📋 January 14, 2025: A flag and observances proposal packed the room, and the board left with a survey instead of a vote

President Rendler opened the meeting at 4:31 p.m., the Board adjourned to closed session at 4:41 p.m. and returned to open session at 5:41 p.m., with no action taken on any of the five closed-session items 1. The regular open session was called to order at 6:01 p.m. with all five members present and Superintendent Juan Cabral leading the Pledge of Allegiance 2. It adjourned at 9:30 p.m. 3.

Two items account for nearly the whole evening. The agenda's last substantive line, Discussion Item XX.a, Discussion on Flags and Observances, appears as a single line with no attached document 4, and it produced no vote: the minutes record Michele Rendler as having "Confirmed no vote today, only discussion" 3. The only motion that failed all evening was a Business Services action item on adding board meeting dates 5.

🚩 Flags and observances: a full room, and no motion

What the proposal actually said is not in the district's January record — the agenda carries the item without an appendix 4. Community Forward Redlands, covering the meeting on January 17, reported that "The proposed policy would allow only the U.S. and California flags to be displayed on district campuses and restrict events or celebrations deemed political or ideological" 6.

The minutes give each board member their own bullets. Jeannette Wilson "Urged action on addressing ideological concerns in the classroom, citing community members’ votes and feedback" and noted parents' concern about children being influenced by teachers' personal beliefs 7. Candy Olson supported addressing concerns about teachers promoting political or ideological beliefs, linked the issue to declining enrollment and school funding, "Clarified goal is not to shame beliefs but ensure respect for all", and "Cited example of pro-life or Christian flags potentially offending different belief systems" 7. Melissa Ayala-Quintero "Noted the public learned about the policy before the board did", "Advocated for clear policy guidelines to reduce confusion", and "Opposed the idea of teachers indoctrinating students, emphasizing professional training" 7. Patty Holohan attended despite illness, "Highlighted personal experience with symbolic flags creating a sense of belonging", and "Reaffirmed her support for love and acceptance, regardless of differences" 7. Michele Rendler acknowledged the personal weight of the issue and "Suggested surveying high school and middle school students, as well as community members" 3; Juan Cabral "Confirmed that sending a survey is possible" 3.

The recording carries the words themselves, but its speaker labels are automated voice matches and are not the record of who said them, so what follows is quoted without names. For the proposal: parents "feel their children can be easily influenced by their teachers" 8, and "having from a position of authority influencing a child one way or the other I feel is not something a lot of our community wants" 9. Against it: "The policy is incredibly vague, which is why I assume there's so much confusing, leaving much to be left to interpretation", and "There is no flag flying outside our buildings beyond the American and California flag" 10. One voice made identification the point — "whatever makes you fit in is what you should be able to do" 11 — and another opened by saying the topic had cost a week of sleep, "I've been thinking about this topic for the last week and haven't slept a single night" 12.

The minutes also record the discussion's unattributed sweep: the policy "does not currently cover college or sports team flags", "Concerns raised about flags like the Nazi flag being a hate symbol", and a "Debate about whether staff can display flags, such as pride flags, in classrooms" 3. On process, "Some board members expressed a preference for the survey over a committee", and the item closed on a "Final consensus: Move forward with a survey to gather input, which could inform further decisions" 3 — stated in the room as "It would be a consensus at this point to move forward with a survey that can inform the committee" 13.

The fight outlasted the meeting. Speakers were still arguing it on February 11, when one urged the Board to "adopt the flag policy 6115" 14. Board Policy 6115, Ceremonies And Observances, was adopted on July 8, 2025 and now provides that "No flag other than the United States of America and State of California may be displayed on school grounds or in classrooms, unless it is a country, state, or United States military flag used solely for educational purposes within the adopted curriculum" 15.

🗣️ Forty-six speakers at the podium, and 338 pages of email

Michele Rendler "Thanked the over 300 people that submitted comments" and assured them they would be recorded in the minutes 16. They were: the written comments are appended to the minutes from page 15 17 to the end of the 352-page document. Community Forward Redlands put the pre-meeting total higher, reporting that "more than 460 public comments regarding the policy were submitted by email, with 400 in opposition" 6.

At the podium, the minutes name 39 people who came up to oppose the Flags and Observances policy — 18 where the list starts 16 and 21 more on the next page — and seven who came up to support it 18. The minutes summarise none of what they said; the recording does. One speaker recalled having been assured months earlier "that Redlands is not Chino" and called the proposal "a thinly veiled attempt for the new extremist board members to discriminate against our LGBTQ students and community members" 19. Another called it "a thinly veiled replica of Chino and Temecula" and said the money it would cost was already known 20. A speaker quoting the draft argued that "This policy would effectively muzzle free speech and illegally prohibit conversations about the most current, important, and politically relevant topics" 21. Another told the board that "banning flags that symbolize equity and justice contradicts our shared responsibility to teach students about the values of democracy, mutual respect, and community" 22 — wording that also appears in a letter State Senator Eloise Gómez Reyes addressed to the Board on the day of the meeting, which asks the board "to reconsider this policy and adopt standards where students can creatively and freely express themselves" 23.

