VUSD – favoritism, retaliation, and nepotism?

June 8, 2026

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Image credit: VUSD

The Visalia Unified School District has been in the news a lot this year. Much of it was not good. My own blogging has been this, this, this, and this, regarding not recording ‘Special Meetings’. Then the real mess began, for me, with an incident at Redwood High School on February 12, 2026, when graduating Seniors at class pictures decided to us their lettered tshirts, originally organized to spell out “ALWAYS LEGIT CLASS OF 2026” into a homophobic slur. My blogging on that can be found here, here, and here. Another item, buried in the next School District Board of Trustees consent calendar agenda is here.

That’s only the stuff I’ve been following. Layoffs, cutbacks, and new administration-level hirings have been roiling Board of Trustee meetings for some time now.

I was contacted recently by a person who wanted to remain anonymous, about problems at El Diamante High School. The District, Board of Trustees, the Superintendent, and teachers were sent an email, from another anonymous person (not the same one that contacted me), about the issues at El D. Concerns about favoritism, nepotism, and retaliation are discussed.

Click on “MORE”, for the entire email as sent to the District, educators, the Board of Trustees, and the Superintendent.

More

VUSD – $60,000 now, $26.5k every year

June 6, 2026

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Wait, what?

Visalia Unified School District’s Board of Trustees next meeting includes a consent calendar item for a “digital radio upgrade”. The packet includes information that this is a $60,781 “one-time” cost for the hardware upgrade. What the item doesn’t say, but is included in the invoice, is an annual subscription cost of $26,522 from year 2 onwards.

So what is a “digital radio upgrade” you might ask? Well, I’m glad you asked.

From their own agenda packet:


Backup Radios TransportationDownload

They want to ensure the ability of bus drivers to communicate with the District Bus office when they take the buses beyond the range of the current two-way radio system.

Reasonable.

The problem?

They want to outfit 75 buses with these new units, and have 10 handheld units.

Here’s my thoughts on the matter. While being able to communicate with the buses when they’re on what we used to call ‘field trips’ beyond the range of the currently installed two-way radios, they’ll never have a time when all 75 buses are out of range.

$60,000 initially, and $26,500 a year after that, to solve a limited problem, seems a bit pricey.

Here’s a cheaper idea. Check your records. See how many buses are on field trips out of range at once during the past two years.

Once you have that number, you know how much technology you need.

Here’s the solution. Buy that many cell phones, and assign them to the transportation division. When a bus is going out of radio range, give the driver a phone pre-programmed with 9-1-1 and the transportation office phone number.

The proposed “radios” will be using the cellular network, so a bundled cell phone plan should be a lot cheaper.

You don’t need to outfit every bus with the technology needed to leave it’s radio coverage area. And if your solution is using a cellular network to solve that problem, a relatively cheap cell phone works exactly the same way.

Or, pay drivers a stipend to carry their own cell phone with them, and use that when circumstances require communications with base.

And there’s no $26,500 annual subscription fee.

10-4?

Proclamation 1, Proclamation 2

June 5, 2026

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Here’s the text of the proclamation issued by three of the five Tulare County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, June 2, 2026:

RECOGNIZING _ LGBT+ ORGANIZATIONS
FOR THEIR CONTRIBUTIONS TO TULARE COUNTY
WHEREAS, Tulare County is home to a rich and diverse community ·where compassion, belonging, and service strengthen the bonds between neighbors; and


WHEREAS, The Source LGBT+ Center, PFLAG Tulare & Kings Counties, and the Visalia Pride Lions Club have each demonstrated extraordinary leadership and commitment to ensuring that all residents are treated with dignity and respect; and


WHEREAS, PFLAG Tulare & Kings Counties offers understanding, encouragement, and education to families and allies of LGBTQ+ individuals, helping to foster acceptance and strengthen relationships across generations; and


WHEREAS, the Visalia Pride Lions Club exemplifies the spirit of service through its volunteerism, philanthropy, and outreach, uniting community members in efforts that promote inclusion and kindness for all; and


WHEREAS, The Source LGBT+ Center, celebrating their 10th anniversary, provides vital programs and services that promote health, education, advocacy, and empowerment, serving as a safe and affirming space for individuals and families throughout Tulare County; and


WHEREAS, these organizations promote understanding, cultivate vibrant communities, and champion the fundamental rights of all citizens, ensuring that everyone – regardless of who they are or whom they love – has the opportunity to live with dignity and pride.


NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the Tulare County Board of Supervisors does hereby recognize PFLAG Tulare & Kings Counties, the Visalia Pride Lions Club, and The Source LGBT + Center for their dedication, advocacy, and lasting contributions to the people of Tulare County.

