Chino Valley Unified School District (California)

Last updated
Chino Valley Unified School District
Chino Valley Unified School District (California) logo.jpg
Location
5130 Riverside Drive,
Chino, California
San Bernardino County
United States
Coordinates 34°01′10″N117°41′31″W / 34.01944°N 117.69194°W / 34.01944; -117.69194
District information
TypePublic
Grades K through 12
Established1860 (1860)
SuperintendentNorm Enfield, Ed.D.
NCES District ID 0608460 [1]
Students and staff
Students31,992 [1]
Teachers1286.15 FTE [1]
Staff456.33 FTE [1]
Other information
Website Chino Valley Unified School District

The Chino Valley Unified School District is a school district in San Bernardino County, California, United States. It serves the cities of Chino, Chino Hills, and the southwestern portion of Ontario, [2] though originally it served only Chino when it was founded in 1860. It now encompasses 88 square miles (230 km2) and serves about 32,000 students from grades kindergarten up to 12th grade. CVUSD serves four high schools, five junior high schools, twenty-one elementary schools, one continuation school, an adult school, & one Charter school.

Contents

District government

Board of education

As of July 2023:

[3]

Schools

The CVUSD has always been recognized for its outstanding schools and programs. About half of the schools in the CVUSD have reached the state's API standard of 800.

The school year begins in August and ends on May every year.

Controversies

First Amendment issues

The Chino Valley Unified School District Board has been at the center of a number of controversies in recent years regarding issues of the First Amendment.

The CVUSD Board itself has also faced criticism for multiple years for having public prayers, Bible readings, and Christian proselytizing during its public meetings. The majority of Board members are members of either Calvary Chapel Chino Hills or other similar Christian conservative congregations in the district, and most regularly tout their religious beliefs during Board discussions. Despite numerous letters of complaint from various individuals and groups, the Board has either ignored these complaints or officially rejected to change their practices. The administration actively solicits local Christian pastors to lead Board invocations, and the Board regularly presents recognition awards to religious leaders who provide "support and prayers for the Chino Valley Unified School District". [4]

In July 2010, the CVUSD approved a resolution to introduce "Bible as Literature and History" courses at its four high schools, based on a curricula provided by the local Calvary Chapel Chino Hills church and the textbook The Bible and its Influence , written by Christian Evangelical educational political activist Charles Stetson. [5]

On November 11, 2014, the Freedom From Religion Foundation filed a federal lawsuit against the Board claiming violations of the US and California Constitutions. Although the suit alleged that all of the Board members regularly participated in religious proselytizing, James Na, was singled out as a prime violator of religious neutrality during the meetings, regularly including Christian and Biblical references into many of his official statements. The suit alleges at one recent Board meeting, Na "urged everyone who does not know Jesus Christ to go and find Him," and closed the meeting with a reading of Psalm 143. [6] [7] On February 18, 2016, U.S. District Judge Jesus Bernal made a ruling on the FFRF lawsuit, ordering the Board to stop reciting prayers, Bible readings, and proselytizing during school board meetings. [8] [9] On March 4, 2016, the school board voted 3-2 in favor of appealing the ruling. [10]

On November 3, 2016, the Board changed their policies to explicitly state when board members can and cannot express their faith during meetings. [11] On July 25, 2018, a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit unanimously affirmed the District Court's ruling, holding that the "policy and practice of prayer at Chino Valley Board meetings violates the Establishment Clause." [12]

School closures

On March 5, 2009, the Chino Valley Unified School District Board of Education voted 4 to 1 vote to approve a budget reduction plan which included the closure of El Rancho Elementary School and Richard Gird Elementary School, both in Chino, and Los Serranos Elementary School in Chino Hills. Ms. Sylvia Orozco, Board President, Mr. William Klein, Vice President, Mr. Fred Youngblood, Clerk and Mr. James Na, Board member all voted in favor of the budget reduction plan based on the recommendations of the Chino Valley Unified School District Superintendent, Dr. Edmond T. Heatley. Mr. Michael Calta, Board member was the dissenting vote. These three schools were closed at the end of the 2008/2009 school year and their students were reassigned to other schools in the District.

