This special event will take place on Sunday, April 26, 2026, at the historic Fox Theatre Visalia, offering audiences a first look at the program ahead of its national broadcast debut on PBS KIDS.

Designed for young learners and families, Wowsabout follows the adventures of puppet friends Ronald and Roxy as they explore the natural wonders of national parks, meet real park rangers, and inspire children to discover the world around them.

A One of a Kind Family Experience

• In person appearances by Ronald and Roxy puppets
• Live appearances by Jim Henson puppeteers
• A special screening before national release
• Hands on activities and crafts
• Meet and greet opportunities
• Junior Ranger inspired experience

“This premiere is more than a screening. It is an opportunity for families to connect with nature, storytelling, and learning in a meaningful way,” said Robert Mollison, President/ CEO at Valley PBS.

Community Collaboration:

The event is made possible through partnerships with regional organizations committed to education, family engagement, and outdoor exploration.

Sponsors include Visit Visalia, Sequoia Parks Conservancy, and The Source LGBT+ Center, whose support helps connect families with the natural beauty and educational experiences of Sequoia National Park and the surrounding region.

The post Valley PBS to host Central Valley premiere of Wowsabout, with live puppet appearances, at Visalia Fox appeared first on Valley Voice.

“Future of fun: How are we planning for recreation?” will be the next forum presented by Tulare County voices at 2:10. The forum is at 7 p.m. on Tuesday April 14 at 210 W. Center Ave.

Tulare County Voices @210 is a monthly public forum in Visalia, an evening panel format that has been a space for community discussion for more than 15 years. It is co-sponsored by the Visalia Times-Delta, the Valley Voice and First Presbyterian Church (which provides the venue and live stream).

This month’s form will be more of a listening session. In fact, everyone who attends will be asked to share at least one thing about what they would like to see for recreation in Visalia.

Normally there would be a panel of experts or people with vested interests to present information to the audience. For this forum, we’re flipping the script. We want the audience to share their ideas, including representatives of the city and school district, as well as people representing various sports, exercises and recreation interests.

The germ of the idea for this forum came from the fact that the city of Visalia is beginning to develop its master plan for recreation. That plan would guide the development of parks, fields, courts, greens and other venues for fun and games.

Here’s where the audience comes in. This is their chance to express their preferences for their favorite leisure pursuits:

Do you like to play tennis? Bowl? Golf? Swim? Play bocce, cornhole or pickleball?

Do you think our community needs more tennis courts, bike lanes, softball fields, polo grounds, pools, dog parks, disc golf courses, walking trails, basketball courts, BMX tracks, skating rinks …?

And why isn’t there a nice park for tai chi?

Or maybe you think our community spends too much money on creating and maintaining its recreation resources.

Where ever you are on the recreation spectrum – this is the forum for you.

Think about it: How often will the city of Visalia embark on a master plan to determine how it will develop its Recreation and Park facilities over the next four or five decades?  This is probably it for your lifetime.

Make the most of it. Let your community and leaders know what you are interested in. Because how would anyone know to build a bocce court in Visalia If no one knew that there were people interested in playing bocce? For that matter, how would it have been known that there was interest in pickleball, BMX racing, skating, or disc golf, if no one had ever spoken up about their interest in those sports?

It was only a couple of decades ago that there weren’t any places for those sports in Visalia. Those sports are available now because people expressed their interest.

The future of fun is now. This is your chance to let your leaders and your fellow community members know what you would like to see in a playground.

You better show up because it might be another 25 years before anybody asks you again!

Be there Tuesday April 14, 7  p.m. at 210. And join the community conversation.

The post Visalia wants to know your idea of a fun time. appeared first on Valley Voice.

City strategizing for new state laws concerning cannabis sales

At the latest council meeting on Monday, March 16, city economic development manager Devon Jones unpacked the latest tweaks and changes to a set of proposed ordinances that would give City Hall the right to oversee and tax recreational cannabis businesses. The process began in May 2024, and this is the third time the plans have been presented for council review.

Yet there’s still no indication the city will ever issue licenses to sell recreational cannabis, even if the proposed changes to the law are eventually enacted.

“The direction currently is to establish the entire regulatory framework for a cannabis business program, but set the number of licenses to be issued for all use types to zero,” Jones said. “This at any point in the future could be changed by a simple resolution at whatever time either the council desires to open that up, or maybe the state perhaps passes the mandate in the industry.”

The work is being done now to get ahead of any possible changes to state law that could force cities to allow recreational sales. A similar state mandate in 2023 forced Visalia to begin allowing the delivery of medical cannabis inside the city limits. It’s been a particular concern since then for Councilman Brian Poochigian.

“Let’s put some kind of tax measure on the books so we have it there so the state doesn’t come down and say, ‘Hey, you have to allow this, and this is where the money goes,’” he said of the proposed code changes. “I’m glad we’re setting up a framework where we locally can determine – if we ever decide to do this – where the money is going to go to best help our community. So, I like what we’re doing.”

City’s Cannabis Consultant to Craft Fee Schedule

In the end, the council approved spending another $12,000 on consultant fees to continue shaping the future of the city’s potential cannabis industry. HdL Companies, which serves as Visalia’s cannabis law consultant, will assist staff at City Hall with a fee schedule for various types of potential cannabis businesses.

HdL’s job is to make sure Visalia taps all available revenue from the future potential sales of cannabis, Jones said.

“Obviously fees are an important part of this entire regulatory framework,” he said. “And they (HdL) will help us in the finance department, more specifically, make sure we’re covering all bases in terms of all the applicable fees for this.”

The planning going on now is intended to ensure the city maximizes its portion of the revenue flow while making doing business reasonable. And it will not be cheap to operate a cannabis business in Visalia.

“A clear thing that we’re going to indicate is that all licensees will be expected to pay an annual minimum to the city of $50,000 or 1% of annual gross receipts, whichever is greater,” Jones said. “How we came to that figure, there was some research conducted (in) neighboring jurisdictions, I won’t go through all of it, but that number on an annual basis seemed to be appropriate.”

Visalia Studies How Other Cities Handle Cannabis Business

The city’s research included evaluating how Tulare, Porterville and Lemoore have approached licensing and fees. Data from Farmersville, Woodlake and Lindsay was not included. The three cities studied have all negotiated individually with the various retail cannabis businesses. These agreements sometimes include initial fees, and each city requires annual payments.

As the cannabis code stands now, Visalia would not charge a large initial application fee. However, one could be added.

