May 27, 2026: The Board Adopts the Final Layoff Resolution for 24 Certificated Employees

This special meeting existed to do one thing, and it did it quickly. The board came to order at 4:00 p.m. and adjourned to closed session a minute later, at 4:01 p.m. 1; the special meeting's own open session was called to order at 5:06 p.m. and adjourned at 5:10 p.m. 2. In between it adopted the resolution that ends the employment of 24 certificated employees at the close of the school year. Nobody asked to speak, and the item went to a vote without discussion.

The meeting was noticed for 4:15 p.m. in the Board Room at 25 West Lugonia Avenue 3, carrying one action item: "Certificated - Adopt Resolution No. 2025-2026-29, terminating services of Certificated employees as a result of reduction or elimination of particular kinds of services" 4. Present were Michele Rendler, Melissa Ayala-Quintero, Candy Olson and Jeannette Wilson; Patty Holohan was absent, excused 1.

The number, in the record's own words

The board adopted Resolution No. 2025-2026-29, on a motion by Michele Rendler seconded by Candy Olson 2. The operative clause is not ambiguous about who it reaches: the employment of "the twenty-four (24) certificated employees on the Final Layoff List attached hereto is hereby terminated effective upon the close of the current school year", meaning "the end of such employee's last working day on or prior to June 30, 2026" 5.

The minutes and the agenda packet agree. The four-page resolution attached to the minutes and the copy circulated in the board packet beforehand are the same document, with the same recitals, the same figure and the same attached list 67. There is no discrepancy between them to report.

How ninety-one became twenty-four

The recitals set out the arithmetic, and each step is a smaller number of people.

• On or about January 27, 2026 the board adopted Resolution No. 2025-2026-14, to reduce or eliminate "ninety-one (91) full time equivalent" certificated positions for the 2026-2027 school year 6. The January minutes record that item as the "Reduction of Particular Kinds of Certificated Services (Certificated Layoff)", authorizing a reduction in force "due to declining enrollment and budgetary constraints" 8.
• District administration then "reduced the number of affected positions to seventy-one (71) FTEs" 6.
• Because of "vacancies, attrition, and related factors", the 71-FTE reduction "only required twenty-seven (27) employees to be noticed for layoff", and preliminary notices went out on or about March 11, 2026 6.
• Six of those 27 did not request a hearing and waived it; the other twenty-one became Respondents in Office of Administrative Hearings Case No. 2026031109 9.
• On or about April 24, 2026, after attrition and "finalization of bumping determinations", the district rescinded the notices served on three employees 9.
• An evidentiary hearing was held on April 29, 2026 before an administrative law judge, and on May 19, 2026 the judge issued "a proposed decision upholding the layoff" 9.

That leaves the twenty-four the board acted on: nineteen Respondents and five non-Respondents 9. Positions and people are counted differently, which is why 91 and 24 are both true of the same process. The first counts full-time-equivalent positions authorized for reduction in January; the second counts employees actually terminated in May.

Why it had to be the end of May

The resolution recites that final board action and notification were due "no later than May 14, 2026" unless extended within a hearing, and that a fifteen-day continuance ordered by the hearing office moved both the proposed decision and the district's final-notice deadline back by fifteen days 9. That is what put a special meeting on the calendar for May 27. Final notices were to be given "on or before May 21, 2026" 5.

One oddity for anyone reading the document itself: at this point it cites "Education Code section 4955, subdivision (c)", a digit short of the 44955 it cites everywhere else. That is the district's own born-digital text, not a transcription fault in this archive 9.

The employees the record names

The district named them. The Final Layoff List attached to the resolution prints all twenty-four in a numbered table, first name and surname, at 10 — a public record any reader can open from that link. This page does not reproduce the twenty-four names, which is the same treatment the other pages in this archive give a printed layoff list; whether to print them is an open editorial question rather than a settled one.

The same minutes treat a student matter the other way, identifying the student only by a case number 1. Where the district prints a name in the public record, this archive prints it; where the district withholds one, so does this archive.

The rule the board was acting under

Certificated layoffs in Redlands run under Board Policy 4117.3, Personnel Reduction, last revised in September 1994 and so the policy in force in May 2026. It provides that "The Board shall authorize the Superintendent or designee to lay off employees by adopting a resolution to that effect", and that "The Board shall adhere to the notice, hearing, and layoff procedures in Education Codes 44949 and 44955" 11. The resolution tracks that requirement, reciting the section 44949 hearing process and the section 44955 seniority rule that no permanent employee is terminated while a less senior employee is kept on to render a service the permanent employee is certificated and competent to render 9. Reemployment rights under sections 44956 and 44957 are preserved for the terminated employees "if and when reemployment is available" 5.

Also decided, in closed session

Two other actions were taken before the open session and reported out in it.

A director appointed. The board approved the Superintendent's recommendation to appoint Dr. Esther Jang-Tamanaha to the position of Director of Early & Expanded Learning, effective July 1, 2026, at step 4 of the Management Team Salary Schedule, on a motion by Michele Rendler seconded by Candy Olson 1. Step placement on that schedule is governed by Board Policy 4351, which provides that "All management personnel entering the school district shall be placed on the salary schedule based upon training and experience" 12.

The recording carries brief remarks at this point from a speaker who said it had been "such an honor to serve as a principal at Bryn Mawr" and that it was "such a privilege to continue to serve this beautiful community of Redlands as a director" 13. The minutes record no remarks here and name no speaker, and a transcript's speaker labels are not evidence of who was talking, so this page does not attribute them.

An expulsion hearing held open. The board acted on a "Motion to extend the pending expulsion hearing as requested by the parent of student 2025-2026-0501", moved by Jeannette Wilson and seconded by Candy Olson 1. The minutes record that motion as carried but, unlike the meeting's three other motions, record no roll for it 1. The open-session read-out describes the same action as a decision "to postpone the pending expulsion hearing" 2, so the document uses both words for one action.

The extension did not last. At its regular meeting on June 23, 2026 the board took up a further "Motion to extend the pending expulsion hearing as requested verbally by the parent" of the same student, and denied it 14.

Public comment: none

No one addressed the board. The minutes record "None." under community input ahead of closed session 1 and again under the open-session public comment item 2. The recording agrees; asked how many speakers there were, the answer on the record was "Zero speakers tonight." 15. The layoff item then went straight to a vote: "Any discussion? I'll call for the vote." 16.

Outside coverage

Community Forward Redlands News covered the meeting the next day and carried detail the resolution does not: a breakdown of the positions behind the twenty-four names. "Of the positions eliminated, 17 were counselors", it reported, with the rest including academic case carriers, a high school diploma teacher, a registered nurse, a program specialist, a social studies teacher and an ESL teacher. It put the district's confirmed layoffs for the month at 43 employees, counting an earlier round affecting support staff 17.

The reasoning behind the reductions had been contested well before this meeting. In February, KVCR reported that the Redlands Teachers' Association was "pushing back on the district's reasoning for the layoffs", with union president Stephen Caperton disputing the district's characterization of earlier raises as one-time money and arguing that they had been supported by ongoing Local Control Funding Formula increases 18.

What this record does not show

These minutes are the unsigned copy, and the archive holds no signed version for this meeting: every narrative page carries a "Draft" watermark, and page 3 is blank apart from it, separating the narrative from the attached resolution. The attached resolution is itself unexecuted, printed with its vote lines and the president's and clerk's signature lines left empty 5. The action is recorded in the minutes narrative 2; what the archive lacks is an executed copy of the instrument. The minutes themselves were not left in limbo: the board approved them at its regular meeting on July 21, 2026, alongside the June 9 and June 23 minutes 19.