On the verge of its Homecoming game, the Hollister High varsity football team’s season has been cancelled.
San Benito High School District Superintendent Shawn Tennenbaum announced the rest of the 2026 season has been cancelled in a Sept. 21 statement.
“We recognize that this is disappointing news for our students, families, coaches, and broader school community,” Tennenbaum said in the statement. “We understand the time, effort, commitment, and support that go into a high school athletic season, and we recognize the impact his decision has on those who have invested so much in the program. This decision was not made lightly, and the district has carefully considered the circumstances and the interests of all our students.”
The announcement comes 11 days after the district announced head coach Thomas Sullivan was placed on paid administrative leave and that it was conducting an investigation related to “team activities.”
It also follows a few days after the program forfeited a home game against Alisal.
Tennenbaum’s statement says the number of available student-athletes is not enough to “safely field a team” for the remainder of the season.
That raises questions about how many players who were deemed eligible to participate in the game against Wilcox on Sept. 11 are no longer eligible.
The district has repeatedly declined to provide additional information about the district’s investigation into the program.
In the statement, Tennenbaum said the district is limited in what it could share because it wants to protect the students’ privacy and maintain the “integrity of the review.”
Following the announcement of the investigation and Sullivan’s leave, Hollister played its game against Wilcox with long-time coach Chris Cameron acting as interim, emerging with a 27-20 victory.
Hours before its scheduled game against Alisal on Sept. 17, the high school announced it had forfeited the game.
The Balers, who began the season with a record of 3-0, were scheduled to host Soquel on Sept. 25 for Homecoming at Andy Hardin Stadium before traveling to Palma the following week.
Hollister was also scheduled to play games against Monterey High, Carmel High, Salinas High and North Salinas High this season
Meanwhile, the school’s Homecoming activities including the Sept. 24 parade and Sept. 26 dance will go on, according to Hollister High Communications Officer Adam Breen, who added that the football program’s junior varsity and freshman teams will continue their seasons.
BenitoLink thanks our underwriter, Hollister Rotary, for helping expand the sports coverage around San Benito County. Rotary is a nonprofit organization that conducts humanitarian projects, encourages high ethical standards, and works toward world understanding. All editorial decisions are made by BenitoLink.
A new town on Friant Road? Fresno County planners to vote Thursday on $1.1 billion project near Millerton
For nearly three decades, the Bigelow family has pictured building a new town in the foothills above Fresno: rustic lodge- and farmhouse-style homes feeding into a village center complete with shops, a ballroom and an indoor lap pool. The name? Friant Ranch.
On Thursday, the Fresno County Planning Commission will vote on whether to recommend approval of the project.
The estimated $1.1 billion plan would build a new town the size of Fowler along Friant Road just south of the town of Friant. Even so, the county’s environmental review for Bigelow’s billion dollar proposal concludes that such an ambitious undertaking would leave few lasting environmental impacts.
“With exception of the loss of farmland and traffic, potentially significant impacts could be reduced to a less than significant level,” the staff report says.
County planning staff have recommended approval, and supervisors are tentatively set to make a final vote Oct. 20.
Project heading to county board yet again
The ranch is owned by former Madera County Assemblymember Frank Bigelow and his family. The plan calls for 2,500 homes, most of them for residents 55 and older, on about 1000 acres. Friant Ranch’s planners bills it as “the Central Valley’s first master-planned retirement community for Active Adults” and say it “will energize and invigorate Friant, economically, socially and aesthetically.”
This isn’t the project’s first trip before the county. Friant Ranch was approved by the county Board of Supervisors in 2011, but that first shot was swatted down by the Sierra Club and Fresno’s local League of Women Voters.
In a landmark 2018 ruling, the state Supreme Court found the county’s environmental review failed to make “a reasonable effort to substantively connect” the project’s air pollution to likely health consequences. The rest of the review was upheld or went unchallenged, but the county was forced to rescind its approvals in 2021.
That ruling is why the county is now recirculating only part of its environmental review in its path to potentially approve Friant Ranch next month.
The county rewrote only the air quality chapter, released in February 2023. Everything else, including traffic, water and wildlife, carries over from its 2011 approval, with only a checklist and appendices updating it.
The county argues those sections were upheld in court and can’t be challenged again.
What was left out
The major conflict is over what that approach left out.
The site holds about 14 acres of vernal pools that are potential breeding habitat for California tiger salamanders and western spadefoot toads. A golden eagle was spotted on the site in 1995, and badger dens have been found north and south of the ranch.
Yet no new wildlife surveys were done for the latest review, the county acknowledges. Its consultants relied on site surveys from 1998, 2006 and 2007, plus a 2022 database search that added seven special-status species not previously analyzed that could occur on the site.