“There’ll be application fees, like some of them you notice an annual license fee,” Jones said. “We’ll have those kinds of things, obviously.”

Each city has set its own cannabis tax rate, which varies in Tulare County from 5% to 10%. Visalia has yet to fix its retail cannabis sales tax rate, though it has set a maximum.

“The tax rate of course will be factored in,” Jones said. “Currently, we have the ability to charge up to 10%. That’ll be something we have to establish at a later time.”

The city could also reverse course on initial lump-sum payments for new applicants, Jones added.

“The initial kinds of fees are something else that could be considered,” he said. “We’d create new licensing fees. That’s something to be determined.”

City Manager to Control Applications, Appeals

Should the city ever allow retail cannabis businesses to operate in Visalia, they’ll all be required to get a conditional use permit (CUP) from City Hall to open their doors. Delivery of cannabis for medical use will be exempt.

Retail shops open to the public will be allowed in established regional and service commercial zones, as well as in commercial mixed zones. But they won’t be allowed in the city’s downtown microbrewery district on East Main Street. Businesses without storefronts – such as distributors, processors, testing labs and manufacturers – will be confined to the city’s Industrial Park.

“That would mean the industrial park proper west of Shirk (Road),” Jones said. “There are pockets of industrial zoning in town, and some light industrial. So we’re just being clear that this is specifically the industrial and light industrial zone we’re wanting to include.”

The businesses will be allowed to operate from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily. Because of state law, medical cannabis delivery will be allowed from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. The plan is to roll the current medical cannabis ordinances into the set of regulations now being crafted.

An entirely separate city ordinance will cover the license application process and how the applicants will be selected. The city manager will have control of who can apply and oversee the qualification process. However, those who ultimately receive the licenses will be chosen by lottery.

“The city manager is authorized to make all decisions concerning the issuance of renewal licenses and the licenses themselves,” Jones said. “And similarly, all appeals will be heard by an appointee designated by the city manager.”

By choosing licensees from a pool of qualified applicants, the city hopes to avoid becoming entangled in long appeals with applicants who ultimately don’t win the right to do business.

“This is more of the current industry standard in terms of establishing this kind of business framework. (We have a) strong recommendation from our consultants at HdL,” Jones said. “It’s kind of more streamlined, and a process that we believe will assist us with the likely appeal process that will occur for any unselected applicants.”

Loads of Paperwork Await Cannabis Biz Applicants

The application process for getting a cannabis business license in Visalia will be rigorous. Applicants will have to prove they have a location to do business and the landlord’s OK. They’ll also have to provide documentation from an insurance company that their business can be covered. The city also wants its own exposure minimized, requiring inspection agreements, statements of limitations on liability and background checks for owners and managers.

Jones said the city will look at four areas of concern.

“First is the business plan, which consists of such things as the owners’ prior licenses that they’ve held and their jurisdictions, whether they’ve had any licenses suspended or revoked in any other jurisdictions, their proof of capitalization for the project, including their construction budget,” he said.

Applicants will have to present a neighborhood compatibility plan to show the business will have adequate buffers from things like churches and schools. They’ll also need a safety and security plan, and a community benefits plan that shows how they intend to be an asset to the city beyond creating revenue.

“Knowing that we want to select quality applicants in the process, staff and the consultant worked hard on ensuring that there were certain requirements in the application process that kind of ensured quality applicants,” Jones said. “But also post-selection means to ensure that people are delivering on their development plans.”

Once a license is issued, it cannot be transferred or sold for at least five years. When a license is transferred, the city will look as thoroughly at the exchange as it looks at new applicants.

“It’s going to basically be prohibited to transfer a license during that timeframe,” Jones said. “And also any transferees or (applicants) who might want to transfer a license are approved by the city manager, and the process is essentially treated like a new application.”

Mayor Brett Taylor still has concerns about license transfers despite these precautions. He’d like the ordinance to include a considerable fee for transferring existing recreational cannabis business licenses.

“I’d like to do that, because at the end of the day what we’ve heard from the consultant that we met with is that they (cannabis business owners) just play games, change up management, change up ownership,” Taylor said. “I prefer that if we catch that, we just hit them with a transfer fee of $500,000 or $1,000,000 or whatever it may be. So if they’re going to play games, there’s going to be pain.”

When Will Visalia Allow Cannabis Sales? Not Yet!

As city officials and staff are quick to point out, there is no plan to allow recreational cannabis businesses to open in Visalia. But all the pieces are moving into place.

“We don’t exactly have a timeframe,” Jones said about creating a fee schedule. “I would assume a couple months to get the work conducted and then come back.”

And there’s apparently no sense of urgency at City Hall.

“Really, because we’re still going to be establishing the licenses at zero, we could take this in chunks,” Jones said.

Meanwhile, the public remains of two minds. Visalian Gabriel Jaquez spoke of his concerns over how cannabis businesses were certified, as well as the effect of cannabis on homelessness and mental health, and the reduced ability of workers to pass drug tests as a result.

“Anytime you have drugs and alcohol, it’s not a good thing,” he said. “Cannabis is a drug.”

Adolpho Ace Castillo, owner and operator of the popular retail cannabis outlet Banyan Tree in Fresno, spoke in favor of the city opening itself to recreational sales.

“As an operator, I just want to take you behind the curtain,” Castillo said. “At a 4% rate that the city of Fresno (charges) and at about a 600 to 700 customers per day that come into the Bayan Tree, an average of $25,000 to $26,000 or around that a month goes to the city as a local tax, and close to $200,000 a month to the state of California.”

He also asked the city council to keep ownership of cannabis businesses limited to those who already live here.

“I just want you guys to consider local ownership as a bonus of some sort as deciding who’s going to get this license,” Castillo said. “Especially in a city like Visalia, it’s going to be very limited. Please keep it local.”

The post Visalia reviews rules for cannabis sales again, but still no licenses appeared first on Valley Voice.

There will be one less item on the November ballot after the Visalia City Council decided not to ask voters for approval of a new sales tax to cover the cost of unfunded capital improvement projects already in the works, including an aquatics center, the East Side Regional Park and the third and final phase of the incomplete civic center project.

Council Divided on Unclear Motion

In a split 3-2 vote at their March 2 meeting, members of the Visalia City Council declined to spend $45,000 for a survey of voters to gauge their support for a 0.75% sales tax. Voting for the measure were Councilman Emmanuel Soto and Vice Mayor Liz Wynn. Opposing the item were councilmen Brian Poochigian and Steve Nelsen, and Mayor Brett Taylor, who had previously supported it.

