back to my students. But I'm telling you, if we're really truly not able to afford basic staffing, and I know that y'all don't consider it basic, but to me, in this day and age, our children in crisis, like y'all have talked about, like we have a youth mental health crisis. I'm not making this up. All the experts agree, right? The basic staffing that y'all are trying to cut back to is not going to meet the needs of today's kids. It might've met the needs of previous kids, but under full inclusion, post COVID world, all these new variables, this is not going to work out. And I'm really worried about The fact that we're going to lose some students because we're not cutting budget where it needs to be cut on our board member salaries, on our out-of-state travel. We're cutting our nurses. That's pretty sad. All right. H. Okay, McGraw-Hill. Yeah, our kids are struggling a lot with math, and so I think it's important that we adopt some new curriculum. I don't want them to go through what I went through when I was a student, where, I'm not kidding you, in my district, they didn't adopt new history textbooks for so long that George W. Bush was president all the way through when I graduated. Like, literally, the kids never saw Obama in their own textbook. And I know some of y'all would have been happy about that. Not up here, but, you know. But that's kind of sad. And so I'm happy to see that we're putting that investment in our textbooks. The one thing that will happen if we don't invest in our textbooks is our textbooks are going to get out of date. And then we're going to have to buy copies of books that are backordered. And that's a lot of money to do. When your books go out of print, you have to, because Williams Act compliance, you have to literally scrounge for the last copies available at other schools that are getting rid of the curriculum and pay markup for that material. So I'm really proud of you guys for finally adopting some new math curriculum. But like I've mentioned, I'm worried that we're going to spend all this money on new curriculum and we're not going to be able to keep it because we don't have staffing to ensure that it's kept in good condition. that it is returned in a timely and appropriate manner. And especially as the students transition up through our schools, from school site to school site, I know that I work with my library team all the time to make sure that those materials are returned to those school sites. That's taxpayer dollars. That's everything to me. I'm going to make sure that I treat that with respect because that's why I have a job, right? And so I do think, even though you guys are seeing money in library media technicians and cutting the positions, I'm thinking in curriculum it's going to end up costing you guys a lot more than you're factoring in and I'm worried about it. So please look into it. I feel like I've already talked enough on the dual language immersion one, so I won't take that time. The mental health one, thank you. Thank you for some of it. I am impressed about when student need and student safety is of concern, that that takes precedence. So thank you. But like I said, a mental health policy with no staffing is a recipe for liability and disaster because what do you do when those designated people on this mental health list aren't there? People get sick. People go to conferences. Sometimes when budgets get short, people have to split school sites. I know I had to when they cut my wellness program in half. I went from being a full-time employee at one school site to being a full-time employee working at two school sites. And oh my God, the burnout from that was crazy, right? And so please, make sure that we're looking into where we can tweak things. And I know you guys keep saying we can't tweak things. There's things that we can tweak or there's revenue generating opportunities we can seek. We're just not seeking them or tweaking them. And I'm bringing that to y'all because truly we need to start seeing something or we're going to see year after year after year of these cuts and things that are hurting our kids. Also, with regard to our mental health policy, like Val mentioned earlier, I want some clarification on the cultural side of it. I know in some cultures, My lifestyle's not okay. I've lived with that. I know that there's many people in this room that have claimed that they're being abused. I've literally been and felt unsafe many times in my life for who I am, even at these meetings. I've been followed home on the train before, right? And so that's why we need to make sure our students feel safe. Let's make sure that that happens. All right. 18A, flags. You know, like I said, my flag is my culture. I know some people view my flag to represent sex. That flag represented me before I knew what sex was. It's always represented me. And for you guys to infer and the audience to infer otherwise, every time it happens, it really hurts me. And then I think about what our kids think when they see our leaders up here making those comments. I can tell you when I worked in wellness, most of the students in crisis that I worked with were LGBTQIA. Most, if not all. Or a combination of McKinney-Vento foster youth and LGBTQIA. I'm telling you. If I did the data off of confidential data, I'd never share that with y'all. Off of all of the risk assessments that I sat in as a secondary, because I was trained in crisis protocols and risk assessment protocols like the staff member earlier was asking for while Candy was texting on the phone the whole time. Like I said about that, though, Oh, sorry. Hey, Jeff. So like I said about that, though, I think we need to make sure that we're not making something into something that's not. My flag is not sex. My flag is my culture. There might be other parts of that identity that do have to do with that, but there's just those same identities that have to do with heterosexuality. My flag represents people who love other people. If you are putting anything else into that, then that's on you. So, unlike other flags, Nazi flag, for example. Jeanette, I know that you said that the Nazi flag and the Pride flag were pretty much the same. They're not. And don't give me that look. We have the video. All right. I think I made it to the end. I'm so proud of y'all. Thanks for your patience. All right, thank you.

Thank you, Mark. Next. Next we have Greg Britton with three items. And that's our last speaker. Welcome, Greg.

First item is the contract to the Boys and Girls Club. You are again subcontracting out the education to an outside organization and it's somebody monitoring what they're teaching. It's also unclear if someone looked at the agenda, as I did, what they're trying to accomplish. ELOP, whatever that is, I looked it up on the Internet. It's Expanded Learning Opportunities. Again, what does that mean? Is it remedial? Are they teaching them to read and math, which they don't get during the regular school day? Is it something else a citizen or a parent would have no idea? It's $200,000. Total of the program is $4.7 million. That's a big chunk of your budget deficit. And whatever it's trying to accomplish, which as a member of the public, I have no idea from looking at the agenda, is it effective? Are you monitoring this? Are you testing? Is your $4.7 million actually helping the students? Don't know. But if that is not being done, it should be. So on to mental health. The schools, as we've talked about many times, have gone over the data, are doing a mediocre to lousy job at the basics of math and English and history and science. And now you propose to go into something vastly more difficult and vastly more complicated, and that is trying to deal with the human mind. And the people who go to school for many years become a psychiatrist, psychologist, and even then it is a challenge to deal with somebody with mental health issues. You're going to try to do this here in the school. And it is a tremendous opportunity to circumvent the parents. Under your policy, you're supposed to tell the parents about this unless they decide that it would be psychologically or physically dangerous or harmful to the student. particularly the psychological, that is a loophole that you could drive a Mack truck through to circumvent the parents. Now, if you're doing indoctrination in the classroom, at least there are textbooks and there's a better way for your parents to find out what is going on. But if they're doing secret counseling to try to affect your child's mental health and you don't even know what it is, This is a gross circumvention of parental rights and responsibilities that the courts have upheld repeatedly. In Mahmoud versus Taylor, the history and culture of Western civilization reflects a strong tradition of parental concern for the nurturing and upbringing of their children. And this program, whether this even could be effective, which I have serious doubts about it, you're going to improve the children's mental health, but you're circumventing the parents and you shouldn't do it. If you do anything like this, if you're circumventing the parents, there should be notice to the principal or the superintendent or both that you've done this so that can be followed up and checked on to see whether it's appropriate to circumvent the parents of the children's mental health.

Thank you, Greg.

Eighteen. Back to that. We are paying you as a taxpayer... to teach the aforementioned math, science, history, culture, and so on, to prepare the students for a good job, to keep the republic, and to pass on the traditions and history of the nation. That's what we're paying you for. I don't care about a particular teacher's political or cultural opinions. And that's not why he or she is being paid with my and other taxpayers' money. As Valerie pointed out, when you have a teacher putting up whatever the cause is, it could be one that I agree with, it could be one that I disagree with. That carries a weight of authority that other government employees wouldn't have. So if you had a clerk at the DMV who had a flag or whatever, it wouldn't have that effect. You're also dealing with children who are more impressionable than an adult. It is not appropriate. And once you open up that desk to expressing personal opinions, you're opening it up to any and all. personal, political, or cultural opinions. You've made it a public forum for the teachers to express whatever it is they want to express. So maybe most of the discussion is about the pride flag, which of course takes a position. So if you're an observant and believing Christian, Jew, or Muslim, You're saying that to those students who are believers that your religion, what your parents and what your pastor, what your rabbi, what your imam have told you is wrong. And the school is supposed to teach everybody and represent everybody should not be doing that. We should have a politically and culturally neutral classroom focused on the things that we are paying you to teach, math, science, et cetera, that we discussed. Thank you.

Thank you, Greg. All right. Now we'll go on to board committee reports. Does anybody have anything to report?

Car op meets tomorrow, so we don't have anything today.

Anything to report? Um, for the compact club, um, we held the interactive dinner for the students and the community members and are working on the mock trials. And then the next, um, meeting for our committee is in two weeks.

My committee hasn't met at a meets this Thursday and I'll be going.

Mr. Cabral, do you have anything to report?

Yes. Thank you. It was mentioned already, but I did want to talk about our reductions. We had let employees know when we met with them that March 10th was a date that we would be finalizing. And as was mentioned by At least one speaker today, notices have gone out starting this afternoon. We have a total of 27 certificated staff who are going to receive a notice. 21 classified staff who will receive a notice. And then additionally, we have a reduction of 12 administrators who also have already been notified through that process. That doesn't amount to the positions that have been reduced. That amounts to people who will be impacted with a layoff notice. We are continuing to look at how next year we'll look with less staff. And we are trying to be mindful of our employees who are being notified and who will continue to be with us through the rest of this school year and be available for any information that we can provide. I continue to visit school sites through the office hours program. And I went to two sites last week. Tomorrow I will be at Kingsbury. And staff have taken the opportunity to come see me and ask questions that they wouldn't otherwise maybe have the opportunity to. And so that's been helpful just so that they have the information directly. And I'll continue to do that for the next several months. The last part of this process is for the board to take final action on our recommended layoffs on May 10th. Prior to that, employees will have an opportunity to get as much information that they need. And then on May 10th, there will be an agenda item for the board to take action on that will finalize the layoffs that we're notifying folks about. That's all I have.

Thank you, Mr. Cabral. Now moving on to business services consent items. Mr. Hill, do you have any changes or additions tonight?

No changes or additions tonight.

Is there a motion to approve or ratify business services consent items as listed under 13A through 13M? So moved. Second. Thank you, Candy. Thank you, Patty. Any discussion? I'll call for the vote. You wait a sec.

OK, got it.

Motion carried, 5-0.

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

No changes or additions tonight.

First, I have a motion to approve and certify the second interim financial report, H.251, per Assembly Bill 1200 and Ed Code 35035G. Move approval. I'll second. Thank you, Melissa. Any discussion? All right, we'll call for the vote.

Motion carried, 5-0.

Adopt resolution number 21, 2025-2026, acknowledgement of due diligence and authorization to commit. Oh, I'm not supposed to read that. I'm sorry. I'm not paying attention. Is there a motion to adopt resolution number 21, 2025-2026, acknowledgement of due diligence and authorization to commit funds, confirming projected reserves will be available in the general fund as of June 30, 2026? So moved. Second. Thank you, Patty.

Resolution 21 is what we're voting on? Okay.

Any discussion? Call for the vote.

Motion carried, 5-0.

Is there a motion to approve the 2026-2027 Redlands Unified Districts Transportation Plan? I'll move.

I'll second.

Any discussion? I'll call for the vote.

Motion carried. Five-0.

Is there a motion to approve the comprehensive school safety plans for each district school site as presented in the board packet in accordance with the California Education Code section 32280 through 32289, authorized Jason Hill, Deputy Superintendent, Business Services, to sign related documents on behalf of the board?

I'll move.

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

I had a couple questions on that one. I was just wondering why in all of the safety plans we had two separate categories for medical emergencies. Who makes this form? Is this a county form and we all just plug in our separate information?

No, what we did is we took the state template and then sites input their information.

So it's a state template that has two medical emergency categories.

Yeah, and then we take, each site puts in their piece, and then we build the plan based on that.

We should consolidate it all to one. Because the first one is only about Narcan. So I'm like, what about anaphylaxis? And what about choking emergencies? And then later on, I'm like, oh, there's another medical emergencies. It's weird. So that's a state issue.

