Three former city employees have filed a complaint against Hollister City Manager Ana Cortez alleging retaliation, hostile work environment and improper practices. The complaint is dated the same day that the Hollister City Council approved Cortez’s departmental reorganization plan.
The three complainants, former assistant city manager Rod Powell, building official Gabriel Martinez and cannabis affairs manager Maria Mendez, were recently laid off. Cortez stated that this was a result of department reorganization. As part of the complaint, they request that the City Council suspend any personnel actions and to conduct an independent investigation into their allegations.
The former employees also request the city preserve all communications and documents related to their allegations. They also asked that the city attorney be involved in matters of legal risk.
Cortez, Mayor Roxanne Stephens and three Hollister City Council members did not respond to BenitoLink’s multiple requests for comment. Councilmember Rolan Resendiz did respond, but said, “It’s not something I’m prepared to talk about.”
The complaint was dated April 6 and addressed to City Attorney Jennifer Thompson, Human Resource Officer Stephanie Brown and Stephens. It alleges that since Cortez’s arrival in February, staff has been subject to intimation, implicit and explicit threats of job security and arbitrary reassignment of duties.
“This conduct has created an atmosphere of fear, instability, and diminished morale, and appears retaliatory in nature toward staff who attempt to provide context, raise concerns, or adhere to established procedures,” the complaint says. “We have collectively observed and experienced these conditions within our respective roles and departments.”
The former employees allege that Cortez has made repeated references and comments to preferring the hiring of younger employees because more experienced or older ones cost the city more. They claim she expressed a preference for hiring women for certain positions.
“These statements, when considered in context with hiring decisions and personnel actions described above, raise concerns regarding compliance with applicable anti-discrimination laws and the city’s obligation to ensure fair, merit-based employment practices,” the complaint says.
The former employees also say they are concerned with pay-to-play implications, noting that Cortez directed staff to solicit “‘large’ or ‘big’ sponsorships or donations from the city contractors” because the city pays them “substantial sums” for their services.
The complaint also states that Cortez has excluded and discouraged the city attorney from attending certain meetings, which the complainants say raised concerns of increased legal exposure for the city in matters involving agreements, litigation and regulatory compliance.
At the April 20 City Council meeting, when asked to report on an April 6 closed session item titled “conference with legal counsel” for “significant exposure to litigation,” Thompson said she did not attend the meeting, at which point Cortez said there was nothing to report. The city contracts with the firm Lozano Smith for legal services, including Thompson’s employment, and it is unclear if there was another attorney from the firm at that meeting.
Since Cortez received approval from the City Council to reorganize the departments, she’s said she is looking at further reorganizational moves. More recently, she won approval to create a new Human resources position that would also oversee the information technology department.
The complainants linked their allegations against Cortez with her previous employment as city manager in Carnation, Washington, where the Snoqualmie Valley Record reported she resigned months after a third-party arbitrator ordered the city to reinstate four unionized employees with full back pay in a wrongful termination case.
The newspaper also reported she left with a $120,000 severance package.
Before that, Cortez had also resigned as the city manager for Helena, Montana, weeks after she was placed on administrative leave following staff complaints involving harassment, KRTV Great Falls reported. Although she was cleared of the allegations, an outside investigation recommended the city work on improving communications between Cortez and staff, according to the report. While Cortez is facing a backlash from a group of community members, she receives support from a group of business owners and contractors who laud her for addressing their frustrations with the city’s permitting process.
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Cash-strapped Dos Palos misspent $2.2 million in transportation tax money. How will the city repay it?
Meet the candidates looking to take over one of Fresno County’s least understood education jobs
Three candidates are in the race to become the Fresno County Superintendent of Schools (FCSS), a key supporting role for over 30 school districts in Fresno County.
Incumbent Michele Cantwell-Copher, elected in 2022, is in the race along with challengers Johnny Alvarado and Eimear O’Brien. All three bring decades of experience in administrative and leadership roles in education within Fresno County.
While the county is home to Fresno Unified, the third largest school district in the state, many of its school districts are positioned in rural areas that serve a total of over 200,000 students across the county.
Fresno County faces similar problems seen statewide and nationwide. Among them are low literacy and mathematics achievement levels in early grades, with nearly 55% of all third graders not meeting SBAC test standards for both subjects last year.
Moreover, schools in and around Fresno face declining student enrollment and low attendance attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic, declining birth rates, higher costs of living and concerns over immigration enforcement near schools.
What does the Fresno County Superintendent of Schools do?
The FCSS is a state mandated position that provides support for vulnerable student groups to school districts, professional development for teachers and administrators and oversees the fiscal stability of districts by reviewing and approving Local Control and Accountability Plans (LCAPs).
LCAPs are three-year plans that outline a school district’s funding priorities using state funds to districts and schools based on the number of high-needs students served.
The county superintendent is also responsible for the education of students in juvenile court schools and ensuring district compliance with state laws and mandates, including the Williams legislation, which mandates that schools provide all students equal access to learning materials and resources.
All county superintendents are elected and serve four year terms with a limit of two terms.
Currently, incumbent Cantwell-Copher receives an annual salary of around $350,000.
Key Endorsements: Mayor Matthew Tuttle of Reedley, Mayor Frank Gonzalez of Sanger, Sanger City Councilmember Michael Montelongo, Dr. Toulu Thao of The Hmong Inc., Selma Unified Trustee Narinder “Nick” Sahota, President Faith Bautista Tamashiro of The National Diversity Coalition
Alvarado has served in education for over 30 years, starting off as a middle and high school teacher in Sanger Unified in 1995. According to Alvarado, he worked as an elementary, middle and high school teacher, a college professor and served in assistant principal and principal roles at Fresno and Clovis Unified schools before becoming director of charter schools at the FCSS office around 2013. He then served as Selma Unified’s Chief Academic Officer from 2021 through 2024 and as assistant superintendent in Parlier Unified for three years before retiring and joining the race for county superintendent.
