RUSD Board of Education — May 10, 2022

Half the recording is a retirement ceremony. The environmental report that cleared the way for the Redlands East Valley High School stadium was read, moved, discussed in two lines and adopted in about eighty seconds, to a public hearing at which nobody spoke.

📄 On sourcing: no adopted minutes for this meeting are on file, and none are held anywhere in this archive. This recap is built from the published agenda and the meeting recording. A recording establishes what was said, never reliably who said it — the speaker labels on this transcript are automated, and 57 of its 120 turns carry an automated voice match rather than an identification. So this page describes what was said without naming who said it, and it reports no vote breakdown of any kind.

The board met at Clement Middle School, with closed session at 5:30 p.m. in the teacher lounge and open session at 7:00 p.m. 1. Open session ran late — "We're actually starting just a little bit late, my apology" — and opened with the Pledge of Allegiance 2, then a roll call 3. The recording's last words come at 1:14:31 61.

The first item of business was approval of the April 26, 2022 minutes, listed on the agenda with the draft attached 4. A motion was called for at 0:01:16 5 and the item was approved before the clock reached two minutes 6. Those April 26 minutes are not in this archive either, and neither is any minutes document for this meeting.

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🏟️ Eighty seconds for the stadium report

The agenda noticed a public hearing on the Final Environmental Impact Report for the Redlands East Valley High School Stadium 14. It was the third of three hearings held back to back, and no member of the public asked to be heard at any of them; the third one opened, drew thanks from the dais for the work behind the document, and closed inside a single turn — "So no other comments. That public hearing is closed" 15.

The action came later in the night. Item XII.a asked the board to adopt Resolution No. 42, 2021-22, approving the Final Environmental Impact Report, mitigation measures and monitoring program for the proposed stadium, adopting written findings under the California Environmental Quality Act, approving the project, and delegating authority to staff to execute the Notice of Determination 16. The turn in which the resolution is read aloud begins at 0:49:00 17. Discussion ran to two lines — "It was an exciting thing to read" 18 and "Very, very exciting. I was going to take time to read some of it tonight, but I think it's in the agenda, so people should read that" 19 — and the outcome was announced at 0:50:19 20. Read to result: about eighty seconds.

What that resolution certified was not a small project. The state clearinghouse record says "the proposed project would disturb approximately 6.95 acres of the western side of the approximately 60.1-acre campus" 22, and the state's notice record for it describes "bleacher seating for 3,000 people, lighting, a home ticket booth and restroom/concession building, and visitor ticket booth and restroom/concession building," together with landscaping, new chain-link fencing and access improvements 21. The Notice of Determination the resolution delegated was received by the state on May 11, 2022, the day after this meeting 21.

The stadium was a standing preoccupation: the board's own standing committee list included a line for "The Coalition to Support RUSD in the Completion of a REV Athletic Stadium," a committee for one construction project 23. Building followed quickly. The archive's December 12, 2023 agenda carries a Notice of Completion for Bid 10-22, Redlands East Valley High School Stadium Track & Field Improvements — a contract that agenda dates to May 24, 2022, two weeks after this meeting, with the work verified complete as of December 4, 2023 24.

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🍎 Half the meeting was a retirement ceremony

The evening's one scheduled presentation was recognition of the 2021-2022 district retirees 7. It began right after the minutes vote, at about the ninety-second mark, with prepared remarks framing retirement as "a time to look back with satisfaction" and "a time to look ahead with anticipation" 6. Retirees were called forward one by one with their school, job title and years of service, greeted, and handed a crystal apple; then the meeting broke for photographs and did not resume until 0:39:15 of the recording 9.

The totals announced from the floor: "approximately 30 retirees able to attend," representing "696 and a half years of service to the district"; another 32 who could not attend, "bringing the total to 63 retirees this year," with 701 years between them; and a class total of "1,397 and three-fourths years" 8. The two subtotals as announced add to 1,397 and a half, a quarter-year short of the announced grand total, and 30 plus 32 is 62 rather than 63 — the attendance figure was given as approximate.

The one person who filed a card to speak on an agendized item used it on this one, thanking the board for the recognition and describing what the work costs: "Educators put forth time and effort into making their students thrive, working evenings, weekends, as well as summers" 11.

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🗣️ Public comment: school food, the playground, and a new parents' group

Three people spoke during the second public participation period, after the board had finished its business 49.

School meals. The first speaker returned to a request she said she had made repeatedly: "I have strongly suggested at each meeting to start a farm to school program," using the farms "within a rock's throw" of the district, teaching basic cooking that needs no kitchen, and "eliminating all processed foods from our schools". She read out a monthly menu — chicken taquitos, cheese pizza, corn dog, teriyaki chicken — and argued the result was visible: "We are not seeing strong, healthy, educated kids exiting Redlands Unified School District." The same comment turned on the district's pandemic decisions: "You overstepped your boundaries when you closed schools, distant taught, and masked our kids" 52. The district's own nutrition policy, last revised in January 2011, already commits it to food "carefully selected so as to contribute to students' nutritional well-being and the prevention of disease" and directs staff to "encourage the participation of students and parents/guardians in the selection of foods of good nutritional quality for school menus" 53.