A lot may have changed in those foothills since then, according to a letter five nearby families submitted to the county in recent days. Bald eagles have been found nesting nearby, they wrote, and American badgers and bobcats have been run over at a high frequency along Friant Road in the last two-and-a-half years.
But the county says new wildlife surveys weren’t needed.
“Because the 2011 Final EIR was determined adequate as to biological resources, no biological resources surveys were conducted,” it wrote in response to the state Department of Fish and Wildlife.
The state agency, for its part, said in 2023 that it “concurs” with the county’s analysis, finding wildlife mitigation “sufficient.” However, it is unclear if the agency staff responsible for overseeing Friant Ranch is aware of the trends spotted by nearby residents.
The surroundings have changed, too. The new town would rise a few miles north on Friant Road from where CEMEX wants to drill and blast a 600-foot-deep hard rock pit along the San Joaquin River, a separate project still under county environmental review.
The City of Fresno questioned whether the county could meet state laws requiring full disclosure of environmental impacts if they used “a document that contains data from 2011 and prior.”
The Sierra Club’s lawyers pointed out that since then, a major blast mine has been proposed, a new state groundwater law written, new rules measuring traffic by miles driven and Table Mountain’s casino has ballooned “8 times larger” than once contemplated.
The county replied that “changes over time…do not require a constant updating” of an EIR.
Air quality and water concerns linger
Air quality and risks to water supplies are what the major legal guns are pointed at as the project moves forward.
Environmental attorney Doug Carstens previously told Fresnoland that the key assumption that underlies Friant Ranch’s new environmental review – that 80% of the car trips caused by the development will be less than three miles – is unfounded.
“This is a sprawl project. This assumption just doesn’t make sense,” Carstens told Fresnoland in 2023. “It’s not a legally adequate environmental review. It needs an overhaul. Right now, it’s woefully deficient.”
And on water?
In 2014, the county once promised that it would update its water supply analysis for Friant Ranch after the project’s future water supply went dry during the 2012-2016 drought. But the county chose to drop that goal in 2021, according to Fresno resident Radley Reep.
“The County’s change of heart was nutty,” he wrote to the county.
The commission meets at 8:45 a.m. Thursday, Hall of Records, Room 301.
Four candidates are vying for three four-year terms on the San Juan Bautista City Council in the Nov. 3 election. Two incumbents, Mayor Leslie Jordan and Councilmember Jackie Morris-Lopez, are joined by Planning Commissioner Elise Brentnall and political newcomer Eddie Guaracha.
Councilmember E. J. Sabathia, whose term is expiring, declined to run for reelection.
Elise Brentnall
Brentnall is 55 years old and is president and chief operations officer of South Valley Internet and managing partner of LCB Communications. She has lived in San Juan for the last five and a half years, has been a member of the San Juan Planning Commission for the past two years and is currently chair of the San Juan Bautista Historic Review Board.
BenitoLink: Why are you running for office?
Brentnall: I was raised to believe that if you do not have something nice to say, you should not say anything at all, and that if you have a concern, you had better be prepared to be part of the solution. That is why I am stepping forward. San Juan Bautista is worth every effort.
My concern has grown over the past few years, and I decided to run at the council meeting where this fiscal year’s budget was approved. The adopted budget describes a constrained fiscal environment, with modest revenue growth and rising operating costs. In plain terms, our expenses are growing faster than our income.
We have what few cities can match. Our Mission, the State Historic Park, the Plaza Hotel, El Teatro Campesino, and Third Street draw visitors from around the world. Our opportunity is to give them reasons to stay longer, dine in our restaurants, shop in our stores, and spend the night.
Most property tax collected here goes to other agencies, so sales tax and hotel tax are where we can make a difference. Empty storefronts don’t generate sales tax, and a quick stop doesn’t book a room.
Balancing the budget and revitalizing our economy go hand in hand. My campaign rests on three priorities: Unite, Revitalize, and Prosper. No one person on a council fixes a town. A community does. I am running to get honest answers about where our money goes and to fill Third Street with open doors.
Recent City Council meetings have opened discussion on allowing chain businesses into the city. What is your position, and, if allowed, how could they be regulated to avoid changing the character of the town?
I understand why some residents are concerned. A formula business in the wrong place could change the feel of our downtown. What makes San Juan Bautista worth visiting is that it is not like everywhere else, and I want to keep it that way.
There is a common misconception that franchises are not allowed here. In fact, our city code already allows formula businesses under certain conditions, including that they fit the character, scale, and architecture of our city.
It comes down to the market. A commuter stopping near Highway 156 to get gas wants something quick before getting back on the road. A visitor downtown came to see the Mission and our historic buildings and plans to stay a while. A business that works well for one will not necessarily work for the other. Downtown, independent and locally owned businesses are a big part of what makes us unique, and they are what I most want to see in our storefronts.