What’s his approach to the duties of the superintendent?
Alvarado says that he agrees that the county superintendent is not supposed to meddle in the work of district superintendents and local school boards. However, he noted that part of the county superintendent’s role is to evaluate, support and hold schools accountable, explaining that he’d like to create a system that tracks student performance across all grades throughout the school year.
What are his objectives for the tenure?
Alvarado explained that he would like to develop and implement a common assessment throughout the county at each grade level along with progress monitoring cycles to help educators identify what areas students need help with before they move onto the next grade. Through this, Alvarado says, the county would be able to address social promotion.
Alvarado said that he would like to bring all district superintendents together through meetings similar to professional learning communities (PLCs), where educators of similar subjects and grade levels get together to share best practices.
Alvarado says that the data gathered regarding a student’s performance would allow for specific interventions to be made. Part of his objective as county superintendent would be to share this data with parents in large community conferences while also creating more opportunities for families to be mentored on how they can help their students after the school day.
“I want to change that, if we have common assessments, including 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th throughout the school year, now we’re going to hold all of us accountable to what those results are and when the results aren’t good, it gives us time to respond,” Alvarado said.
On top of this, Alvarado wants to train all educators with social-emotional learning strategies and expand mental health and behavior support in schools, saying that he would like to create more supportive learning environments for students.
“I want to make sure that academic achievement is improving every year and I made a challenge to myself: I want double-digit figures,” Alvarado said.
How will they address parent/students concerns about immigration enforcement?
Alvarado said that he could educate parents about their rights and resources in his planned community meetings to help quell concerns over immigration enforcement near schools.
Alvarado said that he would like to get more parents involved in volunteering for activities like crosswalk duty to have more community eyes around campuses.
“It’s communication, it’s making sure parents are knowledgeable and making sure that they’re feeling safe and that we have a plan to be able to ensure that,” Alvarado said.
What is his approach to artificial intelligence use in classrooms?
Alvarado said that he wants to use the position to help train students, educators and parents alike on how to properly create prompts for AI.
He also noted that he would collaborate with school districts to understand what parameters should be considered on AI use in schools to ensure it is being used safely and efficiently.
“AI should support learning but not replace student effort or teacher judgement,” Alvarado said.
What are their thoughts on potential school closures in the county?
Alvarado described school closures as necessary evils, saying that communities should be informed about school funding processes and about the possibility of closures well in advance.
“The more that parents are involved and educated in this process, the easier it is when it does actually have to happen,” Alvarado said.
“We try to do everything first to avoid it; that might mean moving students to different school sites, but again, if it has to happen, it has to happen, but we need to be humanistic about it,” Alvarado added.
Who is funding his campaign?
According to campaign finance documents, the following organizations and individuals have donated to Alvarado’s campaign:
Ro’s Precise Painting, Inc. – $30,000
Christine Barcus – $2,500
Faith Bautista – $1,000
Jodie Garabedian – $1,000
Toulu Thao – $1,000
Jeffrey Scott Agency – $720 and $332.50
Michele Cantwell-Copher
Job: Current Fresno County Superintendent of Schools
Age: 58
Residency: Lives in Fresno, raised in Riverdale
Key Endorsements: Fresno County Sheriff John Zanoni, the California Teachers Association, Fresno County Supervisor Buddy Mendes and Brian Pacheco, Mayor Vong Mouanoutoua of Clovis, Mayor Victor Martinez of Mendota, Mayor Brandon Pursell of Kingsburg, Fresno City Councilmember Annalisa Perea, Fresno Chamber of Commerce
Cantwell-Copher currently serves as the county superintendent. She previously served as an administrator at the FCSS office for 14 years and as an assistant superintendent at Central Unified for 12 years.
In her re-election campaign, she highlights steady improvements to English Language Arts (ELA), Math and English Learner achievement along with investments in community and charter schools since being elected in June of 2022 with 68% of the vote.
What’s her approach to the duties of the superintendent?
Cantwell-Copher explained that while the county superintendent provides fiscal oversight to Fresno County’s school district, she respects the independence of the districts and their elected boards.
“I’m the liaison between the state and the local districts, but the local districts each have their own elected governing boards,” Cantwell-Copher said, adding “I love how diverse and different our school districts are in Fresno County, respectfully, so I’m going to be of support to those boards and I’m not going to be intrusive in their governance.”
What are her objectives for the tenure?
Cantwell-Copher says that on top of continuing her office’s momentum in improving student performance and test scores, she’s looking to expand the office’s presence in Sacramento to support legislation impacting Fresno County.
“For the first time in many, many years, our office is supporting 16 legislative bills in Sacramento,” Cantwell-Copher said.
Cantwell-Copher said that legislative support is new territory for the office, explaining that she has used the last two years to understand how the office could influence decisions taking place at the capitol.
Additionally, Cantwell-Copher says she hopes to expand early care and education, specifically transitional kindergarten, and to grow dual enrollment and career technical education opportunities for students in the county.
“We’re working intentionally to mitigate barriers to kids’ success, so that when they get to school, they are prepared and equipped well-enough to be students and learn in their classrooms,” Cantwell-Copher said.
How will she address parent/students concerns about immigration enforcement?
Cantwell-Copher explained that her office felt the impact of immigration enforcement concerns from parents and students almost immediately, noting that there were dips in attendance. In response, she said her office offered mental health services for students who feared potential ICE enforcement and partnered with Centro La Familia to be able to communicate with families about their rights.
For the future, Cantwell-Copher says she plans to continue to support students with mental health services and transportation in case families are impacted by immigration enforcement.