This is the first time we've used this template. Oh. If you look at prior plans from prior years, they were all different.

Oh. So we... Well, it's nice to be...

So we put them all the same. Yeah. And now, you know, moving into the future, we'll probably modify them.

Yeah, maybe we can edit it to make more sense like that. I did have a question about what non-responders meant. Does that... I asked you, but I didn't get the answer. Do you know what that means? Does that mean families?

Yeah, the law requires that... in an emergency of that situation that we are, have two way communication. Oh, I see. So you respond back. Yeah. So if we're not getting like the students not responding or not turning any work in, we would then call them because there's no other way to reach them.

And then don't you, doesn't it feel like five calendar days of a huge emergency is a long time. Is that the standard?

That was the requirement. Yeah.

Usually we would do it sooner, though, right?

Five calendar days, what?

To notify people that we're in an emergency disaster situation.

So basically what we're saying is that if the district were to close due to an emergency, that we would make contact with a plan within five calendar days.

Maximum. Okay.

I have a question or a comment. I noticed on many of the plans, the principal designee was somebody who's no longer at that school. Will those be updated? Correct. Those pages will be updated before?

Yes, this was just the plan that was submitted at the current moment and signed by their school. We constantly update this plan. It just has to be approved by their school site council by March 1st. And so that was the date that was required, and then it's presented to you after school site council approves it.

All right, any other questions? All right, we'll call for the vote. And I enjoyed that. That was like over 700 pages this time. That was a lot.

Motion carried. 5-0.

All right. Now on to consent items under educational services. Mrs. Buckmiller, do you have any changes or additions?

No changes or additions tonight. Thank you.

Is there a motion to approve educational services consent items as listed under 15A through 15G?

I move. Second.

Melissa, thank you, Patty. Is there any discussion?

No, just wishing good luck to our RHS varsity mock trial.

I had a question what VEA funding was. I forgot to ask you about that, Jason. What's that under...

Vocational education. So we get money specifically for a vocational education.

From the state? Yeah. It's like a...

It's a resource that we get to...

Annually, or it's a grant money?

It's annually. Annually?

Yeah. I was just wondering, the total cost seemed kind of high for a one-night trip.

You're talking about B, the same one? Mm-hmm. 15B? Yeah. Well, it's funded by that... Is there only certain funds that that can be spent on? Are certain things that those funds can be spent on? Oh, I'm sure. There is a reason for it.

That's just one of the various things that you can spend it on. We use the budget for different items.

That does seem a lot. That's over $1,000 per student, just thinking. Maybe the funds could have been spread out more. What is that group? Never heard of it. Family, career, and community leaders of America.

It's an ed services, I don't know.

It's a state leadership conference that's held in Riverside. I believe it starts very early in the morning, so I think hotel accommodations are included in this.

Wait, wait, wait. They're getting a hotel to go to Riverside?

I have to double check on that, but I believe their leadership assembly starts at 7 a.m.

But it says, so who's attending? It says it's a group that's held at Relance High School. Yeah, if we could just get more information.

The Family, Career, and Community Leaders of America group.

Do you want us to confirm that prior to taking action? Because we might need to look it up. I don't know that we can do it in the moment.

Yeah, the funding for vocational is coming through Perkins. Perkins comes to all our career technical education courses. So not knowing specifically this, it's probably related to one of our career technical education courses.

Perkins.

Carl Perkins. It's a federal grant money that we get to service our CTE courses. That's where this money is deriving from, so it's probably related directly to one of those classes.

Yeah, I would like to get more information.

It's not until the end of April if you want to postpone this one, get more information.

Am I wrong in this is being funded by a grant? It's a grant. It's not coming out of our

We still have a responsibility to use our grant monies in an appropriate manner.

It's not a grant money, right? You just said it was.

It's the Carl Perkins funding. Some people call it Carl Perkins grant. It's federal funding that we receive every single year. You know, in my prior district in San Bernardino, so it's been 26 years that Carl Perkins is continuing to fund, so. It's not a one-time money. They get it every year.

It's not general fund, I think, is what...

It's not general fund. Are there only certain things that you can spend it on? I mean, is it...

Correct. We apply for it every year. They have to have rules like business advisory meetings. They have to have communication with sponsors. They have to have a plan within their career development class. Okay. I don't know this specific trip. Again, I'm just speaking about the Perkins dollars that are being used. So there is a plan for it that's usually approved by business partners, and then it's submitted. back in the grant reporting deadlines?

It's a two-day conference, and so costs are either going to be travel to and from, which would mean it doubles the transportation cost, which could explain maybe why it's as high as it is, or it could include an overnight stay because events would start as early as 7 in the morning. because they have the funds for that, then I would say, you know, it would be why they would say, hey, let's go ahead and take advantage of the funds we have and stay overnight. We can confirm that, though. Either way, though, there would be more cost to this trip because traveling to and from, even if you have to do it twice, is just going to double the cost.

Are you asking to pull B and get more information?

Am I asking to pull it or get more information? To pull B.

To pull B and get more information.

Yes.

Okay. So are we all okay with pulling B and we'll vote on A through G without B?

You know, I just had one other comment regarding E. I really think that we should stop calling these wellness centers. That's my personal belief, because wellness center is not quite accurate as to what the money is actually being spent on. It's a counseling room, a counseling center. And I just personally think that I wish, I would hope that our district would move forward just calling them what they actually are because a wellness center not in the educational system but in the public eye is thought of as like an all encompassing comprehensive type of medical and mental health care and I just I don't know I'm not saying I wouldn't I'm fine with voting on this issue but that's just my comment on that I think we should call them what they are Because the public thinks of a wellness center as a comprehensive care center. That's just because they're not in the educational system. Educational system refers to a counseling center as a wellness center. But that's my general comment.

I think that was explained as the wording that's used in the actual grant. And I had asked this question, and I might have led you astray, Juan, because here's where it says it's for three sites, but something else we got kept saying it was just for RHS.

Patty, can you confirm E for three sites, not just RHS?

Yes, we wrote the grant for three sites. The focus will be on Redlands High School. If there's anything left over, we'd also like to work on two of our middle schools that don't have that type of space. But if we didn't write it for up to three sites.

Do you know how much of the grant money would be used on a consultant versus the actual work that needs to be done?

The majority of the funds are going to go to the infrastructure at Redlands High School. Good.

Yep, so we're going to... You've got to redo. Yeah, I've got to redo the motion. So I'd like to amend the motion and pull B, and it would be A through G with pulling B.

So moved.

Second. All right, we'll call for the vote. I'll bring me back next board meeting. Okay. All right. Now, action items under... Motion carried, 5-0. Oh, sorry. I'm sorry. Thank you. Now, action items under educational services. Mrs. Buckmiller, any changes or additions?

No changes or additions in this section. Thank you.

Is there a motion to approve educational services action items as listed under 16A through 16F? So moved. Second. Thank you, Patty. Thank you, Patty. Any discussion?

I had a question on between E and F. And I think the public sometimes asks this also. E, the student is being suspended due to tobacco-related, I mean expelled, not suspended, expelled due to tobacco-related issues. But then F, that student they're being expelled for harassment threats, intimidations, something within that realm. But the student E has to serve the expulsion all the first semester of next year, and student F gets the first semester suspended. So I was wondering, how is it determined that some students get a semester suspended and others don't?

Each case is individualized, so it really depends on the student, any prior occurrences, basically what their prior behaviors have been. So it's just a little bit different for each student in each circumstance.

So would it be, for example, the tobacco student? Would it be that there were other issues within that same category or different categories even?

It could be either.

Okay.

Thank you. OK. Any more discussion? We'll call for the vote.

Motion carried. Feibel?

Is there a motion to adopt the Hutton-Miffin Harcourt Go Math curriculum for dual language immersion kindergarten program?

So moved. Second.

Thank you, Jeanette. Any discussion?

Thank everyone who is on the committee on picking the curriculum that we need. I didn't see this happen.

All right, I'll call for the vote.

Motion carried, 5-0.

Is there a motion to adopt the McGraw-Hill ELA Mara Villis Curriculum for the Dual Language Immersion Kindergarten Program? I'll move. Second. Melissa, thank you. Patty, any discussion? Call for the vote. We all get in? No.

Okay. Motion carried, 5-0.

Thank you. Is there a motion to approve new administrative regulation 5141.5, mental health, first read? I'll move. Second. Melissa, thank you, Patty. Any discussion?

Yeah, I'd like to suggest some edits on the second page. which is page 1,112. I would suggest in the crisis referrals section that the first thing that a site administrator does or staff would be to contact the parents. I think that is the very first action. If a student is in crisis for a mental health reason, suicidal or whatnot, I believe parents should be the very first phone call. Here it's lined up with the site administrators and personnel are being notified without delay. And then second, when it's practicable, we're going to let the parents know. So personally as a parent, I would want to be the first phone call, and that way I can get over to the school immediately as soon as I could and take my child to a facility where I deem appropriate. I think that we should switch those and make number three appropriate. be number two and switch those. That's my recommendation on that because it looks like the parent is the second call. And then also... I don't have that in front of me. What's the first call? On page 1,112. I don't have it with me. I don't have a... of an agenda? Oh, I could have looked on here. I forgot that I have this here. It's under crisis referrals. And so it's talking about the crisis referral. So when a student is in imminent risk of harm, homicidal, suicidal, et cetera, it doesn't say that. I'm just explaining. Staff shall follow the district's crisis response procedures immediately. That would be number one. I agree. Number two should be what's stated as number three, which is parent guardian notified. And it shouldn't say as soon as practicable. It should just be period. First call. Parents are called first. But what if...

Let me just interject, but what if it's a crisis, don't you think that emergency personnel should be the first to be notified? What if they can't get a hold of the parent? I mean, I would hope that somebody would call a medical professional to intervene, help my child before I'm able to get there. I mean, I don't think it's like... I would imagine these things are coming rather concurrently. Someone's calling... you know, a medical health professional or, you know, emergency personnel while someone else is calling a parent. I don't know that those are necessarily. And what if, unfortunately, the parent is probably, could be the source of that, you know, trauma? What would we do? I mean...

Okay, well, I do think that probably these two things would be ongoing simultaneously. However, I think that it should be written different because, yes, someone calls, another staff starts mobilizing our people to keep that student safe in the meantime. And I don't think it should be as soon as practicable. I just think it should be called immediately. The parent should be called immediately. And then, of course, these things are going. There's more than one.

staff involved obviously in a situation like this one person could be staying with the student calling their parents the other site administrators can be uh administration can get the appropriate mental health personnel well and so number one lists um the first thing is they follow the district crisis response procedures so my question on that is what is that um because we don't know what's included within the district's crisis response procedures. And my thought on number three, like you guys were discussing, it should be simultaneously. And when you look up the word practicable, which I didn't realize was a word, but it is practicable, the synonym is feasible. So when feasible doesn't sound very urgent to me as a time frame to contact the parent or guardian.

If I could just talk about the process a little bit. So in theory, the way that it's written here is if a student is in crisis, immediate support is what is designed to happen. So that could include calling 911 immediately. It could include calling the nurse if they're on campus or a health official immediately. The administrator is included as an immediate call because in a crisis situation, all staff look for an administrator to give immediate direction and to oversee that everything is being done correctly. I don't think it's an avoidance of calling the parent as soon as possible. I think it's just making sure that the student is taken care of. And then calling the parent when practicable just means Take care of the kid first, make sure they're safe, and then make sure that the parent is notified. It is not trying to delay notification. It's just an emphasis on making sure the student is, that's kind of in theory the way that it should play out.

Can you kind of see how the wording is without delay on the staff to intervene and then for the parents?

No, I'm just making sure that we kind of just play out the way that it would be. So when it says... District's crisis response procedures immediately. Really, then it goes on to say the procedure, contact site administrator, appropriate mental health, that's kind of part of that crisis procedure. I don't have a problem with parents calling the parents. Yes, please, we need to call the parents as soon as we can, which could be simultaneous, but... Not at the expense of making sure that, I think we would all agree, not at the expense of making sure that the kid is taken care of.