Every application deserves a fair review. I would look at two things: whether it meets the city’s standards, and whether it is the right fit for its location.
San Juan has seen a number of anchor downtown locations empty for years, and the closure of iconic businesses like Doña Esther’s and the San Juan Bakery. What can be done by the city to reverse this trend?
Businesses close for many reasons, and many have nothing to do with the city. What is within our control is the condition of our downtown, and revitalizing it is essential.
Too many buildings sit empty and need repair. We have to restore them before we can expect a business to move in and succeed. The city’s recent work on a vacancy fee is a step in the right direction, and we should give it time to work before adding new measures.
Grant funding is available for preserving and repairing historic buildings, and we should pursue it aggressively. Repairing buildings is only half the work. We also need to be deliberate about who fills them, which means actively recruiting the businesses we want rather than waiting to see who arrives. Fill our storefronts with the right businesses, and visitors will dine, shop, and stay overnight.
Doña Esther’s and the San Juan Bakery were part of this community’s identity, and people miss them. They were longtime gathering places, and I look forward to new businesses becoming part of our story in the same way.
We need downtown busy seven days a week, not only on festival weekends. I believe San Juan Bautista is ready for the change it will take to get there.
The recently adopted budget flags persistent General Fund deficits as unsustainable without further budget cuts or increased taxes and fees. What can San Juan do, besides improvements to the Historic District, to reverse this trend without financially straining residents and established businesses?
Our General Fund depends heavily on sales and hotel tax, and both grow when more economic activity happens inside our city limits. Between taxes and fees, residents are already paying enough. The answer is not to reach further into their pocketbooks. It is to grow revenue and control costs.
One of our biggest opportunities is Highway 156. A great deal of money passes us every day, from commuters to travelers heading to and from Pinnacles, the valley, and Highway 5, and we capture only a small share of it. A gas station is coming to the corner of Highway 156 and The Alameda, along with a small retail space. That space is our chance to make sure what goes in brings strong revenue to the city.
We also need to recruit businesses that generate revenue, with more consistent hours and a wider mix of restaurants, entertainment, and shops. Grant funding exists for economic development, and San Juan Bautista should pursue it.
On the cost side, residents deserve clear answers. Are the enterprise funds reimbursing the General Fund fairly for staff time and overhead? How are contract and outside service costs trending, and are we getting full value for them? What do we actually hold in reserve? We need a General Fund that sustains itself and a clear public accounting of our reserves.
Until revenue catches up, we need to fund necessities first.
Eddie Guaracha
Guaracha, 57, is a retired district supervisor for the California State Parks Department with 30 years of service. Born in Hollister, he has spent 25 years as a San Juan resident and moved back to town with his wife, Kimberley, in 2017. He has never held an elected or appointed position.
BenitoLink: Why are you running for office?
Guaracha: I am running for office to ultimately make a difference in my community. I have a lot of fond memories of my youth growing up in San Juan Bautista, and my children have grown up in this community. I have work experience in dealing with multiple counties and cities throughout my career as a CA State Parks District Superintendent. I am running for city council as it allows me to focus on one city, and best of all, it is the place I call home.
I have always had an affinity towards public service, whether it was serving my department, acting as a steward of public lands and resources, volunteering at the local school district with my kids, or volunteering for Boy Scouts of America, and now volunteering at the San Juan Bautista State Historic Park. The desire to help others has never left me. I decided to wait until I retired from CA State Parks so that I could dedicate myself to fulfilling the role of council member.
This moment feels like a natural progression of public service to my community, as we need to address the issues and challenges of economic sustainability and revitalize our downtown. I am ready to dedicate my time and energy to serving on the city council with the other elected officials, as it will take a group effort to be effective. Our responsibility is to ensure our city continues to move forward in a deliberate and sustainable manner for the next generation.
Recent City Council meetings have opened discussion on allowing chain businesses into the city. What is your position, and if allowed, how could they be regulated to avoid changing the character of the town?
I encourage responsible business growth and investment that benefits our residents and strengthens our local economy to include the concept of a chain business operating within San Juan Bautista. Many of us grew up with a shared respect for our local history and a deep connection and appreciation for the historic buildings. Yet I believe there is a path to preserve our rich history and allow a chain business to be established in town. We can implement safeguards to moderate uncontrolled expansion.
There is already a business application review by the SJB Historic Resources Board and the SJB Planning Commission to provide input and guidance on proposed development. The Historic Review Commission provides recommendations to ensure potential businesses conform to the historic fabric of our community.
In addition, there are existing documents designating zone development limitations and types of business establishments in place. We can also implement a type of business matrix as a guiding tool for our decision-making process. The conditional use permit can evaluate whether the proposed business meets services not currently met, such as hours of operation, providing special services, and minimum footprint requirements.