The process in which these schools were selected to be closed were alleged to violate California Education Code 17387, which states, "It is the intent of the Legislature to have the community involved before decisions are made about school closure or the use of surplus space, thus avoiding community conflict and assuring building use that is compatible with the community's needs and desires". Charges were made against the Board of racial / national origin motivations in choosing the schools that they did close.

A complaint was issued with the US Department of Education Office for Civil Rights regarding the nature and process followed for these school closings. On June 29, 2012, the OCR closed its investigation and released its final report of its findings of the allegations. The report found that, while there were good budgetary reasons for the District to be closing schools at this time, the process used to do so was ad-hoc and disorganized, and appeared to rely principally on the opinions of the District Superintendent with little documentation, public input or transparency. In response, the CVUSD agreed with the OCR's findings and adopted new formal policies for school closure which provided greater transparency and public input into the process. [13]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Freedom From Religion Foundation</span> American nonprofit organization

The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) is an American nonprofit organization that advocates for atheists, agnostics, and nontheists. Formed in 1976, FFRF promotes the separation of church and state, and challenges the legitimacy of many federal and state programs that are faith-based. It supports groups such as nonreligious students and clergy who want to leave their faith.

The Glendale Unified School District is a school district based in Glendale, California, United States.

People for Legal and Non-Sectarian Schools (PLANS) is an organization based in California in the United States which campaigns against the public funding of Waldorf methods charter schools alleging they violate the United States Constitution's separation of church and state. The group claims independent Waldorf schools and public Waldorf methods charter schools teach anthroposophical content, that this content is religious in nature, and that the schools disguise the anthroposophical content from the public. PLANS filed federal suit in 1998 against two California public school districts, Sacramento City Unified School District and Twin Ridges Elementary School District, to halt the Waldorf methods educational programs implemented in two of their schools. The case was ultimately dismissed on its merits in 2012.

Good News Club v. Milford Central School, 533 U.S. 98 (2001), was a decision of the U.S. Supreme Court written by Clarence Thomas holding that a public school's exclusion of a club from its limited public forum based solely on the club's religious nature was impermissible viewpoint discrimination.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Conejo Valley Unified School District</span> School district in Ventura County, California

The Conejo Valley Unified School District (CVUSD) is a school district in Ventura County, California. The district serves the Conejo Valley area, including the city of Thousand Oaks, the adjacent community of Newbury Park, and the Ventura County portion of Westlake Village.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fremont Unified School District</span> School district in California, United States

Fremont Unified School District (FUSD) is a primary and secondary education school district located in Fremont, California, United States.

Centinela Valley Union High School District, (CVUHSD) is a public union high school district located in southern California that serves about 6,800 students in grades 9–12 from all of Lawndale and Lennox, most of Hawthorne and Alondra Park, and a small portion of Inglewood. The district's three associated elementary feeder school districts are Hawthorne School District, Lawndale Elementary School District, and Lennox School District. Previously Wiseburn Unified School District, now a unified district, fed into CVUSD. The Centinela Valley district also offers adult education classes.

The Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) is a non-profit organization that was founded in 2005 by Mikey Weinstein, a former Air Force officer and attorney. The organization's mission is to ensure that members of the United States Armed Forces are able to practice their religious beliefs without fear of discrimination or coercion, and to promote the separation of church and state within the military.

Madera Unified School District is a public school district serving Madera, California.

Burbank Unified School District is a school district headquartered in Burbank, California, United States.

Bossier Parish School Board is a school district headquartered in Benton, Louisiana, United States. The Superintendent of Bossier Schools is, as of 2024, Jason Rowland.

Humboldt Unified School District is a school district based in Prescott Valley, Arizona, United States.

The Castro Valley Unified School District (CVUSD) is located in Castro Valley, California, United States. It is a public preschool through adult school district. Overall, the district contains almost 9,000 students. It was created in 1965.

<i>Lassonde v. Pleasanton Unified School District</i>

Lassonde v. Pleasanton Unified School District is a case about First Amendment freedoms and the separation between church and state. A student of Amador Valley High School claimed a violation of his first amendment right of speech when parts of his salutatorian speech were censored. The case went up to the US Court of Appeals. This case is an important case in educational law concerning religious expression on school campuses.

