🗳️ December 12, 2023: the board reorganized for the year, certified its First Interim budget, and took public comment on a parade float, its own comment rules and safety at Cope

Redlands Unified's last regular meeting of 2023 was its annual organizational meeting, the night the Board of Education re-elects its own officers, hands out committee seats and re-adopts its policy manual. Melissa Ayala-Quintero, the outgoing president, called the open session to order at 6:00 p.m. with all five members present 1. The meeting adjourned at 7:24 p.m. 2.

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🪑 The reorganization

Board Bylaw 9100.1, on the district's books since 1995, sets out what an organizational meeting has to do: elect a president, vice president and clerk from the board's members, reaffirm the superintendent as secretary, authorize board signatures, develop a schedule of regular meetings, and designate board representatives 3. The agenda listed the officer elections and the outside-body seats in that order 35, and the minutes record each of them being acted on.

• President — Alex Vara, for a one-year term, filling Melissa Ayala-Quintero's expired term; the president takes the chair on election 1.
• Vice President — Michele Rendler, for a one-year term, filling Alex Vara's expired term 1.
• Clerk — Jim O'Neill, for a one-year term, filling Patty Holohan's expired term 4.
• Secretary of the Board — Juan J. Cabral, Superintendent of Schools, reaffirmed under Education Codes 35025 and 35035 4.

The board also set its outside representation. Melissa Ayala-Quintero and Alex Vara were continued as the district's representatives to the Colton, Redlands, Yucaipa-Calimesa Regional Occupational Program governing board for year two of two-year terms, with Patty Holohan as the voting alternate 4. Michele Rendler was elected representative to the County Committee on School District Organization, with Melissa Ayala-Quintero as her alternate 5.

Committee and commission seats went out as follows 5:

Two housekeeping actions closed the section: the board adopted all existing Board Policies, Bylaws and Administrative Regulations effective December 12, 2023, and designated the second and fourth Tuesday of each month at 6:00 p.m. in the board room at 25 West Lugonia as its regular meeting dates and place 5.

The officers rotate. A year earlier, at the December 13, 2022 organizational meeting, the same five members elected Melissa Ayala-Quintero president to fill Jim O'Neill's expired term, with Alex Vara vice president and Patty Holohan clerk 6. The board separately accepted nominations for the CSBA 2023 Delegate Assembly Sub-Region 16B, a slate of eight that included James O'Neill of Redlands USD 7.

💰 A positive certification, with a warning attached

The scheduled public hearing on the district's annual and five-year reportable fees report for 2022-2023 opened and closed at 6:15 p.m. with no one asking to comment 8.

Assistant Superintendent of Business Services Jason Hill then presented the First Interim Financial Report, which tracks actual revenues and expenditures through October 31, identifies what has changed since the Unaudited Actuals presented in September 2023, and folds in revisions from the State Budget adopted in June 2023 8. The minutes record his warnings plainly: the budget does not account for the costs of ongoing negotiations with the associations; School Services of California and the Legislative Analyst's Office expect the 2024-25 cost-of-living adjustment to come in close to 1% rather than the statutory 3.94%; and 2022 tax receipts arrived $26 billion below the 2023 Budget Act estimate 8. He told the board the district can meet its financial obligations for the current and next two fiscal years and expects a positive certification, "although rough economic times are around the corner for local education agencies" 8. On the recording he put it more bluntly still, saying "there are a little bit of rough times ahead" 9.

The board approved and certified the report 7. It also adopted Resolution No. 13 on the annual and five-year reportable fees report for 2022-2023 10, Resolution No. 15 authorizing state facilities applications through the Office of Public School Construction, and Resolution No. 16 designating banking authority for secondary-school associated student body accounts 7.

🧾 The retirement incentive that mattered later

The consequential money item was Resolution No. 17, which the board adopted, authorizing the district to enter an agreement with Public Agency Retirement Services to design and administer a Supplementary Retirement Plan for eligible certificated and classified employees, management and non-management, provided enough employees signed up 7. The agenda's write-up explains the point of it: an early-retirement incentive aimed at senior staff, intended to lift the number of retirements in 2023-24 and either generate savings or cost the district nothing, with PARS administering and Pacific Life Insurance Company as plan insurer 11.

It did not end there. Three months later the board adopted Resolution 25, 2023-2024 with PARS to design the plan, and the March minutes describe it as the same program that "was initially approved by the Board on December 12, 2023" 12. The SBCSentinel reported that month that 149 district employees were leaving voluntarily over the calendar year after taking the supplementary retirement plans it described as golden handshakes 13.

📚 The book-review process, explained from the dais

Superintendent Juan Cabral used his report to walk through how the district handles challenged library books, an argument that had been running at the board for more than a year. The minutes record him saying the process is long for several reasons, including the availability of the book and pending legislation; that after a book is investigated at the site level a decision may be appealed to the district level; that board policy does not require parents to sit on the committee, although Ken Wagner had included parents at both the site and district level; and that "eight books have been through site level review and have been deemed appropriate and are now being reviewed at the District level over the winter break" 14. Once the district-level review finishes, he said, board policy makes that the final step, and staff who take part receive stipends 14.

The recording fills in the mechanics. A site committee is at least four certificated staff who each read the book before meeting to decide whether it suits the school's level; one cause of delay is simply supply, because "sometimes we don't have even four copies of the book that's being questioned" and the district does not want to buy copies of a book under challenge 15. The district-level committee had been assembled with up to seven members drawn from librarians, teachers and district-office staff 15. Asked from the dais whether anything follows the district-level decision, the superintendent said technically nothing does, but that if someone appealed it would likely be brought to the board for a recommendation 16.