“I am going to make sure that that school district has our mental health services and that we have maybe participated in some sort of community drive to help care for the child and making sure that the child keeps coming to school, even if they’re living in a neighboring school district,” Cantwell-Copher said, adding, “we’re going to do our part to help with transportation and do what we need to to keep that child as stabilized in the school as possible.”
What is their approach to artificial intelligence use in classrooms?
Cantwell-Copher said that while her office is aware of the risks that come with using AI in classrooms and in the office of the FCSS, she is not afraid of the technology and embraces AI.
“We are fully aware of where the pitfalls are, where the risks are and where the legal aspects are, we’re intentional about and careful about that,” Cantwell-Copher said. “Student Data has got to be protected, parents rights have got to be protected.”
Cantwell-Copher said that on top of using AI in her office to enhance productivity, her office is developing an AI-use road map in partnership with Fresno Unified.
Moreover, Cantwell-Copher says she thinks Fresno County could be a leader in the area of AI use and plans to continue developing guardrails for student use of AI in schools.
What are their thoughts on potential school closures in the county?
Cantwell-Copher said she expects school closures in Fresno County in the future.
According to Cantwell-Copher, the county has maintained a steady student enrollment count of around 200,000 students for the last decade and says that while Fresno Unified is experiencing declining enrollment, families are not leaving the county.
Cantwell-Copher said that her office will continue to partner with districts to help with budget projections but will respect the decisions of school boards and how they allocate their funds.
“It’s a reality in Fresno County, but it’s a little different than it is in counties across the state of California, and our office is a resource for individual school districts to make their budgetary decisions relative to their enrollment and their ability to frankly, fund and manage their budgets,” Cantwell-Copher said.
Who is funding her campaign?
According to campaign finance documents, the following organizations and individuals have donated to Cantwell-Copher’s campaign:
Charter Public School PAC – $30,000
Fresno Teachers Association PAC – $10,000
Jagdip Dhanda – $5,000
Fresno Laborers Local 294 – $2,500
Brad Huff – $1,500
Francisco Hernandez Jr. – $1,000
Richesin Holdings (Douglas Richesin) – $1,000
Shellie Hanes – $1,000
Fresno Chamber PAC – $1,000
Eimear O’Brien
Job: Retired, former Superintendent of Clovis Unified
Age: 62
Residency: Lives in Fresno, born in Ireland
Key Endorsements: Former Fresno County Superintendent Larry Powell, Former Fresno County Superintendent Jim Yovino, Mayor Jerry Dyer of Fresno, District Attorney Lisa Smittcamp, Fresno County Assessor-Recorder Paul Dictos, Clovis City Councilmember Matt Basal, Fresno City Councilmember Mike Karbassi, Fresno City Councilmember Tyler Maxwell
O’Brien has been involved in education for over 30 years after moving to Fresno at the age of 30 from Ireland. O’Brien was a teacher for early grades for a decade in Ireland before teaching another 10 years at Maple Creek Elementary in Clovis Unified. O’Brien then served as vice principal and principal at Valley Oak Elementary and as learning director, deputy principal and principal of Clovis West High School. After, she served as assistant superintendent before becoming superintendent of CUSD in 2017, a position she held until stepping down in 2023.
What’s their approach to the duties of the superintendent?
O’Brien explained that she wants to be a partner of the district superintendent to help share best practices and to listen to districts about how she can support their staff, students and communities.
Additionally, O’Brien says that she wants to be transparent with the community at all times, even if it means admitting that something is not working.
“I’m not afraid to make a decision. I’m equally not afraid to turn it around if I discover I made the wrong decision, right? So I think that communication from the county office is very important. I think the county superintendent needs to be visible. But I also think it’s really important not to overstep their role into the district superintendent roles.”
What are their objectives for the tenure?
O’Brien has identified early literacy, parent and family engagement in education and collaborating with districts to increase student achievement as her main goals for the position.
“Reading affects everything,” O’Brien said, adding “it affects kids’ ability to access other academic areas, math and science, it affects their confidence, it affects their mental health.”
O’Brien explained that she plans to help strengthen parent ties with district superintendents by creating programs to educate parents about their opportunities to be involved in their student’s education and volunteering on campus. She noted that AI could be used to help create modules for parents to learn from.
O’Brien says that her goal is for every child to be able to read by third grade by starting education as early as possible through preschool or transitional kindergarten. Specifically, O’Brien would like to implement phonics-based training and materials for students and educators alike.
O’Brien also says that part of the literacy problem is a lack of access for students in rural areas, something she hopes to support if she wins the race.
“I’ll say this, there are certain things we can’t control: We can’t control poverty, we can’t control if a child’s first language isn’t English, we can’t control if there’s violence in the home, but what we can control is providing a high quality education,” O’Brien said.
O’Brien noted that she also plans to strengthen the position’s presence in legislation from Sacramento, citing her previous experience as a district superintendent as a resource that could help her better represent Fresno County.
How will she address parent/students about immigration enforcement?
O’Brien said that she plans to expand opportunities for parents and families to be educated about available resources through community organization partnerships, informational videos and communications to help meet the concerns of communities who are worried about ICE enforcement near schools.
“I do not believe that any child should be afraid to come to school, and I believe that every child should be in school every day,” O’Brien said.
What is their approach to artificial intelligence use in classrooms?
On artificial intelligence, O’Brien said that leaders in education need to get ahead of the curve on AI, referring back to the explosion of social media in smartphones in the early 2010s.
“I believe we need to be in the driver’s seat of how AI is going to be integrated into our education system,” O’Brien said.
Specifically, O’Brien says that AI can be used to enhance student learning, but that staff and students need to be trained on how to develop prompts and sniff out inaccurate information.
