RUSD Board of Education — September 27, 2022

Meeting Summary

Every school's safety plan was approved inside a consent block, while the four registration cards at community input carried the sharpest exchanges of the night

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The meeting opened with a moment of silence for two people: a former board member who had taught history, coached speech, debate and tennis, served as an officer of the California Teachers Association, and served the Redlands Unified School District for twenty years; and a 2020 graduate of Redlands High School, by then a third-year plant sciences student at UC Davis, who was killed while riding a bicycle to a university class 1. The board then took up the previous meeting's minutes 2 and approved them 3. Nobody had registered to speak on an agenda item, there was no public hearing, and no presentation was scheduled 3.

🗣️ Four cards, four different meetings

All of the evening's public comment arrived at the end, under community input, where four registration cards had been submitted and each speaker was held to three minutes 4.

The first speaker, a high school parent from trustee area five, made three arguments. All of the curriculum the district offers is taught by individual teachers, so parents should "continue to stay vigilant in conversations with their students about what's actually happening in the classroom." Speakers had come to this podium repeatedly to describe racism at Citrus Valley High School, and a site update the week before had not touched it: run a Kelvin survey, the speaker asked, "to find out whether or not people still feel like racism is a real problem at all the high schools, but specifically Citrus Valley". And on the Red Ribbon Week item then on the agenda, "I would recommend that you add social media addiction, device addiction to what you're doing during Red Ribbon Week," and suggested the district sponsor an "off the grid" where students are encouraged not to bring their devices to school 5.

The second speaker, from trustee area one, told the board "you guys have one of these", a book titled Beyond Magenta, read an explicit passage aloud, named Two Boys Kissing as similarly objectionable, and said This Book is Gay had recently been taken off the shelves "because it was getting a lot of attention." The books are on the front shelf of the high school libraries, the speaker said, and the district is not stopping it: "This is disgusting, and this is a reason why you guys should resign." 6

The third speaker argued that such titles were not merely available but promoted, "on display, being promoted to read on the top of the counter at the library," and asked "Why aren't we advocating for science or academic exploration?" The same speaker objected to teachers displaying pride flags in classrooms and on badges, saying "The sexual indoctrination of our kids is hugely inappropriate." 7

The fourth speaker came to thank the board, and in doing so described the room. Walking in had been jarring: "It was jarring to walk through a metal detector" and to see "the very considerable police presence that's all around us," and more disturbing still that the events of the last couple of years had made it necessary. "I think that there's people that want to burn books," the speaker said, recalling that the history of the Third Reich included burning books, and thanked board members and staff for maintaining civility "when you were under constant ad hominem attacks" 8.

📌 Where these threads went

• Library materials. The district's own machinery for handling challenges was still being worked out a year and a half later, when the board reviewed its book challenge policy and took no action to ban titles 9. In August 2025 it gave final approval to a policy for removing books judged sexually explicit or otherwise objectionable from library and classroom shelves, over the opposition of scores of community members 10.
• Meeting security. The security posture was not a one-night measure. At the December 13, 2022 meeting a speaker thanked the board for the security measures taken at its October 25 meeting and asked that that level of security be kept at all future meetings, so the public could speak safely 11.

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🛡️ Safety plans for every school, approved on consent

The night's most consequential action was also its least discussed. The report from staff was that the comprehensive school safety plan for every single school was on the agenda for approval, that this is an Education Code requirement, and that the principals, school site councils and a district team had prepared them; amendments might come back during the year as site safety committees kept working 12. The plans sat inside the Educational Services consent block, items 14B through 14J 13, and the block was approved 14.

The district's own policy sets out a different procedure for them. Board Policy 0450, adopted in 1997 and last revised in January 2006, so in force for sixteen years by this night, has each school's site council write the plan, has each school forward it to the board, and states that the board "shall approve the plan at a regularly scheduled meeting and the adoption of the plan shall not be a consent item," with the board discussing at a minimum how the plan addresses each school's needs and how the three essential components of school safety were considered 15. What the recording shows instead is a consent vote and brief comment: one trustee said the safety-plan work was worth it precisely because the hope is never to have to rely on any of it 13, and another welcomed students being able to travel again to prospective colleges and band competitions 16.

The plans were approved days after a real test. Late the previous week a threat of violence was reported at Redlands High School; the report to the board was that Redlands police swept the campus, deemed it safe within about half an hour, and detained the individual who had called the threat in. Staff also set out a year of parent forums on safety topics: child sexual abuse prevention in September and October, human trafficking in November presented by a deputy district attorney, drug prevention and the dangers of fentanyl in February presented by the Redlands Police Department, and cyberbullying and social media in March presented by the county sheriff's department 12.

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🤝 Volunteers: the board's one piece of policy direction

Item 18, the meeting's only discussion item, carried forward a conversation begun at the previous meeting. Issues had come up in practice, the board had looked at Board Policy and Administrative Regulation 4229, Volunteers, and concluded the wording could be improved and the regulation updated so it reflects the district's support for volunteers 17. Staff restated three changes and asked the board to confirm them 18:

1. Drop the five-times threshold. The regulation singles out persons approved to serve as ongoing volunteers more than five times per year, and the board wanted a different approach.
2. Fix the tuberculosis clearance language. As written in 2005 it reads as a 60-day waiting period before approval; the intent was that the test fall within 60 days.
3. Add a grace period, so that a volunteer whose documentation is complete and validated may begin before formal board approval. In months with only one board meeting, a parent can otherwise miss the field trip waiting on a formality.