Well, I think number one covers that. So we're going to follow the crisis response procedures immediately. Number two, we're going to call the parent. That's my suggestion. I wanted to finish with my suggestions, and then maybe people can give their input. On the next page, under collaborative approach, I think that the second bullet point where it says disclosure to parent is likely to result physical or emotional harm I think that we should add significant there because that's very slippery slope that emotional harm could be deemed as something very minor I think that it needs to state that it's significant to the student and I don't think that retaliation should be included there Because retaliation, again, could be meaning grounding or taking away privileges or minor things that a parent may feel they wish to do, whether or not you agree with it. Retaliation could mean that's like a whole basket full of worms there. And I disagree with the third bullet point. I would get rid of that completely. And the next one that says notification, I would agree with the speaker that made the suggestion that once it says, if the student consents to services without the parent-guardian notification, the professional shall document the clinical justification for this decision. And I would add, and notify the superintendent of such decision. Just so that we have oversight of it actually is a very reasonable reason To exclude the parent.

Okay, it's hard to remember everything.

I think I'm done with my suggestions on that policy. Okay. Yes.

I am. So, discussion, can we go back to the discussion regarding... the crisis referrals ordering, because that was one of my areas I wanted to talk about. Again, maybe the district's crisis response procedures would spell it out more, but we don't know what that is. And my suggestion was going to be that the site administration and appropriate mental health personnel shall be notified without delay and take responsibility for ensuring the parents are notified, something like that. someone is designated to do that because what I've heard from quite a few parents actually is that once they do get informed of a serious concern with their child, they get informed late and the reason given is that staff were just too busy or there weren't enough staff or it just slipped their mind. It seems like a designated person to do it that knows, hey, my main concern here is I need to find out and notify the parents so that it doesn't slip through the cracks.

Can you add site administration shall notify parent or guardian and the mental health crisis team?

No, what it's saying is that the employee is the one notifying site administration and appropriate mental health personnel. So then I'm saying of those people, someone could be responsible for the parental part.

I'm sure they are. I'm sure someone is sitting with a student.

But when you say I'm sure they are, it doesn't always happen. We want it to, but like I said, what I hear from parents is they're given reasons from staff on why it didn't happen. I'm not talking about like when a child's suicidal, but serious incidences. This one is a crisis. This is a crisis. That's what we're speaking about. Which is even more important. than strangling by another student. I would say this is more important.

What I was saying is, number two says the site administration and appropriate mental health personnel shall be notified without delay. Somebody's going to notify. But let's say in there that site administration shall notify a parent or guardian immediately after they find out.

That's what I said, yeah. That's my suggestion.

Yeah. I think it's fine the way it is, but I just, I can see where somebody, we're under the impression that site administration is the one doing all of this. This is probably coming to a counselor. The counselor is notifying site administration and appropriate mental health personnel without delay. There are multiple people that are involved in this, so the site administration would let our superintendent know. Someone is calling mental health professionals or emergency responses, and someone is calling parents. I think that's played out pretty well in this description.

Except that it says as soon as practicable, which means feasible or workable.

Yeah, because what if for some reason this child is in danger and, you know, part of the reason they're having a crisis situation is because of abuse from a parent? I mean, I would imagine, you know, I mean, CPS needs to be called as well and there needs to be, if there's a two-parent household, if there's, I mean, it depends on the situation.

Well, yeah, I'd rather see a clear-cut policy and then obviously either note it that there could be exceptions, but I'd rather have the clear-cut policy be the standard. That's my input on that. And then I had over, Candy, you mentioned about the second bullet on the next page. 113. What was your comment on that page?

My comment was on the second bullet. Under collaborative approach, I would say that disclosure to the parent is likely to result in significant. I would add significant there because without that, it's like emotional harm could be really anything. And I would also recommend... that we remove retaliation because that also could just be, oh, my parent's going to ground me. They're going to retaliate in some way, and there's the loophole where disclosure to the parent doesn't have to be done.

Okay, so yeah, those are examples which should, I think, I agree, they should reflect back up to the actual definition of when a professional would determine that the parent shouldn't be contacted. It does say significant. psychological and or physical danger. So the examples probably could be tweaked a little to indicate that they're significant because yes, retaliation may or may not. It depends on the definition for the child of what that means. I mean, maybe the solution to this is I also had the same concern about oversight, some provision that the mental health professional that's making this assessment, that there's some oversight to that important decision. Okay.

If I may, assessing the potential threat is something that your site wouldn't necessarily do. That's why we would involve health professionals or even law enforcement to go into the home to make that assessment.

What portion are you speaking to?

So when you say significant, to have a psych person make that assessment, it may not be the person that should make that assessment.

Well, in this policy, it would be made by the assigned counselor.

Correct. That's why the immediate contact to the parent may be delayed, if that makes any sense.

You might be confusing what we were talking about on the prior page, maybe? Because the prior page was about notifying parents, and then this page is about who determines and why do they determine that the parent should not be informed that their child's in therapy. I mean, I want your input on this.

It's a longer discussion. There are very good reasons at the site why they may not contact the parent immediately is what I'm getting at. And it may have to do with who's assessing the potential threat to the child, if that makes any sense. If a child says that they feel either retaliation or harm at home, we would not make that assessment. That would have to be done specifically by law enforcement or CPS.

But here the policy is saying that it's the perceived retaliation, right? So it should be stated. It couldn't just be the counselor says, well, the parent is going to retaliate on the child by removing their cell phone privileges. So do you understand what I'm trying to say is retaliation can mean very little to very great harm. So that's why I don't feel it should be there, unless you want to leave that there and just say substantial or damaging harm. I just think retaliation shouldn't be a reason there unless you want to add language to clarify what that retaliation means. I just don't like the idea of having a loophole of, well, my parents are going to ground me if you tell them. Hey, excuse me, Candy.

We've already taken 10 minutes for this discussion. Would you like this to be pulled so that you can get more information, get more input, more...

No, I already said my recommendations.

I definitely would like to talk to Rudy more because it sounds like he's on a different track of what we're doing here. So I really think that needs to be... discussed further.

I mean, we can pull it.

I don't agree that it needs to be pulled. I actually think it was pretty thorough. I appreciated everything in it.

It is. There's a lot of work was done on it. It's just there's some areas that legally-wise, legality and ethics, that it needs to be tightened up, in my opinion.

Would we pull I and J because they are together? They relate to each other?

So the options right now are to consider the current motion and then to vote it down. If there's or vote yes. Or change the motion to include the edits that have been suggested. Or pull the item. Those are the three options.

I don't agree with pulling it just because I feel like we're going to get into an issue where we're worried about definitions and this is just going to go on for a really long time and it's going to be extended. I think it's a really good policy and I think it's pretty thorough. I think this is just a bit of micromanaging small details on language. I don't think we should be pulling it. I would like to vote on it.

Call the vote. Yeah, I didn't even have time to go through all my concerns.

Would you like to change the motion with the additions that Candy said, or do you want to pull it? You'd like to...

So it can't be passed as a first read and then work on some of these suggestions?

The issue with passing it as a first read and then working on the issues, it could change the intent or it could change some of the language would change the direction a little bit, which would then make it a first read again. So if we're going to have some changes that will do that, the suggestion would be to pull it, rework a, the majority of the board agrees to pull it, then you pull it, we rework it, and then bring it back as a first read after it's been reworked.

Who's going to rework it? New motion then.

Yeah, my suggestion would be, if we're going to pull it, is to have at least no more than two board members agree to meet so that we can look at it. And the committee, not the committee, but Adam's team has already looked at it. This is what we're seeing right now. So now we need to finalize it, and if two of you are open to meeting, then we would set that up, and the goal would be to have it back here for the April meeting.

I would love to be on the committee. I would be okay with that, but I really would like to make sure that Rudy is reviewing it. He's available. He's available.

You also want the original committee.

I'll do it, but that's the thing. I don't want to pull this, but if we're going to...

I'd like to be on the committee with them to...

I would really appreciate us just pushing it through, but if we're not going to, then yes, I'm going to have to.

She just did. So it's two.

Then I don't think that that's a good idea. I don't think that we're going to get the differing viewpoints that we want.

Put the names in a hat. We could just vote on each edit and see what.

Yeah, that's the other option is to just spend to extend our 10 minute time limit and just hash it out right now.

I think it's a very important policy, and it's long overdue, and it's long. You can tell that it's important because it's covering a lot of information. Most policies are, what, one or two pages? I'm not saying that it's not important. Well, I just don't want to push through just to get it done. I think it's very important. I'm not saying we're doing that either.

Would you concede and let Melissa be on that committee and Candy?

I would rather be on it than Candy because I've given some input and I am a licensed clinical social worker. So my vote would be for me to be on it. Okay.

Candy, would you concede and let Jeanette be on that committee?

I think we should just do edits now. But if you are not in agreement to that, then sure.

I will amend the motion to have it pulled. Actually, we should vote on it, right, and then do a different motion. You can do it either way. Okay. Amend your motion. Maybe Melissa can pull the motion because she's the one who did the first.

Pull it.

That's the thing.

I don't want to pull the motion.

Call for the vote and then go. Call for the vote. We're just talking about the AR, correct? Yes. Okay.

Why are we just talking about the AR?

We're voting on the AR. If it passes, then there will be no further discussion. If it doesn't pass, then we will go back.

But does this vote include the AR? No, this only includes the AR. Separate vote. Yes.

Got it.

Coach Nat Carey with the nays being President Rendler, Board Member Wilson, and Board Member Olson, and the ayes being Vice President Hollihan and Clerk Ayala Quintero.

Can we direct Superintendent to reconvene that committee and include Melissa Ayala Quintero and Jeanette Wilson on that committee?

Yes, we can do that.

Thank you.

And Rudy.

And Rudy. So are we going to pull Jay?

There needs to be a motion to do that.

So moved. Or do you mean she needs to make a motion? Oh, anybody. So I'll make a motion to pull it. Why do we want to move?

Why do we want to pull a board policy?

What I'm understanding is because AR is related to the BP that we're talking about next, and since we're going to go to the committee again for the AR, my understanding is that there's an ability now to have the same committee look at the board policy before anybody takes action on it. And what I would suggest, if that's what the board wants to do, anybody that has edits that they brought would give to Jeanette and to Melissa so that they can look at them together in that committee.

Board policy is a lot better than they are.

I'll second that, Jeanette. So thank you for that motion. All right. I'll call for the vote.

Just to be clear, I'm changing the motion to pool. Thank you. Thank you. Yes.

We're not changing the motion. We're adding the motion. The vote was pull, to pull it. So vote yes means that you're voting to pull the item.

It says approve board policy, though.

Is it worded? How is it worded? It says approve board policy.

Motion to pull new board policy. The motion itself is changed.

Thank you, we saw it

Motion is carried with the ayes being President Randler, Board Member Wilson, Board Member Olsen, and the nays being Vice President Hallahan and Clerk Ayala Quintero.

All right, moving on to human resources consent items. Mrs. Bruick, do you have any changes or additions?

No changes or additions, thank you.

Is there a motion to approve human resources consent items as listed under 17A through 17D?

I'll move. Second.

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

Yes. I have a question on A, on page 1120. It said 2024-2025. Was that just an error in the numbers? Ms. Brooke, did you hear that question?

1120. 1120.

Sorry, it's just going to take me a second because I'm looking at just the attachment.

I had a question exactly on that as well.

Item number four. It's page number two, Lisa, of the attachment.

Item 4, extra assignments.

It says extra assignments for the 24-25 school year. Everywhere else it references 25-26, but that particular one says 24-25.

I believe that's an error.

Hypo? So we can amend the motion to include the changes as corrected, yes.

You amended the motion? Changes? Who made that amendment?

Well, Melissa brought it up.