Volunteering, and "medical choice" A parent speaking to the board for the first time said there are "many moms who want to be back on campus and want to help, but they can't because of their medical choices," and asked for it to be handled openly: "We have sent emails in solidarity of medical choice and hope that the board chooses to address this issue formally and not simply behind closed doors." She added a second, narrower complaint — "you cannot currently volunteer on the playground" even where classroom and large-event volunteering is allowed — and tied it to the discipline discussion the board had just had, arguing that recess is where much of the trouble happens 54.

A new group. The third speaker introduced a newly formed group of local mothers, saying its job "is to implement positive solutions in our communities and in our schools and in our homes so that we can help our children rise up." A parent of four district students, she said this was "the first year of our lives that I've had to call the school 20 plus times," that she had considered withdrawing her children and decided against it, and that the group's first aim was relieving staff: "These teachers are tired. They're worn out" 55.

A note on the three-minute rule. The first public participation period was opened with this recital: speakers must submit "a completed registration card," and the chair will "limit the amount of time which a member of the public may use in addressing the board to three minutes, unless the chairperson or a majority of the board determines that a different time limit would be appropriate" 9. The second period was opened with the same three-minute limit in different words, adding "We can always add time if it is determined by the chairperson or the board that a different time limit would be appropriate" 49. The board's own bylaw sets a different default: "Individual speakers shall be allowed five minutes to address the Board on each agenda or nonagenda item," with the qualifier that "With Board consent, the President may increase or decrease the time allowed for public presentation, depending on the topic and the number of persons wishing to be heard" 10. The version in the district's policy manual carries a last-revised date of October 9, 2007, well before this meeting, so that was the bylaw in force on the night; what was recited from the dais was the three-minute limit, not the five-minute one.

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⚖️ Three expulsions, and a wider argument about student behavior

Three stipulated expulsions were on the agenda as items XIV.e, f and g — students 2021-2022-023, -024 and -025, two of them running into the first semester of 2022-23 35. They were taken as a block: "Letter E, F, and G, let's take those together" 34, and approved at 0:55:25 38. No individual case was discussed; the one exchange they prompted opened by saying it was "not specifically on these expulsions" 36.

What discussion there was went wider. One voice from the dais opened by saying it was "not specifically on these expulsions" and then described a system under strain: "I feel like there's something in the water because we have a tremendous amount of discipline, and I know it's all over the United States, not only pertinent to Redlands." The message to site administrators was explicit — "just know that the board is behind the administrators, and we support the consequences to ensure that we have safety at our school sites" — with the caveat that "we're also going to make sure we follow all Ed Code rules and regulations" 36.

A second voice from the dais turned it toward parents, offering help to families whose children are "making bad choices and struggling with their behavior and having a difficult time at school," and putting the cause plainly: "they're not the same post-pandemic as they were pre-pandemic" 37.

One thing this agenda does not do is say why. Each of the three items gives the student number and the length of the expulsion and stops there 35. Later RUSD agendas print the grounds: by March 2024 each of that agenda's expulsion items states the subsection, in the form that the student "was recommended for expulsion in violation of Education Code 48900 (a)(1) Caused, attempted to cause, or threatened to cause physical injury to another person," or the equivalent subsection 39.

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📚 Four textbooks, two empty hearings

Two of the three public hearings were about curriculum: one on the Spanish titles 12 and one on the science titles. Both opened and closed without a speaker — "Is there anyone wishing to address the board regarding the Temas textbook in El Español para Nosotros?" 13, then "Seeing none, that public hearing is now closed" 15.

The four adoptions followed as items XIV.a through XIV.d, all for grades nine through twelve beginning in 2022-23: "Conceptual Physics" (Savvas Learning Company) for physics, "Physics" (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) for honors physics, "El Español Para Nosotros" (McGraw Hill Education) for Spanish for native speakers, and "Temas" for Advanced Placement Spanish 33. They were taken in one block, and the result was announced at 0:52:33: "those textbooks are all approved" 34.

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💻 Virtual-meeting authority, renewed on the clock

Item XII.b asked for Resolution No. 43, 2021-2022, continuing the board's authority to hold virtual meetings under AB 361 25. It was read out and moved at 0:50:19 20, and the result was announced at 0:50:44 26.

This was maintenance, not a decision. As the district's own agendas explain, "AB 361 now requires the Board to make findings justifying continuing to hold virtual Board meetings within 30 days of the first virtual meeting after October 1, and every 30 days thereafter" 27, so the item came back meeting after meeting — Resolution No. 5, 2022-2023 that July.