The revenue generated by the tax would have been earmarked for construction projects the city expects to complete during the next decades. Those projects include upgrades to the Visalia Convention Center, improvements to the Senior Center and the long-awaited aquatics center.

In recent years, voters in Visalia have approved two similar sales tax measures: Measure N for items like public safety, road construction and parks maintenance, and Measure T to fund the needs of the fire and police departments. The idea of asking voters to approve a third tax measure, one to fund so-called capital improvement projects, such as building new facilities and upgrading existing ones, was introduced back on January 20, when the council was looking again at costs and specifications for an aquatics park.

However, the wording of the item considered March 2 apparently wasn’t clear in the minds of the council members.  Poochigian and Nelsen stated the proposed tax was only to fund the aquatics center, while Soto, who proposed it in January, said the tax revenue would be used for the long list of underfunded and unfunded projects City Hall is planning.

Mayor Wants Citizens to Take a Leading Role

But the deciding no vote that put the item to rest came from Mayor Taylor, who believes it should be citizens not the council who get the proposed tax measure in front of voters.

“If we had funds for pools and parks and East Side Regional Park, and if we could do it all tomorrow, that’d be fantastic,” Taylor said. “My eyes are wide and my tail is bushy over the potential of getting $100 million, $200 million, whatever it would get from this potential tax measure, but I always said it shouldn’t be coming from the council.”

Previous voter-approved sales tax increases, which were initiated by the council, have targeted immediate and pressing needs, and Taylor doesn’t see the urgency this time. But if citizens do see that need, he would like them to take the lead.

“If it was a major need – police, fire – that’s a different story,” he said. “I want this to come from the citizens. I want it to be a citizen-based ballot measure.”

Swimming Pool Talk Turned into Tax Measure Study

Back on January 20, after hearing about the costs and benefits of an aquatics center with both a competitive 50-meter pool and a large recreational pool for general use – 64% of the $1 million annual operating cost is labor, and 24% utilities, with the facility fees generating about half that amount – the council ultimately decided to have the staff at Parks and Rec investigate funding costs for either a one-time construction project or a phased project, as well as coming up with an initial project timeline.

But before that happened, they questioned Parks and Rec director Jason Glick about funding on hand for a swimming facility.

“We have no funding available right now,” he said.

City Manager Leslie Caviglia said a city-owned property purchased with Parks and Rec funds could be sold, and the income used for the aquatics center. The land is located at Akers Road and Riggen Avenue.

“There has been discussion that that could then be used to start a pool project,” she said. “We will be getting additional impact fees and, if you direct us, then we go out and figure out what to do. There are limitations, and then there can be tradeoffs with other projects.”

“Tradeoffs” in this case could mean delaying other projects and redirecting funding to the pools. Caviglia also introduced the idea of sales tax as a funding source. That was when Poochigian tried to put the brakes on discussion, using the ongoing three-phase Civic Center construction project as an example.

“We planned the Civic Center for 20-plus years. So for anyone who thinks this is going to be a quick decision that we’re going to vote on this, and then be done, I just want to put this in perspective that we are a government agency that doesn’t make snap decisions,” he said. “We make long-term plans, and that’s the way the city looks the way it does today.”

Poochigian cautioned construction of an aquatic center is still years in the future. Going slowly prevents mistakes, he added.

“We put a lot of thought into things. So anybody who thinks we’re going to have a swimming pool in a year, just look at the timeline. It’s not going to happen. But we want to make sure we do things correctly,” he said. “I want to temper expectations. I know there’s an article in the Valley Voice that says there’s a swimming pool coming. That doesn’t mean it’s going to be coming soon.”

That’s when Councilman Soto introduced the idea of putting a tax measure before voters.

“The one thing we can do is instead of making it 20 years, we could make it five to 10 years,” Soto said. “That can be with a sales tax measure that we let the voters vote on, and then set priorities.”

City Needs the Money, but Council Hasn’t Planned How to Spend It

Soto’s proposal would have seen voters asked to increase the city sales tax rate by 0.75%, an amount equal to the combined income of Measure N and Measure T. Those taxes generated $25 million over the last year, and the capital improvements sales tax measure should earn a similar amount.

But how the council would use that money hasn’t been discussed yet.

“How we set that percentage-wise, 70/30 with new projects opposed to current projects, that’s up for debate,” Soto said. “Measure T, which is 1/4 of a cent, and Measure N, which is half a cent, which is 3/4 cent by extension, generated about $25 million just this last year.”

The sales tax measure could have appeared on the ballot as early as November of this year. Had it done so and voters approved it, the city would have started seeing that revenue come in during fiscal year 2027-28. Soto said the need for added income is clear in planning documents.

“We have a $10 million shortfall on Parks and Rec as we speak,” he said. “This funding for the next couple of years, whether we set a timeline on it or not, would help tremendously with all the CIP (capital improvement projects) we’ve been discussing for the last couple months.”

Councilman Poochigian refused to support any move to increase taxes, while Councilman Nelsen expressed his doubts voters would OK added taxes.

“I disagree on a sales tax measure. There are other agencies looking at sales tax measures, and in the current economy, I question if a sales tax… (could get approved),” he said. “You only get one chance at a sales tax measure, and then you have to wait a while. You have got to make sure it goes through.”

Vice Mayor Wynn also supports the sales tax idea.

“I’d love to see us look at a sales tax measure that wouldn’t just be for the pool, but other recreation,” she said. “We’ve got a senior center that needs help. We’ve got a shortfall in our parks. There’s other things that are quality-of-life issues here in Visalia, and when you spread it out over a sales tax measure it’s not just people from Visalia that are helping with that burden.”

Wynn also wants to see the results of a survey of voters.

“If they come back and say no way, then we’ll have to get creative,” she said.

While Mayor Taylor supported the survey when it was proposed in January, he was worried there was no income stream to pay for the $1 million in annual upkeep an aquatics center will require.

“My worry is the cost. Saddling our community with a million dollars in debt a year, that can be dangerous. I’m not going to go into debt just to get a party pool,” he said, adding that community support is strong for public pools, but he wants more citizen involvement in finding the money to build them.

“I would like to see the community get together and see if we can really put something together,” he said.

Opposition Says Council Moving Too Fast

All that discussion, however, was at the first council meeting of the year. Two months later issues had ripened, and some opinions had changed.

