Redlands Unified is 9th on this list of high-risk schools, analysis shows

Dec. 14--In the past two years, as Redlands Unified School District has settled sex abuse lawsuits out of court for tens of millions, the insurer that covered those payouts has doubled the district's rates.

Earlier this month, the district announced it had reached a settlement with the family of the alleged victims of former Redlands High School drama teacher Joel Koonce for $8.5 million. With that agreement, the district has approved more than $30.2 million in legal settlements with victims or alleged victims of sex abuse since August 2016.

If spending more than $30.2 million in 28 months on sex abuse settlements makes the Redlands Unified School District seem like a heightened risk, its insurance carrier agrees.

Redlands Unified is the ninth highest risk out of 33 Southern California districts in the Schools Association For Excess Risk's (or SAFER) Southern California Regional Liability Excess Fund, based on an analysis of documents obtained from SAFER through the California Public Records Act.

"Member district liability contributions are based on average daily attendance and are modified for their historical loss experience," Doug Ross, an administrator with SAFER, wrote in an email.

Redlands Unified was scheduled to pay $1.55 million to SAFER during the fiscal year ending June 30, 2019, according to the documents released by the insurance group. According to the California Department of Education, the district taught 21,261 students in the 2017-18 school year, meaning SAFER is charging the equivalent of $73 per student. The average SCR member district pays $64 per student.

The 10 highest risk districts in the SCR fund, based on cost per student, are:

1. Cajon Unified: $128 per student

2. Beverly Hills Unified: $128 per student

3. Hacienda-La Puenta Unified: $100 per student

4. Lynwood Unified: $87 per student

5. Orange Unified: $84 per student

6. Hemet Unified: $83 per student

7. El Rancho Unified: $77 per student

8. Silver Valley Unified: $74 per student

9. Redlands Unified: $73 per student

10. San Ysidro Elementary School District: $72 per student

According to Ross, litigation is part of why insuring the district costs so much.

"Unnecessary litigation, large settlements, and increasingly large jury verdicts drive costs up for all participating districts," he wrote.

District's insurance costs rise with settlements

Redlands Unified's member contributions to SAFER have shot up in recent years, especially over the past 28 months.

In December 2013, Redlands Unified agreed to pay $505,000 to settle a sexual abuse lawsuit filed by a 2009 Redlands East Valley High School graduate against the district and former teacher Megan Kelly. Kelly, who was using the surname "Cullen" at the time, was accused of sexually abusing the student from January through May 2009, something both Kelly and the district denied.

According to district spokeswoman MaryRone Shell, for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2013, the district paid $745,844 to SAFER. That figure rose slightly over the next three years, with the district paying $873,939 for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2016.

And then came the Laura Whitehurst settlement.

In August 2016, the school district agreed to a $6 million payout to settle a lawsuit brought against the district and former Redlands High School and Citrus Valley High School teacher Whitehurst. Whitehurst bore the child of one of her students and was convicted of having sex with others. At the time, it was the largest settlement against a school district of its size with respect to child sexual abuse.

For the fiscal year ending June 30, 2017, Redlands Unified paid $1.04 million to the SAFER insurance fund, up more than $166,000 over the year before. That figure rose to $1.3 million for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2018.

Then, in September 2018, Redlands Unified agreed to pay a record $15.7 million to settle three sex abuse lawsuits involving eight former students of former special-education teacher and golf coach Kevin Patrick Kirkland, former English teacher Brian Townsley and former theater technical director Daniel Bachman.

And that makes this current fiscal year the district's most expensive one yet in terms of payments to SAFER. As of Nov. 30, the district has paid $1.6 million to SAFER, up from the $1.55 million they were scheduled to pay as of late September. And that's prior to the most recent settlement in the Koonce case.

The extra fees for insurance come straight from the district's general fund, used for teacher salaries and classroom needs. The additional $863,335 the district is paying this year in insurance, compared to what they were paying before the 2013 Kelly settlement, is equal to the salaries (but not benefits) of 18 first-year school teachers.

Redlands Unified, meanwhile, just announced a new policy intended to make the boundaries for teachers and staff clearer and make it more likely that teachers and staff report suspected abuse.

"Money is one thing, but student safety is our most important priority," she said. "We don't want to see this continue. We want to make this as impossible as possible for those who have mischief on their mind to carry out their mischief."

There have already been dramatic changes, including the passage of a new, tougher and more explicit policy on reporting suspected child abuse, during the tenure of Superintendent Mauricio Arellano, who was hired in August 2017.

"There's been a huge cultural shift and that's part of why Koonce is where he is now and going through what he's going through," Shell said.

Staff writer Joe Nelson contributed to this story.

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