Here’s a proclamation Gemini AI and I created, that uses almost the exact same language as the first, but is about three other organizations in Tulare County:

Here’s the text of my faux proclamation:

County of TwoLarry
Board of Supervisors

Proclamation
RECOGNIZING FAMILY SERVICES ORGANIZATIONS FOR THEIR CONTRIBUTIONS TO TWOLARRY COUNTY

WHEREAS, TwoLarry County is home to a rich and diverse community where compassion, belonging, and service strengthen the bonds between neighbors; and

WHEREAS, The Parenting Network, Inc., Family Services of Tulare County, and CSET have each demonstrated extraordinary leadership and commitment to ensuring that all residents are treated with dignity and respect; and

WHEREAS, The Parenting Network, Inc. offers understanding, encouragement, and education to families, helping to foster acceptance and strengthen relationships across generations; and

WHEREAS, CSET exemplifies the spirit of service through its volunteerism, philanthropy, and outreach, uniting community members in efforts that promote inclusion and kindness for all; and

WHEREAS, Family Services of Tulare County provides vital programs and services that promote health, education, advocacy, and empowerment, serving as a safe and affirming space for individuals and families throughout TwoLarry County; and

WHEREAS, these organizations promote understanding, cultivate vibrant communities, and champion the fundamental rights of all citizens, ensuring that everyone – regardless of who they are – has the opportunity to live with dignity and pride.

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the TwoLarry County Board of Supervisors does hereby recognize The Parenting Network, Inc., CSET, and Family Services of Tulare County for their dedication, advocacy, and lasting contributions to the people of TwoLarry County.

Here are some comments on Facebook posts by various news sources about the Supervisors walking out during the presentation:

Cari – People are sick and tired of seeing this crap at EVERY turn! I could care less which way one leans, but honoring someone because of their sexuality is about the most RIDICULOUS thing I may have ever heard of, and at a Board of Supervisors meeting?!

Deborah – Keep it in the bedroom not the boardroom! Geeze people. This is sickening. Grow up! Stop pushing your sins on everyone.

Joel – Right on. We need to stop celebrating a small section of society and acknowledging them for their sexual preferences. So stupid and absurd to celebrate people not procreating and many living a life of debauchery. Celebrate mom’s and dad’s for June.

David – This is not about homophobia or bigotry it is about keeping your sex life out of politics. Proclamations like this are divisive. Should we have a heterosexual proclamation? For Christians, the Bible is very clear; no room for interpretation. I will always treat Amy with respect, but I do not agree with her life choices, and they do belong at home, not the office.

Now, in any of the text of either proclamation, is there any reference to bedrooms, sin, sexual preferences, debauchery, or life choices? If the second proclamation could be acceptable because the organizations are not LGBT related, and with barely any change in the text, why are so many up in arms about the first?

I think I know. I suspect you do, too.

Retirement can be dangerous

June 5, 2026

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Image by Gemini AI

It’s dangerous because it gives me time to start digging into things about our local government. Before I retired, I didn’t have the time or the mental bandwidth to pursue the minutiae of government. Now I do. I just submitted my fourth Public Records request. Fifth, if you count the request sent off to the municipal golf course. (It’s run by a private vendor, so I may not be able to get the information I wanted from there.)

The biggest problem right now is to not over-extend myself. I still have other things I want to pursue, but I need to limit my load to what I’ve requested so far.

I’ve got three active requests for public records in at the moment, counting the one I just emailed a few minutes ago. That one is my first to Tulare County. I have one closed and one open request at the City of Visalia, and one at Visalia Unified School District. The open requests are due to be fulfilled by the 18th and the 20th of June, so I’m still waiting.

My next project? Maybe an update to the Visalia City Charter. Lots of things need to be updated there. Starting with gender-neutral pronouns. And library trustees. But that’s for later.

(Final Jeopardy Theme Song here)

Cowardly Lions, Part 2 – Defending the indefensible

June 3, 2026

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The Dynamic Duo on the Tulare County Board of Supervisors is doubling-down. After walking out of the Board Chambers during a proclamation presentation recognizing three local LGBT organizations, both District 5 Board member Dennis Townsend and District 2 Board member Pete Vander Poel, while insisting their actions were “respectful”, have had to defend themselves in response to public outcry, and questions from newspaper reporters. For the back-story, read my previous blog post, Cowardly Lions.

Vander Poel, in an interview given to the Sun-Gazette newspaper, said he supported The Source LGBT+ Center and The Visalia Pride Lions, two of the three organizations recognized by the proclamation. He would not support the proclamation, however, because it included PFLAG Tulare & Kings Counties.