When the topic was introduced at the March 2 meeting, it met with pushback, starting with objections from someone with extensive experience getting the voting public’s support behind a sales tax measure.

“I’m asking the council to … vote no on spending the money for a survey,” said Visalia resident Harold Myers. “I’ve served on two citizen committees for the city council to evaluate potential tax measures. In both cases, the process started with identifying a clear need. Only after that did we look at surveys. That distinction matters, because there is a real difference between a need and a want.”

Poochigian then reiterated his anti-tax stance, yet offering his support for an aquatics center.

“Where I struggle with this is I don’t believe in taxing our individuals for something like this,” he said. “I think it needs to be well thought out. I’m not against the pool, but to just say we’re going to tax our residents, increase taxes for that, I’m totally against.”

He and Nelsen then stated their belief the proposed sales tax measure was intended only for an aquatics center. That was the item up for discussion when the idea of a new tax was introduced at the January meeting. The wording of the item voted on March 2 does not include limiting the use of revenue to any project or fund.

“If we do go down this path, the motion was to vote purely for parks and recreation. I don’t want this to play any games and pull public safety or any other organizations that pull just to get this passed,” Poochigian said. “If you guys do decide to go down this path, I do want to make sure that this is solely for a new swimming pool and a Parks and Recreation sales tax. I think it would be very dishonest if we try to play word games just to get this passed, just so we could get the funds.”

Nelsen agreed with Poochigian’s reasoning despite the lack of any spending limits in the item presented to the city council.

“If any other fluff is put on this, it’s dishonest,” he said, adding that the idea of a new sales tax was “a knee-jerk reaction” to the city’s budget gaps.

Tax Revenue Could Fund Any City Project

Soto countered that Nelsen and Poochigian misunderstood his intent when he proposed the sales tax idea in January. The funds would be available wherever they’re needed.

“I didn’t just say the pool when I mentioned this at the last meeting,” he said. “I mentioned the convention center, which needs a lot of funding, the Civic Center Phase 3, which we don’t have the complete funding for, yes, I mentioned the aquatic center, East Side Regional Park, the $10 million in funding that we don’t have for our current parks projects, and then just recently we’re losing a grant on public safety for clinicians on the HOPE (Homeless Outreach and Proactive Enforcement) team.”

Soto said the revenue stream could be used to fund any need the council perceives, not just those projects in the works that still lack funding.

“So this is for anything that we as a council see that the city needs,” he said. “Some of these things are quality-of-life items. I don’t want to plan here for an aquatics center, Civic Center Phase 3, convention center (and) East Side Regional Park that’s going to happen 40 years from now. I’d love to see it in the next 10 years if possible.”

Nelsen, while still voting no, said the idea was more appealing to him when presented in its intended form.

“If the motion included East (Side) Regional Park, convention center, civic center, and I forget the other litany of items you said, I probably would be more in support of putting a survey out, but my recollection is the vote was for a sales tax for the pool complex, which included a rec park and a humongous pool,” Nelsen said. “I think the timing is poor. I think the economy is poor.”

He suggested using the $45,000 consulting fee to fund parks already approved by the council that have no funding or too little.

“Take the $45,000 and put it in the inclusive park,” Nelsen said. That’s been languishing for seven fricking years. It’s time to complete what we start instead of setting up another Taj Mahal, and this is what you’re looking to do.”

With Wynn and Soto supporting the proposal, and Poochigian and Nelsen firmly against it, the deciding vote fell to Mayor Taylor. He became philosophical as he explained his reasoning, praising a recent presentation on City Hall’s recent accomplishments.

“We’ve been running this city so well, what’s left? Well, really, the life enjoyment, the parks and recreation,” Taylor said. “So I can see how we got here, because so many things have been going well, what other things can we do well?”

But the proposal before the council, he said, was too loose. City leaders need more time to think through the options and consequences.

“We’re trying to rush this through, and that’s something we’ve never done on this council,” Taylor said before casting the vote to stall the sales tax survey. “Let’s think this out and put some long-term planning into this.”

The post Visalia council says no to capital improvements sales tax vote appeared first on Valley Voice.

The University Center project was made possible by the passage of Measure C, a voter-approved bond passed in 2022 to support new educational facilities and workforce development initiatives across the South Valley Region. Construction on the new building is now underway and is expected to be completed in time for the Fall 2028 semester.

The University Center will expand partnerships between College of the Sequoias and four-year universities, allowing students to complete bachelor’s and potentially master’s degrees locally. Since 2017, the college has partnered with California State University, Fresno to offer programs through the Fresno State South Valley campus in Visalia. More than 3,700 students have already benefited from this partnership, demonstrating strong demand for expanded university access in the region.

Despite a strong transfer pipeline, Tulare County remains the second largest county in California without a public four-year university, and the region ranks among the lowest in the state for bachelor’s degree attainment. The University Center aims to address this gap by expanding local access to four-year degree pathways, reducing the need for students to relocate or commute long distances to complete their education. The project will also support regional workforce development by helping local employers access a larger applicant pool of graduates.

Community leaders, college officials, students, and regional partners are invited to attend the groundbreaking ceremony celebrating the beginning of construction and the next phase of higher education expansion in the Central Valley.

The post College of the Sequoias breaks ground on University Center at Visalia Campus appeared first on Valley Voice.

Visalia Unified School District board members faced a packed house on Tuesday, March 10, as multiple major issues drew in different segments of the community to discuss and debate the proposed layoffs of school employees and a photo featuring Redwood students spelling out a homophobic slur on campus.

Before the meeting started, protesters from two groups camped outside the Visalia Unified headquarters: a group supporting the LGBTQ community in Visalia and another supporting the California School Employees Association (CSEA.) The CSEA union represents classified staff – employees such as custodians, drivers, and paraeducators – at Visalia Unified.

Community turnout filled the district’s boardroom and sent members of the community into an overflow room as the meeting began at 5:30PM.

Speakers from the public – including current and former students – spoke out to implore the Visalia Unified board to improve the student climate at its schools. School employees alongside union representatives from other schools and districts pleaded with the board to avoid laying off staff.

During board member comments, all board members spoke to acknowledge the Redwood controversy. Superintendent Kirk Shrum also dedicated time to acknowledge those wanting to see action from the district.

“I want to reaffirm that hate speech at any time will not be tolerated at VUSD, and I want to thank Principal Gridiron and his team who, along with district support, quickly addressed the situation,” he said. “To our LGBTQ students and adults, I want to affirm that you are valued members of our school community.”