We also need to define what a chain business actually is. This business matrix can objectively evaluate businesses to avoid arbitrary decisions and avoid legal challenges.
Over-restriction can also prevent businesses interested in investing in our community. If these types of businesses cannot conform to our historic appearance due to their standardized templates, then they will be eliminated from consideration.
San Juan has seen a number of anchor downtown locations empty for years, and the closure of iconic businesses like Dona Esther’s and the San Juan Bakery. What can be done by the city to reverse this trend?
We need to foster a pathway to promote new business by establishing an economic development team made up of community members to complement city staff. This team would work under the Planning Commission. Their focus should be on recruiting new business and retention of existing businesses.
This team would ensure property owner inclusion by conducting a general assessment of actual barriers to downtown improvements. Are barriers financial due to infrastructure cost or procedural, such as the permitting process associated with historic structures? Are there unnecessary delays in the permitting process creating frustrations? We need a thorough evaluation to best determine our direction to provide assistance.
If financial, we can collaborate with community leaders to promote growth and sustainability through resource sharing. We can work with the local non-profit groups to complement city services and apply for specialized state and federal supporting business grants and revitalization programs.
Education will also be important to better understand the preservation guidelines of historic structures. We can hold specific training for business owners and property owners regarding guidelines by the California Office of Historic Preservation and the National Park Service focusing on SJB Third Street Historic District as part of training from resource agencies. This would also help us gain insight into potential repurposing of existing buildings as an option.
Lastly, look at streamlining the permitting process to facilitate transition from vacant buildings to occupied buildings. We should review permitting procedures and differentiate between administrative versus informal requirements to reduce the timeline of approving permits to create a business-friendly city.
The recently adopted budget flags persistent General Fund deficits as unsustainable without further budget cuts or increased taxes and fees. What can San Juan do, besides improvements to the Historic District, to reverse this trend without financially straining residents and established businesses?
Reducing a small government’s annual budget requires balancing operational efficiency while providing the essential service functions of our city’s day-to-day operations, as well as annual commitments. Internal budget drills should already be occurring for a worst-case scenario.
What are the expected various levels of service based on a reduced budget? It is not simply about cutting a single line-item to meet our budget, but what are the implications if they go into effect? We should already have a determination to break down the level of services and obligations by breaking down these costs into health and safety tasks, mandatory fiscal and operational obligations, debt obligations, current contract obligations, and staffing levels.
In my management experience, our largest obligation was personnel. We should be running an audit of a type of performance-based budgeting. We also have to remember this analysis comes with a cost, so prioritization is critical in evaluating the financial health of our city. Budget review should be completed quarterly, if not monthly.
Do we have a temporary or seasonal freeze of positions not supporting essential functions? Do we qualify for any special federal or state funding to offset the operational budget? We should consider job sharing employees with neighboring municipalities as a cost savings measure. Do we have an opportunity to negotiate service packages due to rising costs?
There are additional cost savings actions we can consider. It is not one single change that will help us improve our financial situation, but several meaningful actions that will have a cumulative beneficial effect on our budget.
Leslie Jordan
Jordan is a water resource management instructor at Gavilan College and a water and wastewater systems management and environmental compliance specialist. She has lived in San Juan for 13 years and is currently serving her eighth year on the City Council. While in office, she served as mayor pro tem for two years and mayor for five years.
BenitoLink: Why are you running for office?
Jordan: There are projects I want to see through. The water transmission pipeline that will supplement and blend with our existing wells is one—that is long-term water security for this city, and I want to be at the table until it is completed. The fire district formation is another—San Juan Bautista, the city of Hollister, and the county Board of Supervisors have been working toward this for a while now, and it still needs work to get across the finish line.
Beyond those two, I think we are at a turning point. We have an excellent city manager, we’ve brought building and planning in-house, and we’ve put new policies in place that have made this city leaner and better run. Now it is time to build on that foundation and start the real work of revitalizing San Juan Bautista. We are on the precipice of something good and I want to keep serving this city and be a part of getting us there.
Recent City Council meetings have opened discussion on allowing chain businesses into the city. What is your position, and, if allowed, how could they be regulated to avoid changing the character of the town?
San Juan Bautista’s municipal code already addresses this—large-scale retail, formula retail or restaurant businesses, and formula visitor accommodations all require Planning Commission review and a conditional use permit. The ordinances require findings that the business serves an unmet need, that it will complement and enhance the character of the city, and that its design fits the scale and pedestrian character of our town. Drive-throughs are prohibited outright.