No motion was made and no vote taken, item 18 being a discussion item. Staff offered to put a proposed statement in the next superintendent's update 18, and the direction was confirmed from the dais 19. One trustee put the stake plainly, "volunteers are valuable to the success of our district so whatever we can do to make the process easier for them I'm all for that," 20, and the parents who raised the problem were thanked from the dais 21.

What the regulation says today. AR 4229 as published in the district's policy manual carries a last-revision date of October 25, 2022, four weeks after this discussion. It now requires that a volunteer's tuberculosis clearance "reflect a date that falls within 60 days of the submitted date to the District," states that "Volunteers may commence service prior to Board Approval if the necessary documentation has been completed and verified by School Site Administration and/or the Superintendent’s designee," and requires applications and board approval to be renewed each academic year. The five-times-per-year threshold does not appear in it 22. Years later the regulation was agendized again, this time to be folded into a renumbered AR 1240, Volunteer Assistance, for a second and final reading 23.

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🎗️ Red Ribbon Week

Resolution No. 14, 2022-23 supporting the National Red Ribbon Campaign and Red Ribbon Week, October 23 through 31, was taken on its own and read into the record 14, then adopted after discussion 24. The discussion was warm rather than contested. One trustee praised the activities schools had already lined up and the spirit weeks students look forward to 25; another liked schools braiding anti-bullying messaging into the week 26; a third called drugs "the ultimate bully in some ways" and, speaking of personal experience in their own family, "poison and it's a destroyer of lives" 24.

The suggestion from public comment that device and social media addiction be folded into the week came later in the evening, after the resolution had already been adopted, and the board did not return to it 5.

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🎓 Student voice

A student board member gave the report from Orangewood High School: back-to-school night and the first spirit week of the year, four games played so far by the school's softball team, participation in the 23rd annual HBCU recruitment fair, a bell schedule adjusted so there are more breaks and lunch comes later, and campus expansion adding fencing to the front and back patios 27.

Later, from the dais, came a proposal to bring the student member further into the proceedings through a student preferential vote: front-load each agendized item, then ask the student board member for a preferential vote, so students go through the process the board goes through and learn what board service involves 28. The board's own bylaw already provided for it. BB 9150, last revised in February 1995, says the student board member "may cast preferential votes on all matters except those subject to closed session discussion," that preferential votes "shall be cast prior to the official Board vote," and that they shall be recorded in the board meeting minutes 29. The response from the dais was that the student board would be taking the question up at its own meeting the following week 30.

It did. Two weeks later the board heard that the student members themselves wanted to know how they might go about getting a preferential vote on agenda items 31, and the mechanics were walked through from the dais: the student board member is asked first, the vote does not count, and the point is that the student participates in the process the board goes through anyway 32.

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📋 The rest of the business

Business Services consent items 12B through 12O were moved after staff corrected one item's description, so that a visiting speaker on equity and schooling would address staff at all four middle schools rather than the administrative team 3334. A question was raised about the two high school students selected under item G 35, and the block was approved 36. Human Resources consent items 16B through 16AE were moved with no corrections from staff 37 and approved 38; two Educational Services action items, 15B and 15C, were taken together and approved 39.

Two Human Resources action items followed. The board ratified and adopted an amendment to Resolution No. 9, 2022-2023, approving employment of certificated personnel for the 2022-23 school year on the basis of Commission on Teacher Credentialing approval and credential requirements 3840. It then established a Maintenance and Swimming Pool Worker II, Specialized position and approved its new job description at range 27 of the classified salary schedule on a 12-month work-year calendar, effective September 28, 2022 40. Asked from the dais what had been done for pool maintenance until then 41, staff said it had fallen to an existing specialized maintenance worker, and that the new post would let that person take on other work while this one focused on the swimming pools 42; the item was approved 17.

Committee reports covered about eight new staff recognized at a committee meeting, catching up from the summer, with students giving testimonies about their classes and career and technical education classes moving on 43; a Compact mixer set for October 5 at the Contemporary Club, open to anyone from a business willing to be interviewed by students practicing their first interviews, plus a steering committee meeting, campus club updates and mock interviews moved to January 44; and REP Foundation items including a November 24 Turkey Trot around Sylvan Park, TAGS grant applications that principals could submit from October 3, Arts Alive student showcase note cards on sale, and Thanksgiving- and winter-break enrichment camps 45.

The staff report carried the good news of the night. A 60-minute motion picture made by Bryn Mawr students, part of the district's digital storytelling program, was shown at a commercial theater with 550 tickets issued, and the district was working on reviving an awards night at the Redlands Bowl in May or June for student films, with a second 60-minute picture involving six schools in production. A college fest at Redlands High School brought 58 colleges and more than 700 students and parents, including from neighboring private and public schools. And roughly 80 students attended the United College Action Network's historically Black college and university recruitment fair at the Ontario Convention Center, which had already produced 13 acceptance letters and 10 scholarship offers as of that morning. The figure for students attending was given twice in the same passage, first as 80 and then as 85 12.

Board comments closed the night: a district employees' association meeting and a family services dinner attended, a Redlands High football game that drew 1,000 students after ASB cards for every high school student were funded through the LCAP committee, and a Garner Holt lab instructor named a finalist for a Golden Bell Award 46; a band competition at Citrus Valley High School grown from about four competing bands in its first year to some 17 or 18 in its fourth, and thanks to band parents at every high school 47; thanks for a three-hour budget workshop earlier in the week and a personal tribute to the former board member remembered at the opening 48; and a student production of Frozen Jr., a marching band preview with around 250 band and color guard members, a first podcast appearance, and remarks for National Hispanic Heritage Month before the meeting was adjourned 49.