He said that Visalia Unified leadership is continuing to work with the community to make Visalia’s schools safer.

Members of the community from The Source LGBT+ Center, a Visalia-based nonprofit serving as a resource for the LGBT+ community in the Central Valley, asked Shrum and the board to perform an audit of educators’ LGBT+ cultural competency training and support systems for LGBTQ+ students.

They also asked for an audit of the school’s compliance with the California FAIR Act, which requires that social studies instruction includes the roles of, and contributions by, LGBTQ+ Americans.

During the meeting, all board members also specifically noted the tough decisions to be made regarding layoffs.

Ultimately, the board voted 5-2, with Kenneth DeJonge and Randy Villegas voting no, to approve plans to eliminate 10 full-time-equivalent counselor positions, three full-time-equivalent social science teacher positions, and 86 full-time-equivalent classified positions, including paraprofessionals, custodians, warehouse workers, and behavior intervention technicians.

Redwood photo – and the history of Visalia Unified

Visalia made national headlines in early February when a group of Redwood High School students, including some in student leadership, used shirts meant for a senior class photo spelling out “CLASS OF 2026 ALWAYS LEGIT” to spell out an entirely different phrase, “2 FAG6OTS” – using a six as the second G in the homophobic slur.

Visalia Unified officials responded, with Superintendent Kirk Shrum stating on February 13 that “appropriate disciplinary action has been taken in accordance with District policy,” and stating later on February 17 that the school district was meeting with students to “address hate speech, civility, and the responsibility that comes with being a member of our Visalia schools and community.”

On February 26, Visalia Unified leadership held a closed-door meeting with members of the LGBTQ+ community and faith leaders as outrage over the photo continued to build, according to ABC30.

The Redwood incident isn’t the first time that Visalia Unified has made news for homophobia: the ACLU of Northern California sued the district in 2001 on behalf of George Loomis, a student who said he was harassed by both students and teachers at Golden West High School. The ACLU claimed the district’s approach to gay students was to get them off campuses entirely by placing them in “inappropriate special education programs.”

More recently, at the same time that student protestors placed pro-Black Lives Matter signs at El Diamante in the summer of 2020, students began a briefly-lived #DearVUSD movement – including a dedicated Instagram account sharing anonymous submissions – that called out the district for a perceived failure to protect vulnerable students.

Michael Anne de Campos, a Redwood student at the time, spoke to the board in 2020 to share concerns about the culture on the Redwood campus:

“It’s horrible to be a student who’s in the LGBTQ community. I’ve been bullied for years, and I mean — I have it better than most, and I still had it rough,” she said at the time. “And you shouldn’t have to go to the administration and beg them to listen to your sexual assault story. I have over 15 girls who have come to me directly with how they went to the administration with their sexual assault and they just disregarded it — they never received justice, and that is disgusting.”

“What a lot of them want to see, they don’t want justice now. They want to know that you guys are going to establish a protocol so that it doesn’t happen again,” she said later in the meeting. “We already have the trauma. We’re here to make sure no one else has to go through what we went through.”

Community speaks out about photo

Approximately 20 public comments related to the Redwood photo were in support of the district taking action to ensure students on Visalia’s school campuses feel safe and supported.

Jake Ramos, a Visalia student, said they had been “bullied for as long as [they] can remember for being queer.”

“I’ve been bullied by actual teachers. People on the internet joke that we should bring back bullying, but it’s never left, because that’s what this is,” Ramos said. “It starts with a word and it ends with kids killing themselves. I don’t go to Redwood, but this affects me too, because I know exactly how these students feel.”

Remy Gomez, a sixth grader at Royal Oaks Elementary, spoke to say that what happened at Redwood was disappointing to her as a potential future student.

“I was not sure if I wanted to go anymore. I play softball competitively and I know Redwood has a great team, and I’m also in orchestra, and I was looking forward to playing,” she said. “The students who participated in this need to be held responsible for that.”

June Rodriguez, who said she was previously a student at Redwood, said that her experience “made the situation not even a little bit surprising.”

“Many of the students in this photo, I recognize,” she said – stating that she had similar abuse directed at her during her time at Redwood, culminating in her transferring to Golden West to escape homophobic abuse.

Jose Ruiz-Garcia, the Community Programs Manager at The Source LGBT+ Center, said that the Redwood incident was not an isolated experience.

“All of the youth currently in my programs have expressed having experienced bullying and harassment because of their sexuality or gender identity,” he said.

Sabrina Norton, a Visalia resident, spoke to ask the superintendent and the board for more clarity on the district’s next steps.

“There were things you could confirm without identifying a single student that participated that day,” Norton said, “and it would have gone a long way in building a bridge between those of us here tonight and the thousands of people out there saying, ’Who cares? Let kids be kids.’”

Board members respond

All of the board members responded to the Redwood incident and the public’s frustration.

“I hope all of us realize this is, and it was, and I pray will continue to be, what we look in education as a teachable moment – where all of us learn, and all of us move on,” Paul Belt said.

Joy Naylor said she appreciated the community coming out and speaking.

“Everyone should feel safe – all students,” Joy Naylor said. “If that means we need to kind of look within ourselves and find out how we fix this – it’s not about punishments, it’s about educating. We’re in the business of educating students, and that’s what our focus needs to be.”

Walta Gamoian echoed her remarks.

“I do want to thank the people that came out tonight. I want this place to be a place where you can express your opinions, views, and concerns,” she said. “I would like to give kudos to Dr. Gridiron at Redwood High School. He has done a great job doing restorative justice, getting kids together, understanding that respect and belonging are really important, and that each of those kids has a role in that.”

Kenneth DeJonge said that he ran for his board seat to support the community and its children – and that he only knew the same information that the general public did.

“I’m also here to support individuals that feel singled out, that feel that they don’t belong,” DeJonge said. “That’s not something that I believe in as a community member – a lot of that comes from a Christian perspective, at least my Christian perspective. That, uh, all are welcome and all deserve love.”

“There’s lots of things that trouble me, you know, as far as the Redwood incident. I know as much as the public, unfortunately. I don’t think that’s a position I should be in as a board member, and that’s something that I’ll speak to our superintendent about,” he added.

Jacqueline Gaebe and Randy Villegas also spoke to support students experiencing bullying, and they endorsed the request by The Source LGBT+ Center to audit the district’s practices.

“While we can’t control what happens outside the school, under no circumstances should any student feel that this would be acceptable on one of our campuses,” Gaebe said. “Our school climates do matter, and our students do deserve better – so thank you to the community that showed up.”

