Mt. Whitney High School 2026

September 30, 2026

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The next steps being taken on Mt. Whitney High School’s upgrade are in process. The Visalia Unified School District is working on drawing up plans to build a new administration, library, and classroom buildings. The first stage is a two-story admin/library/classroom building in currently vacant space on the campus, followed by the demolition of the current admin/classroom building and the construction of a new, single-story classroom building.

The big issue for many Mt. Whitney alumni, and other interested citizens, is the preservation of a large oak tree on the campus. It’s dedicated to the memory of “The Winningest Coach in Pioneer History”, Douglas P. Rudolf. Coach Rudolf was at Mt. Whitney from 1969 to 2012. Early presentations showed one of the new buildings sitting directly where the memorial and historic oak currently exist.

Screenshot

The District heard loud and clear from the public, as well as Whitney alumni and teachers (current and retired), that removal of the tree and memorial was not acceptable. The have adjusted their plans accordingly.

The District, in current presentations, is saying the tree and memorial will be preserved.

The other trees in the same area will probably not survive the project. One is clearly dying, if not already dead. The others may not be able to, one, survive the construction-caused disruption to the ground in the area, and two, may end up being too close to the new buildings to allow them to remain.

On the left, the memorial tree to be preserved. The others to the right are likely destined to be removed. At least one of them is dying/dead.
The Mt. Whitney High School Campus, and the planned new construction.

Final design work is being done now, and the District will be holding more public meetings to inform the public of the plans, and to take input on those designs. The District has not, as yet, determined the exact footprints of the buildings, nor their final appearance.

Current timelines have construction of the new, two-story, building beginning in June of 2028, and taking 13 months. There is no current timeline on demolition and replacement of the current admin building, but bids are expected in March of 2028.

Funding is from 2018’s Measure A, of $37 million, “other” funding of $36 million, for a total project cost of $73 million. In several years time, grant funds of $33 million will come from the State of California as part of the project. That money will go to other projects in the District. (In a confusing (to me, anyway) government shuffle, in about three years the state of California will provide funds designated for this project. Money from the bond will then be “freed up”, and be available for other projects.)

Stay tuned.

2FAG6OTS – Redwood High School – Visalia Unified School District

August 1, 2026

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How the Redwood High School Senior Picture Event Became An International News Story, And How The Visalia Unified School District Responded.

Thursday, February 12, 2026, was Senior class picture day at Redwood High School, in Visalia. An incident at that photo shoot would blow up social media, and garner world-wide attention. As members of the senior class were arranging themselves on bleachers for a panorama photo, a group of ASB members were on the side of the gym, getting ready to take their place on the front two rows, dressed in white T-shirts with letters printed on them, to spell out “ALWAYS LEGIT CLASS OF 2026”.

Unfortunately, about ten students took the opportunity to spell out something else, while the adults in the room were distracted. They arranged themselves to spell out the homophobic slur, “2FAG6OTS”, and quickly posted them to social media. The resulting storm hit almost immediately.

The following post details the events as they occurred, based on the information provided to me by Visalia Unified School District after a public records request made on April 17, 2026. After waiting several months for the information, I received the final document dump on July 27, 2026. There are many records not released due to confidentiality laws (which is completely understandable) and “attorney work product privilege”. This blog is based on the released documents, and therefore will not reflect all of the relevant information regarding the incident. This, however, is what we have.

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Mt. Whitney High School – Oak Tree status

July 21, 2026

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On Tuesday, July 21, 2026, the Visalia Unified School District held a meeting in the Mt. Whitney High School library, regarding expansion plans for the campus. Dominate in the minds of many at the meeting was the fate of several large oak trees.

One is dedicated to the “winningest coach in Pioneer history”, Douglas P. Rudolf, with a water fountain (his mantra was “hydrate!”) and sitting area created around the large oak tree. The proposed building you see in the lower left of the image above will sit where the tree is now. The other trees seen in the first picture also stand in the proposed building’s footprint. The alumni and general community did not like that idea. VUSD held a meeting to do damage control.

The lower building is new construction. The building above it is currently the administration building (and some classrooms on the second level, at least when I went there in 1972-1976), and is slated to be demolished and a new building put in it’s place. Several other oak trees are in the construction zones.

When word got out, the uproar was immediate. School staff, the wider Visalia community, and Mt. Whitney alumni (class of ’76 for me) let it be known destruction of that one specific tree was a non-starter, and the loss of the other trees was concerning, as well. They demanded changes to the plans. VUSD sent the Superintendent to try and smooth the ruffled feathers. If his words end up being the facts, it might have worked.

Superintendent Kirk Shrum said in the meeting that the District recognized the importance of the tree(s), and every effort would be taken to protect them. Action at the next Board of Trustees meeting is to hire and pay the architect to begin designing the new buildings, including their placement on the Mt. Whitney campus. The architect will be studying the design of the building(s), utilities, and the trees when designs begin. Placement of the building(s) may be able to be adjusted to protect the trees.

The next steps are to analyze the grounds, do the environmental studies, and determine the exact features of the buildings. Staff and committees will work on the plans, and Shrum insisted the preservation of the tree(s) would be a driving focus.

But.