We are not starting from zero—we have real standards in place. So, having said that, preserving our unique local culture and supporting our independent mom-and-pop shops has to stay the top priority. I am open to reviewing our current ordinance and looking at what might make sense on the periphery of the city, but any conversation about that has to start and end with protecting what makes San Juan Bautista San Juan Bautista.
San Juan has seen a number of anchor downtown locations empty for years, and the closure of iconic businesses like Dona Esther’s and the San Juan Bakery. What can be done by the city to reverse this trend?
This has been a source of frustration for me for years. I have pushed for a vacancy fee or tax since my first term, and for a long time it did not have the votes. This council finally adopted a new fee schedule that includes a vacancy fee. And I am hopeful it starts to move the needle on our absentee business owners and building owners
But a fee alone does not fix this—responsibility has to be shared. Business owners have an obligation to actually adhere to the business plan and hours of operation they committed to. Building owners have an obligation not to let their properties deteriorate to the point where they become unrentable, and to share in the cost of tenant improvements when they are asking someone to invest in reopening a space. We cannot expect a new business to walk into a building that is falling apart from the inside out and take that risk alone.
The city can help. We can assist in securing historic district grants, and we should. But that support only works if it is met halfway. This has to start with building owners taking ownership of their properties, literally and figuratively.
The recently adopted budget flags persistent General Fund deficits as unsustainable without further budget cuts or increased taxes and fees. What can San Juan do, besides improvements to the Historic District, to reverse this trend without financially straining residents and established businesses?
Much thanks to our city manager, we have balanced our budget again and received a strong bond rating in the process. We got there in part by bringing planning and building services in-house, which cut what we were paying out in contracts, and by running lean across the board.
With that, we do have significant expenses coming in the next several years, and we need to keep taking a hard look at the budget—not as a one-time fix, but as an ongoing discipline. That means continuing to reduce our dependency on outside contract operations and bring functions in-house more effectively. It means taking economic development seriously as a revenue strategy, not just a downtown beautification talking point. That includes revisiting our approach to formula retail—weighing what limited, well-regulated additions could bring in sales tax revenue against what we would want to protect—and continuing to invest in downtown so that it is generating activity and revenue rather than sitting vacant.
None of this is a single fix. It is a combination of discipline on spending and deliberate work on growing the revenue side without leaning on residents or established businesses to cover the gap.
Jackie Morris-Lopez
Morris-Lopez currently serves as a City Council member. She is a primary care physician assistant by profession and has also served as a planning commissioner. She is currently the director of the San Benito Council of Governments and has been appointed to represent San Benito County in the Monterey Bay Area Latino Elected Officials organization.
A lifelong resident of San Juan, Morris-Lopez was born in the original Hazel Hawkins Hospital on Monterey Street in Hollister. With her daughter, she can claim a family that has lived in the area for five generations.
BenitoLink: Why are you running for office?
Morris-Lopez: I am hoping to continue working for and with the residents and local businesses for the overall economic success of the city. My firsthand knowledge for more than 50 years as a resident will help to bring back a vibrancy to the city while keeping its historic character. I want to help it thrive and not just survive! The other passion of mine is good governance with reviewing codes and ordinances that better suit the citizens and the city.
Recent City Council meetings have opened discussion on allowing chain businesses into the city. What is your position, and, if allowed, how could they be regulated to avoid changing the character of the town?
I believe the discussion has just been touched upon regarding allowing chain businesses into the city. This will be a process of reviewing what that could look like, with the input of local small businesses and the residents first and foremost. There are many factors to consider as with anything this significant, such as zoning, location, what type of “chain” business and ultimately what does the community think or want.
San Juan has seen a number of anchor downtown locations empty for years, and the closure of iconic businesses like Dona Esther’s and the San Juan Bakery. What can be done by the city to reverse this trend?
The closure of iconic downtown businesses has definitely been a hard hit. I will not jump to any conclusions as to why a business closes or judge that. There are many factors that led to that decision unknown to the public with the closing of the Bakery, Dona Esther’s and La Casa Rosa.
To reverse this trend will be multifactorial—assessing why the business owners closed, assessing the empty properties left, what repairs would be needed before a new business enters. I would like to see some type vetting of businesses the community would like and what would benefit the community.
The recently adopted budget flags persistent General Fund deficits as unsustainable without further budget cuts or increased taxes and fees. What can San Juan do, besides improvements to the Historic District, to reverse this trend without financially straining residents and established businesses?
The finances and budget will always be one of concern and caution in any city of any size, it’s not just unique to San Juan Bautista. I do think we have been prudent and balanced our budget, but going into 2027, a close review is needed, and difficult decisions will need to be addressed.
It would be irresponsible not to look at those unsustainable budget items. I would push for services to be the last to be cut, however that can be achieved. A stronger consideration of economic development that increases our TOT and sales taxes through increased tourism is essential, that doesn’t stress the local residents or hit their pocketbooks.