Yeah. Do you want to make that motion? Maybe I did. I will make, yeah.

Patty. Yes. I will amend to correct with the changes, to approve with the correct changes submitted to 2526. Okay. All right.

Do we have a second?

I'm sorry. I stand corrected. It appears that those are not an error. Those were old recs that had not been taken to board that needed to be approved.

your motion. We don't need to amend it. Withdraw your motion. Yeah, we have payments to Jennifer Sherman, too. Okay, so that motion is withdrawn. Withdraw the motion.

Okay, I'd like to withdraw the motion that I made, so I will move to approve items. Original motions. Okay. From consent items A through D, please.

Do we have a second? A second. Okay. Thank you, Jeanette. Thank you, Patty. Okay. Any more discussion? All right. We'll call for the vote.

We had a computer shut down. Can somebody come help? Okay.

Looks like we're good. So we're voting right now? Okay. All right. Mine's working.

Motion carried. Five-0.

Okay. Let's continue with human resources action items. Mrs. Bruitt, do you have any changes or additions?

No changes or additions. Thank you.

Thank you. Do I have a motion to approve agreement between the Redlands Unified School District, RUSD, and Redlands Teachers Association, RTA, effective March 11, 2026? I'll move.

Second.

Thank you, Patty. Any discussion? All right. We'll call for a vote. Which one are we on?

18?

18A.

I think you called 18B, Michelle, maybe? Maybe.

Did I? Oh, did I on accident?

You called, but you read 18A. Just like, do it again.

Redlands Teachers Association.

Oh, because they're backwards. I'm sorry. I just read it, and they're just printed backwards. We just do it backwards, out of order? Just do it over.

Okay.

Okay. Do I have a motion to approve agreement between Redlands Unified School District, RUSD, and Redlands Educational Support Professionals Association, RESPA, effective March 11, 2026?

So moved. Second.

Melissa, thank you, Patty. Any discussion? Call for the vote.

I'll have something to say. Oh, you have something. And this goes for the next item, too, so I won't have to be redundant. But we need to keep our spaces, our teacher spaces, neutral. And... Be respectful of all families and all of their values. It really is coming from a common sense position of neutrality where regardless of what side of the aisle you are on any issue that's a political or cultural issue, we shouldn't be having teachers have their personal space decked out with controversial issues, hot topics, religious beliefs, political beliefs. I think it's inappropriate for teachers to be... having their personal agenda associated with them in their front of the room at their desk, and really influencing students. Teachers have a huge influence on their students in a classroom, and even more so than parents during certain years of their life. So I think that It's almost worse than having political or ideological flags on the walls because it's a personal endorsement of that teacher's beliefs. And when students respect them so much, I think it's a problem that we shouldn't have the culture wars. We should keep things neutral, and we should keep the main thing being the main thing, which is education. I also think that... As it has been for many families that talk to me, they complain that their student feels very uncomfortable, doesn't want to say anything, doesn't want to be harassed, and feels extremely uncomfortable with the teacher's beliefs, but they don't want to be targeted by that teacher or retaliated. They fear retaliation.

Anything else?

Yes, I just want to give kudos to Assistant Sue Bruick for all her hard work and her team on working on this and same with the RTA and RESPA. Everyone who was part of this appreciated all the hard work and time that they gave.

Any other discussion?

Yeah, I just wanted to again share my concerns. I feel that not having any Flags of any special groups should be allowed. And I feel that it's this particular... Certain flags have very religious significations in the way people interpret them, and it's a significant topic for... to be giving their personal validation on when it is not part of the curriculum, it is not connected to the educational experience, and it should be left to the parents. Like one of the community members stated tonight, I thought very eloquently, that it's such a significant and personal thing issue for some of the flags that could be on the teachers' desks that it should just be left to the parents. To me, it's an issue that should definitely be given to the parents. I think it would help some parents decide to keep their kids in a public school when they don't have to have their own moral or religious views countered by the child's teacher. That puts the parent in a very tenuous position because the parent wants their child to like their teacher and to feel safe with their teacher and to feel... you know, like the teacher is going to like them. And so I just think it needs to, the cleanest way is just leave that to the parents and let the teachers focus on education and what is on their desk should be related to education.

Any other discussion? Okay, we'll call for the vote.

Motion carried, with the ayes being President Wendler, Vice President Hollihan, and Clerk Ayala-Quintero, and the nays being Board Member Wilson and Board Member Olsen.

Do I have a motion to approve agreement between the Redlands Unified School District, RUSD, and Redlands Teachers Association, RTA, effective March 11, 2026?

So moved. I'll second.

Thank you, Melissa. Any discussion?

Just thank you for everyone's hard work on this. I know this is probably a very tense issue, but I appreciate everybody's time.

We'll call for the vote. Oh, you have something?

I would like to say something. The fact that there is no dimensions or the fact that you would be okay with just all concerns to the wind, you know, it's basically the same exact thing. The flags on the walls versus on the desk without any type of restrictions doesn't make any sense at all.

Well, I'm seeing this as historically what teachers have done. Which is why a lot of us got involved in this. Historically, they had small little pennants in there or they wore their lanyard or something like that.

Pennants and lanyards are on the body, not on our property on the desk.

The little pennants were in pencil cups. There should have been some dimensions.

If you intended to just have it two by two, that should have been written on that agreement.

I actually brought that up months ago, probably a year ago, if we could have a discussion on dimensions, and I was shut down on that. So, I mean, I don't think, one, we're not supposed to be chastising each other for each other's votes because, I mean, we've already voted on the last one. And I don't see why this was a concern about a teacher's personal space. And the top of their desk is considered a personal space.

Our public school property influencing our kids.

And in that public school property, a teacher is allowed personal space for their own belongings. This is that personal space.

My concern, I was going to ask Juan about, is how will this be upheld if the employee chooses to... in a sense, disrespect the policy and go all out in decorating their desk with lots of different flags and so forth. Just curious.

Well, there will be accountability in the same way that there is for any policy that is broken or violated, I should say. As far as, like, different examples of what's okay and what's not okay, it's something that was discussed at the table. Looking at what's on your desk, what historically has been a practice. It could be, you know, just on your workstation. You have pictures. You have, you know, pennant maybe. What isn't an example of what would be – an example of something that would not be okay is like draping your desk with any specific flag or painting your desk. I didn't see that in the agreement. It's really about – well, what you do see is the word historic practices, right? And historic practices, when we talk about what we've typically seen on a workspace, that's why I'm describing sort of the examples that I'm giving us.

And our teachers are professional. I think they'll respect boundaries and responsibilities and what's part of it. They're very professional.

Any more discussion? All right, we'll call for the vote.

Motion carried with the ayes being President Rendler, Vice President Hollihan, Clerk Ayala Quintero, and the nays being Board Member Wilson and Board Member Olson.

Do I have a motion to approve revision of Administrative Regulation 4229 Volunteers to administrative volunteers. I'll move. Second. Volunteers. Okay. It's a first read. First read.

I had a question about the workers' comp benefits. I never heard back. Juan, did you?

Jason, can you answer that?

Are we obligated to provide workers' comp benefits for volunteers? Yes. I'm asking Lisa. Thank you. When I looked it up in California law, it said no, but I could be missing something that maybe you have insight on. Liability insurance, I know you have to cover someone working on your premises if they get injured, but workers' comp, I

I'd have to check on workers.

Okay. I have a question. Are you finished? No, I wasn't finished. I had one other thing. I had a question about the very last sentence that says that volunteers are not authorized to assign grades to students and staff, et cetera, et cetera, and regularly authorized classified employees who have been laid off. And it also has the same language on the other page on 1172, also 1173. So it always says who have been laid off. Isn't it also that they shouldn't be assigning grades or used to assist in those type of duties regardless, like for example, even if the teacher has gone to a doctor's appointment or they're on modified duty or such and such, shouldn't it just be period instead of it's only who have been laid off? I found that it does. I've read through both of them, and it always says employees who have been laid off.

I think it's meant to suggest that we can't ask someone to come in and volunteer to replace a paid employee.

Yes, they are. Well, whichever. It's in both of them, so I don't know. Which one? Are we talking about the...

Right now, it's the BP. Okay. Sorry.

If the workers' comp is on the AR, then my bad. But for the BP, it also says who have been laid off. I just feel like that sentence, that who have been laid off shouldn't be there. It just should be period.

I thought that was like union language that we couldn't bring in a volunteer to replace something that an employee who's been laid off replaced their duties. That's correct.

But also we don't, volunteers don't teach, right? They're not allowed to teach or assign grades, correct? Correct. So it shouldn't just be only for those who have been laid off. It should be just period.

In the board policy, it says volunteers will assist certificated and or classified personnel in the performance of their duties on a short-term basis to enhance the educational program, but not in lieu of a classified employee. So I think it... Where's that, Michelle? It's in the board policy.

Well, I mean, what... Oh, I don't know.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. The eighth paragraph down.

On page 1172? Uh-huh. How does it start?

Volunteer maintenance work.

Volunteer maintenance. Oh, shall not be used to assist certificated staff in performing. It says this, yeah. In performing teaching or administrative response. That's the one Candy was referring to.

Volunteers will not assist staff. It's like the eighth paragraph on the first page of the board policy.

So do classified employees assist in teaching and administrative responsibilities?

I'm trying to make sure we're on the same page. What does it say at the top of that?

I'm on the, oh, it's the AR, sorry.

Okay.

Not the board policy, it's the AR. I'm sorry.

The board policy that speaks to classified employees who have been laid off is just to cover the education code where you cannot have volunteers do classified work, which I think everybody has that understanding. You're saying that something else should also be added to that?

No, it should be in any case. So just period instead of who have been laid off, it just should get rid of that and just say period because it could be the employees at the doctors or they're on a modified duty or they're gone from the classroom for whatever reason. It shouldn't only be for those who have been laid off.

There will be instances, though, where volunteers are assisting where regularly authorized classified employees would typically be there or in addition to being there. So if you have a paraeducator who is authorized, nobody's been laid off, and then there's a parent who's assisting, they would be doing that kind of work and helping, which is why it's not laid out like that. That is something that could happen. What this is trying to say is that in the instance that you have a volunteer helping in a classroom in this way, it can't be because you've laid somebody off and now they're doing that work so we don't have to pay for it.

Does it say anywhere where they're limited and they can't? Okay, volunteer maintenance. Do not replace the maintenance of classified staff. Okay. So it really does cover that you can't do the... Okay, I'm fine with that.

Are you done? Go ahead.

And workers' comp is not covered for volunteers. Workers' comp is based on paid employees, right? We pay workers' comp based upon salaries and total salaries. And volunteers, in terms of volunteer sense, don't get paid.

So we can talk about that when we get to the AR, okay.

I had one thing. Oh, no, it's on the AR. Never mind. It's on the AR.

Yeah, the Board of Policy...

Do they have to be 18?

Volunteers? Yes.

Okay. I was curious.

Except if they're with their class, their high school class, they could come.

It would be students. If they're current students, then they wouldn't be considered volunteers. They're students of ours who might be helping other campuses, but they're not volunteers.

But like a parent's child or whatever. Correct. Also be coming. Okay. The only thing to me, the one, two, three, fourth paragraph on the board policy is a little vague in terms of the training they get, but maybe it can just be tightened up within the administrative regulation. It just says, like...

It doesn't list the trainings, but it does say. As appropriate, yeah.

So I'll bring up that concern on the AR.

Any more discussion on the board policy? I will call for the vote.

This is the motion for the board policy 4229. Okay. Okay.

Yeah, and it was backwards on my thing, so I did the AR first on accident. I read the AR.

But didn't you read it? The BP. Oh, it's the BP.

It's the BP, yes. Okay, may I please be reminded of the motion? Who made the motion and who seconded?

Melissa and Patty.

Okay, thank you.

Oh, wait, that said 6-1-1-5. That said 6-1-1-5. I just voted on 6-1-1-5. What did I do? We're on the volunteers. Huh?