“It’s not taking over everything, but when the child is in class and there’s six kids with their hands up to ask a teacher, they should be able to put a question in, get the answer and then keep going,” O’Brien said.
What are their thoughts on potential school closures in the county?
O’Brien said that while it can be difficult to predict closures and challenges for schools, she noted that long-term planning can be used to find efficient ways to use resources and staff.
“We have to be good stewards of the public funds, and so it does involve making difficult decisions, but we can mitigate and minimize the difficulty of those decisions through long range planning.”
Who is funding her campaign?
According to campaign finance documents, the following organizations and individuals have donated to O’Brien’s campaign:
Fresno developer Richard Spencer – $30,000
Matthew Ruiz – $10,000
Clovis developer Jerry Cook, via Cook Family LP – $5,000
Eimear O’Brien – $5,000
CENCAL Services Inc – $5,000
C-III Construction, Inc. – $5,000
Tyler Maxwell for Fresno City Council 2024 – $5,000
Western Systems, LLC – $5,000
Associated Builders and Contractors Northern California Chapter Political Action – $5,000
Ramandeep Basi – $5,000
Brooke Ashjian – $2,500
Dr. Joe Lee – $1,000
Jim Yovino – $2,500
Doug Richesin – $2,500
Fresno County District Attorney Lisa Smittcamp – $1,000
Hundreds of late Merced County ballots were rejected in 2025, data analysis finds
Here are the Fresno Unified schools that have lost the most students over the past decade — and what it means
Before they left for Mexico, they told Principal Faviola Perez their kids wouldn’t be at school anymore.
At least 10 families of students at Mayfair Elementary School have approached Perez over the last year to tell her that the federal government’s immigration policies have left them with no choice but to uproot their lives.
“I’m so devastated that I’m losing families,” Perez told Fresnoland. “But I do understand the fear because when I was in fifth grade, I watched my mom get deported. When I was a sophomore at Roosevelt High School, my brother got deported.”
Perez said the effects of national policy trickle down to the local level, and it’s changing local schools. She described enrollment declines due to immigration concerns at Mayfair Elementary as “another COVID.”
But immigration raids are just the latest challenge — and not the main culprit — to keeping students in Fresno Unified schools.
Well before a shift in immigration policy and enforcement tactics last year, student enrollment at Mayfair Elementary plummeted during the pandemic and never recovered. Over the last decade, Mayfair Elementary went from 736 students in 2016 to just 547 enrolled this school year.
That’s a 25% decline, and it’s not even the biggest enrollment drop across California’s third largest K-12 school district.
More than a dozen of Fresno Unified’s schools have lost over 20% of their students over the last decade, and most of the district’s elected trustees have remained silent on the looming school closure debate.
Today, Fresno Unified has 3,901 fewer students than it did a decade ago, according to a Fresnoland analysis of the district’s student enrollment over the last decade.
Those enrollment declines are concentrated at Fresno Unified’s elementary schools and in south Fresno, Fresnoland found.
Olmos Elementary in southeast Fresno has grappled with the second-highest loss in the last decade — nearly 34% of all students. But no school has been more devastated by enrollment declines than Storey Elementary, which has lost almost half its student population in the last decade.
Edith B. Storey Elementary School, located south of Highway 180, has lost more students in the last decade than any other Fresno Unified school. Today, it has just over half the students it did back in 2016. Fresnoland | Diego Vargas
Not all school districts are losing kids
While district leaders acknowledge the simmering school closure debate, they have no appetite to discuss it — and experts suggest there’s even less that the district can do to dig itself out of this growing hole.
Fresno Unified — far from the only California district confronting enrollment declines — currently has no process for identifying which schools may close in the coming years, with internal estimates ranging from three to as many as 11 schools.
“As other districts statewide who have consolidated or closed school sites,” said Fresno Unified spokesperson Adela Duncan, “here at FUSD three to five school sites may be considered, but there isn’t any current projected timeline.”
According to Patrick Jensen, Fresno Unified’s chief financial officer, several factors would need to be considered before closing a school. That includes the age and condition of school sites, the capacity of nearby schools and whether neighboring schools could accommodate incoming students.
On top of that, Jensen said the district would also examine how far schools are from their students, whether a school serves a historically underserved community, traffic patterns and whether students would need to cross busy intersections to go to school.
That analysis also found that enrollment declines are steeper at larger, urban school districts that have more low-income students and a higher share of Latino students.
“As far as clawing their way out of declining enrollment, I think a lot of the factors that are driving this declining enrollment overall are quite outside of the school’s control,” said Brett Guinan, a research associate at PPIC.
Declining enrollment isn’t a reality for all school districts, especially those in rural and suburban areas. Additionally, districts with higher shares of Asian and white students — and fewer low income students — are growing, according to the PPIC analysis.
That appears to explain what’s going on at neighboring Clovis Unified.
Student enrollment has been climbing at Clovis Unified since the second year of the pandemic, and the district enrolled a record-high number of students this year.
A Fresnoland review of the Clovis Unified School District confirmed that half of its schools are located within Fresno city limits, but only the northernmost neighborhoods where some of the most affluent communities in Fresno reside and property values are highest.
Guinan confirmed that Clovis Unified’s steady enrollment in the last decade matches similar trends in the state, where districts serving higher concentrations of Asian and white students aren’t facing the same reality as poor urban districts like Fresno Unified.
“Yes, we do see districts with fewer low income students tend to be those that are growing than those that have more low-income students,” Guinan said.
Enrollment declines at Fresno Unified are concentrated most at schools located south of Highway 180. While the median Fresno Unified school lost 57 students over the last decade, the median school south of the 180 freeway lost 79 students in that same time period. Diego Vargas | Fresnoland
Disparities at elementary schools and in south Fresno
Fresnoland used state data to examine Fresno Unified’s enrollment woes school by school and found that more than 65% of all Fresno Unified schools have fewer students today than they did a decade ago.