BenitoLink General Election Forum
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There’s a moved-in, but not yet lived-in, look to the new administration and classroom buildings at San Juan school in San Juan Bautista.
Unopened boxes are piled in Principal Ethan Stocks’ office. Handwritten room numbers are taped to doors. Teachers and students are figuring out how best to deal with the scattered backpacks lining the classroom floors.
There’s a strong sense of “new and improved,” and every sign, hand-drawn or not, points to a defining moment in this small school’s history.
“A few weeks ago, none of us had ever been here before,” Stocks said. “Looking out at the campus now, the space just feels so much different. The place we knew is gone, and even the adults have to discover this new thing and figure it out.”
The campus is halfway through construction that began during the 2025 summer break, including the demolition of two of the school’s classroom blocks. In their place are nine of the 13 planned classrooms, all air-conditioned, soundproofed and filled with new furniture and clean whiteboards.
“They are clean, streamlined, flexible spaces,” Stocks said. “There’s some color, lots of windows, natural light, dimmable lights in different configurations, automatic blinds that open and close. It’s got that new school smell—it just feels open and efficient and nice.”
The prefabricated classrooms, installed in an L shape toward the rear of the campus, were powered on in mid-July. According to Aromas San Juan Unified School District Superintendent Barbara Dill Varga, some uncertainty remained about whether everything would be ready for students’ return.
“There was a come-to-Jesus meeting with all of the subs and contractors,” she said. “We told them, ‘This is a real deadline. We’ve got adults coming who need to move in, and then we have kids four days later. This has got to be done.’”
San Juan School rendering. Courtesy of the Aromas-San Juan Unified School District.
Dill Varga said the meeting had its desired effect. Crews worked on weekends to make all the necessary connections and move each teacher’s educational materials, stored in boxes in the school gymnasium, into the right classrooms.
“Everyone was everywhere,” she said. “Our maintenance department was amazing, coming in from the other school sites to help. I was sweating bullets for a while. But things got done well enough that we could open school.”
Only the administration building lagged behind and for a while, Stocks, the teachers and staff had to organize for the first day of school from an older group of classrooms near the gym.
“We worked out of there for a week and a half,” Stocks said. “We did our best, but we did not have internet until the day school started. You know, no matter how well planned a project like this may be, there are hiccups and things that you can’t control. You just got to roll with it.”
It was worth the wait, Stocks said. The high-ceilinged administration building features a clean, spacious design with expanded offices, teacher and staff meeting areas, a break room, and a patio. Some students, he said, have even compared it to a modern hotel lobby.
“I think the kids realized last year that big things were happening,” he said. “And now they’ve begun to feel the reward for all the inconveniences of last year. It was noisy. It was dusty. And now it’s not, and they’re in these beautiful buildings.”
Stocks said incoming students, most of whom experienced disruptions and distractions from construction during the previous school year, coped with the changes at the new campus without significant disorientation.
“They reacted more to the newness and the novelty of what they were experiencing for the first time,” he said. “And then there’s logistical things still, like wayfinding issues that we’ve solved with little paper signs and teachers putting up their names on the door.”
The placement of the new buildings is only one clue to how the final campus will appear.
Rendering: completed administration building (left, in green), completed classrooms (rear, in red), multi-use room and cafeteria (right, in blue) and library (center, in yellow). Courtesy of Aromas-San Juan Unified School District.
The central area of the grounds, between the administration building and the classrooms, already has several covered areas that will provide shade on hot days and serve as staging areas for outdoor classes. Plans also include an amphitheater to support the school’s growing drama program.
Stocks said more finishing touches are still to come as construction moves toward completion.
“There are going to be maker spaces, and those last three new classrooms for our youngest learners,” he said. “There is also a new multi-purpose room and cafeteria space to be built. Foundations will be poured at the end of October, and a year from now, we will be done.”
Currently, the gymnasium serves as a makeshift library, but a new building to house the books is also being constructed in what Dill Varga calls a particularly symbolic location.
“As you enter the school grounds, the first building that you’ll see, kind of blocking the view a little bit, will be the library,” she said. “And I’m taking credit for placing it there, because I believe that the route to education and progress goes through the halls of literacy.”
Stocks said the new campus is purpose-built for many functions the older school could not accommodate because of shifts in the idea of public education over the last few decades. There is a steady progression “towards the school as the central institution in the community.”
“A school is expected to do things that were not expected 50 years ago,” he said. “We feed your kids. We provide mental health and childcare services. All in addition to the core educational requirements that have always been our responsibility.”
The school’s rebuilding began after a 2022 seismic study, prompted by the campus’s proximity to the San Andreas Fault, was released. The project was greenlit when funds were made available through Measure O, a $30.5 million bond passed in 2020, and Measure D, a $44 million bond passed in 2024.