I'm just missing one vote.

Whose are you missing?

Huh?

Jeanette.

Mine doesn't. It's not coming up. Wait. I keep saying the rest of the one.

Did you try refreshing it already?

No, I haven't had to refresh it.

Maybe I should do that.

I don't know.

Okay, thank you.

No, it's still, sorry, it still says it's the collective bargaining. It says it's still in progress.

It's this one right here, 4229. Motion carried, 5-0. Okay, Michelle.

Okay, now do I have a motion to approve the revision of administrative regulations 4229, volunteers, the administrative, wait, on volunteer assistance. Oh, she did. Yeah, she just did. It's the first read for the volunteer assistance for the AR. I'm still moved. Okay, do you have a second? I second. Thank you. All right. Any discussion?

Answer that question?

Yes, please.

So volunteers, by default, are not covered under workers' comp unless a board policy grants them access to workers' comp. So my recommendation would be to strike workers' comp. That's what I was thinking. Or it would bind us to offering all volunteers workers' comp.

That was my thought, exactly.

So my question on the second paragraph, it says volunteers shall not be employees. We have teachers and campus monitors and office workers, whatever, who volunteer in their kids' classrooms.

I think that part is just to say that they're serving without compensation. But you're correct, we do have other teachers and parents who volunteer.

In the AR, it doesn't say anything about compensation. It just said they shall not be employees.

Right, and it says shall serve without compensation of any type or other benefit. How can we change that to make it?

I think that's what's covered under where it says such volunteers because it's speaking to those specific types of volunteers.

That second paragraph that you're referring to? It does say such volunteers shall not be employees of the school district and shall serve without compensation of any type or other benefits.

It doesn't speak to those volunteers. It only speaks to these types of volunteers, like a parent volunteer in the classroom.

But there are parents who volunteer in their kids' classrooms. And that's what this policy is about. And they work in the district.

But that's, they're doing it outside of the scope of their job. Description.

Okay. Okay. Maybe do you, can we change that language to reflect that? Because that didn't come clear to me.

It already says employees.

I understand what you're saying. It's semantics. All we're trying to say is volunteers can't be paid. Employee volunteers.

We can make some edits to that because we need to make an edit to the workers' comp.

Employee volunteers. All right, that sounds good.

Yeah, because it says they shall not be employees.

Okay, any more discussion?

This is where I'll bring up my concern about the training for volunteers, especially with our Title IX oversight and the OAG. It seems like we should have it a little tighter on specific type of training that the volunteers will get. And I had suggested to Juan maybe even just like a... one or two page written training that they sign off, that they obtain that training. I know we had talked about using Keenan in the past, but that's not realistic. So then I suggested something that they read and sign. I kind of wanted to get Dr. Wilson's input on that.

We are planning on hosting several training opportunities at the district office starting in the summer when we start to renew all of our volunteers. so that parents have an opportunity to come at various times throughout the summer to get training that would be led by Human Resources and Compliance. Our plan is to review our board policy, 4019.1, our boundary policy, and also mandated reporting.

And would that be required?

Yes, they would need to do that prior to being able to volunteer.

Oh, great. Can we add that to this?

It's part of the, oh, maybe it's on the other one. It's now a required mandate.

You can add it as a mandate. Great.

The only caution is almost yearly our required trainings change. We add trainings, we remove trainings, we extend trainings, we shorten trainings because laws change. So if you codify any specific training in a policy, that means you have to bring this policy back yearly to update the tile trainings. the style training that you're going to do. So I would just recommend saying, being general, having a general in terms of what types of training.

Subject matters.

Subject matters versus specifics.

Oh, yeah.

We also looked at Keenan in a different way that we do now, where a volunteer could go to their website, put in a code we give them, and self-register and take the training if they were to miss that. So we're looking at various ways to obtain volunteer training. Again, codifying the style of training they'll get will also bind us in offering multiple types of training.

Can we say district-approved training?

Yeah, I mean, that's kind of what it says. I just caution getting too specific in a policy.

No, I just think some general topic type guidelines.

Do we even really need to add that technically? Because if it's something that we're requiring to become a volunteer, I mean, isn't something that's just going to be an extra step anyways?

Fingerprints in there now, too.

Well, it's a law. So the law changed and requires us to send all volunteers or anybody who makes contact with students. We're talking sometimes even contractors that come on campus have to go through required training. So that's a legal piece. So we're updating our policies to kind of reflect the law, which is why you see this stuff going through.

And I think we can meet both needs. We don't have to be super specific on what the training is, but it can include mandated training related to safety.

Boundaries is a good general topic. Exactly. So that's a law from a little bit back?

Yeah, it's a recent one with extending the volunteers.

I see. Okay. And that has to be in place by July. Got it.

Thank you. With a few edits?

I had one other comment. The volunteers will be limited in the number of hours serviced. Sounds weird, that word choice, but in a single classroom setting.

We talked about that last month.

I know in the past the amount of hours was a concern for... Many of the volunteers. My only thought on that, I like having it broader than a certain number, but I would like to see a little oversight where... the number of hours that a principal, I guess it would be, I think one told me it would be a principal, approves over, I mean, whatever they, I don't know what the expected number would be, but when they approve a large number of hours that it be overseen or signed off by Ed Services or something, because there was a reason we were trying to limit the number of hours. So this is back to a principal being able to approve unlimited number of hours.

And that's why it was added in the superintendent or designee. And so he was, we talked about that a few months ago when we were talking about this, the designee could be the principal saying, you know, this particular volunteer can only work X amount of hours.

Trying to shy away from is just a particular employee on his own grabbing a volunteer and helping him do his job eight hours a day, five days a week. So you have oversight from an administrator to make sure that those types of things don't happen.

I think what I hear Jeanette saying is there should be an additional approval. Like if a certain school wants somebody to work 20 hours, it needs to be kind of okayed. Or if another school wants somebody to do 50 hours, it should just be okayed, not just the principal being able to say that. Is that what I'm hearing?

That's what I'm thinking because I know you told me the designee would be the principal. Yeah. So that would allow 26 different schools to have different principals determining how many hours volunteers could be utilized.

I think something that's going to throw a hiccup in that is it includes field trip attendance. We have some volunteers that are volunteering on overnight field trips, so we're looking at 24 hours at a time. So I don't know about limiting hour-wise that without getting approval from the designee is really going to help.

We just have to figure it out, but as far as additional oversight, it's possible. I think we were just trying to make sure that we met the needs of every site. Some are going to want less, some are going to want more. I don't have a problem overseeing that. I mean, it says that. It says designate. That's the principle. Theoretically, the principle sets it. I don't have a problem being able to check what the principle is to see. But really what typically happens is a principle will call and say, hey, I have a volunteer who we just need help reducing their participation. And then we step in to help with that. It hasn't been where somebody wants more hours and calls me and says, hey, we want more hours.

I think we took, there was an hour in there, and it was 10, right? It was 10. Yeah, and we took that hour so that it could be at the discretion of the principal and the superintendent.

Well, because some sites are going to need more volunteer help than others.

I don't have a problem being able to, like, however we want to put it. Because I think the oversight's fine. Like, I can help with that.

Okay. Because I feel like this does give oversight, superintendent or a designee, that oversight's in there.

So what are the changes that we're actually discussing? Can we start over from whatever? Mrs. Brewett, can you tell us what we...

Yes, we're going to make a clarification on paragraph two, that second paragraph. Let me pull it back up.

Third, actually.

Right, about the volunteer... We're going to separate that so it's clear that we're talking about parent volunteers and then employee volunteers.

Oh, yeah.

And then no compensation. And then... in paragraph three, we're looking at removing the information about the workers' compensation and insurance liability coverage because it doesn't apply anymore.

Are you just going to take that whole paragraph out?

Yes, that was part of the original language, so we can make that update. And then adding... And then I thought we were okay with not specifying... On training, but we will clarify that district training, annual training would be provided.

With some examples of topics. Would be required.

Is required, yes. Like our boundary policy and sexual harassment.

Yes.

And mandated reporting. And then I think we said just now that we were okay with the superintendent designee oversight.

Regarding the third paragraph, can't we just strike the workers' comp benefits? Don't we need to leave in there that we will provide liability insurance coverage, or we don't have to put that in there? It's just implied. Oh, so there's just no point for the whole paragraph? Okay, I'm fine with that. Okay. Sure. Okay, no problem.

Well, on the number of hours, I think Juan was going to still look at maybe the language there.

Yeah, I mean, if we want to use the words like approved by the superintendent instead of, I don't know if that meets the need, Jeanette.

Maybe it's determined by the principal and approved by the superintendent. I mean, obviously it's going to come from what they want.

Yeah, that sounds fine to me. Okay. If it's okay with everybody else.

I'm kind of struggling with that just because, so what we're asking the superintendent is to approve volunteer hours for each and every volunteer. We have thousands of volunteers.

No, my concern is what quantity the principals determine for their site.

But at the same time, can't they change that?

They can limit their... Well, we are going to provide guidelines because we are going into school year next year where volunteers... may be asked to help and if we have less staff and we have to really balance that because we can't be doing classified work and we're actually going to reiterate that with principals on Thursday. But I think that that oversight might be timely where I can provide guidance from my office as far as the do's and don'ts of volunteers. I don't see it as a every time we have a volunteer, they have to come ask me. I think I see it more as they generally run their volunteer programs. If there's an issue, I'm going to provide oversight for that.

Then can we just change that to volunteers may be limited in the number of hours serviced in a single classroom?

We'll change that to May. Okay.

Well, that's a little different than... I just, I mean, I'm assuming when you work with them, there would be some kind of a range of what's normal.

Every classroom is different, though, too.

But I'm talking about the principal should know their classrooms. Yes. So then when they want to exceed kind of what's considered normal and they're going outside of that, that they run it by you.

I'm good with that.

I just think it's getting into a very difficult situation because there was no possible way I could be able to track my hours in PTA. We're talking in a single classroom setting. Does the hours when I run in and drop off a flyer, is that going to count? It just seems very complicated.

I don't know that I see it necessarily as complicated, but I also know that we are going to have to provide a lot of guidance next year going into a school year where we're going to be asking volunteers to help us. We don't have as many now. I just met with PTA about this, and they were asking that specific question, how do they get permission to help more. Because we went away from it. Really, a lot of our volunteers are not putting as many hours as maybe we were used to in the past. And they're really working with field trips, things like that. And so we are going to have to provide guidance. So I think the overall guidance that we do provide will help with that oversight that you're talking about.

I like the word may just because it allows the discretion of the principal, the teacher to say, you know, I don't want, I don't need that many people in here and I don't. So yeah. Yeah. Okay. Any more discussion? All right. Call for the vote with those changes.

Motion carried. Fiebel?

Moving on to public participation. Community input. Public comments are permitted upon submission of a completed registration card prior to the start of public participation. This is not a forum for debate policy concerning non-form policies. Debate? Policy concerns? Oh, okay, different sentence. Sorry. 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? Eighteen.

Three minutes. Michael Paisner. Jean Saglim and Rachel Ugly.

Ms. Olsen, can you actually look at me?

Welcome, Michael.