Having never heard of PFLAG before, Vander Poel says in an email response to a constituent, that he did some “research” on the group. A picture there apparently triggered Vander Poel. It showed, he said, “When you look at their home page you will see a photo. In that photo, there are individuals holding signs that say “Trump Treason=Lock Him Up” and “Fight Ignorance Not Immigrants” and “Affordable Health Care for All”. On the about link, they highlight protesting. On the PFLAG national website, they talk about “Fighting” and “Protesting”. Vander Poel went on to say, “Activism and protesting are not strategies I believe in and I did not want to recognize a seemingly political organization that focuses on that.” I find it strange that he says “activism and protesting are not strategies I believe in.” Really? What country does he live in?

That, of course, is not what PFLAG is all about. “PFLAG ​is the nation’s largest organization dedicated to supporting, educating, and advocating for LGBTQ+ people and those who love them.” – From the “About Us” page on PFLAG National’s website. Vander Poel grabbed onto one partially visible sign in one picture on one page of the website, and decided that meant the local PFLAG chapter was all about “fighting” and “protesting”.

Townsend, in the same Sun-Gazette interview, says he was not familiar with Visalia Pride Lions. He described PFLAG as a ‘far-left wing political organization, and was about the LGBT lifestyle’. He told the Board of Supervisors staff to remove his name from the proclamation form.

Channeling the ghosts of a proclamation fiasco in a city in his district, Porterville, from back in 2013, Townsend accused Board Chair Amy Shuklian of a “little sleight of hand”. In the 2013 incident, Porterville City Council members accused then-Mayor Virginia Gurrola of manipulating the procedures to present a June Pride Month Proclamation for that city. Townsend accused Shuklian of originally presenting it as a recognition of The Source LGBT+ Center’s 10th anniversary, and was a “setup” to have it presented during Pride Month. He said it was “not appropriate”.

What it boils down to, is both Vander Poel and Townsend are right-wing Republicans, and have, apparently, decided that supporting the LGBT community in such a visible manner is a bridge too far.

I let them know how I feel about their actions in public comments immediately after the proclamation.

“I find it very disturbing that Mr. Vander Poel and Mr. Townsend left the room during this presentation. The disrespect that shows is just stunning to me, that you would be leaders of the entire county and walk out of this room when the LGBT community is recognized. Thank you to the three that stayed, and made very nice comments. I think they’re fine examples of leadership in this county. Three out of five, I guess.”

The fallout is still raining down. Social media is buzzing with talk about the subject. My posts alone, in less than 30 hours, have had over 40,000 views, just on this subject.

I told members of the Board of Trustees of the Visalia Unified School District that they “needed to do better”, in a recent public comments session. Now it looks like I’ll have to direct that message to two of the Tulare County Board of Supervisors, as well.

The joys of living in a bright red part of California. *sigh*

Cowardly Lions

June 2, 2026

Jim Reeves commentary, Gay, News, Personal, Pictures , , , , , , , , , , , 3 Comments

Meet Tulare County Supervisors Pete Vander Poel (left), and Dennis Townsend. Today they demonstrated a glaring lack of leadership during the June 2, 2026, Board meeting. Not just that, though. They sent a very strong message to their constituents. For their MAGA compatriots, they will no doubt be hailed as heroes. For the LGBTQ community, however, they sent a very different message. One of contempt and disdain.

Board Chair Amy Shuklian, seen below, issued a proclamation recognizing three LBGTQ organizations for their “contributions to Tulare County”. It was signed by Shuklian, and Board members Larry Micari and Eddie Valero.

You’ll notice two empty chairs on the dais. (Well, three, but Amy’s doesn’t count, since she’s the one making the presentation) Those empty seats belong to Vander Poel and Townsend. They wouldn’t even stay in the room during the presentation. This is a clear abrogation of their duties as representatives of Tulare County as a whole. There are over 473,000 people living here, and if the nation-wide percentages of the queer community as part of the total population hold true here, and there’s no reason to suspect they don’t, then at least 47,300 of those constituents are a member of the LGBTQIA+ community. Townsend and Vander Poel just told them what they think of them. There’s clearly no respect there.

Here’s the proclamation they wouldn’t be in the same room for:

It’s a sad commentary on right-wing politics (because both are local Republican leaders) when something as innocuous as a proclamation recognizing three organizations for their social outreach and public service activities is a bridge too far. It’s bad enough not to sign it, but leaving the room is a slap in the face of every LGBT person in Tulare County, and those that love them.