Those declines are disparately concentrated at Fresno Unified elementary schools and in south Fresno, according to Fresnoland’s analysis.
The following five Fresno Unified schools had the largest percentage drop in student enrollment over the last decade:
Storey Elementary
Olmos Elementary
Gibson Elementary
Holland Elementary
Jefferson Elementary
All five are elementary schools, and three are located south of the 180 freeway.
Over the last decade, the median Fresno Unified school lost 57 students.
Yet, the median elementary school in the district lost 74 students over the same time period.
Additionally, the median Fresno Unified school located south of the 180 freeway has 79 fewer students today than they did a decade ago.
Fresno Unified’s trustees haven’t had a single public conversation at school board meetings about the subject of school closures. Additionally, only one of its seven members spoke to Fresnoland about the likelihood of school closures.
Trustee Elizabeth Jonasson Rosas said she expects school closures to take place at Fresno Unified in the next couple years.
“The ability to have our resources focused in a school that is at capacity or a little below, versus two schools that are half full, is better for our students because we’re not having to maintain two facilities,” Jonasson Rosas told Fresnoland.
She added that closing school has an emotional impact on the communities they serve.
Public school districts get state funding based on the Local Control Funding Formula, which is based on enrollment and how often students show up to school. The decline in enrollment at individual Fresno Unified schools add up, especially for a district with more than 100 schools.
Jensen said those enrollment declines are largely responsible for Fresno Unified’s ongoing budget deficit, which is currently $88 million. District officials project a $55 million deficit for the 2026-27 school year even after approving cuts for 466 employees.
Over the last decade, the district’s largest annual decline in students happened the first year of the pandemic — enrolling 1,151 fewer students in the 2020-21 school year than the prior year.
The second largest annual decline was this year — with Fresno Unified enrolling 995 fewer students in the 2025-26 school year than the year prior.
“That’s basically what we’re struggling with,” Jensen told Fresnoland. “Because if we had stayed flat from where we were at pre-COVID and had the same attendance and same enrollment, we wouldn’t be here.”
Fresno High School had the largest enrollment decline over the last decade out of all Fresno Unified high schools. Today, the high school enrolls about 20% less students than in 2016. Diego Vargas | Fresnoland
Enrollment declines with statewide implications
Across California, K-12 schools have lost around 75,000 students in the past year, with an EdSource analysis showing a drop of nearly 10% in enrollment since the 2017-18 school year.
Guinan, of PPIC, told Fresnoland that those enrollment declines are unlikely to end anytime soon.
“There are definitely trends of declining enrollment statewide that are projected to continue for at least the next five, likely 10 years,” Guinan said, “driven primarily by declining birth rates and by higher migration out of the state than in prior years, especially during the pandemic years, and a slowing of international migration into the state.”
Each of California’s five biggest school districts have issued layoffs notices this year, including Fresno Unified. All but one have been grappling with shrinking student enrollment.
Los Angeles Unified, California’s largest K-12 school district, has already announced plans to close schools. So have a number of other districts, including San Jose Unified and Vallejo City Unified. At Oakland Unified, over 60 principals have called for the district board to close schools to balance a $100 million current deficit.
Additionally, the adoption of transitional kindergarten, or TK for short, did not have the enrollment impacts educators and leaders across the state were hoping for. It also hasn’t really changed enrollment figures for school districts across the board.
“With the expansion of transitional kindergarten statewide, that’s offset some of the declining enrollment, because it’s essentially added a new grade in for even younger students,” Guinan said. “But take up for TK hasn’t been quite as high as the program has expanded, not everyone who is eligible uses it.”
Historically, Guinan says that enrollment declines are larger in high school years than earlier grades. However, she confirmed that recent data trends are showing larger drops in enrollment in early grades, a trend that appears to be taking place at Fresno Unified.
“Recently, we are seeing bigger drops in enrollment among those earlier grades, and again, that’s likely due to this kind of lower birth rate,” Guinan said. “There just are fewer kids that can be entering the system.”
Faviola Perez, Mayfair Elementary’s principal, graduated from Roosevelt High School and previously served at Bullard High School as vice principal and once taught at both Edison High and McLane high schools. Once an undocumented immigrant herself, she has been profoundly impacted by students and families who have chosen to move back to Mexico amid heightened immigration enforcement. Diego Vargas | Fresnoland
The very real impact of shrinking enrollment
Over at Mayfair Elementary, losing a quarter of its students in the last decade has had a marked impact on the school.
Lyle Patty, who has been teaching at Mayfair since 2014, recalled each grade level having at least five classes of students at the K-6 school. After steep declines during the pandemic, most grade levels at Mayfair now only have enough students for up to three classes.
“I find that the attendance decreases, but the responsibilities still stay the same,” Patty said. “Whether I have more resources or not, I still have the same expectations.”
Perez, Mayfair’s principal, said the school will be losing a third grade teacher along with a social worker and a restorative practice counselor, all part of the district’s cuts. She said she expects to truly feel the impacts of declining enrollment and average daily attendance (ADA) next year — which both directly impact state funding levels for Fresno Unified.
“The most important resource, most important capital that you have on your campus, is your adults,” Perez said, “and if we can’t pay the adults because we don’t have the ADA coming, then we’re losing the resources that are going to be able to help the students of Fresno Unified.”
Perez, who was born in Culiacán, Mexico, was able to pursue a higher education after AB 540 passed in 2001, allowing her to be eligible to pay in-state tuition at Fresno State. Just last year, she earned her doctoral degree in educational leadership as a Bulldog.
For Perez, who was undocumented up until she was 21 years old, she sees herself in the children and families who are choosing to move away amid heightened immigration enforcement.