Thank you. Wow, you're actually looking at me. You used the phrase respectful of all families. And you look down again. You still can't see me or anyone on this side of the room and use that phrase in any earnestness. Respectful of all families? Unbelievable. Recently, Ms. Olson said the quiet part out loud on Instagram. She advocated against the book Pride Month, complaining it normalizes the LGBTQ community by providing definitions. What's next? Is she going to edit the dictionary to remove the words she doesn't like? She is trying to make our community into 1984. But I fear only two of the five board members even understand that reference. Foolish me trying to explain discrimination to David Duke. I bet some of you got that reference. but I fear three of you are actually flattered by it. In California, there are laws against discrimination. AB 1078 prevents removing books based on LGBTQ content. The FAIR Act requires inclusion of LGBTQ content in the curriculum. The mission statement directs you to include everyone, and basic human decency demands the same. Olson's blatant statements of hatred and exclusion not only risk civil and criminal action against the school district, it defines her as a small, scared, and cruel person. Ms. Rendler, I notified you of Ms. Olson's discriminatory post, and as is typical, I got no response. Ms. Olson attacks her own constituents, and still, you refuse to censure her or make any condemnation of her discriminatory behavior. To paraphrase Edmund Burke, the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing. Ms. Rendler, you fail to stand up for those being attacked when you have the power to do so. That is not the behavior of a good person. But clearly you have the do nothing part down really, really well because that's all you do, nothing. Redlands deserves better. The people of this community deserve better. You have the responsibility to represent everyone, and Ms. Rendler, you have failed. Every time you let Olsen shenanigans go unchecked, you fail again. She has engaged in discriminatory behavior over and over, and Ms. Rendler, you are doing nothing about it. We exist on this side of the room. Unfortunately, you don't seem to realize it, Ms. Rendler, because you're not standing up for us, and it's really a shame.

Thank you, Michael. Welcome, Jean.

Yes, my name is Jean Salam, and I'm from Melissa's district. Excuse me, not district, trustee area. My public comment is regarding diversity. Diversity is the fabric of America. Diversity is our strength and our unity is our power. Redlands RUSD will never be rid of its diversity. The people of the RUSD will unite to take back the school board so that all, every all, students fully are accepted, supported, and celebrated in the school district. The people united will never be defeated. Your neo-Nazi colonization is not welcome here. Thank you, Jean.

Welcome back, Rachel.

Thank you. All right. What is really sad is that the city of Freeland School District is not following the purpose as it stated that academic achievement for all students ensures that every student receives quality education. with high expectations and innovative partnerships. For those that profess not to know what's happening or what this means or don't have a degree in it, there are excellent books by David and Tim Barton about what the old schoolhouse taught. And it's really shameful that those in the third grade at that time is not even accomplished by our 12th graders. Foster an environment that attracts and retains high-quality employees. Build a positive work culture for teachers and staff. Provide opportunity for every student to participate fully. Support inclusive programming across academics, athletics, and extracurricular activities. That is the goal of a school board, not to go and be a cultural, social environment. Those that came before us went through that basic education. That's why we are here with all the highly skilled, from Ben Carson to... Abraham Lincoln, everyone. It was the education that led them here, and that's why we're here. It's to learn, if you want to be a farmer, if you want to be a nurse, a surgeon, a president, you have to know the basics, science, math, how to read and write. That's not happening, because that's not the focus of this board, to vote on the other. You confuse students when you can have one room or one wall, three walls, be free of everything, but you have one area where the kids see it every single day. And naturally, kids all want to be liked and have friends. Thank you, Rachel.

Next, we have Valerie Savis, followed by Erica Grossman and Dale Broom.

So due to a lot of money paid out for sexual abuse lawsuits, bad financial decisions during COVID, and the woke agenda happening in schools, our enrollment is down, and now many are facing layoffs. As parents have become aware of what is really happening in classrooms, they are choosing to homeschool or turn to private school. They may not be here at these board meetings gelling obscenities like the members of the radical group Together for Redlands does, They are showing their disdain for the system in a mature way. They are taking action by removing their child from the environment. Trust has been broken, and the public education system has taken a backseat to politics and indoctrination. Children should be the priority, not used as political pawns, such as what happened during the walkout last month. Groups like Redlands Free Market, Safe Redlands Schools, and even some of our teachers put those kids in danger. Most parents do not want classrooms filled with pride flags, inappropriate books, and teachers that push their political agenda, all while keeping secrets from them. And they definitely do not want boys and girls spaces. Go back to basics. Put education first, and trust will return, and so will then the families. But considering how you three voted, and why isn't Melissa staring at me? You're not looking at me. I find that very disrespectful. Considering how you three voted, I kind of doubt that you'll see your enrollment going up. And one of the previous speakers pointed out they like to criticize Candy Olson for not just staring down the speakers, all while the whole time Melissa was looking down while other speakers were talking. So why not get enraged over her? I'm so mad at you for not staring at me. Thank you, Valerie.

Welcome back, Erica.

Yesterday, I was in a classroom with three parents, including one from an outside agency. The individual from the agency was on the phone and falling asleep. The district parents told me that this person has been behaving this way since being placed in a classroom last year. They reported the issue to the administration, but nothing has been done. They also share that this individual is not the only staff member from that agency who has disrupted classroom work. As a result, paras are now expected to manage the behavior of staff from outside agencies in addition to supporting students. That is not their responsibility. I understand the district plans to terminate its contract with this agency next year. However, we still have three months left, and it's deeply irresponsible for the district to leave these issues unaddressed. Paras are already underpaid, yet their responsibilities continue to increase. This situation directly harms special education students, and it clearly reflects how little the district prioritizes their needs. I have two books for you. One is They Came for the Schools. This one discusses how an inclusive learning approach was implemented in a suburban Texas school district after racist incidents became public. This happened a few years ago. Following those events, extremists organized attacks on the school system, pressured for book bans on targeted LGBTQ plus students. That should sound familiar. Right? And the second book, One Day I Grow Up and Be a Beautiful Woman. This is also a true story written by the mother of a trans girl. She initially struggles to accept her daughter's identity, but when she finally affirms her child, the school and the district begin working against them. It is devastating to read, and I sincerely hope our district never goes down that same path. Michelle, I truly want you to read this. Also, at the last board meeting, Kiani said that Beth Bourne is her hero. Beth Bourne harasses children and claims it's her freedom of speech. She was even fired from her job for billed behavior. Thank you. Thank you, Erica.

Welcome back, Dale.

Dale Broom, Area 1. I wanted to discuss with the board tonight the false and inflammatory name calling that's being used by the members of Together for Redlands at the school board. And I bring this up because it is not just name-calling. It's resulting in criminal activity against school board members, against candidates and their conservative supporters. Since the school board was elected, the Together for Redlands members, specifically six individuals alone in the last 12 months or the first 12 months of this new school board, they have called our school board members and their followers racist or bigots 20 times. Six individuals. They've called them Nazis or fascists 18 times. White Christian nationalists 13 times. Transphobic or homophobic 47 times. They've made derogatory statements about the Ark Church over 16 times. Just six individuals alone and that doesn't count all the other individuals who've made these derogatory and inflammatory name calling. And the evidence of the criminal activity that has resulted includes swastika tagging on Ark Church's signs out front of their church. Placement of yard signs on Ark Church property indicating that a KKK meeting was being held there on several evenings when it was simply a Bible study. Tagging of the Ark Church retaining walls with KKK insignias. Smothering of the Ark Church parking lot entrances with roofing nails causing tire damage to church staffers' trucks. Disruption of peaceful and lawful political table events at local markets with attempts to overthrow the tables. We've had disruption and obstruction of volunteers and school board candidates who are out doing political canvassing in neighborhoods where several of their followers come yelling out of their house, chasing people off their property, chasing them down the street, and trying to obstruct them from being able to go from one neighbor to the next to do political canvassing, which is perfectly lawful to do. But obstructing somebody on a public thoroughfare is against the law. And these are people that I don't even know who've done this to me. And I'll tell you this. It's only because this rhetoric that happens in this school board and it's getting promoted on social media. So the board has some rules about profanity, but we don't have rules about inflammatory speech that provokes criminal activity. And I think that the board should really seriously consider this because as much as I love free speech, it doesn't promote, you should not be able to promote criminal activity. And more importantly, I would urge people not to support Together for Redlands anymore with their finances or for board candidates to even align themselves with this group. Thank you.

Next, we have Lawrence Hebron, followed by Peter Hall, and then Aaron Perez.

Good evening again. My name is Lawrence Hebron. I live in Area 3. There's been a lot of consternation about all the layoffs the Redland School District has had to make recently. There are many reasons for this, but here's one that you would be well advised to keep in mind if you want to avoid having to make a lot more in the future. Take a moment to remember your favorite restaurant. You like the food, you like the service, and it's conveniently located. Now imagine you went there to find they had completely changed the menu. And not only change it, but change it to things you don't care for, like rattlesnake venom cocktails, tofu worm burgers, pond scum shakes, and tofu fungus fritters. What's more, the serving staff has taken a decidedly snarky and abusive tone, including telling your family members what they should believe. Would you go back? Or would you look for another restaurant? You know the answer. Well, a lot of parents have a similar reaction to the menu the Redland School Board has been offering for the last several years, and they are voting with their feet, choosing private schools and home schools instead. Overwhelmingly, they don't like your obsession with disparaging America, opting for sexually graphic instructional materials in books and libraries, keeping parents in the dark about critical matters, and generally pushing agendas with which they strongly disagree." The reaction to these unpopular policies was predicted, including by me. And now you are paying the price. At a board meeting over a year ago from this very podium, I asked, quote, why would parents pay thousands of dollars a year on tuition, books, and other supplies to send their children to a private school when they could send them to a public school for no additional expense? Why would parents assume the weighty responsibility of teaching their own children every subject for every year when trained professionals are available to do that for no additional trouble? Obviously, the public schools are not providing something which these parents feel is critical, or the public schools are forcing something which these parents feel is intolerable. As a result, there are hundreds of classroom seats that are empty because of the decision of these parents to go elsewhere. And that means we don't need as many teachers, custodians, food service workers, bus drivers, and security guards. And what's more, we don't have the money to pay them, end of quote. When you adopt policies that offend a number of parents, they leave. And this hurts your ability to hire and pay good personnel to do the work of education. The solution is simple. Don't indulge such offending policies. Stick to the basics, not indoctrination. Maybe everybody won't be happy, but neither will you give cause for offense, mass exodus, and mass layoffs. On the other hand, if you want to kill jobs and the ability to pay your current employees, then keep doing what you've been doing and be prepared to write even more layoff notices.

Thank you.

Welcome back. We've heard the word culture and the phrase cultural war bandied about a lot lately. Well, I'm here to say that people like me did not start the culture war. We're just responding to it. People like them are the ones that started it, and now they're telling us to stop fighting and to just surrender. Well, to that I say, no, we will not stop fighting you. You started this, and we're going to finish it. We're tired of you telling us what to do. We're tired of you making these ridiculous demands about things that are not important. We're tired of you trying to dictate... ridiculous nonsense that has no bearing in reality whatsoever. If you want to wear the rainbow pride flag as a lapel or whatever on your clothing or carry a personal flag, then you can do that. But to demand that the school fly your pride flag is just wrong. And I don't even think that we should let people do that just... for themselves because, like, we won't let Christians, like, wear crosses around their necks. Like, people get in trouble for wearing the Gadsden flag as a T-shirt or wearing the Appeal to Heaven as a T-shirt or wearing the Confederate battle flag as a T-shirt. People get into, like... A high school kid got into trouble for holding a pro-immigration customs enforcement flag, and then he got beaten up, and he was the one that got into trouble for promoting hateful messages. But the person that assaulted him got away with it. No, we will not stop. Thank you.

Thank you, Peter.

Hello, my name is Aaron Perez, Area 3. I have a daughter who attends Kingsbury Elementary School. I made a CDE complaint in September. The CDE found that the district was in violation. The CDE wrote out directives to the school district to correct it. And then the school district has violated those CDE orders. And I sent a cease and desist letter to the district. And the cease and desist letter is being ignored. So I need your help to get my cease and desist letter honored until this matter can be resolved. My daughter has dyslexia. My daughter is upset. My daughter is suffering as a result of this district violating the directives from the CDE. So this is a violation of the law that has occurred. And I need your help because every time we reach out for help, we're stonewalled and they don't give us answers. So I need you to direct your staff to help me so that my child can get the help they need. I've spoken to Juan Cabral. I've spoken to Mr. Rossi. And I emailed you all the cease and desist letter last night. I need your assistance to implement the cease and desist letter. I'm not telling you to tell them what to do. I'm asking you to have them honor the cease and desist letter that I, as a parent, have sent to the district. That's all I have to say.

