November 12, 2024: A Farewell Meeting, One Week After the Election

The last meeting of this board before the post-election reorganization was, for most of its ninety minutes, a send-off. Two trustees who had each served eight years, Jim O'Neill and Alex Vara, were given proclamations, plaques and a long round of goodbyes, and the board then worked through a short business calendar that set up the December handover. It was also the first meeting after the November 5 election, and one of the two departures was not yet settled: Vara's own seat was still being counted, and would not be certified until December 3 2.

President Vara opened the regular session at 6:04 p.m., and the National Anthem was sung by Archer Anaya, a transitional-kindergarten student at Judson-Brown Elementary, who then helped lead the Pledge of Allegiance 1.

🎗️ Proclamations for a departing trustee

Vara introduced William Boyd, who presented O'Neill with a proclamation plaque on behalf of State Senator Ochoa Bogh; Superintendent Juan Cabral then presented O'Neill with a recognition plaque on behalf of Assemblyman Ramos, and a clock on behalf of the Board of Education 1. On the recording, the senator's representative read the proclamation aloud, telling the board it was made "in recognition of your warm hearted spirit and service to the community" 3. Cabral's citation on the Assembly's behalf recognized "serving eight years and numerous roles in the Redlands Unified School District Board of Education" 4.

Later in the evening Cabral thanked Vara for hiring him and for the good he has done for the community, presented him with a plaque and a gavel, and invited his family up for a photograph 15.

🗳️ Public comment: an election a week old

Four speakers addressed the board, and the record of the evening's community input begins not with them but with the mail. Six emails received before the meeting were distributed to the board and are attached to the published minutes 5. All six concern Candy Olson, then a candidate for the open Trustee Area 5 seat, and most of them link to or describe social-media video of her conduct; three ask the board outright to review the footage. The first, from Christopher Lugo, opens by expressing "concern regarding the conduct of a candidate named Candy Olson" 13. The minutes record no board discussion of them and no action on them, and on the recording they were acknowledged from the dais by the senders' initials only, rather than by name 14.

• Valerie Taber, who had been one of three candidates for that same Area 5 seat 6, told the board the district had found information on Measure "D" worth publicizing but not the school board race, and said the district has a responsibility to inform the community during election cycles 5. She also addressed transgender and queer students directly, and raised concerns about possible policy changes affecting pride flag displays and student disclosure practices 5. On the recording her message to those students was: "You have a whole community behind you. Queer and trans adults were all once queer and trans children. And this district won't change that by removing pride flags or creating forced outing policies" 7.
• Michael Paisner (the minutes spell it "Paisener" on this page) thanked Holohan and Ayala-Quintero for their service, expressed hope that Vara would stay involved in the community although his race had not been decided, and thanked O'Neill for his representation 5. On the recording, of O'Neill: "I don't have the words to describe how much you will be missed" 8.
• Becca Spence Dobias, an RUSD parent, volunteer and local Girl Scout leader enrolled in a teacher credential program, thanked the board and emphasized the importance of keeping students' best interests central and showing courage in decision-making 5. She told the board on the recording that it had "been courageous in the face of criticism and very real danger" 9.
• Members of Girl Scout Troop 636 asked for more funding for school libraries and librarians, for multilingual books at different reading levels, and for money that would let librarians run events encouraging reading 5. On the recording the troop made the case in their own words — "we don't have any different language books, then it's way harder to learn a new language" and "We need books at different reading levels because then we can have a book with a reading level that meets our needs" 10 — and added an ask the minutes do not capture: funding for loaner devices, because students who borrow one are put on a waiting list and "can't do their homework at home" 11. The troop was, in effect, quoting the board's own library policy back at it. BP 6163.1 says school libraries have a responsibility to provide "Materials that support and enrich the curriculum, taking into consideration students' varied interests, abilities, maturity levels and learning styles" 12.

The scouts are not named here. They identify themselves on the recording, but the minutes name only the troop, and a transcript label is not the record.