🗳️ The vote that failed: additional board meeting dates

Business Services Action Item XII.e asked the Board to "Approve Additional Board Meeting Dates" for the 2024-2025 school year 24. On a motion by Candy Olson and a second by Jeannette Wilson, the minutes record "Ayes: Candy Olson, Jeannette Wilson", "Nays: Melissa Ayala-Quintero, Patty Holohan, Michele Rendler", and that "The motion did not pass" 5. Five community members had come to the podium earlier in the evening to oppose the additional dates 5.

Redlands Community News, reporting on January 26, said the proposal would have added four dates in January, February, March and May, "bumping up the number from 18 to 22", and that "Only five community members spoke to the board members about possible change, all of whom supported the current timetable" 25. The two sides of the dais put it this way on the recording, again without names attached: "I don't know that this is very transparent to the community, only because it does seem like an attempt to pass policies faster" 26, against "I was elected to do some work, and this doesn't just involve the policies that I like or want to see" 27.

💵 A clean audit, three resolutions, and the consent calendars

Eide Bailly, LLP presented the 2023-2024 district audit across financial statements, federal compliance and state compliance 28. The district "received an unmodified opinion in all three areas (financial statements, federal compliance, and state compliance)", and, as the minutes put it, "An unmodified opinion is the highest, cleanest opinion a district can receive" — with some findings detailed in the full report 28. The same point was made in the room: "That is the highest, cleanest opinion that a district can receive" 29. The Board accepted the report on a motion by Melissa Ayala-Quintero and a second by Patty Holohan 5.

Three resolutions were adopted: No. 27, guidelines for Citizens’ Oversight Committees for Proposition 39 general obligation bonds 30; No. 28, declaring an intention to reimburse expenditures from the proceeds of issued debt; and No. 29, approving the Zero-Emission School Bus and Infrastructure project on behalf of CARB and the CEC at no cost to the district 5. The Business Services consent calendar ran from a $28,948.00 change order at Redlands East Valley High School to a $469,856.00 playground-equipment award to Ortco Inc., a $464,792.29 firewall award to Digital Scepter, and payment transmittals totalling $6,483,682.64 30.

📚 Six new courses, an item that vanished, and the personnel calendar

The Educational Services consent block carried six new elective courses into the secondary course of study for 2024-2025, among them AP African American Studies 31 — recommended by the District Level Curriculum Committee at a November 13, 2024 meeting under Board Policy 6141 32 — along with Constructing Fantasy Realms, Graphic Production, Magical Worlds in Literature, a Middle School Sports Elective, and Vocal Fundamentals & Techniques 33. The same block carried first and second readings of special-education and Title IX policies, including a revision of Board Policy 5145.7 on sexual harassment 31.

One item did not survive the opening gavel: the Board approved the agenda "removing item XIII.G" 2 — the second reading of Administrative Regulation 5121, Grades/Evaluation of Student Achievement. The consent list printed further down in the same minutes nonetheless still includes item g 31, so the adopted record is internally inconsistent about it; what the district did next is not, because AR 5121 reappeared on the February 11, 2025 agenda 34. The Board also approved three stipulated expulsions 33, the Human Resources consent calendar, and the employment contract of Patricia Buchmiller as Assistant Superintendent, Educational Services, effective December 18, 2024 16.

🧭 Title IX, board comments, and what the board wanted next

Superintendent Juan Cabral reported that "Over 8,000 students (grades 6-12) participated in the December Title IX survey" and that the results were on the district website 2. Training videos were being finalised for a rollout beginning at pilot schools, and the district had "Currently 176 active Title IX cases under investigation", of which "All 176 cases involve student-on-student harassment: no cases involving staff" 28.

In board comments, Jeannette Wilson flagged a Redlands Compact mixer on February 13 and a conference program from Mississippi she had found impressive, and Melissa Ayala-Quintero "Addressed concerns regarding the negative perception surrounding the district’s test scores", arguing that state-mandated scores "do not fully reflect the abilities of the students" 18. Patty Holohan congratulated Patricia Buchmiller on her new role and thanked the speakers, "particularly the students"; Candy Olson said she wanted to improve reading literacy scores and to think creatively about bullying; Michele Rendler said she was looking forward to getting back into classrooms 35. The superintendent's comments, which the minutes print under that heading without a name, thanked the community for passing Measure D 35 and announced a Superintendent's Advisory Committee to help guide district spending 7. The single item raised for a future agenda was a "Discussion of a 5% salary increase for the board members, as allowed by the law, to bring their compensation in line with other districts" 3.