“I’d like to think that our students just feel a sense of investment,” Stocks said. “That they spent 40-some-odd million dollars building these things for them because they have value and they deserve to learn.”
Construction in the central part of the campus. Photo by Robert Eliason
Temporary room sign. Photo by Robert Eliason
One of the new classrooms. Photo by Robert Eliason
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‘Paying for the Knife’: A Lobbyist Group Funded by Mendocino County Is Working to Defeat Forest Management Bill
Mendocino County’s own Sacramento lobbying association is urging Gov. Gavin Newsom to veto a bill overhauling California’s demonstration forests — a bill the county’s Board of Supervisors formally voted to support. And one supervisor says the county’s separately hired lobbying firm is working for a veto, too.
“We’re essentially funding lobby efforts against our assemblymember and our county’s position,” Supervisor Ted Williams told his colleagues at the board’s Sept. 1 meeting. “It’s almost like, you know, there’s backstabbing going on and we’re paying for the knife.”
Assembly Bill 2494, by Assemblymember Chris Rogers, D-Santa Rosa, would replace the demonstration forests’ decades-old mandate to manage for “maximum sustained production of high-quality forest products” with a broader set of goals and require the state to pursue tribal co-management agreements.
The bill will have the greatest impact on Mendocino County’s Jackson Demonstration State Forest, the largest of the 14 demonstration state forests and more than half of the roughly 85,000-acre system. The bill cleared the Legislature on Aug. 27 and awaits Newsom’s signature or veto by Sept. 30.
The Rural County Representatives of California — an association of 40 rural counties — sent Newsom a letter on Aug. 28 formally requesting a veto. The same day, it published a public “Call to Action,” “RCRC Seeks Veto on Demonstration State Forests Bill,” urging its member counties, including Mendocino, to send Newsom their own veto letters. RCRC also circulated a fill-in template for them to use.
In the letter to the governor, RCRC argued that although AB 2494 “has been characterized as legislation intended to advance wildfire prevention and forest resilience, that is not its principal effect.” Instead, the association wrote, the bill “fundamentally rewrites the statutory purpose and management direction” of CAL FIRE’s demonstration forest system “with the clear intent to limit sustainable forest management as a coequal objective.” It objected that the bill introduces “novel concepts, including management for ‘durable onsite carbon storage and sequestration,'” which it called undefined, and warned the changes would bring “greater regulatory uncertainty, project delays, increased litigation risk, and additional costs to the state — not improved wildfire resilience.” The letter was signed by Senior Policy Advocate Staci Heaton.
Williams said the county’s contract lobbyist was pressing the same case. “The same thing for our lobbyist, Yoder,” he told the board — a reference to the Sacramento firm Shaw Yoder Antwih Schmelzer & Lange — who also testified against the bill on behalf of Shasta, Placer, Madera, and Tulare counties.
Mendocino County’s support for the bill is a matter of record. Staff sent Newsom a letter backing the bill on Aug. 31, and the board ratified that letter — along with its underlying legislative-platform support — on a unanimous 5-0 vote on Sept. 1.
Williams said he was “surprised to see” RCRC seek a veto, “given that hasn’t been our stance,” and acknowledged that associations like RCRC are sometimes “in a difficult position where they have counties on opposing sides.” Even so, he said, the group still has an obligation to note that “one county that happens to have half the acreage of the entire state system is in support.” He said his constituents were “insisting that I don’t fund those efforts in the next budget unless something is addressed here.”
Two days later, on Sept. 3, Williams and Supervisor John Haschak, of the Third District, wrote to RCRC President and CEO Patrick Blacklock asking the organization to correct its Call to Action. RCRC “is entitled to advocate the position adopted through its governing process,” they wrote, but its communication “does not acknowledge that member counties hold differing positions on AB 2494” and “omits Mendocino County’s formal support.” Mendocino, they wrote, is “arguably the county most directly affected by the policy questions addressed in AB 2494.”
They asked RCRC to do four things: revise the Call to Action to acknowledge that member counties disagree; state that Mendocino’s board voted to support the bill; distinguish RCRC’s organizational position from those of individual counties in any further communication to the governor; and explain how it will improve consultation. They framed the request as one “for transparency and fair representation, not a demand that RCRC abandon its position.” They closed by saying they were “bringing this request directly to RCRC before considering what further steps may be appropriate.”
Mendocino County paid RCRC $8,980.20 in fiscal year 2025-26, according to the CEO’s office. Neither Blacklock nor Heaton responded to a request for comment before publication.