📊 2024 CAASPP: flat on top, uneven underneath

Jamie Cortz, Director of Innovation, Technology and Accountability, presented the 2024 CAASPP summary 1516. The headline numbers were close to unchanged:

Three of the four are described in the minutes as comparing favorably to county and state figures; for ELPAC the minutes record only the increase 1518. The presentation's own framing was that the flat topline hides the interesting parts. To illustrate, the presenter told the board, "data is kind of like an onion, as Shrek would say." Only a few layers would be peeled back that evening 17. Underneath, individual grade levels moved a great deal — the minutes record elementary ELA gains from 7.7% to 27.22% at schools including Judson-Brown, Kimberly, Mentone, Mariposa and McKinley, and math gains from 6.51% to 32.41% 15.

Worth holding alongside those figures: a November 2025 review of district results by Community Forward Redlands put the pre-pandemic baseline at 57.4 percent in ELA in 2019, well above where the district sat in 2024 19. Comparing favorably to county and state figures and returning to pre-pandemic performance are not the same claim.

Board questions after the presentation went to how the district's own benchmark testing lines up with state results. Cortz's answer was that the STAR assessment, not the district benchmarks, is the reliable predictor — the benchmarks cover only the standards taught at the time, so they measure progress rather than forecast the state test 20. The minutes do not record the exchange, and the trustees who asked the questions are therefore not named here.

🎓 REP announces $106,000 in grants

Jennifer Moore of the Redlands Educational Partnership Foundation told the board REP had donated over $106,000 to RUSD programs, that budgeted funds were not exhausted, and that the goal is to reach every student in the district 18; on the recording she attributed the unspent balance to the Grants for Principals program specifically 21. Introducing herself on the recording as REP's president, she added a detail the minutes leave out: "Sadly only one school throughout the district did not receive funding either through our grants for principals or grants for teachers program" 21. REP's own description of the program puts individual principal awards at up to $2,500 per eligible project 22. Twelve principals were called up and posed for a group photo with the REP representatives 18, collecting checks and window signs for their schools 21.

💼 What the board decided

The board approved its Business Services consent calendar, which carried Payment Transmittal Numbers 25000800 through 25000990 in the amount of $5,560,536.21, a geotechnical investigation agreement with John R. Byerly, Inc. for the Warehouse Conversion Project (Packinghouse) at a cost not to exceed $10,040.00, an American Bike Patrol Services training agreement not to exceed $7,000.00, a CharacterStrong training agreement not to exceed $5,000.00, an agreement with the San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools covering short-stay students at Loma Linda Children's Hospital, use of Therapyshoppe.com for transitional-kindergarten purchases without a formal bid, and rejection of two claims 1823. (A small discrepancy worth noting for anyone following the money: the agenda printed the bike patrol figure as $7,700.00, the adopted minutes as $7,000.00 1618.)

On the action calendar the board:

• Adopted Ordinance No. 1 (2024-1), levying special taxes within the district 23. The agenda records this as the ordinance's second reading, after which the board would cease acting as the legislative body of Community Facilities District No. 2024-1 24; the first reading had been set for the October 22 meeting 25.
• Adopted Resolution No. 21, 2024-25, declaring the district's intent to dedicate real property to Caltrans for state highway purposes and calling a public hearing for December 17, 2024 23. The property is at 25 and 20 West Lugonia Avenue, and the agenda notes a two-thirds vote was required 24. The dedication itself came back as Resolution No. 24 on the December 17 agenda 30.
• Adopted Resolution No. 22, 2024-25, allowing the district to exceed 10% of an original contract 26. The underlying job is the Citrus Valley High School gymnasium HVAC installation awarded to Dalke & Sons Construction, Inc.; the original contract was $413,716 and the additional work totals $62,632.87 24.
• Approved the 2024-2025 board meeting dates, on a motion by Michele Rendler seconded by Jim O'Neill — one of O'Neill's last acts on the board 26.
• Designated Tuesday, December 17, 2024 at 6:00 p.m. as the annual Organizational Meeting 26.