New initiative boosts funding, resources for childcare providers in Merced County
Santa Clara County looks to fund Latino ‘health promoters’
Latino community health workers in Santa Clara County, known as promotores de salud or “health promoters,” have for years knocked on doors that others couldn’t. Now the county needs them again — and has plans to make them a permanent part of the region’s public health system.
The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday voted unanimously to pursue options for funding a permanent system of culturally competent, one-on-one clinicians for the county’s most vulnerable Spanish speakers. Officials will look to three Medi-Cal providers in the region — the county’s own Family Health Plan, as well as private insurers Anthem and Kaiser Permanente — to help pay for it. Health officials say an expanded, full-scale army of promotores across East San Jose, South County and San Jose’s Cadillac-Winchester neighborhood would reduce hospital visits and prevent further strain on overflowing emergency departments.
It’s become especially urgent amid a tide of federal funding cuts threatening Northern California’s largest public hospital system.
“We are tapping on them once again to respond to this crisis,” District 1 Supervisor Sylvia Arenas said at the meeting.
Promotores have become an integral backbone of public health in Silicon Valley. They drove efforts to immunize Spanish speaking residents and prevent the spread of COVID during the pandemic. They also helped the county avoid federal funding losses by counting hard-to-reach households after President Donald Trump cut the decennial U.S. Census short in 2020.
Community health workers lined up to support a county effort for a permanent network of promotores in Santa Clara County. Photo by Brandon Pho.
But promotores are underpaid, and their work has historically lived at the whim of grant cycles — at the end of which trained workers leave and programs diminish in size. At the same time, each clinical worker providing care coordination, chronic disease management and patient navigation generates an estimated $278,000 in healthcare savings every year, according to the findings of an April county Public Health Department study.
Promotores’ services are billable under Medi-Cal, though many don’t get reimbursed because they aren’t registered as a national health provider as required to submit claims, or cannot meet the licensed clinical supervision requirement. The county is exploring the creation of a centralized agency or “hub” — possibly located at a county library or clinic — to coordinate billing and credentialing.
“I’m asking the board: give us support,” Heiny Gonzalez, another promotora with SOMOS Mayfair, said at the meeting.
A new sense of urgency underlines their work. A landmark, multiyear study on the systemic health threats to Latino residents published last year prompted county leaders to declare a public health crisis, after troubling surges in deaths by suicide and diabetes. The report also identified higher rates of opioid overdose deaths among Latinos in South County than any other region.
“We are providing these services to very devastated communities,” Monica Mahecha, a promotora with SOMOS Mayfair, said in public comments at the meeting.
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Promotores don’t just do clinical work. They also do community outreach, connecting residents with specific services available in their area. Sharon Luna, a neighborhood leader in the unincorporated South County community of San Martin, said promotores have had a noticeable effect on getting residents into healthy cooking, sports and academic tutoring.
“It is one of the most impressive programs I have seen in South County,” Luna said at the meeting.
The program cannot fund itself with those savings because not all of it directly benefits the county. Officials are looking toward a “blended” mix of funding from the county, grants and the region’s three managed care plans under the county, Anthem and Kaiser, with no single source exceeding 40% of the proposed system’s total budget.
“One of my recommendations is we urge the three Medi-Cal managed care plans in our county – Family Health Plan, Anthem and Kaiser – to … consider an appropriate level of investment, because those plans will have tangible savings in health costs avoided that will be bankable for them in a way that’s not true for county budget,” County Executive James Williams said at the meeting.
Williams added members of the Family Health Plan governing board — which the county moved to consolidate control over last year — have already voiced support for pitching in to fund the expansion of promotores.
“I don’t think Kaiser and Anthem should be off the hook,” Williams said. “We need to put a little fire under them to step up to the plate as well. We know exactly the kind of concrete investment that needs to be made.”
Arenas said the county’s promotores have risked their lives for the community time and time again.
“What other crisis are we going to wait for to finally integrate a framework that is fiscally proven?” she said.
Contact Brandon Pho at brandon@sanjosespotlight.com or @brandonphooo on X.
On a winter evening, four friends meet to catch up at a local park. Among them is Gael Barba-Solis, a student who created one of the area’s only LGBTQ+ support spaces. They talk about their Dungeons and Dragons campaigns, their classes and teachers, and rehash old stories. They often walk around this spot in their town as it is one of the few areas they like to meet up outside of school.
Barba-Solis, 17, identifies as a trans man and pansexual, someone who is attracted to others regardless of their gender or sex. He said he feels very fluid when it comes to gender expression and started exploring his gender identity in middle school.
“As time went on, as I continued being called ‘she,’ being called my dead name, I didn’t like it,” Barba-Solis said. “I thought I was okay with it, but it eventually just sort of created like almost this pit in my stomach whenever I was called it. It was putting me in a dark place.”
The road was messy. He said he felt overwhelmed with thoughts of his identity and would spend nights in tears. Accepting himself, he said, felt like the easy part.
He shared that his closest friends, Haiden Dizon, Mae Pung and David, who wished to not include his last name to protect his privacy, have been there for him whenever he needed them and have been like a family. He said his older sister, who’s also in the LGBTQ+ community, was the first person in his family to use his preferred name and pronouns. Through her, he found the confidence to start a trans club at his high school, he said.
Gael Barba-Solis presents at the Mariposa Club.
Barba-Solis said he created the Mariposa Club to support transgender teens at Hollister High School and give them the safe space he didn’t feel he always had. Club meetings focus on education, with topics ranging from how to safely use a chest binder (made for flattening the chest for a more masculine appearance) to LGBTQ+-friendly cities for after graduation.
“Now it’s like I have breathing room. I can actually be who I am,” Barba-Solis said. “I have friends who support me and who are there for me, as well as my parents and my sister.”