“No child should show up to their place of learning and be confronted with hate at them – directed at them just for being who they are,” Villegas said. “We must fight for the dignity, and the safety, of all of our LGBTQ students, all of our staff, and our community here in Visalia and beyond.”

Two board members push back on layoffs

While all of the board members showed a united front to support students experiencing bullying, the board split on a 5-2 basis regarding the subject of employee position reductions.

Mena Rocha, a labor relations representative for the Visalia chapter of CSEA, spoke to the Valley Voice before the meeting.

“This is the fifth consecutive year of laying off classified staff members,” she said.

The work that’s eliminated simply falls on other employees, Rocha said, spreading those spared from layoffs even thinner.

“If you talk to the custodians, they’re very honest – they’re like, they can’t keep up with the workload that they have. They work in teams. Can they effectively clean three schools in one night?” Mena said. “One of our members, with 29 years spent, he’s being laid off from taking care of the stadium. Who is that going to fall on?”

Katie Cain spoke as the CSEA chapter president for College of the Sequoias, as a Visalian, and as someone who attended Visalia Unified schools “from kindergarten through graduation.”

“For the last three years, the district has consistently underprojected their revenue anywhere from $43m to $247m. In those same years, the district has consistently laid off or reassigned classified staff, and the significance of that fact is the value of that discrepancy each year was enough to pay all the annual salaries of your entire classified staff body five times over, at minimum,” she said. “Not just the laid off people.”

As staff were laid off, administrators were added, she claimed.

“How many of those administrators were laid off? How many of them took a pay cut? Because we know they aren’t worried about paying their bills like the classified staff are,” she said.

Shrum addressed comments by staff and CSEA supporters when the board discussed the layoff proposals.

“We recognize that staffing adjustments cause concern and I want to speak directly to the heart of the matter, our commitment to our workforce and the stability of our schools,” Shrum said.

In March 2025, though positions were eliminated, Shrum said the district managed to avoid any employee terminations through shifting impacted employees to other positions.

“At this point today, all but 14 of the impacted classified employees have been assigned to a position for the 26-27 school year,” he said. “And we will continue to work with our labor partners, CSEA chapter leadership, during the coming months to identify positions for as many of these employees as possible.”

“We are encouraged by the career opportunities reflected in the overall increase of 143.1 FTE during the past two years,” he added.

Villegas spoke to support the classified employees’ concerns.

“In the past, we have approved a waiver for not spending 55% on classroom salaries, and so, as we look towards these layoffs, I’m perplexed as to how we’re both failing to meet the required amount of spending per state law on classroom salaries, while at the same time proposing layoffs,” he said.

DeJonge, who said upfront that he was a classified employee at another district in Terra Bella, asked who would do the work that the eliminated positions covered.

“Is there no other place that we could figure out a way to shore up for staff? I’ve said this over and over again – things don’t teach kids, it’s people. We all have that story about the wonderful teacher or groundsworker who made a difference in our lives being a kid at school,” DeJonge said, “but how do we do that if we keep cutting our people?”

Paul Belt spoke to defend the proposal. He called the cuts difficult, but necessary, and said that cuts were being made across the board – each department was asked to cut “five percent, straight across.”

“No business can continue to just spend more money than they’re taking in. They will go out of business. And the numbers have been very, very clear. I mean, these numbers are staggering – millions and millions,” he said.

“It’s not them against us – people, if we don’t save money, if we don’t make good decisions, we’ll all lose our jobs – that’s the reality,” Belt said. “As difficult as it is, I know we have to make wise cuts, and it’s being shared all the way across the board. And it’s not limited to just classified employees.”

Gamoian began to speak before moving to support the classified employee layoff proposal.

“This was worked out with our district and the bargaining team. They talked about it, they worked hard on it. That – we’re going to move forward – well, okay, I’m not going to argue with you. I’ll just make the motion,” she said, before making her motion.

Before voting to support a separate motion that eliminated some counseling and social science teacher positions, Gamoian encouraged her fellow board members to reach out to state lawmakers, as she does.

“We have to advocate at the state level  – I mean, they’re messing with Prop 98 [which guarantees a minimum amount of funding for schools in California] again. So, there’s Legislative Action Week – get on and sign up, and be with me at these things, and talk to our representatives. So, I invite you to do that, and check your email where those are,” she said.

Speaking before the vote, Naylor said that the decisions were difficult, but necessary.

“We only have so many resources, and we can’t just say, we’re gonna throw it out there, and you know what, if we sink, we sink,” Naylor said. “I work at the sheriff’s office, and you know what, we have to cut, and we have to make sure that our accounts payable – that we can meet our budget, and we can meet our payroll. And I do that every day.”

“Sometimes, they’re hard decisions, and they hurt, but you gotta balance the budget – that’s the bottom line.”

The post LGBT community and school employees show up, speak out at Visalia Unified board meeting appeared first on Valley Voice.

Classified employees of Visalia Unified School District are calling on fellow employees and community members to attend the upcoming Visalia Unified Board meeting on Tuesday, March 10, at 5:30 as concerns grow over continued layoffs impacting classified staff across the district.

VUSD meetings are at 5000W Cypress Ave in Visalia. We ask that supporters show up wearing blue.

Classified employees — including instructional aides, office staff, transportation workers, custodians, and other essential support staff — play a critical role in the daily operation of schools and the support of students throughout the district. Employees say that year after year, reductions to classified positions continue to strain school sites and reduce the services students rely on.

“These decisions don’t just affect employees,” say representatives of CSEA. “They directly impact students, classrooms, and school communities. When classified positions are cut, students lose support, campuses lose stability, and the remaining staff are asked to do more with less.”

Employees say the pattern of layoffs comes as schools continue to face increasing student needs. Classified staff often provide direct support to students, maintain safe and clean campuses, assist teachers in classrooms, and ensure that schools function effectively each day.

As the district approaches future negotiations, classified employees say they want district leadership to understand the essential role they play in the success of Visalia Unified schools.

“Classified employees are not expendable,” representatives said. “Our work is essential to the functioning of every school in this district.”

Classified employees are encouraging colleagues and supporters to attend the Visalia Unified School District Board Meeting on Tuesday, March 10 to show solidarity and raise awareness about the impact of these layoffs.

Attendees are encouraged to arrive at 4:00 PM to gather and organize prior to the meeting. The board meeting will begin at 5:30 PM.