Cowardly lions, both of them. Oz needs to give them courage, and a heart. It’s clear they have neither.

Flock Me A Little Bit

May 27, 2026

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The next chapter in our Flock Me series is here! Today I received this email from the Visalia Police Department’s lawyers. (I’m going to have to ask why they have an out-of-town law firm doing this, and not the city attorney.)(UPDATE: It’s not actually an out-of-town firm. It’s a local, Visalia law firm. Not sure why I was thinking it’s an out-of-town company. Oops.)

2026.05.27 RB Ltr to J. ReevesDownload

I’ve sent them an image of my vehicle registration, so I hope to get the images of every time my car has been photographed by the system in Visalia. We’ll see.

Here’s the data on the agencies who can access the Visalia Police Department’s camera system. I’m going to have to study it a bit to figure out exactly what it means, and it does not (so far) answer the question of who *actually* accessed the data. This seems to indicate who is allowed to have access, which is not really what I asked. We’ll see if future information dumps include that little detail.

Flock Shared NetworksDownload

For those new to the saga of the Flock Automated License Plate Readers, here’s the blog posts I’ve done so far:

What the Flock?

Well, Flock me!

More Flock, more fun

Flock you later

Flock the Lawyers

They Never Told Me! (yes they did)

May 21, 2026

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Graphic by Gemini AI

From the “Nextdoor” app for my city:

From Jerry E.

I’m one of the neighbors whose curb was painted red and I was not notified at all. They just showed up and painted it without any warning…

Has anyone else on Tulare Ave dealt with this or reached out to the city yet? Thank you neighbors for bringing this up and I believe more should bring this up before this becomes a bigger problem.

It irks me (a bit) to see things like this pop up in various forums. People get worked up about a project in their neighborhood, and complain that “I was not notified at all”. Well, yes, you were, you just weren’t paying attention (Unless you moved into the city and that neighborhood in the past week or so).

The City of Visalia is in the process of repaving most of Tulare Avenue. In that project, they’re changing the bike lanes, from ‘class 2’ to ‘class 4’. This improves safety for bicyclists by putting the bike lane next to the curb, and moving parking spaces out from their previous location at the curb to left of the bike lane. This puts parked cars closer to the traffic lanes, and people are freaking out. The redesign also eliminates some parking spaces on the street. People are not happy. Well, some people are not happy. People who ride their bikes are pleased with the changes. It moves them from having cars rushing by at 40 mph right next to them to having parking spaces or parked cars between them and the traffic. It’s a big improvement for safety, especially for children riding their bikes to school or elsewhere.

The complaints are three-fold.

The most vocal are those losing some or all of the on-street parking in front of their residence. They’re really not happy about that, and I can at least understand that attitude. I’ll be losing one of the two available spaces in front of my house when the project reaches me in August. I’ll adapt. Those that lose all of the parking have a legitimate complaint, but it is public property, and the project will improve biking safety. They’ll adapt.

Second are those who worry about parking their cars “out in the street”. The new configuration puts parked cars away from the curb, and closer to the traffic lanes.

They’re worried about the increased chance of a passing car drifting over and hitting their parked cars. This has happened already, but ‘side-swipe’ accidents already occur throughout the city on narrower streets. This is a legitimate concern, also, but you have this risk on many streets you might park on throughout any city. Some also worry about the heavy fog we sometimes get in Visalia.

The third complaint is about having to exit the driver side of the car into a traffic lane. This, too, is something we often have to do when parking in many areas of Visalia. Downtown is particularly bad about this condition. You simply have to be careful.

So that’s the background of the situation. Some nitty-gritty about the process:

The City of Visalia has been sending notices in the mail to residents living on and near Tulare Avenue for years. I first became aware of the project in 2021 or 2022 when a flyer arrived in my mailbox. I filled out an online survey about it at that time. I’ve attended three public information meetings about the plans, one at the Senior Center, one at Christ Lutheran Church, and one at Veva Blunt School. There have been those mailers, social media posts, and numerous discussions (fully noticed 72 hours in advance) at City Council meetings. I’ve spoken during the public comments sections several times about it. The newspapers in the area have carried articles about the changes.

It’s been thoroughly announced, but some folks simply pay no attention to such things until the work crews are tearing up the street in front of their house.

To see people complain that they didn’t know something was happening, and blame the city for not informing them, is just perplexing. I think to myself, “geez, what do you want? For them to spoon-feed you stuff you should already be paying attention to?”

The information has been out there for a long time. It’s not the city’s fault you ignored it.