That is very close to what happened. On March 12, 2024 the process came back as a full discussion item, with the minutes recording Superintendent Cabral telling the board that complaints concerning instructional materials fall under its jurisdiction to consider a committee's decision, and that the board had last reviewed the process in October 2022 17. Community Forward Redlands covered that meeting, reporting that the board reviewed the district's book challenge policy as challenges to library books spiked nationwide in 2023 18.

🗣️ Public comment

Three people spoke from the floor near the end of the meeting and one emailed comment was read into the record 19. Updated printed guidelines had gone out with the comment cards that night, and were read aloud from the dais much earlier, when the agenda's first public participation section opened: rules of decorum, a caution that the right to criticize an employee or board member does not extend to slander, profanity as grounds for stopping a speaker, and a statement that under Education Code 7054 speakers may not support or oppose a ballot measure or a candidate for office, including candidates for the district's own board 20.

Joshua Hall told the board he did not think a group the minutes name as Safe Redlands Schools was living up to its name, because it had entered a Christmas-parade float carrying a drag performer dressed as an elf with children riding alongside, and parents and grandparents watching had not been told in advance 19. On the recording he argued that "children are a captive audience at these parade events" 21. The minutes also record him saying children need to be protected from that, and that a man should not put on a dress in close proximity of children 19. Neither the minutes nor the recording identifies the performer, and this page does not either.

Dale Broome told the board the public comment guidelines were rules designed to suppress parental criticism and the reading of library books to the school board, and to create an echo chamber so the board would not hear complaints or concerns; he said the legal team behind them had overreached, and urged the board to reconsider them as not a proper representation of the law or the First Amendment 19. On the recording he called the guidelines "the type of thing I would expect from a Marxist or a fascist government" 22. He spent the rest of his time describing a ballot initiative that would require California schools to notify parents about mental health concerns and gender transition at school and would bar biological males from girls' interscholastic sports from grade seven through college 19; on the recording he attributed it to ProtectKidsCA.com and said he was neither endorsing nor opposing it 22.

Valerie Taber, a parent living in Trustee Area 5, followed up on the Cope incident, saying she knew the district had put out a comment on the parent notification app but wanted to know the tangible steps being taken to keep students safe 19. On the recording she added that she appreciated the school safety officers and asked what the district was doing about weapons reaching campus 25. The background is grim: Community Forward Redlands reported in November 2023 that a loaded gun was found at Cope Middle School and that a public meeting with parents turned chaotic 23. Superintendent Cabral thanked the parents for the safety question and said the district is taking additional safety measures 24; on the recording he described a parent meeting held with the Cope community the previous Wednesday and offered to set a time to go through the specifics 26. Student Trustee Ethan Morse pressed the same point from the dais, saying students wanted to know what changes were being implemented across the district and had heard about metal detectors 27.

Deborah Arroyo's emailed comment thanked Michele Rendler for attending school events and said she found her personable and accessible, while noting that other board members do not attend as many 19. She added that she was disappointed and upset about the removal of a principal, Dr. Lock, that she was disappointed in district office leadership so far, and that she did not expect anyone to respond, since her last email had not been answered 24.

🎒 Students, reports and routine business

Student Trustee Ethan Morse led the Pledge of Allegiance 1 and delivered a campus-by-campus report on eAcademy, Orangewood, Citrus Valley, Redlands High and Redlands East Valley 8, running from a canned-food drive nearing 1,000 cans to a girls' cross-country team reaching the state finals for the first time in 24 years 28. Michele Rendler reported for Redlands COMPACT that its clubs were doing well and that Redlands High had collected 90 cans for the Thanksgiving food drive 28, with holiday cards made by students going to veterans in hospice 14.

As a discussion item the board traded reflections on the CSBA conference. Michele Rendler said she had enjoyed watching Redlands take another Golden Bell Award and would like to see RUSD staff presenting at some of the workshops 29. Melissa Ayala-Quintero said Ken Wagner should lead a workshop on how to win one 19. In his own report the superintendent congratulated Ken Wagner, the CSTEM team and the staff involved, noting it was the district's fifth Golden Bell in a row 24.

Routine business moved in blocks. Business Services consent carried nineteen items 14, among them Bid 7-24 for Citrus Valley High School gymnasium HVAC, awarded to the lowest responsible bidder, Dalke & Sons Construction, at $413,760 from COVID funds, and Bid 8-24 for a wide-area-network capacity circuit upgrade, awarded to Crown Castle at $102,000 30; both appear on the agenda at those figures 31. Payment transmittals for the night totalled $3,679,499.03 10. Educational Services consent covered school plan updates, a long run of student travel approvals and the district's 2023-2024 Reopening of School and Safety Plan 32. Three expulsion items were approved, identified in the record only by student number 33. Human Resources consent ran to thirty-eight lettered items 33, including revisions to Board Policy 4221 on the substitute and short-term employee hourly rate, effective January 1, 2024 34. As a separate action the board established a School Occupational Therapist position and job description effective December 13, 2023 29.

🎄 Closing

Board comments ran to the season and to the parade. Jim O'Neill, a Kiwanis member, said the club has put the Christmas parade on for more than 30 years and that this was the biggest ever, with 135 entries 27. Patty Holohan thanked RTA and RESPA for hosting the float in the parade and thanked the parents and staff who came to the second Cope meeting, saying she was sure the superintendent would follow up 27. Superintendent Cabral said he had taken part in the parade himself and thanked RTA and RESPA for the invitation 24. Alex Vara wished everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and reminded the room that a School Facilities Corporation meeting, a separate body with its own agenda and its own minutes, would follow adjournment 2.