Thank you, Aaron. Next, we have Joshua Hall, followed by Karen Starr and Kate Appleby.

Welcome back, Joshua.

I want to talk about the anti-ICE protests and how ridiculous they are and how teachers and school officials are contributing to the truancy and delinquency of students. A couple weeks ago on Tennessee in Orange, I saw about 300 students ages first grade through high school protesting ICE. They went into the staters on Tennessee and Orange and messed it up before they were kicked out. And I just have to ask, why are high school kids and first graders, second graders and so forth, going to anti-ICE protests? Kids should be in school. They should not be going to anti-ICE protests. Teachers and school officials are contributing to their delinquency and truancy just for political gain. And the anti-ICE protests are just a way for people who hate America, both immigrants and American citizens who hate America, to showcase their hatred towards America and towards other Americans and toward white people in general and white males and towards people who support the borders. You know, without borders, you don't have a culture. Without borders, you don't have law. Without borders, you don't have order. And the anti-ICE protests are just a way to get Americans, specifically white Americans, but anyone who is pro-law and order and pro-borders to just shit down and accept their status as second and third class citizens while immigrants who hate America are treated better than citizens. And kids who are white, they're told that they're bad because they're white, and kids who are not white are told that they're victims because they're not white. White people are not the only colonizers. We make 8% of the global population, and with the current rate of mass migration into America, Canada, and Western Europe, we're the ones who are currently being colonized now. But because of our history of colonization in the past, we're told to just shut up and take it. I hate the phrase that America is a land of immigrants. Technically, that's factually true, technically, but it obscures a lot of falsehoods. There's a difference between immigrants and settlers. Settlers come to a country that is mostly uninhabited and undeveloped, and they develop it. Immigrants come to a country that's already developed, and some of them might contribute, but a lot of them don't. They just come to live off welfare, and a lot of them come to do even more than just live off of welfare. A lot of them come to abuse the citizenry who pays the taxes and victimize them through violent and property crime, and the citizen are then expected to tolerate it. It's not fair.

Thank you, Joshua.

I'm Karen Starr. I live in Area 1. My daughter has a chronic illness with waxing and waning symptoms. Some days she can fully engage, some days she cannot. The variability is part of her disability, not defiance, not lack of effort. She's missed approximately 50% of the school year and is now failing all of her classes. Instead of meaningful monitoring and intervention, she received detention. Accommodations have been delayed, narrowed, denied. and appropriate options for learning have not been provided. The district does not have a meaningful plan for chronically ill students whose conditions fluctuate, students who are medically vulnerable and struggling to stay connected in school. The district does not have a plan to recognize when children are hospitalized and how to get them back integrated into school when they are already behind. When a child is at their most fragile, that is when a system should lean in and not step back. My daughter did not fall behind because she cannot learn, She fell behind because the system did not respond. Please give my daughter a chance to obtain an education and stop putting rigid policy over individual needs and disability law. Thank you.

Thank you, Karen.

Good evening again, Board, at 20 to 10. I do want to talk a little bit about December 9th, when you adopted your Board of Education Governance Handbook. I didn't think I was going to pull this out again. But here we are, page 12. Michelle, President Rundler. There have been violations to the norms and protocols tonight several times, and you have not addressed them with your board. They are your board. You need to hold them accountable. I know that's scary. I know Melissa's got a big personality. I know Candy has a big personality. And I know big personalities in a room together is terrifying for someone who does not know how to manage big personalities. But you were elected president, so I need you to learn how to manage big personalities, and I need you to do your job. You adopted this. This is your responsibility to uphold. Not theirs. I mean, it should be theirs as well, but it is yours. So please, make this your focus. If you want to focus on students at the beginning so that we all have all good feelings while we're here, I appreciate that. I love hearing from the kids. But this, this is important for how they function with each other. And you, you are their leader. That's not what I wanted to come to say today. I actually wanted to come and talk to you for making the state of the district open to all community members. My CVHS student and I both found the information and the evening incredibly insightful. The very first goal for the district is literacy by third grade. And it was acknowledged that the reason for this is that after third grade, students are reading to learn. So if they don't know how to read, they can't read to learn. Makes perfect sense. I would ask this board, though, to go further with this goal and acknowledge that reading proficiency requires constant practice, like going to the gym, and that you would protect the space that provides guaranteed access to books for all students. That is a fully staffed school library. If literacy is truly a district goal, then school libraries and books should be a priority. But actions by this board and RUSD show otherwise. The layoff of all the classified library staff will hobble our literacy goal. The only library staff at RUSD elementary schools are those classified library paraprofessionals. You just effectively shut your elementary libraries down. There will be no trained professional staff to support our students' literacy. And the only staffing at the secondary school sites will be your credentialed teacher librarian, which means that one of two things is going to happen. The library will be either open to all students all the time, which is great and fantastic, but the collaboration with teachers and students and classes will be cut, or library services will be limited while they work with teachers and students. Thank you, Kate.

Next is Valerie Tabor, Craig Johnson, and Mark Lair.

Welcome back, Valerie.

Thank you. Um, first of all, I think that it is really disrespectful to staff that the layoff emails came today at 5 PM with less than an hour before the board meeting. Perhaps that is not the intention, but it felt disrespectful to many staff because I'm hearing about it. If you didn't want that, it makes the appearance that you didn't want them to be here angry at you. So maybe plan that a little bit differently next time. Uh, preferably not at 5 PM. That'd be great. Um, the second thing that I wanted to ask about is that you brought up that volunteers are not going to be able to. replace classified staff Mr. Cabral and if they are not allowed to replace the classified paraprofessionals then Ms. Appleby is indeed correct that you are effectively shuttering our libraries because if you cannot have the volunteers go back to running them which is what the case was for many of our elementary schools and you cannot afford to keep them staffed then how do they run? How do students have access to the libraries? I would really like to know what the plan is for that because my student is an elementary school and I would like him to have access for the next four to five years that he's on that campus. Second of all, I have no idea what Dr. Wilson's preferences are, but it hits wrong that you call him Rudy. If I had a doctorate, I would want to be referred to as a doctor. That's the minimum respectfulness. That's it.

Thank you, Valerie. Welcome Craig.

Hey, how you guys doing?

I, uh, I'm gonna keep it polite. I'm not going to try to be rude. Um, I've been waiting for a Title IX investigation for a report. That'll be two years in September. My nephews were molested at Franklin Elementary, and I don't know who did it. Was it a faculty member? Was it a teacher? I spoke to you many times, Rudy. I've been really cool, and I'm really upset. The way I'm containing myself right now, the way I'm acting, is not the way I feel at all. And I... It sucks to have to do this. It's going to be two years. I don't know what happened to my nephews. There's also eight other children in there that were molested. Do you guys know about that? Are you guys okay with that? How long does it take to type up a report? Who was in it? What happened? I talked to you about it, Mr. Cabral. You got any words for me? Anything? How long would it take you to type up a report? Mr. Wilson, how long? I want answers. The things I deal with, you guys wouldn't fucking imagine. I wake up at 3 a.m. Somebody just soiled themselves. They're screaming. They're having night terrors. I got a full-time job. I work more hours than you can imagine. I still do it day in and day out. How long does it take to report? I can't get the help that they need if I don't know what happened to them. I don't know what happened to them. Do you guys know? Are you guys complicit in that? What happened? Is this okay with you guys? Are you guys going to go home? You guys got kids? You guys going to go home and stare at your kids and be like, fuck. What are you going to tell them? What are you going to look at them? What are you going to do? What am I going to do? I just want my answers. I've been calm. I feel like I'm handling myself very appropriately. You know? Like, I'm fucking shaking right now. I'm so upset. This is not the way I want to handle it. And, man, like, this honestly isn't even the individual I am. I would handle this so poorly a million times over. But I'm trying. I've been patient. I've been more than patient, bro. It's going to be two years. Two years in September, Rudy. I've came to you so correct. I've came to you so polite, so kind. Come on. It doesn't take that long. I need answers. Mr. Cabral, I need answers. Are you going to do something about this? Are you guys okay with this? There's eight other kids. You guys are staring at me. I got all your guys' attention. That's real. I want answers.

Thank you, Craig. Thank you.

Are you guys going to take care of it? Thank you.

I will direct the superintendent to follow up with you and figure this out. I want a report. Two years in September, my kids were molested. Okay, okay.

yeah I think it's my turn now right I know that was heavy do we need a moment okay Well, I will say I do feel, I mean, I feel slightly validated by some of these people that have come up here and spoken tonight because as a community member, I haven't felt listened to. And now I'm seeing its parents too. And it makes me really disheartened to see that. I'm going to read Michelle's own words back to her because I hope that we're keeping this promise going forward, Michelle. I am a proud parent. It is both an honor and a responsibility to serve the communities of the Redlands Unified School District. As a board member, I have successfully and actively listened to all stakeholders in our district. I'm a stakeholder. I don't feel listened to. Many parents don't feel listened to. I have worked hard to represent their concerns. You are my representative. I feel tonight, one of your votes, you heard me out. I could see it. And so I'm grateful for that, but I'd like to see more going forward, Michelle. And have set policies that include their ideals grounded in the best interest of all. Grounded in the best interest of all. When I look at the statistics for my LGBT students, and I wish I had them pulled up right now, I got distracted. Gender affirming schools literally just recognizing pronouns was one of the statistics, and I know not everybody agrees with them. Even I have a hard time, I mess up, right? But it literally saves lives according to the statistics, according to the experts. That's one of the things. And if you have any questions or concerns about that, you can turn that to the American counselors association, American psychiatric association, PTA, national PTA, all of them. So, um, I also feel as though Michelle, um, You could have addressed and censured Candy for last meeting. I even reached out to you personally. And I reached out pretty respectfully. And I just was asking for a follow-up. And I'll be honest with you, I don't think you knew the social media settings you were changing. But my response to that direct message was you disabled the ability to message you. which made me feel really unheard. It was the opposite of a response. It was a non-response, and it kept me from contacting you in the future. I would like for you to look into that, because even if you don't reply, I would like to be able to contact my board member, either by Instagram or by email. But if we have an account where we're running for school board, it should be accessible to the public, and I should be able to message you. So please, can you look into that for me? Anyways, I'm tired. It's been a long night. Thank you for your time. Please be mindful going forward of those things.

Thank you, Mark. Next, we have Greg Britton, followed by Antonio and Brian Sagers.

Welcome, Greg.

Thank you. We've heard a number of times tonight that we should focus on things that matter. But of course, the left is highly focused on culture and the cultural aspect of what happens in school. Why? Because it does matter. Remember, I quoted Lincoln to you. The philosophy in the classroom in one generation becomes the philosophy of government in the next generation. And hence, the focus of the left on indoctrinating, sexualizing our children, not just here in Redlands, but across the country. But in a great victory for common sense and common decency, as you probably heard, it wasn't discussed tonight, unfortunately, was the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the injunction in Mirabelli v. Olson, which provides that, among other things, parents and guardians have a federal constitutional right to be informed if their public school student child expresses gender incongruence. That's not just that you can tell them. They have a constitutional right to know. That means you've got to tell them. And is this district, is this board going to bring that up and make sure that the district staff understands that? The injunction goes on to say that teachers and school staff have a federal constitutional right to accurately inform the parent or guardian of their student when their student expresses gender incongruence. These federal constitutional rights are superior to any state or local laws, state or local regulations, state or local policies to the contrary. That is the law of the land. I hope that this district will promptly implement them, not only because it's the law, because it's common sense and common decency. There's another initiative petition circulating for school choice. And as of a week or two ago, it had 600,000 signatures, triple the number of the previous attempt. As a number of us have cautioned you, that if you keep doing things that your customers The parents don't like they're going to take their business elsewhere. And increasingly, even without a school choice program at the state level, they have increasingly the ability to do so. There's excellent homeschooling programs. There are homeschooling cooperatives. There are private schools. And with AI, the ability to convey information without all of you will only increase. So I suggest if you want to keep doing what you're doing, if you want to keep your jobs, as well as presumably trying to educate the children, you need to focus on those basics and improve your game and not do the left's culture work.