If they can’t make it work any other way (according to them), the trees will come down.

(Removing optimist’s hat, putting on cynic’s hat)

I hope the words spoken at the meeting are what come to pass, and the school’s newest buildings can be built without destroying these ancient giants. I’m concerned that lip-service will be paid to their preservation, and at the last possible moment it will be determined that they “have” to be removed. It would be a great loss to the community.

The Mt. Whitney Yearbook is “The Oak”. It would be a shame if there were no more of them on campus after this project is completed in four or five years.

VUSD Public Records Request – update

July 16, 2026

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On April 17, 2026, I filed a Public Records Request with the Visalia Unified School District. You can read the request and the reasons for it (the “f-word” incident at Redwood High School) here. On April 27, I got a response, which is covered here.

They indicated they’d respond by May 18, 2026. At that point, they informed me they DID have “responsive records”, and would provide further by June 17, 2026. On June 17, 2026, I got an email with some information requested in the PRA request, and informing me the date was pushed to July 17, 2026, for further response. (I’m sensing a pattern here.)

Well, it’s July 16, 2026, and I just received this email:

Response – 2026-07-16 Correspondence to Jim ReevesDownload

Everybody’s on vacation, so they need another week. New target date: July 23, 2026.

Don’t hold your breath.

VUSD to remove beloved Oak tree(s)?

June 28, 2026

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Mt. Whitney High School, Visalia, California

Social media sites are buzzing with a rumor that the Visalia Unified School District plans to remove one or more Valley Oak trees from the campus of Mt. Whitney High School, to make room for a new building.

Comments are of three types:

  1. They’re a hazard, cut them down.
  2. They can’t cut them down, there’s an Oak Tree Preservation ordinance in Visalia.
  3. Please don’t cut them down, there are so many memories of that/those tree(s)!

My response to the three comments?

  1. Properly maintained, oak trees are seldom a hazard. VUSD certainly has the resources to preserve the trees safely.
  2. The Oak Tree Preservation ordinance was changed last year. See my previous post about the change.
  3. The trees, as evidenced by their size, have been a part of the Mt. Whitney campus for a long time, possibly there even before the school was opened in the 1950s.

I’ve been unable to determine if the rumors are true. I can find no documentation on the VUSD website about plans for a new building on the Whitney campus. The school district has not submitted permit requests to the City of Visalia.

If the rumors are true, and VUSD does plan to remove one or more oak trees, they WILL have to apply to the city, since the revised ordinance still requires government organizations to get a permit. Whether the City will rubber stamp a request from the District for removal remains to be seen.

I’ll be watching this to see what happens. So far, it’s only rumor.

Visalia Unified School District – Public Records Request – Where We Stand So Far

June 17, 2026

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It started with “Hate In A Small Town 5 (Visalia Edition)“. In “The Devil Made Me Do It“, I covered how one of the Trustees of the Visalia Unified School District said the incident was simply “A mistake”. The community doesn’t view the incident as a “mistake”.

On April 17, 2026, I initiated a Public Records request. On April 27, 2026, the District sent me a letter acknowledging my request, and saying they would respond by May 18, 2026. On May 18, 2026, they sent a response saying they would have documents no later than June 17, 2026. Well, today is June 17, 2026, and this email arrived:

Letter_06172026Download

After figuring out how to navigate a Mimecast download, I was able to access and download a 40Meg file of emails, and text messages. I’ve scanned through them, and there’s a lot of duplication due to everyone forwarding everything to everybody else. There are also other records still pending, and some they’re probably not going to give me at all. They’re giving themselves another month to comply.

We’ll see how it goes, and I’ll keep you updated as I get further information.

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.

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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?

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.

Consent Decree Visalia Unified School District, 2002

March 6, 2026

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In 2002, to settle a discrimination lawsuit filed by a Golden West student, the ACLU, and the GSA Network, the Visalia Unified School district agreed to the following consent decree. The decree was valid until June 30, 2005, with an extension to June of 2007 if VUSD failed to complete the agreement. In it, the District agreed to the following:

  • Adopt policies explicitly forbidding staff or student harassment or discrimination based on gender or sexual orientation;
  • Name “”compliance coordinators”” to help parents, students and teachers with incidents of discrimination;
  • Establish a community advisory group to help address discrimination and assess how the settlement is working.

It also required the District to facilitate any student requests to form a LGBT-related school club, and make the efforts to find a teacher willing to be the club’s advisor. Materials regarding discrimination and LGBT rights, staff training, student training, and protection from retaliation were parts of the agreement.

Flash forward to 2026.

Redwood High School students, on Senior picture day, decided to arrange tshirts with letters and numbers on them to form the derogatory “2FAG60TS” seen above. Students posted the images to social media, and the community erupted. See previous posts on this blog for further information.

It may be time for VUSD to dig into their storage units and dust off the materials required by the decree. They clearly need some review.

The next VUSD Board of Trustees meeting is Tuesday, March 10, 2026. It will be held at the Board room, VUSD, 5000 W. Cypress, Visalia, California, at 5:30 pm. A large crowd is expected.

Here is the consent decree as agreed to between VUSD, the student George Loomis, the ACLU, and the Gay Straight Alliance Network.

consent_decreeDownload

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