Employees and supporters who wish to speak during public comment are encouraged to prepare a brief statement about how classified staff support students and schools.

Organizers say a strong turnout will send a clear message to district leadership about the importance of protecting the staff who keep schools running every day.

The post Classified Employees Urge Community to Attend Visalia Unified Board Meeting Amid Ongoing Layoffs appeared first on Valley Voice.

Fences Meant to Give More Playing Time

The original plan for fencing at Riverway envisioned setting apart the 10 full-size soccer fields with chainlink fences, and it grew into a two-phase project to surround the fields, as well as to enclose the whole park, inside 7-foot-tall spiked iron security fences. The cost, of course, grew as well. The entire project allocation is $3.89 million, up from $1.5 million when first proposed.

“It’s probably going to be finished in the next few weeks. We’re hoping the project will be finished by the end of the month,” said Parks and Recreation manager Jason Glick. “There will be a punchlist (a list of possible issues with the project) with the contractor, and we expect to be done by the end of March.”

The two phases serve two purposes. Surrounding the entire park in a fence protects the whole facility. Specifically, it’s intended to end after-hours use of Riverway, which has been a target of vandalism and the scene of criminal activity, city officials say. Surrounding the soccer fields with fences inside the fence – and keeping them locked even when the rest of the park is open to the public – is the result of an entirely different issue.

“What we’re trying to do is make the soccer fields open for more of the year,” Glick said. “This is so they’ll be more available to the public.”

Fencing off the soccer fields allows grounds crews time to rehabilitate them. It also prevents the fields from overuse, a problem that has plagued Riverway in the past.

“When the park opens after the summer closure, they’ve (the soccer fields) been open for 13 weeks,” Glick said. “When November rolls around, the fields have just turned to dirt. We’re trying to avoid that for future years.”

The city is also cutting off open access to the soccer fields during the park’s regular operating hours, and that’s left some of the people who use the park on a daily basis resentful.

Lack of Answers Frustrates Park-Going Neighbors

Closing off the soccer fields with a minimum of information has left neighbors and other regular park-goers feeling as if they’ve been cut off suddenly with little or not enough explanation.

Estrella Correa, who lives across the street from Riverview Sports Park and is a frequent visitor, isn’t satisfied with officials’ responses to her requests for clear information about who can use the park and when. She’s been having problems getting answers to her questions since the plan for fencing was hatched, she said, and is still not satisfied.

“I live across the street from the park, and I’ve been asking a lot of questions about access to the park,” she said. “Then the fencing started going up, and I went to a Council Corner meeting. I spoke to Mayor (Brett) Taylor about the park being closed so much of the year. I asked if the fields could be open part of the year.”

She says she never got an answer.

“I expressed concern about the fields being open to the public,” Correa said. “He (Taylor) said he’d talk to someone and get back to me. He never did.”

Correa eventually exchanged emails with Parks and Rec director Glick, who gave her an outline of the fencing project’s development, she said, but not the practical answers she wanted. The public, Correa learned, will no longer have open, free access to the fields.But that information wasn’t readily available from the city, Correa said.

“I called the number on the application,” she said. “The woman who answered at Parks and Rec didn’t know. She didn’t know anything.”

Public Can Rent Soccer Fields, but Insurance a Must

Correa has been seeking help from her district’s council representative, Emmanuel Soto, who also had to dig to find information about when the fields were open and to whom, she said.

“I just knew the fields were closed some of the time. I was concerned about public access,” she said. “You (city officials) said all these things are discussed in public, and you don’t know. My councilman has to dig for answers. I’ve been told at the city council meeting, agendas are always available online. If you care about these things you can go to the meetings.”

Soto said he’s been fielding complaints from citizens related to Riverway Park since the fencing started going up.

“I haven’t been a big fan of the fence since the beginning, since I asked for changes to the design,” he said.

The original fencing design had no pedestrian entrance at the park’s southwest corner, making it more difficult for those living nearby to walk in. Soto said Parks and Rec fixed the issue, but he believes cutting off open access to all the soccer fields goes too far.

“They did listen to citizens about access and added a gate at the southwest corner,” he said. “At the end of the day, I don’t see any reason for the fence. You can make an argument for a couple of fields, but not all the soccer fields.”

The bottom line is any member of the public can still rent the fields for their own use. But anyone wishing to use the fields for an event must complete an application form and provide proof of $1 million in liability insurance. And the coverage has to indemnify the city against loss and litigation.

Soccer Fields Will Be Open Four Days a Week

Perhaps the reason information about who can use the Riverway fields and when is because the city’s policy is still changing. While the public will be able to rent the fields, just as clubs and other organizations have in the past, they’ll only be able to do it on certain days.

“What we’re doing right now is a pilot program of having soccer games on Saturday and Sunday,” Glick said. “We’re letting the public rent them for practices and Tuesdays and Thursdays. And they’re dark on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.”

The dark days are intended to allow the fields the recovery time they need to remain in good playing condition. Overused and under-maintained fields present a safety issue for players, and the city wants to avoid potential injuries and associated liabilities.

Soto said he’s gotten the same information as he looked into the issue.

“I reached out to staff and did get a similar answer,” he said. “They’re doing a pilot (project) this year, since it’s the first year they can control access to the soccer fields.”

The city, he said, needs to do a better job communicating its plans to citizens. Of course anyone who wishes to discuss the soccer fields, or any other city-related matter, is welcome to attend any meeting of the city council or the Parks and Recreation Committee to voice their opinions.

That might be particularly important here, as Glick said the city will evaluate the results of the pilot program and perhaps retool it. Much depends on the playing condition of the field under the new scheme.

“This is just a pilot program. We’re trying to see how this works out,” Glick said. “We’ll reevaluate when the spring is over. We’re going to reevaluate the soccer field conditions.”

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Projects Represent Visalia’s Unnoticed Framework

The City Council, in four meetings through April 20, will streamline project proposals and review funding options. Members of the public are encouraged to attend and add their input.

“This is all the stuff that people don’t see that happens every single day in the city,” said Mayor Brett Taylor. “It’s all the stuff that goes underground. It’s the worktrucks. It’s the stuff that nobody sees. It’s not the parks and the fun things. (It’s) being prepared for our city so we’re not constantly putting out fires and trying to find money.”

Dozens of projects in every part of the city’s roads, parks, sewers, and other systems and facilities will be affected by the upcoming decisions . Planning of this massive undertaking is already underway and will continue through the spring. The City Council will spend the next three months picking and modifying the projects to be undertaken, and figuring out how to pay for them.