Thank you, Greg. Welcome, Antonio.

Hello. Today, I am speaking on behalf of Rainbow Rose and RUSD Against ICE. We were the student-led group that organized the walkout. The reason why we organized the walkout was to demonstrate how we could mobilize the student body into taking direct action. We also wanted to convey our demands to the school board, considering how you have ignored our voices for the past year. Now, we sent a email on the 20th of February. That email was met with an automatic reply. So, it seems that you have ignored us. Now, this may not be intentional, but we will restate the demands once again to make sure it is clear. We want insurance from you guys that if any state thugs are deployed onto our school to kidnap any of our students, security will actually protect them and you will put safety as a top priority like you claim you do. Our second demand is that There is a rescinding of all the discriminatory policies you have put forth, as they only serve to put marginalized communities, such as the queer community, in harm's way. Again, that is not safety, that is putting people in danger. Now, I want to go on a personal note. I want to thank Dr. Wilson for his work earlier today, you know, correcting the statement and keeping on track. But I also want to say it is disgusting how we sat here and let someone do great replacement theory and white man's burden and no one called it out. Keep in mind, these conspiracy theories were literally created by Jeffrey Epstein, you know, the pedophile. So I'm going to say this. You are so representative of the Epstein class. You allow children to be molested. You allow children to be raped. And what have you done for it? We saw that man wait four hours to yell about how his kids were molested. And you sat there and gave him no answers. That is fucking disgusting.

Last one. Ryan.

Hi. My name is Brian Seegers. I live in Area 5.

Oh, Brian, I'm sorry. I thought she said Ryan.

Good. Thank you. About a month ago, my kid was strangled by another student, Jeanette. And when it happened, nurse notified me, went to the school. No answers were given. Talked to... Assistant principal, I'm sorry, I'm just trying to run through this as fast as I can in three minutes. No answers, walked outside, spoke with Officer Beck. Officer Beck understood what was going on. We were told it was under an investigation by school safety. My son came home. There were no pictures taken of his neck. He was, I guess, strangled to the point where his necklace broke. So when he came home, he still had the red mark around his neck. And the next day he returned to school. The student that did it was still in school and was still also in the same classroom. So I went back to the school and was told by the assistant principal again that they couldn't get a hold of the kid's parents. And that so they couldn't move him. I asked why they couldn't move my son. Got a bunch of other answers run around. I was escorted outside by school safety again. And later that day, my son took it upon himself to go get changed out of his classroom. Nobody in administration took that upon themselves to make that happen. Nothing else was really said to us. Saturday night, I finally just made a Facebook post, figuring that I had to at least get it out there. that's when we got some traction. The principal and the assistant principal were not on site when this happened. The other assistant principal and principal weren't on site, so they found out about it Sunday. Monday went back in. The assistant principal that was there was, I guess, dismissed. Anyways, I've went through everything, Title IX, which doesn't sound, there's not much confidence in that after hearing that man speak. Anyways, I sent you guys all an email about a standardized... violent incident protocol after speaking to other administrators at other schools, counselors, and then concerned parents throughout the district. And it was basically a way for somebody like me when I come into the school and I'm asking you what is going on and why can't I get these answers? You guys can literally point to a sign on the wall that says we're on step four. We're getting to where you're at at five and that's happening. Just something, something. So it's showing a step-by-step thing. Um, I feel like that would help the teachers, help administrators, and then parents that don't understand what's going on. I do appreciate Mr. Cabral, Ms. Olson. They replied to my email, and you guys have walked me through it. I appreciate the steps that you have taken, and I just hope to prevent it from happening again in the future to any student. Thank you.

Thank you, Brian.

That was our last speaker.

Does anybody have any board comments?

I actually just had a quick request. Are we going to be able to go back into closed session after this to have the discussion?

If the board would like.

I would like to. Okay.

All right. Sounds good. Okay. Any board comments?

I have some comments. I appreciate the speaker that just came forward and a resolution had been submitted regarding the actions that he described for a step-by-step process. I think that would be a great idea, especially with contact information for parents, so that parents can see at each school site, we have, this is your first line of contact, then your second line of contact, who do you contact next, all the way up until a superintendent. And I spoke with Juan, and I think, do we need to put that on the agenda as something you can do, or are you agreeable that we could have that at each school site? Not only posted, but also... An informational handout for a parent who's been subjected with their kid in a violent or severe, any type of incident where their concern has been unresolved. And here's the next steps forward.

As far as having like a step-by-step, I think there's... I don't... believe that we need to bring a policy, I think we can come up with something that would be consistent for every school site.

But especially with the contact information, right? We can get that done? Yes. Okay.

As far as the principal, vice principal, just the kind of chain of command? Yes.

I would appreciate that. And I also think that when I was looking up information regarding this, I noticed that our bullying policy regarding physical incidents of violence, AR 5131.2, doesn't address a couple major points as to when parents need to be contacted after an incident, which is why I've requested it be placed on the next agenda. So hopefully we'll see it there for a couple corrections. I would also like to point out that, yes, to those concerned about parent secrecy, we will be following the law, and no teachers will be keeping secrets from parents, and that education will be going out through the superintendent, through all of our schools. I have also requested that we pass... No deception policy also, so that we are very clear that our teachers are not to deceive parents in any way or staff regarding secrets, since now it's against the law to do so. So hopefully we could see those two on the next agenda.

I'm glad for the few of you who stayed. Just want to thank Victoria for coming tonight to talk to us about Odyssey of the Mind and their projects. Nice to see students still doing that, Odyssey of the Mind. We had another wonderful superintendent's awards evening a few weeks ago. And then state of the district where attendees heard about some of the great things that were happening in our district, as well as some areas that we will continue to work towards making better. The compact intermixer and the mock interviews were once again a lot of fun to participate in. I'm so impressed with our students and the motivation and the drive they have to excel and create the futures that they desire. A highlight for me was at Judson and Brown and Brian Zander's fifth grade classroom. They built and programmed their spike cycles made out of Legos. And then they race across different kinds of terrain that they make. And then they do an uphill course. And it was fun. My husband Dan and I watched as the students rooted for each other, celebrating victories and encouraging with compassion the losses. I found myself cheering right alongside with them and thinking, well, their parents must be really proud of them. These young kids were just so compassionate with each other when the bike fell off the side and the little boy started crying. So their friend came and got it. It was really sweet. I enjoyed Read Across America last week. I was able to go to Judson and Brown, Bryn Mawr, Kingsbury, Franklin, and Smiley. The students are always so welcoming, and they have student leaders that take you around, which is really fun. I just want to thank the principals and teachers and the PTA volunteers who make this week so special every year. Um, Bryn Mawr received a grant from San Bernardino County superintendent of schools for a literacy related event. Their PTA hosted a laser light show for students last week, complete with globe bracelets for each student. It was wonderful to see the students interacting with the presenter and getting so excited when the lasers lit up the screen, uh, in the story that he was telling. Um, the County superintendent said that if any school PTA would like to apply for the grant, they still have money left. They're encouraged to do so. Um, You go to sbcs.net to apply no later than two months before your expected assembly date, and the grant amount is $1,000 per each PTA. I attended the beginning of the Charlotte Huck Festival with Superintendent Cabral. He did a great opening, and he welcomed all the attendees. This Thursday is another Kohl for School event at Kohl's. I'm so grateful to the Redlands League that's able to provide $100 in clothing for for many, many students in our district that are in need. And I want to thank Julie Town and her team of volunteers that make it all possible. And last week, I watched Maureen Beatty in the soccer game. I'm looking forward to the championships tomorrow night. I am also looking forward to the Ritalin's Council PTA brunch next week. So just hope you all enjoy the rest of your week. And that's all I have.

I just wanted to say that it is Women's History Month. I didn't do as much as Michelle this month, but I did still do a lot. I want to thank everybody in the Adult Transition Program for our Studio 24 lunch. It's always fantastic together. I love doing that. It's a very nice serotonin boost. Love it. The kids are great. Also, our Superintendent's Award. Thank you to everyone who does that and work it right into our day. I mean, it's hard sometimes at the end of the day, but it's still great to celebrate our kids. I, the state of the district, thank you. It was a beautiful event. But I also specifically want to thank Karen, Rebecca, and Christine for everything that they do. But those videos, I know that took a lot of time to edit those and put them together. And they were beautiful videos. So thank you very much. We very much appreciate that. And yes, Read Across America. I did get to go to Bryn Mawr, Franklin, and Arroyo and get to read to a lot of littles. Even the second and third graders were great audiences. And I loved picking out the books. Our librarians provided a great variety of books, some that I had never even read. So it was a great experience for everyone all around us. So I just want to thank everybody for that, and thank you for inviting us and providing that opportunity because it was really a great way to start my day. So thank you.

Well, I just wanted to report out a couple things in addition to all the events that Michelle listed. I won't list them all again, but they were great. I loved actually Read Across America. That's amazing how much work the schools put into putting those events on for the kids, and very organized. Just really, really good job that they do. And the State of the Union, I thought, went off very well. One thing I did attend that hasn't been mentioned is the AAUW group at University of Redlands puts on a STEM conference for 8th grade girls, and I went to some of that, and it was very organized, very... Good experience for the girls to learn about some of the women who are involved in STEM careers and what got them interested. And I just thought it was a really, really great event. And then, as I had promised, I have spent some time meeting with staff at Cal State San Bernardino regarding the BSW and MSW internship programs, which I'm hoping might result in some supportive services for the district. And I've passed the information on to Juan to follow up on that. And I do want to say, even though there's only four people here, but hopefully more people are watching, that I take notes at the meeting. I follow up with Juan or the appropriate cabinet member to follow up on the top. Well, we all do. We follow up on issues that come up at the public comments. We're not able to have a dialogue immediately. right at the time. And sometimes if people are new to public comment, they're not aware that we're not able to do that. So I just wanted to explain that and let people know that we do follow up on areas of concern and provide some interventions and support as appropriate. Thank you.

Just a couple things since it's getting late. I just want to thank Juan and staff for the state of the district. It was well done, all of you who put time in. And keeping it in an hour is great because parents come straight after, so I think that's always a positive. And then thanking everyone for Read Across America. It's always great to go and see. And then I just want to wish everyone a wonderful spring break, and I hope you get some time to rest because we won't be back before then. So thank you very much.

Just really quick, the board is considering a new procedure that we may implement next meeting, and I wanted to say it publicly right now as part of a notice, because it will be in the agenda. We are looking to have one total opportunity for the public to share comments for agendized items and public comments by shifting our agenda so that all of that happens at the start of the meeting. as opposed to where we have agenda items and then we break it up and then later on there's public comments. And so it'll be better described in writing when we agendize our, but I wanted to publicly announce that the board has discussed that and it's likely a process that we will follow at the next meeting, giving everybody an opportunity to speak a combined amount of time for agenda items and general comments. And then a quick announcement, on March 28th, SEPTA is doing a walk and roll, which is a disability walk and resource fair from 10 to 2 at Citrus Valley. It's the first annual. It's in partnership with many of our community partners, and SEPTA is the lead in this. Pretty excited about it. It is during our spring break. But if anybody has an opportunity to go to Citrus Valley, March 28th, walk and roll disability walk and resource fair from 10 to 2. And that's all I have. Okay. Anybody have anything else? Well, actually, really quick, REV, Distinguished School. We just found that out today. So congratulations to Principal Camper and all her staff. They are a California Distinguished School. Just came out today. I sent everybody an email with the letter from the state superintendent so you can see the reason. Thank you. Okay.

And we're going to go into closed session.

Right?

That's what was requested, yes. We're going to go into closed session at 10.14.

There's no action taken, so this meeting is adjourned at 10.40.

43. 10.43. 10.43.