In 2024, California approved behavioral health reform through Prop 1. It consists of two parts: the Behavioral Health Services Act (BHSA) and the commitment of $6.4 billion to fund mental health services through the Behavioral Health Bond. BHSA replaces the Mental Health Services Act of 2004 and focuses on substance use disorders, mental illness and housing.
San Benito County will receive funding from Prop. 1 dispersed through multiple agencies, including to Youth Recovery Connections (YRC) and directly to the county’s Behavioral Health Department. While planning continues, LGBTQ+ youth in the county work to build their own safe spaces.
Haiden Dizon and Mae Pung walk through Hollister after school.
When it comes to LGBTQ+ awareness and support, San Benito County is lacking compared to nearby areas, said Maxx D’Elia, a trans man who has worked in mental health supporting students in the county.
“I worked with kids where they’d say ‘I want to be a boy because I want to date girls,’ And I’m like, ‘Well, you don’t have to be a boy to date a girl. You could date a girl and be a girl,” said D’Elia. “I think that’s where a lot more education needs to come in. I would also want these kids to know that it’s okay to slow down as well and take that time to just figure it out. There’s no rush. We’re all just figuring out life one day at a time.”
From 2018-2024, the county’s Behavioral Health Department funded San Benito+, a safe space for the queer community to gather at the Esperanza Center in downtown Hollister.
“There’s a lot of issues that pop up for this population that may need some specialized care, and usually it’s not addressed quickly and efficiently enough,” Interim Behavioral Health Director Rachel White said regarding the San Benito+ program. “And there’s consequences to that.”
In 2024, the program was shut down because of a lack of involvement. White said she recognizes that the program missed the mark and that it was just not reaching its community.
“Losing San Benito+ was a true setback in our little community and we currently lack quality gender and sexuality affirming care in this area,” D’Elia wrote in an email in May 2025. “That’s not to say it doesn’t exist, but it’s so far and few between. If you head over to Gilroy and Morgan Hill, they only have an LGBTQ support group that runs twice a month in Gilroy and twice a month in Morgan Hill at the libraries which are run by the LGBTQ Youth Space.”
D’Elia, who worked at San Benito+ with a handful of other part-time employees, said the program would do better with a full-time leader that could put in time to build outreach.
San Benito County Behavioral Health is working to get feedback from youth on what they need for future resources and, depending on those responses, possibly integrate the queer community’s needs into a Transitional Age Youth program, White said.
Behavioral Health created a public survey to gather input on a possible youth space. It closes on May 1.
A cyclist passes the Esperanza Center in downtown Hollister.
San Benito County Behavioral Health has been allocated an average of $4.5 million annually from BHSA under Prop. 1, which goes into effect July 1.
In the meantime, Youth Recovery Connections (YRC), a local organization, was approved for funding through Prop 1 and the Behavioral Health Continuum Infrastructure Program bond.
YRC does prevention work focused on substance use and mental health. According to YRC Executive Director Michael Salinas, the group is now working on opening a second site in Hollister with expanded services to include treatment delivered by counselors and clinicians—the only place in the county to do so apart from the Behavioral Health Department.
BenitoLink interviewed six youths in the LGBTQ+ community for this article. They talked about their lives, the challenges they face and where they find emotional support, be it community organizations, family or significant others. BenitoLink agreed to allow a few to remain unnamed to protect their identity.
This teen, whose identity has been obscured for their privacy,. said they attempted suicide multiple times at juvenile hall.
One anonymous local teen, who identifies as gay, said YRC has had a positive impact on his life, supporting him through the loss of loved ones, addiction, self harm and involvement in the juvenile justice system.
Both he and his older sister have struggled with addiction. They agreed to go to rehab at the same time but when he finished his program, he learned that his sister took her own life. YRC paid for her funeral, for which he said he was forever grateful.
She was the second person he lost to suicide, he said, following the death two years ago of his best friend, who identified as queer.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that 41% of LGBTQ+ students have seriously considered suicide compared to 13% of their cisgender—those whose gender corresponds to their sex assigned at birth—and heterosexual peers.
After multiple attempts to follow up with this teen, BenitoLink heard from those close to him that he broke parole and returned to rehab. While reporting this story, he also turned 18, qualifying him as a legal adult and thus possibly facing more serious consequences.
Sarabi Grace Muñoz sits for a portrait at Hollister Skate Park.
According to The Trevor Project, a leading LGBTQ+ suicide prevention nonprofit whose research is used in peer-reviewed publications, communities themselves have an impact on a person’s mental health.
The project’s 2024 survey of nearly 34,000 youth states that “LGBTQ+ young people who reported living in very accepting communities attempted suicide at less than half the rate of those who reported living in very unaccepting communities.”
Sarabi Grace Muñoz, 14, identifies as female and as omnisexual, which falls under the bisexual umbrella of sexual preferences. She moved to Hollister last year after living in San Jose and said she feels like the environment is far less welcoming of queer people.
“I’ve been called a faggot more times than I can count,” Muñoz said.
She recounted a few memories including one where she was denied entry to a church because of her appearance, noting that she was sporting a Pride pin that day. Another time, an acquaintance found out Muñoz had dated a woman and told her to repent while she still could.
“You can’t even really express the judgment and, like, disdain that is pushed upon you until you’re just walking the street with your friend and somebody yells out ‘faggot!’ and tries to hit you with a coke can,” Muñoz said, describing an incident she experienced at a Hollister Farmers Market.
Sarabi Grace Muñoz says she considers the park one of her safe spaces.
Muñoz said she told her mom around the age of nine that she liked girls, and was generally accepted by her immediate family. She said she feels that her identity is complicated and harder to understand for her extended family, who are Catholic immigrants.