The Bassett Unified School District is a California public unified school district based in the La Puente Valley of the eastern region of the San Gabriel Valley in Los Angeles County, California, United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">School prayer in the United States</span>

School prayer in the United States if organized by the school is largely banned from public elementary, middle and high schools by a series of Supreme Court decisions since 1962. Students may pray privately, and join religious clubs in after-school hours. Public schools, such as local school districts, are banned from conducting religious observances such as prayer. Private and parochial schools are not covered by these rulings, nor are colleges and universities. Elementary and secondary schools are covered because students are required to attend, and are considered more at risk from official pressure than are older students and adults. The Constitutional basis for this prohibition is the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, which requires that:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof ...

The secular movement refers to a social and political trend in the United States, beginning in the early years of the 20th century, with the founding of the American Association for the Advancement of Atheism in 1925 and the American Humanist Association in 1941, in which atheists, agnostics, secular humanists, freethinkers, and other nonreligious and nontheistic Americans have grown in both numbers and visibility. There has been a sharp increase in the number of Americans who identify as religiously unaffiliated, from under 10 percent in the 1990s to 20 percent in 2013. The trend is especially pronounced among young people, with about one in three Americans younger than 30 identifying as religiously unaffiliated, a figure that has nearly tripled since the 1990s.

Title IX of the United States Education Amendments of 1972 prohibits discrimination "on the basis of sex" in educational programs and activities that receive financial assistance from the federal government. The Obama administration interpreted Title IX to cover discrimination on the basis of assigned sex, gender identity, and transgender status. The Trump administration determined that the question of access to sex-segregated facilities should be left to the states and local school districts to decide. The validity of the executive's position is being tested in the federal courts.

Since 2015, Township High School District 211, a public school district of the Chicago suburbs, has been the epicenter of multiple controversies surrounding its policies toward transgender student locker room access. Since January 2020, the district has implemented a policy of unrestricted locker room access corresponding to the gender identity of each student.

LifeWise Academy is an American educational program founded in 2018 as a free program that provides evangelical Bible education for public school students during school hours under released time laws.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Search for Public School Districts – District Detail for Chino Valley Unified". National Center for Education Statistics . Institute of Education Sciences . Retrieved July 23, 2011.
  2. ↑ "2020 CENSUS - SCHOOL DISTRICT REFERENCE MAP: San Bernardino County, CA" (PDF). U.S. Census Bureau. p. 8 (PDF p. 9/12). Retrieved July 25, 2022. - Text list
  3. ↑ "Board of Education / Welcome".
  4. ↑ Chino Valley Unified School District, Minutes, Regular Meeting of the Board of Education, September 4, 2014
  5. ↑ Daily Bulletin, August 5, 2010, Course on Bible as literature will be offered at two Chino Valley high schools
  6. ↑ November 12, 2014, FFRF Sues Praying School Board in Chino Valley, Calif.
  7. ↑ School board which proselytizes during meetings dares the FFRF to sue them. The FFRF has obliged; patheos.com; November 17, 2014.
  8. ↑ Freedom From Religion Foundation v. Chino Valley Unified School District Board of Education, No.5:14-cv-02336 ( C.D. Cal. February 18, 2016).
  9. ↑ "Judge tells Chino Valley school board to stop prayers in meetings". Inland Valley Daily Bulletin . February 19, 2016. Retrieved May 14, 2017.
  10. ↑ "Chino Valley Unified to appeal ruling on praying". Inland Valley Daily Bulletin . March 4, 2016. Retrieved May 14, 2017.
  11. ↑ YARBROUGH, BEAU (November 5, 2016). "Under new rules, when is prayer allowed at Chino Valley school board meetings?". The Press-Enterprise . Retrieved May 14, 2017.
  12. ↑ Freedom From Religion Foundation v. Chino Valley Unified School District Board of Education, No.16-55425 , *36( 9th Cir. July 25, 2018).
  13. ↑ June 29, 2012, Office for Civil Rights, US Department of Education, Letter to Steven Figueroa
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.