The friction between Mendocino County’s priorities and RCRC’s was not new. At RCRC’s strategic-plan presentation to the Mendocino board on July 21, Williams pressed the point that RCRC had taken an opposing position on AB 2494 without consulting the county, even though Mendocino’s own legislators had backed the bill. RCRC President and CEO Patrick Blacklock, who presented, acknowledged the concern and said he would take it back to staff to improve the group’s consultation with counties.
In their letter, the supervisors wrote that Blacklock had agreed the process “had not worked to the County’s satisfaction” and committed to strengthening how RCRC consults counties. Against that backdrop, they wrote, the Aug. 28 Call to Action was “especially troubling,” because it asked counties to urge a veto “without disclosing that the member county containing more than half of the affected acreage formally supports the bill.”
Mendocino’s support for reworking Jackson’s management predates the bill. The letter traces it to a 2021 board request that the state undertake a scientific review of the forest and weigh a broader range of public benefits — research, tribal stewardship, conservation, recreation, and local jobs. AB 2494, the supervisors wrote, “reflects many of the ideas developed through that process,” while still allowing timber harvesting when it advances the bill’s management objectives.
It didn’t take long for Hollister City Manager Ana Cortez to make structural changes within the city that resulted in the elimination of multiple leadership positions.
The effect of those moves continued to spread when an unnamed former employee filed a lawsuit on July 28 in San Benito County Superior Court against the city, Cortez and her company Munitalent.
In the lawsuit, the ex-employee listed as “Jane Doe,” accuses the city and Cortez of retaliation and wrongful termination. The former employee also accuses the city of intentionally inflicting emotional distress and accuses Cortez of violating state law for using her own company, Munitalent, to recruit employees while serving as the city manager.
Cortez began as city manager in February.
Doe, who is believed to be former longtime city employee Maria Mendez, is seeking undisclosed compensation and general damages. She also is asking the court to void contracts related to Munitalent recruiting employees and attorney fees.
Cortez did not immediately respond for comment.
A case management conference is scheduled for Oct. 22 at 1:30 p.m. at the county courthouse.
According to the lawsuit, Doe was employed by the city for more than 20 years and most recently as the cannabis affairs manager. That position was most recently held by Mendez, who with two other former employees filed a complaint against Cortez in May.
Doe alleges the city violated labor and fair employment laws when she was retaliated against after she reported “conduct that she reasonably believed violated state law” to individuals with authority over her employment.
According to the filing, Doe was subjected to “adverse employment actions, culminating in the elimination of her position, denial of her contractual and statutory employment rights, and the termination of her employment.”
It goes on to say Doe and the city previously settled a Fair Employment and Housing Act lawsuit and that the city “regarded her as ‘litigious” and thereafter “engaged in a course of retaliatory conduct.”
According to the filing, Doe’s employment was terminated because she engaged in whistleblower activity.
“Rather than addressing plaintiff’s protected disclosures and complaints, defendants retaliated against her by eliminating her position, … refusing to place her into available positions for which she was qualified, and ultimately terminating her employment,” the lawsuit argued.
The filing alleges Cortez violated state law because she used her consulting company to recruit for open positions.
“Any contract or arrangement between the city and Munitalent for recruitment or consulting services, or any use of Munitalent to recruit candidates for city positions, constitutes a contract made by Cortez in her official capacity as city manager,” the lawsuit said.
We need your help. Support local, nonprofit news! BenitoLink is a nonprofit news website that reports on San Benito County. Our team is committed to this community and providing essential, accurate information to our fellow residents. Producing local news is expensive, and community support keeps the news flowing. Please consider supporting BenitoLink, San Benito County’s public service nonprofit news.
Mendocino Judge Halts New Logging in Coho Salmon Watershed
Tribal Co-Management of California’s Demonstration Forests Now Rests With Newsom
Beach hazard warning issued for Mendocino Coast, Southwestern Humboldt through Labor Day Weekend
FILE — The Pacific Ocean seen from the Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens in Fort Bragg, Calif. on Saturday, Aug. 24, 2021. (Sarah Stierch via Bay City News)
MENDOCINO CO., 9/4/25 – A beach hazard warning is in place for the Mendocino Coast and Southwestern Humboldt County over the holiday weekend.
The National Weather Service expects an increased threat of sneaker waves starting late Friday night through Monday evening. According to the alert, “large, unexpected waves can sweep across the beach without warning, sweeping people into the sea, jetties and beaches.”
Large items such as logs can be moved by the sneaker waves, crushing people and pets caught underneath, the weather service added.
“Don’t be fooled by an ocean that looks calm,” the alert states. “There can be 30 minutes of small waves before a sneaker wave strikes.”
People are asked to avoid rocks, jetties and steep beaches. The weather service also advises to remain far back from the water and to never turn your back to the ocean.
To learn more about the weather and warnings in your area, visit weather.gov.