Property owners and land developers can probably expect fee increases as a result.

Locking In Two Years, Planning for Four More

This week, the council started its review by looking at a hodgepodge of various aspects of its business, which are divided into independent funds. Those discussed at Monday’s meeting on February 17 included wastewater and sewer infrastructure, garbage collection, building safety, animal services, the city’s airport and wastewater treatment plant, and public transportation.

At its next four meetings the council will tackle the remaining proposed changes and upgrades to city services and properties:

March 2 – The council will address parks and recreation spending, as well as waterways, storm drainage and groundwater recharge.

March 16 – The topics reviewed by the council will include roads and transportation, landscape and lighting, and other capital improvements.

April 6 – Fleet maintenance and vehicle replacement, including firefighting and police, as well as the city’s corporate maintenance yard will be up for discussion.

April 20 – The council will review the city’s largest pool of money, the general fund, as well as firefighting impact fees and police unclaimed funds. The city’s minor league baseball park will also get a look, as will the convention center and the city’s information services division.

During all of these fund reviews, the council will consider spending for projects lasting through the middle of 2032 and beyond. However, the final decision on what to fund will only lock in the city’s budget for FY 26/27 and FY 27/28.

“Those (two budget years) are being proposed for adoption and appropriations,” said finance director Nichol Ritchie. “The remaining four years are included for planning purposes only.”

The council’s final spending decisions will come at the same time it decides on the upcoming year’s total budget in June.

Funding Shortfalls Likely Mean Higher Impact Fees

At the February 17 meeting, up for discussion first were new sewer connections and upgrades to the city’s wastewater “trunkline,” the underground piping system that moves sewage to the city’s treatment facility. Work on the trunkline will include seven projects for $4.5 million, and two sanitation upgrades for sewer connections are planned for a total of $14.2 million. Part of that funding will come from the separate Wastewater Facility Fund.

Yet both of these sets of projects have budget shortfalls. So the impact fees that support them will undergo a study to prove the anticipated increases are justified. The studies will take about 12 months to complete, and until they’re finished there’s no way to estimate how much they’ll go up, finance director Ritchie said.

In the meantime, a bit of financial juggling will move money from the Wastewater Facility Fund to keep the projects moving.

The city’s wastewater treatment plant will also see a lot of changes during the next six years, provided the money is available. A total of $76 million is earmarked for 49 projects during that time.

“The majority of the project total is for the treatment plant capacity expansion in FY 26/27 and 27/28,” said Renee Nagel, the city’s finance and technology services director. “This fund currently has cash available, however, it is not enough to maintain and replace the facility assets, which totals $315 million.”

The fund is supported by impact fees and user rates, and those will have to be reconsidered given the financing needs.

Other City Departments in Better Financial Shape

The rest of the city funds reviewed Monday afternoon seem to be in better shape.

The Transit Capital Fund includes 18 new projects at a cost of $19 million over the six-year planning period. All of those projects, including a downtown parking garage on Tipton Street between Oak and School avenues, are contingent on outside funding, such as state grants. If the funding doesn’t materialize, the projects won’t go ahead.

The same is true of the city’s Airport Fund. Six of the nine projects planned for the municipal airport depend on state or federal funding, and they won’t advance if the outside money falls through.

The Building Safety Fund is also healthy, with a $16.6 million cash balance to start the fiscal year. City Hall is planning a periodic review of the system for streamlining, and that could mean a quicker permitting process for builders.

“Each year, we go through various upgrades to the system,” said Jason Huckleberry, director of the Engineering and Development Department. “It could be reporting, that’s helpful to the public to ask for various reports. It could be efficiency operations on our end, that (when) we’re looking for reports we can kind of make proper changes to process. That would speed things up.”

The study might also increase the building department’s online accessibility.

“It also covers just modifications to the system annually that might open up additional … civic automation,” Huckleberry said. “It actually engages (in) online permitting, which is another efficiency and speed task.”

Proper Maintenance Takes Foresight and Cash

The only cause for concern from the city council on Monday was the request for new cameras and flooring at the Animal Services facility. Councilman Steve Nelsen questioned why replacing old or damaged equipment there was not included in the current year’s spending plan.

Animal Services manager Candice Harrington explained the request was a matter of getting ahead of the game.

“The floors are still functional at this time,” she said. “They are starting to chip, though, so we foresee that over time it’s going to still continue to deteriorate as we have more animals coming through those kennels, wear and tear.”

City manager Leslie Caviglia clarified why the spending was deferred.

“We are trying to anticipate and not come with last-minute crises when, in fact, we do have things that begin to fail,” she said. “In order to do that, we’ve got to project out and have that longer-term lead. We’re trying to do a better job of that. That’s what you’re seeing here. It’s not doomsday.”

Nelsen said the wording of the request had caught his attention.

“Some of the writing is alarming,” he said.

Discussion of the city’s upcoming capital improvement projects will continue during a public hearing at 5 p.m. on Monday, March 2 in the council chambers at City Hall West, 707 West Acequia Street.

The post Visalia gearing up to spend billions fortifying city’s infrastructure appeared first on Valley Voice.

The three unions are committed to supporting candidates who are dedicated to student success, public education, and ensuring employees have a meaningful voice in institutional decision-making.

“We are excited to take part in the democratic process to identify and support candidates engaged in making COS a place where students reach their potential and employees have a voice in the decision-making process,” stated Katie Cain, CSEA Chapter 408 President.

The campus-based unions invite all eligible candidates running for Trustee Wards 1, 2, and 5 to apply for their joint endorsement process ahead of the November 3, 2026 election.

“We are looking forward to an engaged democratic process and the opportunity for all candidates sharing their perspectives and priorities with the COS community,” continued Tracy Redden, COSTA President.

To be eligible for union endorsement, candidates must complete a questionnaire by February 20, 2026, available at: https://forms.gle/c8EMFGf5z7sf7J339

Candidates who complete the questionnaire will be invited to participate in a forum with local union members prior to endorsement decisions being made by each union. Members of COSAFA, COSTA, and CSEA are committed to identifying candidates who support public education, students, and employees.

“I am excited to see members of the community taking action to improve and contribute toward the continued success of COS. It is an honor to work in solidarity with the other unions at COS as we share common goals: to make COS the best place to work, and the best place for students to access and work toward their higher education,” stated Danielle Alberti, COSAFA President.

The November 3, 2026 election will take place in Wards that are located in Tulare and Kings counties.

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