Her family’s religion factored into her guilt about her sexuality and impacted her mental health, she said. At one time, part of her believed that God didn’t love her, that she had disappointed Him because she was in love with somebody that was not a man.
Muñoz said she started therapy around the second grade during a tumultuous childhood. A few years ago, she was diagnosed with major depressive disorder by a psychologist in San Jose. Despite trying to find services in Hollister, she said her family faced limited options and decided to make the 50-mile commute to San Jose for providers.
The CDC reports 65% of LGBTQ+ students feeling sad or hopeless compared to 31% of cisgender and heterosexual students.
This photo was altered to protect the identity of a queer teen who did not wish to be identifiable.
A teen in San Benito County who identifies as queer asked to remain anonymous for this article so he can come out to his family on his own timeline.
He shared that when he was about 12, he realized he’s never only been attracted to girls. A few years later, as a sophomore in high school, he started opening up to friends around him.
“It just felt good to talk about it with people because it’s something that I’d never talked about with anyone before,” he said. “I’m the kind of person where it feels good to get thoughts outside of my head and out into the world. It just feels like less mental weight on me.”
The teen said that he feels especially safe and comfortable when hanging out with his female friends, as some boys his age have a stigma around queer people.
“It’s not that they’re necessarily unaccepting,” he said. “It’s just that they’re kind of like, ‘Do your own thing and I’ll do my thing and I don’t really want to be associated with it.’”
This artistic depiction was created to represent an LBGTQ+ teen who did not wish to be identifiable and who said they feel like their parents avoid the topic of queer identities.
A lingering fear exists for a few of the students interviewed.
Another teen interviewed for this article asked to remain anonymous to protect their identity from their parents.
“They’re very respectful,” they said about their parents. “There’s just some things they don’t really understand.”
As someone who is a part of the queer community, they specifically mentioned they fear for their safety outside of school.
“I feel like I always kind of have to assume how people feel about, like, queer identities or especially transgender people,” they said. “It’s just because I don’t know, I think it’s just really a safety thing.”
Gael Barba-Solis stands in the wings during rehearsal for the spring musical, “School of Rock.”
Barba-Solis reported being called slurs in middle school, and just outside of Hollister High a stranger threw apples at his back while he carried an LGBTQ+ flag.
“My identity, I’m secure in,” Barba-Solis said. “I know who I am. It’s more of the fear of others, I guess, and sort of kind of like how they would react.”
Several teens interviewed said their school is where they feel like they can be most open about their sexuality or gender identity. Clubs, and the friends they’ve made through extracurriculars, plus the occasional school counselor or teacher, make up common safe spaces for students. Notably, the theater departments at both Anzar and Hollister High schools provide welcoming organizations for students.
“Transgender and nonbinary young people who had access to gender-affirming clothing, gender-neutral bathrooms at school, and had their pronouns respected by the people they live with, had lower rates of attempted suicide compared to those who did not,” according to the Trevor Project 2024 U.S. National Survey on the Mental Health of LGBTQ+ Young People.
Gael Barba-Solis holds a ladder for his friend, Xier Perry, at a set build day.
Students at Hollister High School add graffiti to one of the set pieces.
Mae Pung stands for a portrait.
Pung, 17, supports her friend, Barba-Solis as vice president of Mariposa Club.
Pung identifies as bisexual but said she feels like her identity isn’t something she’s had to explain to her family. She also takes comfort in knowing she has other family members that identify with the LBGTQ+ community.
“I think my parents are already like normalized—normal to it—I guess. So it was relatively just smooth for me to just come out as bisexual,” Pung said.
Pung said she has struggled with mental health in the past but feels like it’s affected her less in recent years.
“I think I was diagnosed in middle school, but then we lost our insurance to our health care,” Pung said. “I couldn’t go to the doctors anymore. So I couldn’t get my prescription for the antidepressants I was taking. And then I met Haiden [Dizon]. I started dating Haiden and it kind of just went away. I think there are still a little bit of, like, remnants of it there, especially with anxiety occasionally. But for the most part, I’m not too bad.”
Dizon and Pung have been dating for just over two years, she said.
Mae Pung and Haiden Dizon share food after school.
The future
D’Elia said hands-on education for community providers and students would be beneficial.
Barba-Solis has given presentations to Hollister High staff to help educate them about the LGBTQ+ community. In March, a joint effort of the Gay Straight Alliance and the Mariposa Club resulted in another staff presentation.
Youth Alliance, launched its first LGBTQ+-centered meeting in February. It’s currently working with Barba-Solis and the Mariposa Club to create more safe spaces and opportunities for education. The goal is to create two groups, Barba-Solis said, including one for youth and one for parents.
“To find that middle ground and that compromise, it kind of has to be accepted that this is both a journey for you and your parents, because it is,” Barba-Solis said. “It’s to help parents recognize that but also help educate them on how to support their child. Because I know some parents do try. It’s the trouble of understanding and then therefore that leads to miscommunication.”
Additional consulting work with community members on the use of resources is documented in the Community Planning Process Report. The BHSA Integrated Plan, outlining the use of funds and a proposed budget for 2026-2029 will be submitted in June to the San Benito County Board of Supervisors. A draft is available for virtual public comment until May 21. A public hearing for final community input is also set for May 21.
Currently, YRC Director Salinas says the goal is to have YRC treatment services available to the community in early 2027.
From left, David, Mae Pung, Haiden Dizon, and Gael Barba-Solis laugh while sitting for a portrait.
Looking forward, Barba-Solis said he hopes to see centers for students while supporting those who aren’t “out” with discretion.
“If we can just start with support groups or even, like, professionals who do specialize in identities with queer youth, I think that that could be a good start, especially in Hollister.”
This story was produced in partnership with CatchLight as part of its three-year Mental Health Visual Reporting Initiative.
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