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📋 An action item that was not on the published agenda

Immediately after the AB 361 vote came this: "There's an amendment to the agenda. Item number 13A, you'll see in your board packet, it's been provided" 26. What followed was a motion "to approve four members of the swim team from Redlands High School to travel by van to Clovis, California to compete in the CIF State Swim Meet, effective May 12th through May 14th" 29, approved at 0:51:48 30.

The published agenda in this archive has no such item. Its section XIII, Educational Services Consent Items, reads "XIII.a. None." 28, and that document was published on May 6, four days before the meeting 32. The board's bylaw requires that agendas "briefly describe each business item to be transacted or discussed" 31. Whether an amended agenda was separately posted before the meeting is not something this archive can show — the record here is the May 6 document, the board packet reference from the dais, and the vote. The trip itself was two days away.

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🧾 The consent calendars, and three policy items inside them

Business services consent covered items XI.b through XI.q 40. The motion came at 0:48:19 41 and the result at 0:49:00 17. Inside that block: a payment transmittal of $4,532,191.19 44; Bid 16-22, fencing at Orangewood High School, awarded to "the lowest responsible/responsive bidder Econo Fence Inc." 45 in the amount of $179,000.00 62; and three policy items — revised titles, revised codes, and deletions or rescissions of board policies and administrative regulations recommended by the California School Boards Association, each taking both of its readings at once, the first of them marked "[First and Second Reading]" 42.

That last detail is worth pausing on. The board's bylaw on policy adoption allows exactly this — "The Superintendent or designee or Board may waive the second reading or may require an additional reading if necessary" — while also providing that "Only policies formally adopted by a majority vote of the Board shall constitute official Board policy" 43. And the consent mechanism is meant for "items of a routine nature or items for which no Board discussion is anticipated and for which the Superintendent recommends approval" 31. So a set of policy-manual changes received both of its readings and its adoption in a single unremarked block lasting roughly forty seconds.

Human resources consent ran from XV.b to XV.cc 46, moved at 0:55:42 47 and approved at 0:56:07 49. It included a $1,000 stipend for certificated, classified and management staff who completed six hours of voluntary professional development under memoranda signed with the teachers' association in March 2022 and with the support professionals' association the day before that 48.

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🔒 Out of closed session

Closed session, held before the open meeting, covered a labor negotiator conference, a public employee appointment 50, a performance evaluation, and a consultation with the superintendent on a "THREAT TO PUBLIC SERVICES OR FACILITIES PURSUANT TO GOVERNMENT CODE SECTION 54957" 51.

One action was reported out in open session: an appointment to "the position of Director II, Expanded Learning Opportunity Program, effective July 1st, 2022, at year five of the management team salary schedule" 49. The person appointed is named in the recording. With no adopted minutes to confirm it, this page does not name them.

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🗂️ Committee reports and board comments

Committee reports were short. A ribbon cutting was announced for the next day at the regional occupational program the agenda lists as the "Colton Redlands Yucaipa-Calimesa Regional Occupational Program [CRY-ROP]" 23, described from the dais as the end of a long wait: "It's been a working in the make for many years that we've rented, and now we're able to celebrate 18 years later with this wonderful building" 56. The Redlands COMPACT report passed on a request from the students themselves: move the mock interviews to January "so that it doesn't interfere with AP testing and spring break, because that was kind of chaotic for them this year" 57.

The staff report congratulated an athletic director named CIF Southern Section Athletic Director of the Year, and the Citrus Valley High School athletic department on a Citrus Belt Area sportsmanship award, and thanked the Redlands Optimist Club for the Optimist Games held on Thursday, April 28, where "350 special needs students from across the district come and participate in 24 different track and field events," supported by "300 student volunteers from the various high schools" 58.

Board comments covered a foster-youth fundraising brunch, a leadership day at Bryn Mawr Elementary, and a fundraising conference, and marked two observances: "Tomorrow is the day of the teacher," and the following Tuesday, May 17, as Redlands Educational Support Professionals day 59. Another report covered a special education prom at Redlands East Valley — "Night Among the Stars" — an "evening of appreciation" the next night for the Redlands Educational Partnership, with congratulations to its nominees, and a Harlem Wizards fundraiser that drew "almost a thousand" people, "about three or four hundred more than the last time we did it" 60.

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📝 What this page does not say

Two things are deliberately absent. First, no name is attached to anything said here. This transcript was re-generated in September 2026 with automated speaker matching, and 57 of its 120 turns carry a name followed by a question mark — software's guess from the audio, not a record of who spoke. With no adopted minutes to check it against, every such label is treated exactly as an anonymous speaker number would be. Retirees, public commenters and the closed-session appointee are all named in the recording; none of them is named here.

Second, no vote breakdown appears anywhere on this page. The recording contains a roll-call read-out for the closed-session appointment and a chair's announcement after each open-session item, but a recording establishes what was said, never who voted how. That is the adopted minutes' job, and for this meeting there are none.