On that last item O'Neill stopped the calendar to clarify that December 17 replaces the originally scheduled December 10 meeting 26. On the recording: "that's a confusing point, so I just want to clarify with people." 27. The date is not arbitrary: in an election year the organizational meeting must fall in the 15-day window beginning the second Friday in December 28, and the board's own bylaw sets what happens there — "Elect a president, vice president and a clerk from its members." The bylaw also has that meeting reaffirm the superintendent as secretary, authorize board signatures and set the year's meeting schedule 29. In other words, this vote scheduled the meeting at which the post-election board would organize itself.

The Educational Services consent calendar carried a first reading of revised Administrative Regulation 5145.7, Sex Discrimination and Sex-Based Harassment, and Administrative Regulation 5145.71, Title IX Sex Discrimination and Sex-Based Harassment Complaint Procedures 26; the agenda explains the revision as bringing district practice into line with the Department of Justice and the Office for Civil Rights 28. These regulations sit under the board's standing commitment that district "programs, activities and practices shall be free from unlawful discrimination," including on the basis of sex, gender, gender identity or expression and sexual orientation 31 — the same territory Taber had raised from the podium earlier in the evening.

The same calendar approved student travel for the Redlands High School Marching Band, the RHS AVID junior class, the Redlands East Valley cross country team and fifth-grade science camps from Crafton and Highland Grove, plus a revised School Plan for Student Achievement for Mission Elementary School 2633. The Mission plan came back because its budget changed: funding for two instructional paraprofessionals through Title I is no longer in the plan and the money has been redistributed 32.

Human Resources consent items covering certificated, classified and management personnel were approved, and the board separately established a Supervisor, Child Nutrition Services Culinary and Innovation position effective November 13, 2024 3334. One closed-session item, a classified management appointment, was tabled to the next meeting 35. The minutes list no discussion items, and the meeting adjourned at 7:38 p.m. 34.

🎙️ The goodbyes

Board comments were almost entirely about the two departures.

• Patty Holohan thanked Alex and Jim for serving over the past eight years and encouraged them to keep supporting the district; she also pushed a voting contest that would win furniture for the Moore library, and thanked those who attended the State of the District 36.
• Jim O'Neill thanked everyone for the unexpected recognition and read out an email he intended to send to all staff the next day 36. On the recording: "serving our communities in this capacity for two terms has been one of the most challenging and rewarding experiences of my life. And it's been a long life, so it's a long time" 37. He singled out the student trustee program as something the board should be proud of 36 — a project the archive shows him working on as far back as May 2023, when the minutes record him raising ideas for giving the student trustees more access to students on campus 41. The board's bylaw on membership, last revised in 1995, still describes a single student board member serving a one-year term 42; two sat at this meeting 1.
• Michele Rendler thanked O'Neill and Vara for their time on the board, with a special thank-you to O'Neill for bringing the student trustees on, and thanked Michael Paisner and Becca for their comments, reassuring them that students are at the center of her decisions 38. She also thanked Carly Norris, the Orangewood High School principal, for walking her around that campus to discuss upgrades including a gym 3818; on the recording she described the visit as one where "we dreamed of all the great things that can be happening at Orangewood" 39.
• Ethan Morse, student trustee, thanked O'Neill for creating the student trustee positions and Vara for welcoming the student trustees 38. Aubrey Schan, the other student trustee, expressed gratitude to both 38.
• Melissa Ayala-Quintero called it a challenging month, thanked Vara for four years of support and advice while noting their differences, and said she would like O'Neill to stay but understands it is time for him to retire 38. She closed on what the minutes summarize as the board's real motivation — students, staff, and a welcoming, inclusive environment — and said on the recording: "This world is not perfect and neither is our education system. But love really is behind it all and it will continue to be as long as I sit here" 40.
• Alex Vara asked his family to stand, noted his daughter Emma was at band practice at Citrus Valley High School, and said he was honored to have served and proud that the board is being left better than when he started 15.

Superintendent Cabral thanked those who attended the State of the District, said he would be at Citrus Valley's production of Lord of the Flies that Friday, thanked Archer for a performance he described as a way of honoring veterans, and thanked the outgoing members for hiring him 15.

One exchange on the recording never reached the minutes, which list no discussion items: after the action calendar, a board member raised whether the two student trustees attending the CSBA conference needed board approval as a field trip, and staff answered that in-state travel needing board approval could be handled through the field trip approval process 4344.