<end rant>

Visalia Unified School District – Public Records Request

May 19, 2026

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Have you been following the saga? No, not that one, this one. You know, the one where ten Redwood High School students, after the Senior class picture, rearranged some lettered T-shirts to spell out “2FAG6OTS”? Yeah, that one. Here’s some more, about one of the School Board Trustees who said it was nothing more than a “student mistake”. It wasn’t Visalia Unified School District’s first rodeo, however.

The District quickly let us know they’d conducted an investigation, and put out this notice on February 13, 2026 – (the incident happened the day before, February 12)

That seemed rather quick, didn’t it? Yeah, I thought so, too. Then a few days later, this appeared:

“…please know that as we continue our investigation…”

Wait – you said on the 13th “…following a thorough investigation…”

I have questions. I addressed them in the format of a public records request.

To: Custodian of Records / Public Information Officer

Visalia Unified School District

5000 W. Cypress Ave. | Visalia, CA 93277

Date: 4/17/2026

RE: CALIFORNIA PUBLIC RECORDS ACT REQUEST – SLUR INCIDENT INVESTIGATION AND COMMUNICATIONS

To the Custodian of Records:

Under the California Public Records Act (Gov. Code § 7920.000 et seq.), I am requesting the following public records held by the Visalia Unified School District (VUSD):

Investigation Results (Feb 13): All reports, final results, and documentation regarding the “thorough investigation” referred to in the VUSD Facebook “Community Alert” posted on February 13, 2026.

Investigation Results (Feb 17): All reports, preliminary or final results, and documentation regarding the investigation into the “anti-gay slur” incident referred to in the VUSD Facebook announcement posted on February 17, 2026.

Staff Communications: Any and all emails, text messages (on district-issued or personal devices used for district business), or internal memoranda related to the senior class picture incident and subsequent investigations. This request specifically targets communications from:

VUSD staff assigned to the senior class picture event where the photo was taken.

The Principal and Vice-Principal of Redwood High School.

Named District Officials/Staff: Kirk Shrum, Andrew Di Meo, Monica Andrew, Dennis Dyck, Cristina Gutierrez, Jordan Markham, and Lesha Weatherford.

Named Board Members/Personnel: Todd Oto, Walta Gamoian, Paul Belt, Kenneth Dejonge, Jacqueline Gaebe, Joy Naylor, and Randy Villegas.

Redactions and Privacy: I recognize that certain information, such as specific student names or protected personnel records, may be exempt from disclosure under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) or California law. Pursuant to Gov. Code § 7922.525, please provide all reasonably segregable portions of these records. I accept legally required redactions (such as the masking of student names) so that the remaining public portions of the investigative findings and staff communications may be disclosed.

Request for Digital Format: Please provide these records in electronic format. If the District maintains these records in a searchable digital format (such as PDF), I request them in that native form.

Timeline: I look forward to your response within ten (10) days, as required by statute, indicating whether this request seeks disclosable public records and the date on which the records will be made available.

Thank you for your assistance in this matter.

Sincerely,

Jim J. Reeves

Visalia, CA

I received this response at the ten-day deadline required by state law:

Response – 2026-04-27 Correspondence to Jim ReevesDownload

On May 18th, I got this response:

Further Response – 2026-05-18 Correspondence to Jim ReevesDownload

So we wait some more. I’ve had several people contact me through social media, commenting on my Facebook posts about this request. Basically, they’re saying, “good luck! I’ve had very little success with records requests with other school districts or governmental bodies!”

We’ll see what happens, but be assured that I’ll not stop my digging until I get everything legally available to me. And lest anyone think, and they have been thinking this and yelling at me about it, I’m not looking for information on the students or their individual punishments. That part doesn’t interest me at all. This is all about the Visalia Unified School District and it’s perpetuating of an environment of homophobia, and allowing a school culture that led these students to think this was something that was “funny”, a “prank”, or a “mistake”.

I earlier in this post said this wasn’t VUSD’s first rodeo when it comes to homophobia in their schools. Apparently their first rodeo didn’t teach them to keep a halter on their herd.

Flock the Lawyers

May 11, 2026

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2026.05.11 RB Ltr to J. ReevesDownload

Oh my…

Now the City of Visalia is running it by the lawyers. It also manages to push the “final” date out to June 1, 2026.

As you’ll recall, my first post about it was “What the Flock?“, where I looked at all of the locations where Visalia Police Department (VPD) had installed cameras.

The next post was about a public records request I submitted to VPD concerning the cameras, “Well, Flock me!”

Another blogger, Paul Flores, had the AI system DeepSeek create an interesting look at what I was doing. “More Flock, More Fun“

The first response to my Public Records request was this, “Flock you later“.

Tick Tock

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